Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65 1409452654, 9781409452652

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Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

RICHARD COOPER Oxford University, UK

il Routledge ~~

Taylor & Francis Group

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Richard Cooper 2013 Richard Cooper has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Cooper, Richard, 194 7Roman antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65. 1. Classical antiquities - Collectors and collecting France - History - 16th century. 2. Classical antiquities Private collections - France - History- 16th century. 3. Rome (Italy) - Antiquities - Collectors and collecting France - History- 16th century. 4. Antiquarians - France History - 16th century. I. Title 709 .3'7'07 444-dc23 The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Cooper, Richard, 194 7 Roman antiquities in Renaissance F ranee, 1515-65 / by Richard Anthony Cooper. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4094-5265-2 (hardcover) - ISBN 978-1-4094-5266-9 (ebook) - ISBN 978-14 724-0040-6 (epub) 1. French literature - 16th century - History and criticism. 2. Collectors and collecting - France - History- 16th century. 3. French literature - Roman influences. 4. France -Antiquities, Roman. I. Title. PQ239.C677 2013 840.9'003 - dc23 2013004319 ISBN 9781409452652 (hbk) ISBN 9781315606828 (ebk)

Contents

vii xiii

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction

1

1

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

7

2

French Diplomats in Italy, 1530-50

43

3

French Diplomats in Italy, 1550-60

85

4

Collections at Court

127

5

French Artists in Italy, 1530-65

169

6

Antiquarian Art

213

7

Triumphal Entries, 1531-65

245

8

Fiction and the Antique

283

9

The Poetry of Ruins

323

Conclusion

Appendix: The Catalogues of Jean Du Bellay Bibliography Index

371

s Collection

377 383 427

List of Illustrations

1

Pantheon, engraved by Nicolas Beatrizet, published by Lafrery (1549) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

13

2

Statue courtyard of the Palazzo Della Valle-Capranica, Rome, engraving published by Hieronymus Cock after Maarten van Heemskerck (1553) [© Trustees of the British Museum] 17

3

Oil portrait of cardinal Jean Du Bellay [Musee de Versailles: © Reunion des musees nationaux]

45

Oil portrait of Georges d'Armagnac and his secretary Guillaume Philandrier, after Titian (c. 1540) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

55

4

5

Du Perac's engraving (1575) of the Forum, showing S. Adriano and the Arch of Septimius Severns [in T. Ashby, Topographical study in Rome in 1581, London, Roxburghe Club, 1916: by permission of the Warden and Fellows, New College] 64

6

Jean-Jacques Boissard's engraving of a composite statue in the Horti Bellaiani in his Pars Romance urbis topographice, Frankfurt, T. de Bry (1597-1602), IV, no 120 [© Universitatsbibliothek, Heidelberg].

73

Engraving of the exedra of the Baths of Diocletian by G.B. de' Cavalieri after G.A. Dosio (1569) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

94

7

8

View of the Horti Bellaiani by Etienne Du Perac (1577) [in T. Ashby, Topographical study in Rome in 1581, London, Roxburghe Club, 1916: by permission of the Warden and Fellows, New College] 98

9

Pirro Ligorio's reconstruction of the Baths ofDiocletian engraved by Ambrogio Brambilla (1582) [© Trustees of the British Museum] 100

10

Jean-Jacques Boissard's engraving of a female statue in Jean Du Bellay's collection, in his Pars Romance urbis topographice, Frankfurt, T. de Bry, 1597-1602, IV, n° 122 [© Universitatsbibliothek, Heidelberg] 103

vm

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

11

Jean-Jacques Boissard's engraving of a relief in Jean Du Bellay's collection, in his Pars Romance urbis topographice, IV, no 130 [© Universitatsbibliothek, Heidelberg]

104

Jean-Jacques Boissard's engraving of a relief in Jean Du Bellay's collection, in his Pars Romance urbis topographice, IV, no 131 [© Universitatsbibliothek, Heidelberg]

105

12

13

Jean-Jacques Boissard's engraving of inscriptions in Jean Du Bellay's collection, in his Pars Romance urbis topographice, III, no 87 [© Universitatsbibliothek, Heidelberg] 106

14

Jean-Jacques Boissard's engraving of gravestones in Jean Du Bellay's collection, in his Pars Romance urbis topographice, IV, n° 129 [© 108 Universitatsbibliothek, Heidelberg]

15

Jean-Jacques Boissard's engraving of a relief in Jean Du Bellay's collection, in his Pars Romance urbis topographice, IV, n° 128 [© Universitatsbibliothek, Heidelberg]

110

View of the Horti Bellaiani by Giacomo Lauro, in his Antiquce Urbis Splendor, Rome, 1612, fig. 134 [© Universitatsbibliothek, Heidelberg]

125

Drawing by Maarten van Heemskerck (c. 1532-33) of statues in the Belvedere courtyard [© Trustees of the British Museum].

137

Engraving by Nicolas Beatrizet, published by Antoine Lafrery (1545-70), of Nile in the papal collection, copied by Primaticcio [© Trustees of the British Museum]

138

Engraving by Nicolas Beatrizet, published by Antoine Lafrery (1545-70), of Laocoon in the papal collection, copied by Primaticcio [© Trustees of the British Museum]

139

Drawing from the diary of Arnold Van Buchel of Primaticcio 's copies of Tiber and a Sphinx, seen in Fontainebleau in 1585-86 [© Universiteitsbibliotheek, Utrecht, ms. 798 I, fo 195vo]

143

Engraving by Etienne Delaune after Jean Delaune (1580) of an Allegory of the Triumph of Time, set amidst ancient ruins, featuring the statues of Tiber and Laocoon [© Trustees of the British Museum]

151

16

17

18

19

20

21

List of Illustrations

22

The Mausoleum at Glanum drawn by Du Cerceau [Musee Conde, Chantilly, ms. 395, fo 17: © Reunion des musees nationaux]

lX

189

23

Engraving ofMarforio, published in Rome by Antoine Lafrery (1550) [© Trustees of the British Museum] 196

24

Engraving of three columns from the Temple of the Dioscuri with a view of the Forum, published by Antoine Lafrery (1550) [© Trustees of the British Museum] 198

25

Engraving of the Antonine Column and a fragmentary obelisk, published by Antoine Lafrery (1544-77) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

199

Engraving by Nicolas Beatrizet of the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, published by Antoine Lafrery ( 1548) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

201

26

27

Drawing in brown ink and brown wash by Jean Cousin (I) of children playing amongst ruins [Louvre: © Reunion des musees nationaux] 217

28

Etching by Leon Davent of a classical city in flames (1547-50) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

226

Etching by Jean Mignon after Luca Penni of the plundering of Troy (1544--45) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

226

Drawing by Niccolo dell' Abate of the Funeral ofMausolus of Halicamassus (1562-71) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

227

Drawing by Jean Cousin (I) of a pastoral landscape with putti and classical ruins [© Trustees of the British Museum]

232

Engraving by Jean de Gourmont I of Laocoon in a landscape of ruins (1520--40) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

235

Drawing by Jean Cousin (II) of the Entombment of Christ in a landscape of ruins (1540-80) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

240

Engraving by Jean de Gourmont I of Samson wrestling the lion, in a landscape of ruins (1520--40) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

242

29

30

31

32

33

34

X

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

Map ofNimes from Jean Poldo d' Albenas, Discours historial de !'antique cite de Nismes (1560) [in H. Baudrier, Bibliographie lyonnaise, Lyon, L. Brun, 1891-1925]

253

School of Mantegna, engraving of the Triumph of Ccesar, with three elephants (1470-1500) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

263

Woodcut of elephants from entry of Henri II to Rouen (1550) [ed. Rouen, 1885]

264

Obelisk from the entry of Henri II to Lyon (1548) [ed. G. Guigue, Lyon, 1927]

266

Double arch from the entry of Henri II to Lyon (1548) [ed. G. Guigue, Lyon, 1927]

270

Triumphal arch from the entry of Henri II to Lyon ( 1548) [ed. G. Guigue, Lyon, 1927]

275

Ruinscape from Colonna, Hypnerotomachie ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile (Paris, 1546) [ed. B. Guegan, Paris, Payot, 1926]

300

Ruinscape from Colonna, Hypnerotomachie ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile (Paris, 1546) [ed. B. Guegan, Paris, Payot, 1926]

301

Engraving ofVatican obelisk, published by Lafrery (1545-50) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

305

View of the via Sacra though the Forum: engraving by G.B. de' Cavalieri after G.A. Dosio (1569) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

311

Engraving by G. Bonasone (1547) of Pasquino in a boat and Marforio reclining in the Forum[© Trustees of the British Museum]

314

Pen and brown ink drawing by Jean de Gourmont I of the Triumph of Bacchus in a temple (1520-30) [© Trustees of the British Museum] 319

47

Du Cerceau, drawing in black ink on vellum of the courtyard of Saint-Maur (c. 1570) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

332

List of Illustrations

48

49

50

51

52

53

Xl

Van der Noot woodcut of an obelisk for Figure 49. Van der Noot woodcut of a river god for A Theatre for voluptuous wordlings (1569) [ed. New York, Scholars' facsimiles and reprints, 1936]

345

Van der Noot woodcut of a river god for A Theatre for voluptuous wordlings (1569) [ed. New York, Scholars' facsimiles and reprints, 1936]

347

Engraving by Beatrizet of Roma victrix, published by Antoine Lafrery (1549) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

