Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/514

 506

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. DEC. 21, 1901.

South face,

SIXTVS. V. PONT. MAX. OBELISCVM VATICANVM

DIS GENTIVM

IMPIO CVLTV DICATVM

AD APOSTOLORVM LIMINA

OPEROSO LAHORE TRANSTVLIT

ANNO M. D. LXXXVI. PONT. II.

North face. SIXTVS. V. PONT. MAX.

CRVCI INVICTAE

OBELISCVM VATICANVM

AB IMPVRA SVPERSTITIONE

EXPIATVM. IVSTIVS

ET FELICIVS CONSECRAVIT

ANNO M. D. LXXXVI. PONT. II.

DOMENICVS FONTANA EX PAGO MILI

AGRI NOVO COMENSIS TRANSTVLIT

ET EREXIT

PETRVS MACCARANIVS

FABRICAE. S. PETRI. CVRATOR

SEMITAM. MERIDIANAM

PVBLICAE. COMMODITATI

AERE. PROPRIO. F.

ANN. MD CCCXVII

Went face.

DIVO CAESARI DIVI IVLI... F AV

TI CAESARI DIVI AVGVSTI F

SACRVM

(The above is on the obelisk itself.)

CHRISTVS VINCIT.

CHRISTVS REGNAT.

CHRISTVS IMPERAT.

CHRISTVS AB OMNI MALO

PLEBEM SVAM

DEFENDAT

The inscriptions not specially noted are on the pedestal.

In the two inscriptions on the obelisk itself L have left blank those parts which are illegible.

My impression is that there are one or two remains of inscriptions just under the pyra- midion. Versions of the " Divo," etc., inscrip- tions are to be found in Murray's ' Handbook of Rome,' twelfth edition, 1875, in Hare's ' Walks in Home,' and in 'Egyptian Obelisks,' by Henry H. Gorringe, lieutenant - com- mander United States navy (London, John C Niramo 1885), chap. v. p. 117. No two out ot the three versions are exactly alike. Hare even makes the last "Augusto," "Augusta."

Commander Gorringe's book contains the following (chap. v. p. 118) :

" Fontana also mentions an inscription on the side of the pyranndion facing St. Peter's, the illegibility of which now is easily laid to the charge of three centuries of rain and dust * Sanctissimce cruci

Sixtus V. Pont. Max. consecravit e priore sede avvlsvm et Caess. Aug. ac Tib. S.L. ablatum MDLXXXVI.' "

Chap. v. of Gorringe's book is by Lieut. Seaton Schroeder, U.S. navy. He (see p. Ill) quotes from ' Delia Trasportatione dell' Obe- lisco Vaticano,' &c. " Fatte dal Cavallier [sic] Domenico Fontana, Roma, 1590."

Whether he has taken his copies of some of the inscriptions from Fontana's book I do not know. In the inscription on the south face he gives "diu" for "dis," and "dedica- tum " for " dicatum." Also he calls the west face the east, and the east face the west.

Commander Gorringe was the officer who, commissioned by Mr. William H. Vanderbilt, with great labour and skill removed (1879- 1881) ''Cleopatra's Needle" and its pedestal from Alexandria to Central Park, New York.

I may add that in a book published fifty- two years before the removal by Sixtus V. of the Vatican obelisk there is a curious picture of it. The book is 'Inscriptiones Sacrosanctae Vetustatis,' by Petrus Apianus and Barptho- lomeus Amantius (Ingolstadii, 1534). The obelisk is represented as standing on a pedestal shaped like the obelisk, and pro- portioned so that the corners from the pyra- midion to the ground are straight lines. Apparently four scrolls of stone or metal support the obelisk on the pedestal.

The " Divo " inscriptions are given as above (my copies fill in eacn other's blanks), except that the lines are not divided, that a few stops are given after abbreviations, that there is an abbreviation " Aug. ," and that in the second version (" ex alio latere") "Csesaris " is given for the second " Csesari." On the top of the obelisk in the picture is a ball standing on a short upright supported by claws reaching down the corners of the pyra- midion.

As the book is scarce I may as well give the short description which accompanies the picture (p. 214, which is headed * Romse in Obelisco qui est in Vaticano ') :

" Obeliscus in Vaticano juxta Basilicam B. Petri no lulia vocitatur, sed ex Aegypto Cay Principis jussu abductus, ut scribit loan . Tor. in altitudine brachia habet 45 . latitudine in fundo cujuslibet quadri brach. 4 cum dimidio, in summitate vero brach. 2 (?) cum dimidio."

Does " Cay" stand for Caii ? Caius Caligula is said to have brought the obelisk from Egypt to Rome about A.D. 40.

In 'Variorum in Europa Itinerum Delicise, by Nathan Chytrseus (edit, sec., 1599, p. 27), appears the following :

"In Obelisco arece S. Petri. Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat, Christus ab omni malo plebem suam defendit [not defendat].