Mausoleum of Hadrian

By the fifteenth century (and as it remains today), the mausoleum of the Roman emperor Hadrian had been turned into a papal fortress, the Castel Sant’Angelo.  This striking (and anonymous) image presents it as a Renaissance artist believed it had been.  Based on some knowledge of ancient architecture, it is also a work of imagination inspired by images that had circulated through books.  This image and the two following come from a remarkable manuscript now at the Bodleian Library.  Partly a sylloge (collection of inscriptions), it was assembled by Bartolomeo Fonzio, an important figure in late-fifteenth-century Florentine humanist circles.

Credit: Oren Margolis (July 2018)