Italy - Rome, Appian Way, Baths of Antonius, Septizonium, [2x]; Giacomo Lauro - Vestigia Termaru Antonini / Septizonius vestu ad Thermas Antonianas - 1621-1650

Vestigia Termaru Antonini / Septizonius vestu ad Thermas Antonianas (1625)

Images 18x23cm, pages 22x32cm

Two views of the ruins as they were in the 16th/17th Century of the Baths of Antonius (or Caracalla) and the Septonozium as it was in Antiquity.

The Septizonium was constructed by Septimus Severus and dedicated in 203 AD. It was located in the southeast corner of the Palatine Hill and was several stories high. It was meant to be an impressive welcoming facade to the city. Fragments of the facade existed until the sixteenth century. The title mentions that this structure was near the Baths of Caracalla (Antoninus) which were both on the Appian Way. There is evidence of a water basin found in the 1980s.

The engravings are taken from ´Splendore dell antica e moderna Roma ...´, published in Rome in 1624 (first edition started being published in parts from 1612 onwards). The view is explained in Latin text below the engraving.

Giacomo Lauro (or Jacobus Laurus) was an engraver, printer and print publisher. Active in Rome from 1583, when described as 'intagliatori di rame' (Ashby p.362). 17 March 1598 he applied for and was granted a 10-year papal privilege for an unspecified number of unnamed religious prints (Leuschner). Giacomo Lauro’s place and date of birth are unknown, although his signature “Jacobus Laurus Romanus” seems to indicate that the artist was proudly born Roman.

Lauro's earliest dated prints are of 1582 (Martyrdom of St Catherine), and carry the address of C. Duchetti (Ashby, 1926-27, p.362). He also worked for Panzera, c.1589 (Bertolotti). From 1590 he tried to establish himself as a publisher of his own work . He acquired and restored old plates, published copies of classic prints as Marcantonio's St Paul preaching (B.XIV.50.44). He accepted commissions, as the map of Rocca Contrada, 1594 (Anselmi). He probably acquired plates from Jacob Matham which he published in 1598 (Widerkehr). His 'Antiquae Urbis Splendor' was published in parts from 1612. In the volumes issued in 1614 and 1615 Lauro refers to having worked on the study of antiquity for 28 years which would mean that he began this work about 1586 (see Ashby, 1926-27, p.362).

Excellent. Never folded. Strong paper. Ample margins.



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