been once on the surface, are now many feet below the ground'. Few vestiges even remain of those innumerable villas with which Italy was once crowded; although in erecting and adorning them the Romans lavished the wealth and spoils of the world. Some accidental allusions in the ancient poets, and some occasional descriptions 1 Tappen's Professional Observations on the Architecture of Italy, &c.; and Matthews's Diary of an Invalid. Bianchini, a learned Italian antiquary, wrote an account of his discoveries Del Palazzo de Cesari, which was published after his death, at Verona in 1738. He spent his fortune and lost his life in excavating the ground; but carried his theoretical arrangement of the edifice too far, according to Forsyth, a most intelligent traveller, and perhaps the best architectural critic who has visited the spot. Speaking of the Imperial Palace, he says, "In the present chaos of broken walls and arcades we can no longer retrace the general design of this palace as it existed in any one reign. Palladio, whose imagination has rebuilt so many ruins, forbore from these. Panvinio tried in vain to trace the original plan in his Topographia Roma, published in the sixteenth century."-See Forsyth's Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, &c. in Italy, p. 141. in their historians, convey indications of the magnificence both of their houses in the city and of their villas, sufficient to astonish the present age. If the more accurate accounts of these buildings by Vitruvius' and Pliny may be relied on', the most admired efforts 1 Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, an architect in the reign of Augustus, wrote a treatise on his profession, which is the only book on Architecture extant of the classical period. Of this work there are several editions, but the best is said to be that of De Laet: Amsterdam, 1649.. A translation of the whole ten books was published by Mr. Joseph Gwilt, F.S.A. in 1825. The civil architecture of Vitruvius, comprising all that relates to the private edifices of the ancients, had been previously translated by Mr. William Wilkins, F.S.A. in 1817. 2 Plinius Secundus the Elder was the author of a work on Natural History, compiled from various writers who had previously treated of that extensive and interesting subject, and which displays the whole knowledge of the ancients relative to natural history. It is divided into thirty-seven books, and is dedicated to the Emperor Vespasian. The thirty-fifth book treats of pictures, and contains observations relative to painting; the thirty-sixth, of the nature of stone and marble; and the last, of gems. To each book is subjoined a list of the authors from whom his observations were collected. The best edition of the Historia Naturalis is said of modern architecture are greatly inferior to the superb works of the Augustan age both in grandeur and in elegance'. There is not, says an able member of his profession, any misfortune which an architect is more apt to regret, than the destruction of these buildings; nor could anything more sensibly gratify his curiosity or improve his taste, than to have an opportunity of viewing the private edifices of the ancients, and of collecting from his own observation such ideas concerning the disposition, the form, the ornaments, and uses of the several apartments, as to be that of Hardouin, a learned French Jesuit, in three volumes folio, published at Paris in 1723: the only English translation is by Philemon Holland, in one volume, published in 1601. 1 The ruins and site of various villas near Rome are pointed out to the traveller by the ciceroni. "Half the charm consists in the names which they bear. These rustic and grand substructions, however, crown the hill so admirably, that whatever they originally were, they now appear the master object of Tivoli, and prove how happily the ancient architects consulted the elevation of site and the point of view."-Forsyth's Remarks on Italy, p. 247. no description can supply'. The recent discoveries at Pompeii have led to a very successful attempt, by M. Mazois, in this interesting branch of architecture, which is principally founded on those remains, and presents very curious details relative to the history of the arts and of the private life of a Roman senator, collected with indefatigable diligence from an immense variety of ancient authors, where the materials were only to be met with in detached and widely separated parts. The mansion of a Roman Patrician was insulated on all sides, and surrounded by streets adorned with a colonnade, beneath which were shops; the rent arising from this dis Adam's Introduction to his Account of the Palace of Diocletian. 2 Le Palais de Scaurus, ou Description d'une Maison Romaine, published at Paris in 1819: a translation of it has not yet appeared in the English language,-a circumstance of no small surprise. Very liberal use of this curious work has been made in this slight essay; but it still requires a complete translation, with plates of reference to accompany the author's brilliant and very lively description. position yielding a large revenue to the proprietor'. In advance of the front of the mansion was a small open space planted with trees, and not without its decoration, the avenue to the house being supposed to indicate the rank of the owner. Pompey, having been successful in the war against the pirates, had his porch ornamented with beaks of ships and other naval trophies; others were adorned with bronze quadrigæ or chariots drawn by four horses, equestrian statues, &c. Juvenal particularly alludes to this ostentatious display in the vestibule of the counsellor Æmilius, where the brazen car on high, Yoked with four steeds abreast, attracts the eye3. A colonnade surrounded three sides of this square*, and by means of this access was given under cover to the entrance of the house, which I See Insula in Vitruvius's Architecture, book i. chap. 6. 2 Cicero's Oration against Antony. 3 Badham's Translation of the Satire on Patronage. 4 An area is represented as the Forum of Gabia in Museo della Villa Borghese by Visconti and Piroli. |