348

Van der Noot woodcut of a statue of Rome for A Theatre for voluptuous wordlings (1569) [ed. New York, Scholars' facsimiles and reprints, 1936]

349

Engraving of the Palais de Tutele in Bordeaux from E. Vinet, L'Antiquite de Bourdeaus et de Bourg (1574) [ed. Bordeaux, P. Chaumas, 1860]

365

Engraving of the Amphitheatre in Bordeaux from E. Vinet, L 'Antiquite de Bourdeaus et de Bourg (1574) [ed. Bordeaux, P. Chaumas, 1860]

366

Acknowledgements

Like Rabelais' giant, this book has had a long gestation, and during this period many institutions and individuals have helped to bring it to birth. The British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, and the Arts and Humanities Research Board, generously granted me Research Leave and Exchange fellowships that allowed me to work in the Bibliotheque nationale de France, in the Vatican Library, in the British School in Rome, in the Huntington Library, San Marino, in the Newberry Library, Chicago, and in the Getty Center, Santa Monica. The Warburg Institute has made available both its library and its photographic collection: it is hard to imagine working on classical antiquities or the Renaissance without the wonderful resource of the Warburg Library. I am grateful for the patient and skilled support given to me in all these libraries. In Oxford I received invaluable help and advice from the staff of the Bodleian, the Taylorian, the Sackler Library, the Heberden Coin Room, and the Print Room in the Ashmolean, whilst New College, where I was fortunate to be a student, gave me permission to reproduce figs 5 and 8. In London I was helped by the staff of the Rare Books Room of the British Library, of the Society of Antiquaries, and of the Wellcome Institute. The Reunion des musees nationaux gave permission to reproduce figs 3, 22 and 27; the Universiteitsbibliotheek, Utrecht supplied a microfilm of Van Buchel's diary (fig. 20); whilst the Universitatsbibliothek, Heidelberg gave permission to reproduce figs 6 and 10 to 16. The British Museum is particularly generous in allowing scholars to reproduce images from its rich collection, and I acknowledge their permission for figs 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 17-19, 21, 23-26, 28-34, 36, 43--47 and 50, as well as the cover picture. If there is a hero of this book, it is cardinal Jean Du Bellay, who has been rediscovered through the tireless research of Remy Scheurer, with the recent support of Loris Petris and David Amherdt, who have jointly inspired the work of younger art historians like Flaminia Bardati, Carmelo Occhipinti and Barbara Furlotti: I am indebted to them all. Lastly I would like to acknowledge the constant help, advice and encouragement of Erika Gaffney of Ashgate, without whom the gestation would have never have come to full term.

Introduction

The purpose of this book is to pursue the development of antiquarian taste in France during the reigns of Frarn;ois Ierand Henri II. Although the Renaissance discovery of classical antiquity in Italy has been studied, amongst others, by Roberto Weiss 1 and Philip Jacks, 2 little work has been done on the same phenomenon in France before studies of arch&ology 3 and collecting 4 in the age ofPeiresc. The major study to date is by Margaret MacGowan, 5 focusing specifically on the later sixteenth century and on the perception of Rome in France in the Renaissance, whilst the excellent book by Frederique Lemerle deals with Renaissance knowledge of Gallo-Roman remains. 6 The present book looks at the earlier part of the century, when links with Italy are at their closest, and before the outbreak of religious wars in France brings about cultural disruption and a radical change in attitudes to Italy and to the Roman past. Renaissance interest in the classical past does not, however, spring fully armed and unannounced from the head of Frarn;ois Ier,and there is a considerable medi&val heritage to take into account. Whilst it might be imagined that the vestiges of classical civilisation in France were largely abandoned and forgotten during the legendary thousand years of darkness, in fact there is ample evidence that people were aware of classical buildings, and that, in various cases, these ruins were inhabited. 7 In most French cities the dominant Roman remains were the walls, which, owing to their continuing usefulness, and to protective laws, were preserved into the thirteenth century and later.8 When expanding cities demolished their Gallo-Roman walls, a wealth of architectural and epigraphical fragments was revealed, but only rarely preserved. The monuments that were excluded from the circuit oflate-Empire walls were from the earliest times used as quarries, and indeed provided material for the building of the walls themselves. 9 The major instance of this is the amphitheatre, which was easy prey to the stone-

1 2

3 4

5 6 7 8

9

Weiss (1969). Jacks (1993). See Schnapp (1993), 132-8. Schnapper (1988). McGowan (2000). Lemerle (2005). Greenhalgh (1989), 87; Lemerle (2005), 17-18. Blanchet (1907), 10; Grenier (1931-60), I, 282-591. Blanchet (1907), 161 n. 4.

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

2

robbers; 10 triumphal arches abounded in France, notably in Provence, including a particularly fine one at Orange, which seems to owe its survival, when so much of Arausio was demolished, to its conversion into a fortress. Analogous is the trophy at La Turbie, which appears to have been near complete in the Middle Ages: converted into a fortress, it survived in a good state of repair into the eighteenth century. 11 The relics of the Roman water-supply also survived extensively into medireval France: the baths in Paris were not recognised as such, and ingenious interpretations were supplied for the name Thermes. There is firmer evidence still of medireval observers of aqueducts: at Metz the ruins moved an eleventh-century monk to describe them in a poem; 12 the aqueduct of Arles was recorded in the twelfth-century Kaiserchronik. 13 In the areas outside city walls, observers could still see Roman cemeteries lining approach roads, the best known of which was the Alyscamps in Arles, or the necropolis at Au tun, in the middle of which stood the celebrated pyramid. The Alyscamps were a rich source of sarcophagi, which were much sought after throughout the Middle Ages and continued to be re-used for burials, before becoming collectors' items in the Renaissance. 14 It seems, however, to have been rare in the imagination of medireval observers for these Gallo-Roman ruins to have been associated with the Romans, 15 and they were most commonly associated with more recent figures in French history or mythology. A popular attribution was to Charlemagne and his entourage, 16 as well to his enemies, the Saracens. 17 Collections are poorly documented in this period, but there is some evidence about the French royal collection. Some of the classical pieces in religious treasuries, like that of Saint-Denis, are thought to have previously belonged to Clovis, Childebert and Dagobert. 18 Evidence is firmer regarding the activity of Charlemagne, who, before finally being buried in a Roman sarcophagus, was authorised by Pope Hadrian I to import antiquities from Italy, presenting him in return with gifts of Roman milestones. 19 The figure of Charlemagne became associated with the acquisition of objects in Constantinople and in the Holy Land, in the course of a voyage attributed to him as early as the tenth century. This legend persisted until the Renaissance, when it was further popularised in a pamphlet, La Conqueste du grant ray Charlemaigne des Espaignes, 20 describing how he visited 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19

°

2

Greenhalgh (1989), 106-9. Greenhalgh (1989), 211. Brogan (1953), 84. Greenhalgh ( 1989), 110. Benoit (1954); Greenhalgh (1989), 201-2. Harmand (1961), 11-13. Vidal (1927-28). Pachtere (1912), v; Blanchet (1907), 60, 120, 179, 185, 281. Bonnaffe (1873), 6-7. Adhemar (1939), 96; Rodocanachi (1914), 25; Greenhalgh (1989), 26, 168, 175-6. Charlemagne (1501), fU B3v 0 -B4.

Introduction

3

the Holy Land, and was given Christian relics by the emperor of Constantinople. 21 The most famous object to travel from Constantinople to France was the largest cameo to survive from antiquity, the Grand Camee de France, now preserved in the Louvre: it is believed to have been given to Saint Louis in about 1247, perhaps by Baudouin II;22 mounted on the orders of Charles V in 1379, it was not thought of as a Roman piece, but was held to represent the triumph of Joseph in Egypt, and with this gloss, and in its new mounting, it was used in the coronation service of Charles VIII in 1484. Another early source of antiquities for France was Italy. After the sack of Rome by the Normans in 1084, there seems to have been an increase in the removal from the city of statues, marbles and building materials, until by the twelfth century one can speak of a trade in antiquities. 23 An early collector was abbot Suger, who, besides contributing to the treasures ofhisAbbey of Saint-Denis, cast covetous eyes on the columns of the Baths of Diocletian, which he planned to ship to France. 24 The activity of such prelates enriched the treasuries of religious institutions like the Sainte-Chapelle and Saint-Denis, for which early catalogues exist. 25 Evidence of the state of the royal collections in the late fourteenth century is provided by the catalogues of Charles V's treasury, the bulk of which is now lost. 26 Whereas it might be thought that, in a spirit of Christian iconoclasm, classical pagan objects would be viewed with suspicion, the evidence of these collections shows that such objects were both kept and used, and were often fitted out, whether wilfully or out of ignorance, with a Christian interpretation: this attitude is confirmed by the widespread conversion of classical objects, especially engraved gems and seals, 27 for use in church, notably as decorations for reliquaries, crosses and for the covers of manuscripts. Antiquarianism expanded considerably in the following century, thanks in great part to the activity of Jean de Berry, which constitutes a watershed in antiquarian taste in France: the duke is one of the first Frenchman recorded as having sent scouts to Italy to purchase works of art, amongst which a variety of antiquities - coins, medals, cameos, intaglios, inscriptions. 28 The catalogue drawn up in 141629 provides evidence of the wealth of this collection, although identification is problematical: he is thought to have owned some 1500 cameos and intaglios, which were seen 21

