DOI article:
Ashby, Thomas: Sixteenth-century drawings of roman buildings attributed to Andreas Coner
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70293#0015
Drawings Attributed to Andreas Coner.
3
There have been two hands at work in the sketchbook. The earlier
one has done the bulk of the drawings, and must therefore be dealt with
first. The date of this artist may, from internal evidence, be put down as,
roughly, 1515. No. 69^ gives us (for the first time) the year 1512 as the
exact date of the discovery of the obelisk of Augustus, which formed the
gnomon of the great sundial of the Campus Martius, and now stands at
Montecitorio : while the cornice from the baths of Titus shown in 91a was,
we are told, found in 1513. We have, again, two architectural fragments
described as " in doino canpolinis” [sic]—Nos. 1054 1264 The collec-
tion of Giovanni Ciampolini was dispersed in 1520 (Lanciani, Bull. Coin.
1899, 108, cf. Roni. Mitt. 1901, 230). And with these dates agree both the
style of the drawings and the character of the handwriting.
As to the personality of the author, there is more difficulty. No name
occurs on any of the drawings: but No. 47 % 43 v. of the first part of the
original sketchbook) is a copy of a letter by one Andreas Coner written
in Italian to Bernardo Rucellai of Florence, describing the sundial with
an ancient Roman rustic calendar carved upon its base, which was at
the time in the possession of the Della Valle family (Menologium Rusticum
Vallense, cf. C.I.L. i2. p. 280, no. xxiii B). The letter is dated from Rome,
September 1, 1513: but from the title it bears (Lettera d' Andrea Conero
a Bernardo Rucellai) it is obviously a copy. Further, it is not in the same
handwriting as that which is seen in the greater part of the drawings (those
by the earlier hand), though there is considerable similarity between them,
and not very much difference in date, though the letter is certainly
posterior. Again, it mentions four drawings of the sundial, whereas only
one is to be found in the sketchbook (No. 48).
Bernardo Rucellai (1449—Oct. 7, 1514), a member of the famous
Florentine family, is well known as the author of a treatise De Urbe Roma
(published, with a preface by Domenico Becucci, in Reruni Italicaruin
Scriptores ab anno 1000 ad 1600, Florence 1770, ii. p. 757 sqq., from the
original MS. in the Riccardi library : cf. C.I.L. vi. p. xliii. no. xiii.). Another
work of his was a short treatise de Magistratibus Romanorum, published
by A. F. Gori in 1735, and again in 1752. His gardens in Florence were
the meeting-place of the Accademia Platonica. Cf. Tiraboschi, Storia della
letteratura italiana, vi. 2, p. 9 sqq.
Andreas Coner, on the other hand, is, it appears, quite unknown.
Professor Lanciani (Storia degli Scavi, i. 162) gives a short description of
B 2
3
There have been two hands at work in the sketchbook. The earlier
one has done the bulk of the drawings, and must therefore be dealt with
first. The date of this artist may, from internal evidence, be put down as,
roughly, 1515. No. 69^ gives us (for the first time) the year 1512 as the
exact date of the discovery of the obelisk of Augustus, which formed the
gnomon of the great sundial of the Campus Martius, and now stands at
Montecitorio : while the cornice from the baths of Titus shown in 91a was,
we are told, found in 1513. We have, again, two architectural fragments
described as " in doino canpolinis” [sic]—Nos. 1054 1264 The collec-
tion of Giovanni Ciampolini was dispersed in 1520 (Lanciani, Bull. Coin.
1899, 108, cf. Roni. Mitt. 1901, 230). And with these dates agree both the
style of the drawings and the character of the handwriting.
As to the personality of the author, there is more difficulty. No name
occurs on any of the drawings: but No. 47 % 43 v. of the first part of the
original sketchbook) is a copy of a letter by one Andreas Coner written
in Italian to Bernardo Rucellai of Florence, describing the sundial with
an ancient Roman rustic calendar carved upon its base, which was at
the time in the possession of the Della Valle family (Menologium Rusticum
Vallense, cf. C.I.L. i2. p. 280, no. xxiii B). The letter is dated from Rome,
September 1, 1513: but from the title it bears (Lettera d' Andrea Conero
a Bernardo Rucellai) it is obviously a copy. Further, it is not in the same
handwriting as that which is seen in the greater part of the drawings (those
by the earlier hand), though there is considerable similarity between them,
and not very much difference in date, though the letter is certainly
posterior. Again, it mentions four drawings of the sundial, whereas only
one is to be found in the sketchbook (No. 48).
Bernardo Rucellai (1449—Oct. 7, 1514), a member of the famous
Florentine family, is well known as the author of a treatise De Urbe Roma
(published, with a preface by Domenico Becucci, in Reruni Italicaruin
Scriptores ab anno 1000 ad 1600, Florence 1770, ii. p. 757 sqq., from the
original MS. in the Riccardi library : cf. C.I.L. vi. p. xliii. no. xiii.). Another
work of his was a short treatise de Magistratibus Romanorum, published
by A. F. Gori in 1735, and again in 1752. His gardens in Florence were
the meeting-place of the Accademia Platonica. Cf. Tiraboschi, Storia della
letteratura italiana, vi. 2, p. 9 sqq.
Andreas Coner, on the other hand, is, it appears, quite unknown.
Professor Lanciani (Storia degli Scavi, i. 162) gives a short description of
B 2