The Antiquarian and the Myth of Antiquity

Since antiquity the city of Rome has been revered both for its prestige as a center of secular and spiritual power, as well as for its sheer longevity. Philip Jacks examines how the creation of the Eternal City was viewed from antiquity through the sixteenth century. Emphasising the myths and discoveries offered by Renaissance humanists from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, he shows how their interpretations evolved over time. With Petrarch, Boccacio, and Vergerio came the earliest efforts to confirm the historical basis of legends through studying the archaeological remains of the city. Such activity accelerated through the fifteenth century and reached a peak in the sixteenth with the discovery, in 1546, of the Fasti, and even more sensationally, the Severan plan of Rome in 1562. These fragments were to have a powerful impact on the development of modern archaeology. The antiquarians of the Renaissance not only discovered the vestiges of ancient Rome, but also actively reinterpreted the meaning of classical antiquity in the light of their own culture.