Notebook of Greek and Latin inscriptions from an Italian 19th century scholar: a beautiful collection of manuscript reproductions of tombstones, busts and alphabets noted during a long tour of Italy.
The manuscript was written by an anonymous Roman history enthusiast during the 19th century. Commenced in 1853 and finished not earlier than 1887, as attested by the dates present in the text, it was the result of a sporadic tour of Italian regions which lasted decades. Almost all the annotations are in Latin, but some of earlier ones are in Italian, indicating that the amateur scholar was probably Italian.
The text consists of a great variety of notes on Roman history, starting with reproductions of tombstones and their inscriptions: sometimes the compiler draws the plaques with great detail, mimicking even the tiniest of cracks. Examples are taken from different places, including remote Italian cities such as Sassoferrato (Umbria), Cupramontana (Marche) and Brescello (Emilia-Romagna). But most of the inscriptions are taken from the numerous tombstones that can be still seen alongside the famous Via Appia, in Rome.
Some of the names that appear in the text are immediately recognizable, such as the Emperors Caligula and Vespasianus, but there are a lot of obscure and minor characters which attest the author’s interest in the more daily aspects of life in ancient Rome – for instance, one of the first inscriptions is that of Titus Fidiclanius Apella (freedman of Titus), and another one that of two Roman soldiers, Q. Flavio Critoni and his son Q. Flavio Proculo.
The author not only draws the inscriptions as faithfully as possible, showing a trained eye for palaeographical scriptures, but also annotates the depth and length of the headstones, and comments on the state of conservation. For instance, on leaf [13] there is a rare Italian note stating “un marmo bellissimo di mole e conservazione” (meaning, a marble most beautiful in both size and conservation). There is also a great care put into the depiction of busts and statues, like that of Priapus (seen by the compiler of the manuscript in 1855). The only annotation that escapes the Roman times is a rather peculiar one, found under a marble bust representing Dante. The bust is still located in the monastery of Fonte Avellana (Marche), where the great poet is believed to have lived in 1318.
The second part of the notebook is dedicated to the study of Roman society and costumes. A lot of attention is devoted to the monetary system, with descriptions of coins and values, and to religious life - especially in the sections titled “De Italorum Idolatria” and “Familiarum numi.” A final section shifts the attention back to palaeography, with notes on the Greek and Etruscan alphabets.
This beautiful manuscript is a unique example of antiquarian interests in the field of palaeography, and most specifically in Roman epigraphic scripts, during the 19th century. Despite the compiler being most likely an amateur who occasionally makes a mistake in the transcriptions, the notebook is a valuable source of information for a great number of funerary monuments which might either not exist anymore or not being as legible as they were two centuries ago.