Riant(l875), 11. Babelon (1887), i; Babelon (1897), 120-36, n° 264. 23 Fedele (1909). 24 Bonnaffe (1873), 8; Adhemar (1939), 97; Taylor (1948), 36; Panofsky (1979); Greenhalgh (1989), 129-35. 25 Millet (1636); Omont (1902). 26 BnF, ms.fr. 21447, fU 1--49 and ms.fr. 2705; Avril and Lafaurie (1968), 33--4. 27 Demay (1875-77), iii-xxii; Wentzel (1953); on Carolingian use of gemstones as seals see Colin ( 1947); Greenhalgh ( 1989), 231-2. 28 Taylor (1948), 50; Adhemar (1939), 123. 29 Guiffrey (1894-96). 22

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

4

and admired by Filarete, together with a large hoard of gold and silver, partially melted down after Agincourt. The catalogue has various entries for coins, some of which seem ancient, 30 but others, such as large portrait medallions in gold, may be medi~val Italian work, based on classical models. 31 Rene d' Anjou provides another step forward in antiquarian activity in France: like Jean de Berry he had formed a sizeable collection of works of art, including a number of ancient cameos and possibly some medals, 32 but he was also interested in inscriptions, and in 1448 Ciriaco d' Ancona offered him a copy of some Latin inscriptions. During his long stay in Florence, Rome and Naples, Charles VIII also showed interest in antiquities, and in November 1494 his soldiers collaborated in despoiling the collection in Piero de' Medici's palace,33from where, as well as from further south, booty was shipped back to France. Andre de La Vigne describes the king's sightseeing in Rome and the Bay of Naples, his visits to the Capitol and Coliseum, to Fuorigrotta, Pozzuoli and La Solfatara.34 There are occasional literary reflections on Rome, although there is surprisingly little evidence of the impression made on French travellers by the ruins. 35 Medi~val Latin poetry is an exception, with an important contribution made by two elegies written by Hildebert de Lavardin, archbishop of Tours, on a visit to Rome in 1116,36 besides the earlier eleventh-century poem on the Roman aqueduct at Metz. 37 Amongst those who travelled in Italy were artists such as Villard de Honnecourt, whose sketchbook contains drawings of antique statuary from Rome, which have been adapted to meet Gothic taste. 38 Jean de Berry's interest in antiquities was also manifested in one important work of art, a miniature done for the Tres Riches Heures by the Limbourg brothers between 1411 and 1416. This painting presents a view of Rome following the traditional circular plan, and with some of the major buildings transformed into the Gothic style: the amphitheatres are portrayed as tall bell-towers, and the Palatine appears as a group of gothic buildings; the city walls are embellished with towers, battlements and arrowslits. Although there is an element of fantasy and stylisation, the painting is nonetheless faithful to the traditional portrayal of Rome as seen in contemporary Italian paintings. 39 A later visitor was the painter Jean Fouquet, who saw the city in 1446,40 and appears to 30

Guiffrey (1894-96), I, 73-4, n° 203-4; II, 26, n° 122; II, 141, n° 1108-10; Babelon (1901), I, 85. 31 Guiffrey (1894-96), I, cxiii and 70, n° 195; Babelon (1901), I, 84-5. 32 Lecoy de La Marche (1969), II, 119-26; Babelon (1901), I, 87. 33 Commynes (1901-1903), II, 164-5. 34 La Vigne (c.1515), fl F3v 0 -F5. 35 Skeel (1924); Graf (1915), 34-60; Joukovsky (1969), 40. 36 Raby (1957), I, 317-29; Raby (1959), 220-2; Joukovsky (1969), 40. 37 Brogan (1953), 84. 38 Adhemar (1939), 278-80; Weiss (1969), 13; Hahnloser (1972). 39 Muntz (1895), 10-11; Frutaz (1962), I, 123-4. 40 Lombardi (1983), 61-70.

Introduction

5

have made sketches of what he saw: his painting shows the influence of classical remains, containing columns, spiral columns, triumphal arches, obelisks, pilasters, and even torsos, 41 and in his Livy there is an illustration of the Roman Forum. 42 The first three decades of the sixteenth century mark a major step forward. Whilst foreign humanists begin to discover the antiquities on French soil, increasing numbers of early French humanists, like Tory, Lemaire or Bude, make the journey to Italy and, on their return, include antiquarian material in their works; to cater for a new French market, the presses of Lyon and Paris begin to publish Italian works on classical antiquities. Provincial humanists, notably in Lyon, start to form collections, compose syllogai of inscriptions, and begin to use archreological evidence when writing histories of their town, or indeed of France itself At court, the king begins to use diplomatic contacts to acquire classical objects to adorn the Bastille or the Louvre, and there is disputed evidence of one of his ministers owning a miscellany of objects old and new. This new taste for antique is also reflected in the illustrations to an early work on perspective and to manuscript commentaries on Cresar, as well as in the gradual evolution of what had hitherto been a very conservative genre, the royal entry. This book will explore how, after these tentative beginnings, this antiquarian heritage was received by the court, by artists and by writers, and how it was transformed over the first half of the sixteenth century. As the fashion grew for collecting antiquities, especially at court, it will be shown that French diplomats in Italy played a major role in procuring objects. The second chapter explores how the Du Bellay brothers and Georges d 'Armagnac used their stays in Rome to buy, restore and ship objects, whether for their own collection or to please influential figures at court, and most notably the king himself, running the gauntlet of Roman civic opposition to the export of marbles. The households of these cardinal-ambassadors prove to contain humanists who participate keenly in excavation, in topographical study and in the recording of inscriptions. The third chapter concentrates on Jean Du Bellay, who, having previously exported objects to France, now becomes in the 1550s the first French cardinal of the period to decide to settle in Rome, to build a villa, and to create an antiques garden in a spectacular archreological setting. Evidence is shown of the dispersal of this major collection following his death in 1560. The fourth chapter examines the taste for the antique from the point of view of the collector at court. The king is seeking to recreate Rome in France, to which end he redesigns his palaces, notably Fontainebleau, to display the copies of classical sculpture, sending Primaticcio to Rome to cast for him. Several other prominent figures at court start their own collections and house them in prestigious surroundings. This fashion for the antique has repercussions on the art of the period. Chapter 5 looks at the visits to Italy of major French artists and architects, at their sketchbooks, and at antiquarian influence on their art; it also examines the copious output of a French publisher in Rome, Lafrery, who in mid-century dominates the 41 42

E.g. Lombardi (1983), pl. 61, 142, 179-80, 284-85, 292. Adhemar (1939), 305-6; Durrieu (1915); Lombardi (1983), 187-90 and pl. 287.

6

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

European market for engravings, especially those portraying the splendours of Roman art and architecture. The sixth chapter pursues this theme, analysing the impact of antiquarian taste on the school of Fontainebleau, particularly in relation to classical landscapes, all 'antica style, and the cult of picturesque ruins. The final specific impact on the court is examined in the seventh chapter, which measures the development of the cult of the antique in the evolution of royal entries, which now blend traditional ritual with ceremonial elements of the Roman triumph. The last two chapters explore evidence in the literature of the period of this new taste. Not all writers admire pagan antiquity, and some express disapproval of what they see as an idolatrous passion for the relics of a corrupt civilisation, with Jean Du Bellay being accused of an unpatriotic and unhealthy obsession with ancient Italy. But fiction of the period increasingly includes episodes set in arch~ological surroundings, whilst poets frequently reflect on the lessons of transience embodied in the vestiges of the past, especially in Joachim Du Bellay's cycle on Roman ruins, which creates the new genre in France of the poetic ruinscape. A number of aspects of this broad subject are reserved for a subsequent study written in French. This traces the development of antiquarian scholarship in France in the period, whether in inscriptions (Matal), in coins (Bude), or in more general studies, aimed initially at an erudite, and later at a more general public. A detailed study is made of the most distinguished French antiquarian of the period, Guillaume Du Choul. The book also deals with the arch~ology of France in this same period. The purpose is to chart what monuments were visible, what discoveries were made, and how they affected the work of local (and national) historians in assessing the early history of their town or region. This process culminates in the great competing projects ofBelleforest and Thevet in 1575, who published universal cosmographies featuring the histories, and often the maps, of individual towns. Key features to examine in these chapters are the relative importance given to the forged histories of Annio da Viterbo, the sense of local pride and of rivalry with Paris, evidence of public display of antiquities, and the attitude shown, whether favourable or hostile, to the Roman occupation of France. Whilst this second book turns its attention to antiquarian scholarship and to the unearthing of the Roman past of France, the present work focuses on Paris and the court, on the role of diplomats in feeding aristocratic appetite for antiques, on the development of collections, and on the impact of this taste on court art, court festivals, fiction and poetry. By 1565, when France is about to be tom apart by civil war, the revolution in taste is complete: aristocrats and rich bourgeois have their chambres de merveilles; towns are proud to display, in prototype museums, the evidence of their glorious past, and to publish copiously illustrated civic histories; festivals have an antiquarian flavour, classical statues and topography abound in art, poets muse on the passing of empires. France may not have made up her mind about the Roman occupation of Gaul, but she has unreservedly borrowed the trappings of Roman Empire.

