File:The destruction of ancient Rome - a sketch of the history of the monuments (1901) (14757630796).jpg

Identifier: destructionofan00lanc (find matches)
Title: The destruction of ancient Rome : a sketch of the history of the monuments
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Lanciani, Rodolfo Amedeo, 1847-1929
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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Ill justice to the City magistrates of this period, wemust acknowledge that, so far as relates to the preser-vation of the ancient monuments, their behaviour wasvery different from that of the popes and of theApostolic Chamber. While the papal authorities hadofficially sanctioned and encouraged the destruction ofclassic remains, particularly by a bull of Paul III.dated July 22, 1510, the municipal officials never ceasedto raise their voice in favour of their preservation,and to protest against the shameful deeds of the com-missioners for the *Fabbrica di S. Pietro. Theirlove and reverence for the alma parens was nevercrushed by untoward events. This attitude of mindwas so consistent and unvarying that in the many hun-dred vx)lumes of Records which I have consulted in themunicipal archives, I have found no trace of any oppo-sition to projects connected with the safeguarding ofthe classic remains, or with the increase of the archaeo-logical collections of the Capitoline Museum. On the I
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Fig. 40. — Bas-reliefs from the arch of Marcus Aurelius, removed from thechurch of S. Martina in 1525, now in the Conservatori Palace. THE MONUMENTS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 231 contrary, regard for the glories of the past was attimes carried to an extreme, and the City Council nowand then transformed itself, as it were, into an academyof humanists. Even allowing that this overzealousdevotion to antiquity might justly be criticised, we arecompelled to admire the patriotism of the City officials,for in the cause of art they forgot all else—presenttrials, gloomy prospects for the future, and sometimes,also, we must confess, the sense of justice; thus in March,1525, they took away from the rector of the churchof S. Martina the bas-reliefs from the arch of MarcusAureliLis,^ now on the landing of the staircase of theConservatori Palace, without allowing him any com-pensation (Fig. 40). In 1538, after 320 scudi had been laboriously col-lected from the Cerrini and other defaulters and cr

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