Uploaded on Easter Sunday to manuscripta.at was an interesting volume, with the description: “Salzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, M III 40, MONUMENTA ANTIQUA ROMANA — Lombardei, 4. Viertel 15. Jh.” I.e. 4th quarter of the 15th century, 1475-1500. It contains sketches of a number of the monuments of ancient Rome then standing, and notes about these, which seem to be in Italian. I wish I could read these.
Via this site, I learn that this book is Giovan Maria Falconetto, Monumenta Antiqua Romana. HMML say here that it is possibly by Giovanni Maria Falconetto. There’s a Wikipedia article about him, but I was unable to find any information about the manuscript.
This page (f.21r) was particularly interesting:
For this is surely the ruins of the Septizonium, the monumental facade erected by Septimius Severus at the end of the Via Appia as a main entrance to the Palatine complex. The notes on the right of the drawing look like measurements!
Wonderful to see!
There is a transcription and commentary in a PhD thesis here, p. 286:
https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/bitstream/1974/7993/1/Knight_Janina_M_201304_PhD.pdf
Notati ch[e] Larchitatura de questo edeficio sie stato cho[m]e queste rasone prima questa prima parte sie diui.. la sua alteza jn parte 14 tre sie elbasame[n]to e 9 (?) e lecholone e 2 e larchitraue e friso & chornice le cholone sisono chorintie e la sua distancia da una alaltra sie de due te..e di cholona e questa medema rasone o…erua le altre due parte superiore ma questa di sopra sie le cholone dorich[e] ch[e] e di … e tute an[n]o le chapiteli alti una testa ede lauorati (partially illegible); questa parte sie alta parte 18 & tri qu… ch[e] e la… ua parte de jnf…riore meno (partially illegible); questa parte sie alta parte 21 ch[e] e uno otauo meno de la antichita (description of middle storey); questa parte sie alta parte 24 (description of bottom storey); Questo edificio sie posto jn Roma el quale e adima[n]dato e dere parte de palazo mazore posto a leuante edito edificio seguitaua molta lungeza secho[n]do ch[e] dimostra questa parte ch[e] e ora jn piedi Notati ch[e] lera un porticho a perto chon le Logie di sopra dallato didreto li era dui lochi secreti da poter andar dalocho a locho uno de esi lochi siruuino a tempo mio quando el ducha galeazo fu morto p[er] le neue e giazi che fu a roma jn queli tempi (partially illegible).
It is Italian, obviously ancient. And perhaps the researcher used a low quality copy, because some parts of the text are clear enough in your image; e.g. “diui..” looks like “diuisa”, “o…erua” is “obserua” etc.
Gosh what a find!! Thank you! The Italian does make some sense using Google translate. I shall look further!
Libraries used to supply microfilms, and these could be poor.