To an approximate scale of 1:130

TENPLI. DEAE./ .VESTAE. (‘of the Temple of the Goddess Vesta’); altitudinis./ columnar[um]/ est. b . 9¾ (‘the height of the columns is 9¾ braccia’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines and compass pricks

Bernardo della Volpaia

The round temple depicted at the top of this sheet stands near the River Tiber in Rome in what was once the Forum Boarium. Now identified as the Temple of Hercules Victor or Hercules Olivarius (Rakob–Heilmeyer 1973; LTUR 1993–2000, 3, pp. 18–20), it was associated in the Renaissance with a variety of deities, the dominant one being Vesta, as given in the caption here (written in all’antica capitals), an identification that can be traced back to the writings of Flavio Biondo in the 1440s (Biondo 1548, Book 2, fol. 34; Census, ID 44203), who was followed by Poggio Bracciolini after 1448 (BAV, Vat. lat., 1784, Book I, fol. 5r; Census, ID 195300), and by Giuliano da Sangallo in his plan in the Codex Barberini (tenpio dele vergine). During the medieval period (before 1140 CE), the building was converted into a church dedicated to St Stephen, helping to secure its survival although, as a consequence, it inevitably underwent some minor modifications. Its condition at around the middle of the sixteenth century is recorded in a drawing by Giovannantonio Dosio, which was published by Giovanni Battista De’Cavalieri in 1569, showing it with such accretions as an attached chapel and a miniature support for a bell, and a tiled roof similar to the one it still has today.

Ignoring the later additions, the plan shows the ancient building correctly with a circular cella ringed by twenty columns, but in other respects it is surprisingly inaccurate. It mistakenly shows plinths under the columns (Gunther 1988, p. 182), omits the edge of the podium, fails to include the windows flanking the doorway, depicts the door as far wider than in reality, and it inserts two columns between the jambs. Also inaccurate are the recorded dimensions, and in two senses: first, they do not correspond with measurements of the building itself, the internal diameter of the cella being given as 12⅔ braccia, or 7.39m, whereas the actual measurement is 8.53m (Rakob–Heilmeyer 1973); and, secondly, they are inconsistent with each other since the internal diameter of 12⅔ braccia is not drawn to the same scale as the width of the external colonnade which is given as 4⅛ braccia. The drawing, therefore, was certainly not the product of a recent survey, and it was perhaps based instead on inaccurate information coming from earlier unreliable drawings, such as the plan in the Codex Barberini, which similarly shows the building as having plinths under the columns and fails to show the edge of the podium. The earliest surviving representations to show the building to a reasonable degree of accuracy are two later drawings – a plan and a cutaway view – from around 1530 now in Montreal. Being so inaccurate – indeed more so that most other surviving drawings of the building from around this time – the drawing is an anomaly in the codex where much emphasis was normally placed on acquiring accurate information. Presumably, the untrustworthy image or images on which it was based were not cross-checked against the building itself. The plan is also unaccompanied in the codex by any view of this building, which is surprising for such a prominent monument.

This temple’s pairing on the page with the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli makes good sense because the two are in many respects comparable, and especially since they are the two best-preserved peripteral round temples known in the Renaissance. An interest in round temples more generally is seen in the number of drawings of them – in addition to these two – that are shown on the same double folio (i.e. the paper sheet eventually divided when the original compilation was transformed into an album: Santa Costanza (Fol. 12r/Ashby 20), the mausoleum at Capua Vetere and Bramante’s Tempietto (Fol. 12v/Ashby 21), and the Mausoleum of Romulus in the Roman Forum (Fol. 14r/Ashby 23).

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 37r (Hülsen 1910, 1, p. 54; Borsi 1985, pp. 195–96); [Anon.] Montreal, CCA, Roman Sketchbook, fols 23r (cutaway view) and 24r (plan); [Giovannantonio Dosio] Florence, GDSU, 2504 Ar (Hülsen 1913, pp. 12 and 19; Bartoli 1914-22, 6, p. 136; Hülsen 1933, pp. VIII and 68); De’Cavallieri 1569 (unpaginated; see Borsi 1970, no. 3)

Ashby 1904, p. 23
Census, ID 44205

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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