Chapter 1

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

1. Foreign Humanists in France

Before the French took an interest in the antiquities of Italy, foreigners were already aware of classical remains in France, and were recording inscriptions and monuments. Two travel journals survive, which are contemporary with the Italian campaign of Charles VIII. The first is that of the Florentine architect Giuliano da Sangallo, who travelled in the south of France during 1494-96, accompanying cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, and making drawings of the monuments he saw, which are preserved in three notebooks. 1 He visited Aries, 'edove e uno belisimo Guliseo' [where there is a most beautiful amphitheatre], of which he sketched an elevation of the facade; 2 in Orange he did both a plan and a reconstructed elevation of the theatre, 3 and made several drawings of the triumphal arch (which he imagines freed from its medi~val accretions), including one of an attic relief;4 in Aix-en-Provence he deduced that the Palais des Comtes, of which he gives a plan and a restored elevation, was of Roman origin, and that it had been both a temple and a fortress. 5 He is also one of the few visitors to have described and drawn the remains of the Roman baths at Cimiez behind Nice. 6 The second traveller is a Bavarian doctor, Hieronymus Munzer, who had already made a journey to Italy in 1484, when the plague broke out in Nuremberg; a fresh outbreak gave the brave physician the excuse for another journey during 1494-95, this time through France and into Spain and Portugal. 7 In Lyon he noted the 'vetustissime ruine antiquorum' [very old ruins of the ancients] on the hill of Fourviere, and also reported that the monastery of Saint-Irenee contained marbles and other monuments, which bore witness to its antiquity. 8 Passing through Vienne, Valence, Aix and Marseille, he recorded no antiquities; but arriving in 1

Falb (1899); Fabriczy (1902); Hiilsen (1910.1); Borsi (1985); Muntz and Lauriere (1885), 188-99,200-21. 2 Fabriczy (1902), 20, 32; Hulsen (1910.1), 21; Borsi (1985), 88-91. 3 Fabriczy (1902), 53-54; Hulsen (1910.1), 56; Borsi (1985), 203-4. 4 Fabriczy (1902), 38-39, 83; Hulsen (1910.1), 33; Borsi (1985), 277-82; Muntz and Lauri ere ( 1885), 201. 5 Fabriczy (1902), 54; Hulsen (1910.1), 56; Borsi (1985), 204-6; Muntz and Lauriere (1885), 212. 6 Borsi (1985), 264-5. 7 Deprez (1936); Goldschmidt (1939). 8 Deprez (1936), 61.

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

8

Arles he observed 'sepulturas innumeras' [countless tombs], that is, the rows of burials in the Alyscamps, including some very large sarcophagi: Sunt autem ume quadro et durissimo lapide sculpte, ita quod corpora X aut 14 in unam includi possent et lapideis ostiis obdurate; sunt ume innumere ac si perpetuari vellent, non curantes tempori nihil posse resistere quod omnia rodat. 9 [There are also tombs carved in hard square stone, which can hold ten to fourteen bodies, secured with stone lids; the tombs are numberless, and though they seek to be eternal, out of neglect nothing can resist time, which devours everything.]

He also visited and described the amphitheatre, which he called theatrum olim a Romanis exquisitissime fabrefactum. Est planicies magna in girum et circulum 62 arcubus ex maxima et durissimo quadraque lapide circumdata, plena testudinibus et fomicibus, ut theatrum Verone et Collosseus Rome constructus; inestimabiles sine dubio opes pro hoe tarn stupendo opere sunt exposite ... 10 [the theatre once exquisitely fashioned by the Romans. It is a large space surrounded by a circle of 62 (in fact, 60) arches made of large very hard stones and blocks, full of vaults and archways, built like the theatre in Verona or the Coliseum in Rome; huge sums were undoubtedly spent on this stupendous construction ... ] .

He also provided interesting testimony of the contemporary use of the monument for slum habitation: 'hodie autem pauperes homines hunc theatrum inhabitant, in fornicibus et planicie casulas habentes' 11 [but today poor people live in this theatre, having their little homes in the arches and the arena]. Passing through Narbonne, Munzer observed the massive city walls, which he astutely identified, on the basis of parallels seen in Italy, as of Roman workmanship: 'adeo fortis, adeo spissus est de maximis quadratis lapidibus, ut quasi similem theatro Verone Italie crederes' [it is so strong and solid, built from huge square stones, that it seems almost like the theatre at Verona in Italy]. Excavation has confirmed Mtinzer's testimony, revealing walls 3m thick, and built of huge blocks of stone. A later traveller in France at this period was J. Lopis Stunica, a Spaniard who journeyed to Rome in 1521. Passing through Arles, he visited the amphitheatre, which 'arenas hodie vulgus vocat' [the people today call the arena], and he viewed in more detail the Alyscamps, which contained not only early Christian burials but also 'nonnulla gentilium sepulchra cum latinis inscriptionibus maiori ex parte 9 10 II

Deprez (1936), 67. Deprez (1936), 69-70. Deprez (1936), 69-70.

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

9

vetustate consumptis' [some pagan tombs with Latin inscriptions largely eroded by age], of which he quoted one on a marble um, the first record of this epitaph. 12 At Aix he noticed nothing classical, but in Frejus he made one of the earliest recorded observations of the amphitheatre and of the aqueduct: 'ingens theatrum maxima ex parte collapsum habens: ab oriente vero aqu~ ductum longissimi tractus pluribus extantibus adhuc fomicibus pro loci qualitate nunc celsis nunc etiam depressis' 13 [there is an enormous largely collapsed theatre: to the East long stretches of aqueduct with many arches still standing, some high some low depending on the contour]. At Antibes he saw various antiquities, 'et in primis theatrum ad occidentalem oppidi partem penitus iam collapsum' [especially a theatre to the west of the town, almost wholly collapsed], again a valuable testimony of this now-vanished amphitheatre. After passing through Nice, he visited La Turbie, whose name he correctly identified as a deformation of the word tropceum: there are few records in this period of observation of the ruined monument, hence the significance of this testimony, which is accompanied by the text of the long inscription it bore, quoted from Pliny rather than from the by then probably unreadable original. 14 For a number of classical sites in France, there are entries in Italian and German syllogai of inscriptions to be found there before any record is made of them by French scholars. For Lyon we find eight inscriptions in the sylloge of Michele Ferrarini (ob. c. 1492), and the astonishing number of forty-six in the third sylloge of Fra Giocondo (c. 1502), both earlier than Champier's collection of 1507. 15 For Nimes we find a couple in Giocondo's collection, thirty-five in the papers of Mariangelo Accursio ( 1489-1546), and a large number in those of Bonifacius Amerbach, who copied them in the city in 1524. 16 Fra Giocondo included other French inscriptions in his third recension, one in Nevers, two in Vienne and one in Grenoble, the last having already been published by Pomponio Leto in 1500, whilst Accursio gave eight in Vienne. 17 Hubert-Thomas Leodius (1495/71555/56), in company with his master the future Elector Palatine Frederick II, visited Bordeaux in 1526, 18 when he admired the ruins of the Palais Tutelle, 19 and recorded nine inscriptions, which he was later to pass on to Apianus and Amantius, 12

Lopis Stunica (1521), :F Biii r 0 -v 0 ; CIL, XII, 116, n° 886. 13 Lopis Stunica (1521 ), :F C. 14 Lopis Stunica (1521), f O Cv 0 • 15 CIL, XIII i, 256-7. 16 CIL, XII, 384. 17 CIL, XIII i, 433; XII, 220, 271. 18 Jullian (1887-90), II, 358-9. 19 Th. Leodius, Annales de vita[. ..} Friderici II (1624), cited by Jullian (1887-90), II, 359: 'Burdegalem amrenissimam urbem delatus est et admiratus magnifici illius Theatri atque alterius mirandi operis vetustissimi, quod Tutelam appellant, ruinas' [He arrived at the most beautiful city of Bordeaux and admired the ruins of the magnificent Theatre and of the other wonderful and very old building called Tutela].

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

10

and which were to appear in their sylloge of 1534.20 These various travellers, and the evidence of foreign syllogai, illustrate the growing attention paid by European humanists and artists to the classical antiquities of France, a taste that their French counterparts were soon to share.

2. French Humanists in Italy French pilgrims to Italy in the first two decades of the century show little explicit interest in antiquities. The diary of Jacques Lesaige, who spent ten days in Rome in 1518 on his way from Douai to Jerusalem, focuses largely on churches and catacombs. 21 He was impressed by the Coliseum and by the aqueducts, which he believed to be over forty leagues long, to originate in the Naples region, and to have supplied Rome not only with drinking water, because the Romans were afraid to drink the muddy waters of the Tiber, but also with wine and oil! Reflecting on the panorama of ruins, he remarks, 'II y a tant d' autres lieux destruicts que c' est terrible chose a regarder' 22 [There are so many other ruins that it is a chilling sight]. Shortly after him, Dom Edme de Saulieu, abbot of Clairvaux, made a prolonged visit to the 'antiquailles et mines' [antiquities and ruins] of Rome during 1520-21, where he reflected on the 'piteuses mines et desolations de la citey ancienne' 23 [pitiful desolate ruins of the ancient city], and of which the halfdemolished St Peter's was amongst the most moving. 24 He observed the Pantheon, remarking on the size of the pillars; he described the 'espouventable' [awesome] Coliseum as the place where the Romans used to read tragedies, and he visited the so-called Temple of Peace [= Basilica of Maxentius], the triumphal arches and the 'incredibles' Baths of Diocletian. 25 This touristic approach forms an instructive contrast with that of humanists who visited the country during the same period, for whom antiquarian concerns were much more explicit. Many of the major humanists of the reigns of Fran9ois rerwere in Italy in these first two decades, including Bude himself, Lemaire, Grolier, Lazare de Bai:f, Aymar Du Rivail26 and Guillaume Du Choul. Little evidence survives on Bude's 1501 and 1505 visits to Italy;27 but there is information about the visits to Italy of two other French humanists, Geoffroy Tory and Claude de Bellievre. The young Tory was in Italy soon after Bude, first in Bologna where he went to lectures by

°

2

CIL, XIII i, n° 566,572,581,583,780,846,857,867; Kaibel and Lebegue (1890), XIV, n° 2521; Jullian (1887-90), II, 31. 21 Le Saige (1851), 25-27; cf. Bellenger (1989). 22 Le Saige (1851), 29. 23 Saulieu (1849-50), 199. 24 Saulieu (1849-50), 196. 25 Saulieu (1849-50), 201-5. 26 Moller (1907), 16-22. 27 Delaruelle (1907), 82-83; McNeil (1975), 13-14, 19, 45-6.

