ANTIQUITATUM ROMANARUM

DE BRY FRANKFURT
1600
page size 18 x 27cms

 
It may be odd to find such an apparently dry and austere book as this in this celebration ofthe Narrative. It serves to remind you that there can be fascination in the inexpressive line and mechanical shading - in places there is a dogged surrealism in the enormous means to communicate very little. There is elaborate care taken to depict meaningless lumps. There is mysterious depiction of terminal herms with lugubrious genitalia. I am very fond of this book and it has many hundreds of plates. I have selected a few to sum up my case.
 
The scans are from Volume 3 of this extraordinary production, with over 270 plates, mostly full page, dedicated to the dogged transcription of Roman inscriptions. The terminal herm is amusing enough, but a fragment of a terminal herm as above, is, well, phenomenal.

see also Piranesi and the Fragment