To an approximate scale of 1 to 150

rep[er]to. fuit. An[n]o. D[omini].1512/ .in canpo. Martio (‘It was discovered in the year of the Lord 1512 in the Campus Martius’); [Inscribed on monument] caesar. divi. I. F./ augustus. ponti/fex. maximus./ imp. XII. cos./ XI. trib. pot. XIV. augusto/ inpotestate/ populi. ro/mani. re/dacta. soli/ donum/ dedit. (= CIL, 6, 602: IMP[ERATOR] CAESAR DIVI [F]IL[IVS]/ AVGVSTVS/ PONTIFEX MAXIMVS/ IMP[ERATOR] XII CO[N]S[VL] XI TRIB[VNICIA] POT[ESTATE] XIV/ AEGYPTO IN POTESTATEM/ POPVLI ROMANI REDACTA/ SOLI DONVM DEDIT)

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash

Bernardo della Volpaia

The red-granite obelisk of Augustus, now in Rome’s Piazza di Montecitorio, was shipped from Egypt to Rome in 10 BC and was set up as the gnomon of Augustus’s celebrated giant sundial, the solarium Augusti in the Campus Martius (LTUR 1993–2000, 3, pp. 35–37; Swetnam–Burland 2010; Alberi Auber 2011–12). According to the Coner annotation, it was ‘discovered’ in 1512, although parts of it had already been located in 1502 (Lanciani 1989–2002, 1, pp. 177–78), and the inscription on the pedestal was recorded by Giuliano da Sangallo in his Taccuino Senese. It was then rediscovered by the architect Domenico Fontana in the late sixteenth century (Vacca 1594, p. 20), and it was again brought to light in 1748 before being repaired and re-erected in its current position in 1789–92. The date mentioned of the discovery is one of only two recorded in the codex, the other being 1513 (Fol. 53r/Ashby 91 Drawing 1), and it implies that the original Coner compilation was produced just a short time afterwards.

The Coner drawing is the only image of the obelisk that survives before an engraving of it was made by Enea Vico at around the mid-point of the sixteenth century. It represents the obelisk almost orthogonally, and as standing on its enormous plinth, which is positioned on an imaginary stepped podium. The inscription on the plinth is recorded with reasonable accuracy, except for the word Aegupto which is rendered as Augusto.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Siena, BCS, Ms. S.IV.8 (Taccuino Senese), fol. 3r (Borsi 1985, pp. 253–54); [Enea Vico] (Spike 1985, 30, p. 255)

Ashby 1904, p. 40
Günther 1988, p. 337
Census, ID 44956

Drawing

Digitisation of the Codex Coner has been made possible through the generosity of the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, Berlin.

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