Month: September 2016

An 18th century image of the Meta Sudans in a prospect of the Colosseum

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I came across an image on Twitter which shows the Colosseum, but also the ruined fountain that used to stand next to it, the Meta Sudans.  Here it is (click to enlarge):

prospetto_dellanfiteatro

The tweeter had found it online “somewhere”.  Fortunately it is not too hard to locate: this is Prospetto dell’anfiteatro Flavio … detto volgarmente il Colosseo, 1703, by Alessandro Specchi (1668-1729).[1]  There is even a page about it here at the University of Munich, complete with an image, although, infuriatingly, a low-quality one.

I was unable to locate online any quality image, so this is about as good as it gets for the Meta Sudans (obtained by zooming my browser at this site):

meta_sudans_specchi

It clearly shows the Meta Sudans at twice the height that we see in photographs from the 19th century.  The upper section must have become very ruinous, and been demolished.  No doubt some Italian source could tell us when and why this happened; but such knowledge has not reached me.

Delightful to see another picture of this vanished monument, all the same.

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  1. [1]So this art site.  This other site adds that is is an engraving, published by Domenico de Rossi, 1703. 48 x 67.5cm.↩

al-Masudi on Christian Arabic historical writings

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The early Islamic historian al-Masudi has this passage in his Kitāb at-tanbīh wa’l-ishrāf:[1]

One of those who belong to the Maronite religion, known under the name of Qays [ = Nafis?] al-Maruni, wrote a good book about history:  starting from the Creation, and then all the [sacred] books, [the history] of the city, of the people, of the king of Rum and of others, with information relating to them, and he ends his work with the caliphate of al-Muktafī [908 AD]. Indeed, among the Maronites, I have so far not seen a book with a similar arrangement. Many Melkites, Nestorians and Jacobites have written various books on ancient and recent times. But the best books written by Melkites that I’ve ever seen, on the history of the kings, the prophets, the people, the countries and other things, are the one by Mahbūb ibn Qustantīn al-Manbigī and that by Sa‘īd ibn al-Batrīq, known as Ibn al-Farrāğ al-Misrī, Patriarch of the see of Mark at Alexandria, whom we have personally seen at Fustat-Misr; and  he ends his work with the caliphate of ar-Radi.

Mahbūb ibn Qustantīn al-Manbigī is, of course, Agapius son of Constantine from Mabbug / Hieropolis.  I created a crude English translation of his work from the French a couple of years back.

Sa‘īd ibn al-Batrīq is our friend Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria.

It’s a reminder that the process of doing the same with his work is worthwhile.

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  1. [1]In the edition of De Goeje, p. 154.  However I got this from the preface of Bartolomeo Pirone to his Italian translation of Eutychius, Eutychio.↩

More old photographs of Rome

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Quite by accident, via the Daily Mail, I find this 1846 photograph online, taken by the Rev. Calvert Richard Jones (click for a larger size):

colosseum_1846_jones

The circular area to the right is the basin for the Meta Sudans, the now vanished fountain outside the Colosseum.  The man in the top hat, and the woman in the dress of a vanished age, are sitting against … what?

I can’t quite tell from the angle of the shot.

Is that pile of masonry the equally vanished platform for the colossal statue of Nero, from which the Colosseum takes its name?  It was demolished by Mussolini, to make way for the Via di Foro Imperiali.

Or is it just some general ruins in the area?

The next photograph, sadly vandalised with a watermark, shows that magnificent road leading up to the Vatican … under construction!  Indeed it shows the man responsible.  Yes, Mussolini again!

mussolini_via_conciliazione_1937

In fact the source site has a cluster of photographs, all from the 8th October 1937, showing Mussolini and his colleagues walking along the new road.  This photograph from 1911 (via here) shows what was there before:

sanPietro1911

The view today is this!

Rome-wallpaper-221-798x350

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