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

11

Filippo Beroaldo, before moving to Rome about 1506, where he studied at the Sapienza. 28 On his return to France, he set up as a publisher in Paris, and in 1512 brought out the first fruits of his humanist antiquarian interest, an edition of Leon Battista Alberti's De re cedificatoria,29 based on a copy he had obtained some four years before from Robert Dure, principal of the college du Plessis. In his preface he speaks of the influence of Italian taste on French architecture following the return from Italy of Charles VIII, seizing the opportunity to assert the superiority of modern French efforts over those of the ancients: Nempe ab illo tempore quo magnanimus ille Rex, totius Italire terror, Carolus Octavus, non sine magna gloria victor Neapoli rediit, ars ipsa redificandi sane quamvenusta, Dorica et Ionica, item Italica, totam hie apud Galliam exerceri coepit bellissime. Ambasire, Gallioni, Turinire, Blesis, Parhisiis et aliis centum nobilibus locis, publice et private conspicua iam redificia cemere licet antiqualia. Licet, inquam, adeo nitida et ad unguem ex[s]culpta dispicere multa, ut non modo Halos, imo Dores et Iones, Italorum magistros, ipsi Galli vincere videantur et iudicentur manifestissime. 30 [Indeed from the time when the magnanimous King Charles VIII, the scourge of Italy, came back victorious and with some glory from Naples, that truly beautiful style of building, Doric, Ionic or Italian, began to be practised elegantly here throughout France. In Amboise, Gaillon, Tours, Blois, Paris, and a hundred other noble places, you can already see remarkable classical buildings in public and in private. You can, I say, see many buildings so precisely and perfectly fashioned, that the French are seen and judged to have surpassed not only the Italians, but even the Dorians and Ionians, who taught the Italians.]

Four years later he was again en route for Italy, passing through Orange, and visiting the Roman monuments in Provence as well as other classical sites. 31 He appears to have stayed in Rome between 1516 and 1517, and was back in Paris by 1518. Tory's chief interest during his tour seems to have been the study of classical inscriptions, which required him to examine many of the major sites in the city. These notes were then incorporated into the Champ ffeury, which he composed between about 1524 and 1529, and which may have been inspired by the De divina proportione of Luca Pacioli. He believed that there were links between the shapes of letters and of buildings: 'si on demandoit plates formes en nos dictes lettres Atiques, on y en trouvera asses pour galeries, pour sales, et pour theatres, qu' on dit en France Arenes, et pour Colisees' 32 [if we looked for models in those Attic 28

29 30 31 32

Tory (1529), fl Alberti (1512). Alberti (1512), Tory (1529), fl Tory (1529), fl

xxxviii; Bernard (1865), 4. fl aii. xix v 0 , xx.

XX

v0 .

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

12

letters, we would find enough in them for galleries, for rooms, for theatres that in France we call Arenas, and for Coliseums]. In connection with the shape of the letter O in inscriptions, he cited the Coliseum: C 'est a dire rond ung peu estandu, et faisant deux coustez ung peu longuets, a la quelle forme interieure et exterieure le Collisee de Romme fut jadis edifie, comme on peult veoire encores aux ruynes qui en restent dedans la dicte Romme. 33 [That is, a distended circle, with two longer sides, the shape both inside and outside, in which the Roman Coliseum was built, as can still be seen in the ruins standing in Rome.]

He also referred to obelisks in the city, on which he had seen hieroglyphs, which he describes: en ung Porphire qui est en la grande Place devant le front de nreDame la ronde, et en une Esguille et Pyramide qui est pres l'esglise des cordeliers In ara cceli: pres le Capitole, et en une aultre Esguille qui est pres la Minerve, pareillement en une maison qui est pres le Palais du Mont Jordan. 34 [on a piece of porphyry in the large square in front of the Pantheon, and on an obelisk and pyramid near the Franciscan church of the Aracreli near the Capitol, on another obelisk by the Minerva Church, as well as on a house near the Palace of Monte Giordano.]

The first must be on the Egyptian lions unearthed and displayed in Piazza della Rotonda, which can be seen in Beatrizet's 1549 engraving of the square for Lafrery (Figure I), and in a 1530s drawing by Heemskerck; 35 the second is the Capitoline obelisk, still standing till the mid-sixteenth century; the others, originally from the Iseum, were described by Ligorio, one as having being excavated in Piazza della Minerva, and one incorporated into a modern house. 36 A drawing by Boissard shows mid-century tourists admiring three of the obelisks extant in Rome. 37 In the first book of the Champ fieury he wrote about 'lettres Attiques, qu'on diet autrement lettres antiques et vulgairement lettres Romaines' [Attic letters, otherwise called antique letters, or commonly Roman letters]. His attitude here betrays a hostility to the Romans, whom he saw as a proud and avaricious people 33

Tory (1529), :F li v 0 ; cf. :F XX v 0 • 34 Tory (1529), :F lxxiii. 35 Illustrated Bartsch (1978-), XXIX, 364; Filippi (1991), fig. 10. 36 Lexicon (1993-99); Platner and Ashby (1929), 366-71. 37 J.-J. Boissard, Inscriptionum antiquarum [. ..} exacta descriptio, Royal Library Stockholm, ms. Holmiensis S. 68, f' 105.

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

Figure 1

13

Pantheon, engraved by Nicolas Beatrizet, published by Lafrery (1549) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

who, wanting to impose their culture, had destroyed the earlier Greek civilisation, 'en destruyssant Loix, Costumes, Usages [... ] et en demolissant Epitaphes, et Sepulchres' 38 [destroying Laws, Customs and Practices ( ... ) and demolishing Epitaphs and Tombs]. In one striking passage, he rejected the adjectives 'antiques' and 'romaines', arguing that les Atheniens en ont use avant que les Romains, ne homme de leur Italie, combien que lesdictz Romains et Italiens en ont faict leurs monstres en leurs sumptueux Palaix et Arcs triumphans, comme on peut encores veoir dedans Romme aux ruynes qu'on voit par cy et par la envyronnees de Canetieres en la plusgrande partie de la dicte Romme. 39 [the Athenians used them before the Romans, or anyone in Italy, although the said Romans and Italians displayed them in their sumptuous Palaces and triumphal

38 39

Tory (1529), fl i, v v 0 . Tory (1529), fl vii.

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

14

Arches, as can still be seen in Rome in the ruins, here and there surrounded by reed beds in most of Rome.]

This is interesting evidence both of the refusal of the French to concede that the Romans might have been originators in their own right, and also of the overgrown state of the ruins of the city, which he presents as set amongst reedbeds. Whilst in Rome during 1516-1 7, Tory witnessed the preparation of the collection of inscriptions of the city by the Roman printer Jacopo Mazocchi, Epigrammata antiquce urbis, referring to it as the 'livre des Epitaphes de l'ancienne Romme que j 'ay veu imprimer au temps que j 'estoye en la dicte Romme ' 40 [ the book of ancient Roman Epitaphs, which I saw being printed when I was in Rome]. In fact the book did not appear until 1521, although a privilege had been obtained for it from Leo X in 1517, and it may then have begun going through the press. Tory cited this sylloge as evidence for the use in inscriptions of F for V,41 of C for K,42 and of CS or GS for X;43 this last he had also himself seen in Rome 'en d'aucuns Epitaphes Anciens' [in some ancient Epitaphs], whereas the use of F for V is also cited by him in an epitaph found in Lyon, which turns out to be a forgery.44 The sylloge of Mazocchi included the invaluable Libri iuris notarum attributed to M. Valerius Probus, which served as a guide to the interpretation of abbreviations in inscriptions. Tory had clearly made use of this treatise, and he recommended it to his readers: Qui aura desir s9avoir bien lire en Abreviatures anciennes qu' on peult veoir en Medalles et en Epitaphes: si s'adresse au petit et bon livre que Probus Grammaticus feit jadis. 45 [Anyone who wants to interpret the abbreviations on medals and epitaphs should refer to the good short book, once written by Probus Grammaticus.]

As authorities on Roman architecture he cited Vitruvius, 'autheur en ce tresexpert' [very expert author on this subject], and Alberti, 'Philosophe entre les modernes tressavant' [very knowledgeable modern Philosopher], whom he himself had edited in 1512.46 Apart from architecture and inscriptions, he showed interest in other classical decorative motifs, for instance in those found in trophies: he gave illustrations of trophies and he discoursed on the triumph of Apollo and on the

40 41

42 43 44

45 46

Tory (1529), fl xli. Tory (1529), fl xl v 0 -xli. Tory (1529), fl xlviii. Tory (1529), fl lx v 0 • CIL, XIII i, n° 278. Tory (1529), fl L v 0 • Tory (1529), fl xx.

