DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0082
60
ROMAN ANTIQUES
mosaics of genii picking and pressing the grapes,
which he describes as the oldest and some of the
finest in Rome, may still be seen on the vaulted
roof. The Mantuan secretary ends his letter by
giving Isabella a long and minute description of the
famous statue of the river-god Tiber, with the wolf
suckling Romulus and Remus, which had just been
dug up in a house close to the Dominican Convent of
Sta. Maria sopra Minerva. The discovery attracted
crowds from all parts of Rome, and the marble group
was promptly bought by the Pope, and placed in the
Belvedere, together with a Sleeping Nymph, generally
known as Ariadne, but which Grossino calls a
Cleopatra, and which was celebrated as such in an
elegant set of Latin hexameters by Castiglione. In
an earlier letter, of July 12, 1511, Grossino also
mentions the famous Apollo, “a statue,” he writes,
“ held to be no less than the Laocoon,” which had
been discovered some years before on a farm at
Grottaferrata, belonging to Pope Julius when he was
still Cardinal Medici, and was now removed to the
Vatican. Another of Grossino’s letters gives a curious
description of the so-called Feast of the Jews at
carnival, when twelve Jews ran a race on foot from
the Piazza di S. Pietro to the Castel Sant’ Angelo.
Messer Rabi, the Pope’s Hebrew doctor, presided at
this fete, and one hundred armed Jews rode before him,
while fifty others marched at his side, bearing olive
boughs and banners with the Pope’s arms, and those
of the city of Rome, S.P.Q.R. The scarlet pallium
was presented to the winner by the Senator, amid
shouts of Julio ! and the Jews who took part in the
race were entertained at Messer Rabi’s house.
Federico also attended the bull-baiting and horse
ROMAN ANTIQUES
mosaics of genii picking and pressing the grapes,
which he describes as the oldest and some of the
finest in Rome, may still be seen on the vaulted
roof. The Mantuan secretary ends his letter by
giving Isabella a long and minute description of the
famous statue of the river-god Tiber, with the wolf
suckling Romulus and Remus, which had just been
dug up in a house close to the Dominican Convent of
Sta. Maria sopra Minerva. The discovery attracted
crowds from all parts of Rome, and the marble group
was promptly bought by the Pope, and placed in the
Belvedere, together with a Sleeping Nymph, generally
known as Ariadne, but which Grossino calls a
Cleopatra, and which was celebrated as such in an
elegant set of Latin hexameters by Castiglione. In
an earlier letter, of July 12, 1511, Grossino also
mentions the famous Apollo, “a statue,” he writes,
“ held to be no less than the Laocoon,” which had
been discovered some years before on a farm at
Grottaferrata, belonging to Pope Julius when he was
still Cardinal Medici, and was now removed to the
Vatican. Another of Grossino’s letters gives a curious
description of the so-called Feast of the Jews at
carnival, when twelve Jews ran a race on foot from
the Piazza di S. Pietro to the Castel Sant’ Angelo.
Messer Rabi, the Pope’s Hebrew doctor, presided at
this fete, and one hundred armed Jews rode before him,
while fifty others marched at his side, bearing olive
boughs and banners with the Pope’s arms, and those
of the city of Rome, S.P.Q.R. The scarlet pallium
was presented to the winner by the Senator, amid
shouts of Julio ! and the Jews who took part in the
race were entertained at Messer Rabi’s house.
Federico also attended the bull-baiting and horse