DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0489
Diana's tree at Nemi
woodland king having been replaced in popular memory by the
famous emperor1. Anxious therefore to ascertain the species of the
tree, I asked my former pupil Miss E. M. Douglas (Mrs Van Buren)
to go over from Rome to Nemi and question the peasants on the
spot. Miss Douglas kindly consented to do so, and on Sept. 13, 1912
reported that they knew nothing about it, having—she said—'just
enough modern ideas to hold everything old in detestation.' But a
week later a postcard from her drew my attention to the following
passage in G. Tomassetti's great work on the Campagna :
' Among the scattered memories of this country I must record that of the
gigantic oak-tree, which grew on the banks of the Lake and was said to have
been planted by no less a person than Augustus (Kircher V. Lat. p. 50) ; it was
capable of containing twenty-five people in the hollow of its trunk, and it is said
that the women of Genzano caused it to wither because they used to boil the water
for the washing in it (Ratti p. 87, who saw it cut down)2.'
A. Kircher, whose Latium appeared at Amsterdam in 1671, duly
mentions that the big tree below Genzano could house a family of
twenty-five in its hollow trunk and was believed to have been
planted by Caesar Augustus3. N. Ratti's Storia di Genzano I failed
to find at Cambridge, and there is no copy in the British Museum.
So I induced my old colleague Prof. P. J. Harding, when next
he visited Rome, to take up the quest. Four months afterwards he
ran down the book in the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele and on
Jan. 16, 1913 sent me an extract, showing that Ratti, whose Storia
is dated 1797, had seen the tree lying on the ground and was
prepared to support Kircher's estimate of its size4. It would seem,
1 It is perhaps noteworthy that one of the chief festivals of modern Nemi is the
Esposizione della Croce on Sept. 24, a day which was celebrated in antiquity as Augustus'
birthday (Wissowa Rel. Kult. Rom!2, pp. 446, 587).
2 G. Tomassetti La Campagna Romana Roma 1910 ii. 257 ' Tra le memorie scomparse
di questa terra deve ricordarsi il gigantesco albero di quercia esistito sul versante del lago,
che dicevasi piantato nientemeno che da Augusto (Kircher, V. Lat., pag. 50), capace di
contenere nel vuoto del tronco 25 persone ; e si dice che le donne Genzanesi lo abbiano
fatto inaridire, perche vi facevano all' interno bollire la lisciva del bucato (Ratti, p. 87,
che 1' ha veduto recidere).'
3 A. Kircher Latium Amstelodami 1671 p. 50 'E regione Nemoris diametraliter
opposita Cynthianum, vulgo Genzano situm est, de quo supra: nobile & dives oppidum
CcEsaritii Ducis jurisdiction! subjacet; infra quod ad ipsum lacum arborem vidi tantae
magnitudinis, ut Integra familia 25 personarum facile concavitatem inhabitare queat.
Incolas certo sibi persuasum habent, arborem hanc ab Ccesare Augusto inibi plantatam,
successu temporis in tantam molem excrevisse. Sed sinamus indigenis plus aequo credulis
plebejam hanc persuasionem.'
4 Nicola Ratti Storia di Genzano con note e documenti Roma 1797 p. 87 n. (1) 'Quest'
albero per la sua mole portentoso si e mantenuto in piedi sino a nostri giorni, e sussiste-
rebbe tuttora, se la biasmevole costumanza delle donne Genzanesi di far bollire a fuoco
vivissimo la caldaja del loro bucato entro la cavita del tronco, che loro serviva di commoda
woodland king having been replaced in popular memory by the
famous emperor1. Anxious therefore to ascertain the species of the
tree, I asked my former pupil Miss E. M. Douglas (Mrs Van Buren)
to go over from Rome to Nemi and question the peasants on the
spot. Miss Douglas kindly consented to do so, and on Sept. 13, 1912
reported that they knew nothing about it, having—she said—'just
enough modern ideas to hold everything old in detestation.' But a
week later a postcard from her drew my attention to the following
passage in G. Tomassetti's great work on the Campagna :
' Among the scattered memories of this country I must record that of the
gigantic oak-tree, which grew on the banks of the Lake and was said to have
been planted by no less a person than Augustus (Kircher V. Lat. p. 50) ; it was
capable of containing twenty-five people in the hollow of its trunk, and it is said
that the women of Genzano caused it to wither because they used to boil the water
for the washing in it (Ratti p. 87, who saw it cut down)2.'
A. Kircher, whose Latium appeared at Amsterdam in 1671, duly
mentions that the big tree below Genzano could house a family of
twenty-five in its hollow trunk and was believed to have been
planted by Caesar Augustus3. N. Ratti's Storia di Genzano I failed
to find at Cambridge, and there is no copy in the British Museum.
So I induced my old colleague Prof. P. J. Harding, when next
he visited Rome, to take up the quest. Four months afterwards he
ran down the book in the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele and on
Jan. 16, 1913 sent me an extract, showing that Ratti, whose Storia
is dated 1797, had seen the tree lying on the ground and was
prepared to support Kircher's estimate of its size4. It would seem,
1 It is perhaps noteworthy that one of the chief festivals of modern Nemi is the
Esposizione della Croce on Sept. 24, a day which was celebrated in antiquity as Augustus'
birthday (Wissowa Rel. Kult. Rom!2, pp. 446, 587).
2 G. Tomassetti La Campagna Romana Roma 1910 ii. 257 ' Tra le memorie scomparse
di questa terra deve ricordarsi il gigantesco albero di quercia esistito sul versante del lago,
che dicevasi piantato nientemeno che da Augusto (Kircher, V. Lat., pag. 50), capace di
contenere nel vuoto del tronco 25 persone ; e si dice che le donne Genzanesi lo abbiano
fatto inaridire, perche vi facevano all' interno bollire la lisciva del bucato (Ratti, p. 87,
che 1' ha veduto recidere).'
3 A. Kircher Latium Amstelodami 1671 p. 50 'E regione Nemoris diametraliter
opposita Cynthianum, vulgo Genzano situm est, de quo supra: nobile & dives oppidum
CcEsaritii Ducis jurisdiction! subjacet; infra quod ad ipsum lacum arborem vidi tantae
magnitudinis, ut Integra familia 25 personarum facile concavitatem inhabitare queat.
Incolas certo sibi persuasum habent, arborem hanc ab Ccesare Augusto inibi plantatam,
successu temporis in tantam molem excrevisse. Sed sinamus indigenis plus aequo credulis
plebejam hanc persuasionem.'
4 Nicola Ratti Storia di Genzano con note e documenti Roma 1797 p. 87 n. (1) 'Quest'
albero per la sua mole portentoso si e mantenuto in piedi sino a nostri giorni, e sussiste-
rebbe tuttora, se la biasmevole costumanza delle donne Genzanesi di far bollire a fuoco
vivissimo la caldaja del loro bucato entro la cavita del tronco, che loro serviva di commoda