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

15

Trionfi of Petrarch. 47 Another motif that caught his attention is the emblem of the dolphin and anchor, found on medals of Augustus, and taken over by Aldus as his device; 48 as his own device he chose an image derived from Colonna's Hypnerotomachia of a broken Roman vase, intended to commemorate the death in 1522 of his daughter Agnes. 49 If it is in the Champ fieury of 1529 that Tory's interest in classical inscriptions is most clearly expressed, in a work published in the following year this interest is not only sustained but developed in a new direction. The ,!Ediloquium includes a selection of modern inscriptions for use in the home, taken in part from classical models, but mainly from Colonna's pseudo-antique novel, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. The flavour can be given by one piece intended for welcoming guests: Sententia in quaque Domo literis maiusculis scribenda: Hospes hue adveniens salve Introgressus, genium nullatenus defrauda, Manus et linguam cohibe, Oculis utere, Negocium gere, Postmodum in rem tuam si vis hinc Ire, vade et vale. 50 [Sentences to be written in capitals on any house: Greetings, guest arriving and entering here, deny yourself no pleasure, restrain your hand and your tongue, use your eyes, carry out your business, then if you want to return to your affairs, leave and farewell.]

These offerings are followed by Septem Epitaphia antiquo more et sermone veterrimo conficta et conscripta [Seven epitaphs fashioned and written in the old manner and ancient language]; these seven compositions are rather long, between two and five sides each, and immortalise pairs of lovers with florid, mainly Greek, names - Hyacintillus and Candida, Fusculus and Calliphilla, Polycerius and Mythiphila, Thalerius and Chrysantilla, Thrasillus and Mellila, Cenopinus and Cantharina, Helithanes and Charitea. As the title of the collection suggests, these epitaphs enshrine romantic tales de amorum aliquot passionibus [of various amorous passions], to which Tory's model Colonna had devoted many pages. Tory is therefore a key figure, whether as an observer of Roman ruins, as a student of classical epigraphy, or as an artist using classical models and subjects, and the success of his Champ fieury was instrumental in popularising a taste for classical lettering. However, the most important French antiquarian to visit Italy in these early years of the century is the Lyonnais lawyer Claude de Bellievre (c. 47 48 49 50

Tory (1529), Tory (1529), Tory (1529), Tory (1530),

:F xxix v -xxx. :F xliii. :F xliii v Bernard (1865), 20. :F b4. 0

0

;

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

16

1487-1557), who, after studying in Pavia and Turin, made a number of Italian visits between 1512 and 1521.51 His papers are an invaluable source on archceology, epigraphy and on collections, as well as on the history of Lyon. He claims to have started studying the monuments of Rome one day to drive off a fit of nostalgia, 52 but his manuscript on Rome, Noctes Romance, contains an intriguing medley of papal documents, French and Italian poems and proverbs, reflections on canon law and curial procedure, comic epitaphs, as well as a long section on the antiquities of the city.53 Apart from sculpture seen in public collections like the Capitol, 54 his volume gives important evidence on the collections of the major Roman families under Julius II and Leo X. The largest collection he saw was that of Gabriele de' Rossi, 55 most of which passed later into that of the Della Valle family, well known to all visitors to Rome, including Maarten van Heemskerck, who drew it in the 1530s (Figure 2): here Bellievre saw two inscribed altars; 56 heads of the Tiburtine Sibyl, of Caesar; a bust of Pompey; a Diana of Ephesus, whose many breasts and astrological symbols impressed him; 57 a relief of the sacrifice of a bull, which he describes at length; a statue of Neptune standing on earth and on a ship; statues of the young Bacchus and his wife; a group of Voluptas, Castitas and Fortitudo, various heads of nymphs of Diana, a seated Venus, a head of Polyphemus, and a most beautiful Minerva. 58 In the Massimi collection, of which he gives the first account, 59 he admired a fine statue of Ccesar, a similar one of Brutus, and another of Seneca. 60 He was also alert to the latest discoveries, like the statues unearthed about 1514, six of which were displayed in the house of Alfonsina Orsini, widow of Piero de' Medici, whilst a seventh had been transferred to the Vatican:61 these were the fragmentary copy (now in Naples) of Attalus' triumphal group, but Bellievre shared his contemporaries' view that the pieces represented the combat 51

Recorded principally in his Noctes Romance, BnF, ms. lat. 13123, and his Noctes Florentince, BnF, ms. lat. 13124; see Bellievre (1956), 3-16. 52 'me collegi cepique veterum quiritum reliquias investigare et monimenta, que animum meum tarn graviter onustum levarent et me ab ea cogitatione tarn molesta aliquantulum diverterent', Bellievre, ms. 13123, :F 186 [I composed myself and began to examine the remains and monuments of the ancient Romans, which raised my gravely depressed spirits, and distracted me somewhat from such gloomy thoughts]. 53 Bellievre, ms. 13123, :F 185v0 -223, 228-30v 0 , 254: 'Sequuntur urbis antiquitates quas collegi' [here follow the antiquities of the city that I collected]; Muntz (1882), 12-15. 54 Bellievre, ms. 13123, :F l 99v 0 • 55 Bellievre, ms. 13123, :F l 86-87v 0 , 191; Bober and Rubinstein (c.1986), 4 78. 56 Those of the Lares and of T. Julius Aug. L. Mnester, both later in the Della Valle collection: Casamassima and Rubinstein (1993), 10, n° 3a; 19, n° 9. 57 Bober and Rubinstein (c.1986), 87, n° 48. 58 Lanciani (1902-12), I, 176. 59 Bellievre, ms. 13123, :F 200. 60 Lanciani (1902-12), I, 172. 61 Michaelis (1893), 120; Bober and Rubinstein (c.1986), 184, n° 148.

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

Figure 2

17

Statue courtyard of the Palazzo Della Valle-Capranica, Rome, engraving published by Hieronymus Cock after Maarten van Heemskerck (1553) [© Trustees of the British Museum]

of the Horatii and Curiatii, 62 and so in his lengthy description of the pieces, their posture and their wounds, he identifies the fine deceased mother being suckled by her son as Horatia, 'Horatiorum soror' [sister of the Horatii], 63 and the one transferred to the Vatican as the sole survivor, Marcus Horatius. In the Cesarini collection he saw a head of Cato Censorius (similar to one he had seen in the Medici collection in Florence), whose features he describes in detail. 64 He was particularly interested in sculpture, and his notebook betrays the emotion he felt when observing the marbles, especially their lifelikeness, which made dying figures appear to be breathing their last. His reaction to the Massimi collection is a case in point: Vidi ego et numquam potui satiare satis oculos, quantuncunque frequenter viderim statuas sequentes, tum propter representatorum gesta tum etiam propter celatoris artem, tum et 3° ob veritatem statuarie representationis. 65

62

Michaelis (1989), 47. 63 Bellievre, 64 Bellievre, 65 Bellievre,

(1893), 119-20; Bober and Rubinstein (c.1986), 179, n° 143; Reibesell ms. 13123, fl 188; Muntz (1895), 11-12; Lanciani (1902-12), I, 162-3. ms. 13123, fl 200; Lanciani (1902-12), I, 134. ms. 13123, fl 200.

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

[I saw, and could not feast my eyes enough, however often I saw series of statues, whether for the gestures of the persons represented, or for the skill of the artist, or thirdly for the lifelikeness of the carved figure.]

His admiration for the ancients contrasts with his view of the modems, seen in his citing a satirical epitaph on Bramante and the damage he had perpetrated to the antiquities of Rome, causing many now to rejoice Che vostra Ruina e or may finita: Qui iace Bramante che mentre fu in vita Altro studio non hebbe che spezarve. 66 [that your destruction is now over: here lies Bramante, who in his lifetime was only concerned to smash you.]

This nostalgia is echoed in an erased aside about the Rossi sculptures, where he warns the reader against thinking that carvings, like the relief of the sacrifice, were in any way crude; extolling the skill of the artist, he adds, et cum magistris periit ars. Heu quanta iactura. Non poteram satis satiare animum meum. 67 [and the art has died with the artists. Alas, what a loss. I couldn't satisfy my desire enough.]

He also records other monuments, including the Circus of Domitian, which he measures, 68 and the statues on the Quirinal, with their attributions to Phidias and Praxiteles; 69 besides sculptures, he also transcribes a number of inscriptions, although not very accurately. 70 His other manuscripts also include material on Rome, notably a compendium on law, which records an epitaph;71 in the Noctes Florentina:, 72 besides material on Florence, he describes a voyage on the Adriatic and amongst the Greek islands in 1521: the volume resembles the Noctes Romana: in its heterogeneity, including further material on curial procedure side by side with lists of modern epitaphs in Italy, including those of Dante and Giotto, and observations of ruins in the LEgean. Yet another volume contains a variety of modern and ancient material, including poems, chronicles and proverbs, but also

66 67 68 69

°

7

71 72

Bellievre, ms. 13123, fl 249v 0 • Bellievre, ms. 13123, fl 187. Bellievre, ms. 13123, fl 69 and 238v 0 • Bellievre, ms. 13123, fl 242v 0 • CIL, VI i, pp. xlv-xlvi, n° XX. Bellievre, ms. 13122, fl 466. Bellievre, ms. 13124.

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

19

records inscriptions in Verona,73 Barcelona, Rome, Rimini, Padua, Ravenna and Gaieta, 74 and alludes to the recently discovered Laocoon. 75 Like Jean Lemaire, he composed a short treatise on ancient funerary rites, including those of Egypt, but like him from literary sources. 76 His notebooks also contain a profusion of legal jottings, library catalogues, 77 quotations from his reading, including lines from Dante, 78 and an assortment of autobiographical details. On his return to France he devoted himself from about 1525 until his death in 1557 to composing a major study of Lyonnais antiquities.

