The Septizonium of Settimius Severus

Engraving, 1546, signed and dated lower center: ROMÆ ∞ D X LVI ANT LAFRERI / SEQVANI FORMIS.

Example in the second state of four according to Rubach, second of five for Alberti, with Lafreri's signature and before the addition of the clouds in the sky. The first state - lacking the publisher's signature - would be known only through the example described by Quaritch in his catalog (1893).

Magnificent proof, richly toned, printed on thin contemporary laid paper with "anchor in the circle" watermark (Woodward no. 157), trimmed to copperplate, in excellent condition.

Inscribed at lower center: LVCI SEPTIMII SEVERI CAESARIS IN VIA APPIA QVANTVM QVIDAM CONSEQVI CONIECTVRA POTVERVNT SEPVLCRVM SEPTIZONII TITVLO TEMPORVM INIVRIA PAENE DISTRVCTVM CETERIS PARTIB[ VS] VEL CORRVPTIS VEL CONLABSIS NEGLIGENTIA SVPERIORIS AEVI MOTI QVOD SVPEREST MEMORIAM VETERVM PROPAGANTES EFFINXIMVS [Sepulchre of Lucius Septimius Severus at the Appian Way - according to what some could conjecture - called "Septizonium", almost than destroyed by the insult of the times, with its parts either damaged or fallen due to the neglect of the previous epoch - affected, we have represented it so that by our work it surpasses the memory of the ancients].

“The Septizonium was built by Settimius Severus in 203 A.D. with a monumental facade-ninfeo to impress the emperor's countrymen, the inhabitants of Roman Africa, who were coming up to Rome from the Appian Way: 'ut Africa venientibus suum opus occurreret.' According to ancient literary sources, with its seven floors honoring the seven planetary deities, the Septizonium had an apotropaic function to protect Rome. During the 10th century it was transformed into a fortress and donated to the monks of San Gregorio al Celio. Bernardo Gamucci, who could still see it in the second half of the sixteenth century, wrote thus: Et perche nel nostro disegno si dimostra l’ordine di quella fabrica, spero che la sia per rimanere gran tempo in piedi piutosto per la memoria degli scrittori, i quali lassano la forma del suo ritratto, che per il conseruamento proprio, atteso che la minaccia rouina essendo da gli altri suoi me[m]bri disunita per l’antichità». Per la documentazione del Settizionio sono molto importanti i disegni di Dosio. Ma pochi anni dopo Sisto V ordinava lo smontaggio di quanto rimaneva, affidandone l’incombenza a Domenico Fontana, al fine di riutilizzare i materiali per la costruzione della Cappella Sistina di Santa Maria Maggiore, ma parte dei materiali finirono per essere usati per l’obelisco di piazza del Popolo, l’obelisco Vaticano, le basi dei Dioscuri, il portone della Cancelleria e il palazzo Lateranense” (translation from C. Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento).

The work belongs to the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the earliest iconography of ancient Rome.

The Speculum originated in the publishing activities of Antonio Salamanca and Antonio Lafreri (Lafrery). During their Roman publishing careers, the two editors-who worked together between 1553 and 1563-started the production of prints of architecture, statuary, and city views related to ancient and modern Rome. The prints could be purchased individually by tourists and collectors, but they were also purchased in larger groups that were often bound together in an album. In 1573, Lafreri commissioned a frontispiece for this purpose, where the title Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae appears for the first time. Upon Lafreri's death, two-thirds of the existing copperplates went to the Duchetti family (Claudio and Stefano), while another third was distributed among several publishers. Claudio Duchetti continued the publishing activity, implementing the Speculum plates with copies of those "lost" in the hereditary division, which he had engraved by the Milanese Amborgio Brambilla. Upon Claudio's death (1585) the plates were sold - after a brief period of publication by the heirs, particularly in the figure of Giacomo Gherardi - to Giovanni Orlandi, who in 1614 sold his printing house to the Flemish publisher Hendrick van Schoel. Stefano Duchetti, on the other hand, sold his own plates to the publisher Paolo Graziani, who partnered with Pietro de Nobili; the stock flowed into the De Rossi typography passing through the hands of publishers such as Marcello Clodio, Claudio Arbotti and Giovan Battista de Cavalleris. The remaining third of plates in the Lafreri division was divided and split among different publishers, some of them French: curious to see how some plates were reprinted in Paris by Francois Jollain in the mid-17th century. Different way had some plates printed by Antonio Salamanca in his early period; through his son Francesco, they goes to Nicolas van Aelst's. Other editors who contributed to the Speculum were the brothers Michele and Francesco Tramezzino (authors of numerous plates that flowed in part to the Lafreri printing house), Tommaso Barlacchi, and Mario Cartaro, who was the executor of Lafreri's will, and printed some derivative plates. All the best engravers of the time - such as Nicola Beatrizet (Beatricetto), Enea Vico, Etienne Duperac, Ambrogio Brambilla, and others  - were called to Rome and employed for the intaglio of the works.

All these publishers-engravers and merchants-the proliferation of intaglio workshops and artisans helped to create the myth of the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the oldest and most important iconography of Rome. The first scholar to attempt to systematically analyze the print production of 16th-century Roman printers was Christian Hülsen, with his Das Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae des Antonio Lafreri of 1921. In more recent times, very important have been the studies of Peter Parshall (2006) Alessia Alberti (2010), Birte Rubach and Clemente Marigliani (2016). 

Bibliografia

C. Hülsen, Das Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae des Antonio Lafreri (1921), n. 40/a; B. Rubach, Ant. Lafreri Formis Romae (2016), n. 302, II/IV; A. Alberti, L’indice di Antonio Lafrery (2010), n. 60, II/V; Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), n. II.29; cfr. D. Woodward, Catalogue of watermarks in Italian printed maps 1540 – 1600 (1996); B. Gamucci (1565), p. 82.