Sepulchrum C Cesti Epulonis Ostiensi Via et Pyramide et Marmori Quadrato Nobilissimum Atque Omnium Vetustissimum

Inscribed and dated in the lower center: «SEPVLCHRVM C. CESTII EPVLONIS OSTIENSI VIA ET PYRAMIDE ET MARMORI QVADRATO NOBILISSIMVM ATQ[VE] OMNIVM VETVSTISSIMVM / ROMÆ ∞ D XL V IIII» [Sepulchre di Gaius Cestius Epulus on the Ostian Way, the most ancient of all and, both for the pyramid and for the square marble, very famous].

Signed in the lower center: «A.S. EXCVDEBAT ». Signed in the lower right: «Nicolo Van Aelst formis».

The first print to depict the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, first published in 1546 by Salamanca. As Rubach claims, Lafreri's engraving was inspired by the Salamanca’s plate, which initially appeared in 1546 without an address and then with the year updated to ∞ D XLVIIII and the inscription "excudebat Salamancas". This plate went to van Aelst (BNC, Rome, 18.6.G.3, fol. 30; HAB Wolfenbüttel, 2.3 Geogr. 2°, 88 and 2.1 Geom. 2°, 1-29) and later to de Rossi (Hülsen 1921).

Example of the third state of four, with the address of Nicolas van Aelst.

The Pyramid was erected between 18 BC and 12 BC as a funerary monument for Gaius Cestius Epulone, of the Poblilia tribe, praetor and tribune of the plebs. In the Middle Ages, the pyramid was believed to be the tomb of Remus, known as Meta Remi.

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).

A good impression, printed on contemporary laid paper with “fleur-de-lys in a circle” watermark, with margins, paper folds on verso, otherwise good condition.

Bibliografia

C. Hülsen, Das Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae des Antonio Lafreri (1921), n. 39; cfr. Peter Parshall, Antonio Lafreri's 'Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, in “Print Quarterly”, 1 (2006); B. Rubach, Ant. Lafreri Formis Romae (2016), n. 382, III/IV; Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), n. II.49.