3. Editions in France of Italian Antiquarian Works

On his visit to Rome, Charles VIII commissioned a French version of the Mirabilia urbis Romce, to provide a guidebook accessible to a wider range of French visitors to Italy. This work concentrated largely on the sights and attractions of the Christian city, although there was a sprinkling of details of Roman history, the story of Romulus, the emperors, the donation of Constantine, and some reference to antiquities and to modern works of art. 79 Demand for the French translation did not prove great: later editions appeared in Rome in 1519,80 then not again until 1536,81 and indeed there were only four editions in French before 1600, out of a total of 127 in all languages, compared with forty-eight in Latin, forty-six in Italian, twenty-two in German and six in Spanish. 82 The small number of French editions and their relative conservatism are not, however, indicative of a lack of antiquarian appetite in France: other books were beginning to appear that suggest the opposite. About the same time as Tory edited Alberti 's De re cedificatoria, Parisian printers brought out three editions of Raffaele Maffei's voluminous Commentariorum urbanorum octo et triginta libri, of which book VI is a succinct survey of the ancient city, making use of archreological, epigraphical and numismatic data; 83 this 73

Bellievre,ms.13127,:FSv 0 • 74 Bellievre, ms. 13127, :F 96-106, 112-29. 75 Bellievre, ms. 13127, :F 10. 76 Bellievre, ms. 17526, :F 17S-Slv 0 • 77 On Bellievre's library, which included Annio da Viterbo (n° 163), see Auvray (1913), II, 333-63. 78 Bellievre, ms. 13127, :F 130-31 v 0 ; see Bellievre (1956), 129-59. 79 Les merveilles de Romme, eglises, corps saincts, et lieux dignes, Paris, G. de Mamef, 1499; see Schudt (1930), n° 141. 80 Les maravilles de Romme: pelerinages, esglises, corps saincts & lieux dignes, Rome, S. Guileretus, 1519, S0 ; see Schudt (1930), n° 142. 81 Rome, V. Dorici, 1536, S0 ; see Schudt (1930), n° 143. 82 Delumeau (1957-59), I, 167. 83 Paris, J. Petit & J. Bade, 1511, fol. [BL, 124S.m.5]; Paris, J. Petit & J. Bade, 1515, fol. [BL, 720.m.6]; Paris, J. Petit, J. Bade, C. Chevallon and C. Resch, 1526, fol. [BL,

20

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

work was more successful in France than in Italy, where there was only the initial 1506 Rome edition, followed by republication in two antiquarian anthologies. 84 Paris also printed a collection of Maffei's antiquarian essays, including De urbe Roma, 85 dedicated by a pedagogue at the College de Lisieux, Vincentius Balla, to the archbishop of Rouen, whilst Lyonnais printers included pseudo-Publius Victor's De regionibus urbis Romce in editions of the Jtinerarium Antoninianum. 86 The credulous enthusiasm in Italy for the antiquarian fabrications of Annius of Viterbo, that 'recreator of a vanished world', 87 quickly caught on in France: in 1512 and 1515 Josse Bade published editions of his Antiquitates of 1498,88 whilst Tory himself edited the text of pseudo-Berosus in 1510.89 The short treatise of M. Valerius Probus on the interpretation of ancient inscriptions, commended by Tory, was edited in Paris in 1527.90 After this initial burst of activity in Paris, largely due to Josse Bade, the initiative passed to Lyon. In 1520 there appeared an edition of Francesco degli Albertini's very successful Opusculum de mirabilibus novce et veteris urbis Romce,91 first published in 1510, then reprinted in Rome in 1515 and 1523, and in Basel in 1519. Albertini's aim in writing it had been to make up for the shortcomings of the old Mirabilia by including evidence from literary sources, from arch~ological discoveries, coins and inscriptions, as well as giving information on modem works of art. Although the book is still laid out in the same pattern as the work it sought to oust, a pattern not to be replaced until Marliani's work in 1534 and 1544, the description of the sights is much better informed, and more scholarly in approach. It can be used as a sourcebook on inscriptions known in the period, on the state of the private collections of antiquities, as well as on recent arch~ological discoveries. The Lyonnais edition by J. Marion is a simple reprint of the Rome editions, the money being put up by the merchant and publisher Romain Morin; 92 three years later the Lyonnais press of Scipion de Gabiano brought out a pirated 720.m.7]; later French editions include Lyon, S. Gryphius, 1552, fol. [BnF, Z.586]. 84 P. Victor, P. Lretus et al., De Urbe Roma scribentes, ed. G.B. Pio, Bologna, H. de Benedictis, 1520, 4° [BL, 1432.d.22]; De Roma prisca et nova varii auctores, Rome, J. Mazzocchi, 1523, 4° [BL, 278.h.18]. 85 R. Maffei, Contenta in hoe opusculo: Raphaelis Volaterrani de more ludorum et sacrorum; [. ..} de Temp/is et locis urbis Romce, quce omnia ad historice cognitionem apprime sunt utilia [Paris, G. de Gourmont, c.1518], n.d., 4 ° [BnF, Res. M.315]. 86 E.g. Lyon, her. S. Vincentii, [1550?], 8° [BnF, G. 9097; BL, 10001.aa.l]. 87 Grafton (c.1990), 48-49, 60-64, 104-19. 88 Paris, J. Petit & J. Bade, 1512, fol. [BL, 588.i.11]; 1515, fol. [BL, 201.e.15]. 89 De his quce praecesserunt inundationem terrarum, Paris, E., J. & G. de Mamef, [1510?], 4° [BL, 801.c.7]. 90 De scripturis antiquis compendiosum opusculum, Paris, S. de Co lines, 1527, 8° [BL, 72.b.27]. 91 Albertini (1520), 4°. 92 Baudrier (1895-1921), V, 366.

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

21

version of Filippo Giunta's 1522 Venetian edition ofVitruvius. 93 One year earlier Fran9ois Ier had been the dedicatee of the first Italian translation of Vitruvius, the work of Cesare Cesariano, who had it printed in Como and addressed to the king by a royal official in Milan, Agostino Gallo. 94 The earliest attempt to make Vitruvius available in French was in a successful translation, Raison d'architecture antique, 95 of Sagredo's 1526 epitome, Medidas de! Romano, in which woodcuts, attributed to Mercure Jollat, copy the classical orders in the Toledo edition, and French equivalents are found for classical architectural vocabulary. 96 The major Lyonnais contribution of this period was, however, the 1524 edition of Andrea Fulvio's Illustrium imagines. 97 A pupil of Pomponio Leto, Fulvio had been working since the end of the previous century on antiquities in Rome; in 1513 he had published a poem on arch&ology, Antiquaria urbis, and had continued his antiquarian work, preparing a prose version of his poetic study, the Antiquitates urbis, which was to appear in Rome in 1527.98 He is also thought to have collaborated with Raphael on his arch&ological survey of Rome, and in the publication of Jacopo Mazocchi's Epigrammata antiquce urbis of 1521. In short, he is amongst the most important of the humanist antiquarians working in the city during the second and third decades of the century, and it is no surprise that his work should be known abroad. 99 The French chose not to publish his masterpiece of 1527 - arguably of more narrowly Italian interest - but a study of wider appeal, his lavishly illustrated catalogue of ancient coins, had appeared in 1517, the first such catalogue to be printed. 100 This work comprises a series of over two hundred famous figures, from Janus to emperor Henry III, with in each case a brief biography, and a portrait medal by Giovanni Battista Palumba, showing the heads in white against a black background, mounted in an ornate architectural frame. The earlier figures, up to Roman times, are illustrated with imaginary portraits; the great men of the Republic are also mainly fantasy effigies, although a few are drawn from coins, whilst imperial dignitaries are all portrayed 93

Vitruvius (1523); Baudrier (1895-1921), VII, 167. Vitruvius (1521), fl viii v 0 ; Mortimer (1964.2), n° 544. 95 There are two 4° Paris editions by S. de Colines, one undated [1526-37, BnF, Res. V. 1377] and one of 1539; see Renouard (1894), 316-18, 422; Mortimer (1964.1), n° 477; Sixteenth century (1971), n° 9; the success of this book can be measured by further editions in 1543 [Renouard (1894), 362], and in 1550 by R. Chaudiere and in 1555 by G. Gourbin and B. Prevost. 96 For instance in the Paris 1539 edition, fl 5v 0 , where we find assiette d'ymages [base], frontissone [pediment], timpane, cornixe, frize, arquitrave, chapiteau, pieddestal, etc.; on the influence of this work in France see Pauwels (1998), 140-8; Lemerle (2000.1). 97 Fulvio (1524); Dekesel (1997), F.16. 98 Fulvio (1527). 99 See Weiss (1959); Cunnally (1999), 52-87. 10 Fulvio (1517); Mortimer (1964.2), n° 203; there are two modem facsimiles, Rome 1967 and Oregon 1972. 94

°

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

22

from numismatic sources. This work had much success, and was to set the fashion for other illustrated collective biographies. The unauthorised Lyonnais edition, which reproduces almost exactly the Roman original, although with considerably reduced woodcut borders, is the third example in the years 1520-22, with the Albertini and Vitruvius editions, of Lyonnais printers pirating Italian antiquarian works, and in this case going to the considerable expense of copying over two hundred portraits. 101 Some secondary evidence of the penetration of antiquarian works into French culture at this period is found in the inventories of libraries. The royal library, installed at Blois, was catalogued in 1518, and provides a selection of such books. The king owned a copy of Vitruvius, possibly in manuscript, as was no doubt the copy of the Perspectiva of Witelo. 102 The library had acquired a copy of the De re cedifi,catoriaof Alberti - whether in an Italian edition or in that of Tory is not stated. 103 But the author best represented, and indeed the major antiquarian of the early Renaissance, is Flavio Biondo: the library included the first and second decades of his Historice ab inclinatione Romanorum, together with two copies of Pius II's abridgment; 104 it also acquired two copies ofBiondo's De Italia illustrata. 105

4. Collectors in the Provinces

The most important centre of collecting in France at this period was Lyon.106 The circle of Lyonnais humanists, who were travelling in Italy and publishing Italian antiquarian works, and who were to be pioneers of humanist antiquarian scholarship in France, was also at this time forming collections, notably of coins and of local inscriptions. The best known is the Lyonnais bibliophile Jean Grolier, who, after tuition by the Italian humanist Gaspare Mazzoli, took advantage of the position inherited in 1509 from his father as royal treasurer of the Milanais, where he lived from 1509 to 1512, and again from 1515 to 1521.107 During these stays he bought modem antiquarian works like Francesco degli Albertini, 108 and two works of Flavio Biondo, which he was to supplement later.109 He was not, 101

Mortimer (1964.1), n° 242; Baudrier (1895-1921), V, 96. Omont (1908), I, n° 701, 704-5. 103 Omont (1908), I, n° 1234. 104 Omont (1908), I, n° 791-2, publ. in 1500 and 1544. 105 Omont (1908), I, n° 793, 1482. 106 Niepce (1882-83); Varille (1924). 107 Leroux de Lincy (1866), 1-5; Austin (1971), 6-18; Hobson (1999), 3-47. 108 Austin (1971), n° 12: Opusculum de mirabilibus novce et veteris urbis Romce, Basel 1519. 109 Austin (1971), n° 58.2, 59: Historiarum ab inclinatione romanorum imperii decades, Venice 1483; De Roma instaurata, Venice [1510]. 102

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

23

however, immune to more imaginative interpretations of the past, as witness his three copies of the pseudo-chronicles of Annio da Viterbo, 110 or his five copies of the Aldine edition of Colonna's novel, 111 the taste for which he helped disseminate. 112 He also started amassing coins and medals, and some bindings on early books in his collection include decorations imitating ancient medals. 113 He sponsored the publication of antiquarian works in Italy, including two Aldines, Lodovico Ricchieri 's Antiquarum lectionum reparavit L. C. Rhodiginus, 114 and the editions of Suetonius, De Ccesaribus libri 1111,of Giovanni Battista Egnazio, 115 himself a keen collector of coins. 116 He made contact with Raphael's assistant in charting ancient Rome, Marco Fabio Calvo; 117 and he helped to secure a wider European audience for Bude 's De Asse, by sending to Venice a copy revised by the author, encouraging Francesco Torresano to spare no expense (which he offered to underwrite) in the book's production, but requesting an edition in-folio in Roman type like the Aldine Poliziano of 1498.118 This request was not respected when the Venetian edition came out two years later in 1522 in italic type and in-quarto, but the handsome volume contained a warm dedicatory letter from Torresano to Grolier, in recognition of the substantial help given to his family following the death of Aldus.119 It is not clear what coins and other antiques Grolier owned at this stage, 120 but he used Roman coins as gifts, 121 and he noted references to coins in his copy of Erasmus' Adagia. 122 Following his ransom and return to France, he took up

110

Austin (1971), n° 17-18.1: Commentaria super opera diversorum auctorum de antiquitatibus loquentium confecta, Rome 1498. 111 Austin (1971), n° 141-4.1: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice 1499. 112 Hobson (1999), 53. 113 Leroux de Lincy (1866), 73: the volumes are his Annius, Commentaria, Rome 1498, Leroux de Lincy (1866), n° 12, Austin (1971), n° 17; his Celsus, De medicina, Venice 1497, Leroux de Lincy (1866), n° 63, Austin (1971), n° 98; his Philostratus, De vita Apollonii Tyana:i, Venice 1502, Leroux de Lincy (1866), n° 204, Austin (1971), n° 386; and his G.B. Pio, Annotamenta, Bologna 1503, Leroux de Lincy (1866), n° 214, Austin (1971), n° 396. 114 Venice, Aldus, 1516, fol. [BL, 632.1.4]; Hobson (1999), 30-1. 115 Venice, Aldus, 1516/17, 8° [BL, C.24.e.19]; Hobson (1999), 45-6. 116 Weiss (1969), 170, 177. 117 Hobson (1999), 43; Mercati (1937), 149-54; Barberi (1983), 77-97. 118 Grolier - Torresano, Milan, 12 March 1519/20, BAV, Reg. Lat. 2023, fl 196; published in Leroux de Lincy (1866), 434-35; facsimile in Hobson (1999), 46, fig. 25. 119 Bude(l522.l). 120 Niepce (Jan.-Jun. 1883), 377-79; Varille (1924), 42-4. 121 G.B. Egnazio, De Ca:saribus libri !III, Venice, Aldus, 1516, 8°, fl CcC8 [BL, C.24.e. l 9], records a gift made by Grolier to him in Milan of a Roman aureus when sent by Venice to congratulate Frarn;ois 1eron Marignano; Hobson (1999), 45. 122 Hobson (1999), 21.

Roman Antiquities in Renaissance France, 1515-65

24

residence in Paris, where he married, and where he transferred what he had salvaged of his Italian collections, as well as objects from his mother's house in Lyon. Evidence of his continuing taste for antiquities is provided by the books he acquired in the 1520s: apart from two copies of the 1522 Bude edition that he had sponsored, 123 he showed an interest in Vitruvius 124 and in Probus' guide to inscriptions, of which he had two copies. 125 Amongst modem antiquarian works he bought Raffaele Maffei 's anthology on Rome, 126 as well as two early studies by Johannes Huttich, the collection of imperial portraits imitated from Fulvio, and a piece on the antiquities of Mainz. 127 Following a period of disgrace in the early 1530s, when he was in prison, and when much of his property was sold off, he had to start rebuilding his library and collection of antiquities after 1538. 128 Another early antiquarian in Lyon was the writer Pierre Sala. 129 In about 1490 he had bought a vigna on the hill below Fourviere, and built there his Hotel de l 'Antiquaille, apparently named from the abundance of antiquities in the soil around, which was believed to be the site of some imperial palace. 130 There is evidence that Sala made a small collection of antiquities: 131 his chapel contained one local inscription, and in the time of his inheritor, canon Benoit Buatier, there was another in the courtyard, possibly acquired by Sala. 132 Claude Bellievre had a house near Sala on the Gourguillon by the church of Saint-Georges, in which he formed a collection, including nine inscriptions: 133 Neque desunt veterrime et docte inscripti aliquot lapides, quibus litterati antiquitatis amatores, si qui ad nos veniunt, detineri solent. 134 [Nor is there lack of very ancient stones, learnedly inscribed, with which scholarly lovers of antiquity who come to visit us are absorbed.]

123

Austin (1971), n° 71-2. Austin (1971), n° 548, Como 1521. 125 Austin (1971), n° 445-6, Venice 1525. 126 Austin (1971), n° 318: Commentariorum octo et triginta libri, Basel 1530. 127 Austin (1971), n° 237: Imperatorum Romanorum libellus, Strasburg 1526; ibid., n° 140: Collectance antiquitatum in urbe atque agro Moguntino, Mainz 1520; Hobson (1999), 58, dates these purchases after his release from prison in 1538. 128 See Chapter 4. 129 On him see Fabia (1934); Grunberg Drage (1993). 130 Ilustrated in Sala's manuscript, Les Prouesses de plusieurs Roys, BnF, ms. fr., 10420, f' 1v (Gallica). 131 Niepce (Jul.-Dec. 1882), 437--40; Varille (1924), 6-12; Fabia (1934), 200-14. 132 CIL, XIII i, n° 2102, 2104. 133 CIL, XIII i, n° 1771, 1802, 1902, 1930, 2005, 2023, 2096, 2127, 2200; Niepce (Jul.-Dec. 1882), 310-14; Varille (1924), 18-26. 134 Bellievre (1846), 79. 124

0

Early Antiquarian Taste, 1500-1530

25

There is also evidence that his collection contained statues and some coins. The high point of early Lyonnais collecting was attained in 1528 when a certain Roland Gerbaud was digging in his vineyard at La Croix-Rousse, near the site of the altar of Augustus and Rome, and turned up two long bronze fragments of a speech made by Claudius in AD 48, arguing that the Gauls should be admitted to the Senate. 135 The importance of this discovery was not lost on Bellievre, especially for the lustre it shed on ancient Lyon. When he learned that the tablets were for sale, and were much in demand, he referred the matter to the city council, arguing that these relics were 'dignes d' estre par la ville retin~es pour estre affigees en quelque lieu aperpetuelle memoire' [worthy ofbeing removed by the city and erected in some place as a permanent record]. He had negotiated with the finder, and had secured an option on them for 58 ecus, which was little when one considered that their scrap value was 32-34 ecus. He argued that to put them on public display would be to provide grande consolation aux gens de la ville, quand ils verront un certain tesmoignage de la