Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07986-1 — Pliny the Elder and the Emergence of Renaissance Architecture Peter Fane-Saunders Excerpt More Information CHAPTER ONE PLINY THE ELDER AND HIS PLACE IN ANTIQUE AND MEDIAEVAL WRITINGS ON ARCHITECTURE efore embarking on a study of the renaissance response B to Pliny the Elder’s passages on architecture in the Naturalis historia, let us briefly consider the content and scope of his account, its place in the classical literary tradition, and its relationship to other writings covering architecture, above all to De architectura by Vitruvius.1 Pliny is unique among those ancient authors who describe buildings and the art of building. As we shall see, his text combines material from the architectural marvel tradition with information on proportions and construction typically found in technical treatises; his often breathless accounts of the Wonders of the World – stunning architectural set pieces erected around the Mediterranean basin to honour gods, heroes, and kings – are set alongside cool analyses of different building fabrics and structural elements. What is more, Pliny cleverly shapes these two strands to promote his overarching thesis: the world is rich in remarkable phenomena, both natural and manmade, but most of these have been assimilated, conquered, or surpassed by imperial Rome. De architectura inspires this argument, yet much of its theoretical material and terminology is jettisoned to suit Pliny’s audience of non-specialists. Perhaps as a result of this general appeal, Pliny’s curious account of architecture would remain influential well into late antiquity and the Middle Ages, more so than the strictures of Vitruvius’s work. 11 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07986-1 — Pliny the Elder and the Emergence of Renaissance Architecture Peter Fane-Saunders Excerpt More Information 12 PLINY THE ELDER AND HIS PLACE IN WRITINGS ON ARCHITECTURE the marvel tradition, its sources, and pliny’s foreign architectural marvels Pliny was by no means the first author to record instances of remarkable architecture. A rich vein of literature dealing with the Wonders of the World flourished in antiquity. The first signs can be observed in the work of Herodotus and fragments from Ctesias of Cnidus dating to the fifth century BC.2 While both authors would subsequently gain the unenviable soubriquet Father of Lies, their interest in the great and marvellous works of Asia –“ἔργα μεγάλα τε καὶ θωμαστά”3 – sparked the interest of subsequent generations. The tradition reached its apogee some two centuries later during the mid-Hellenistic period in the wake of Alexander the Great’s conquest of Egypt and the East.4 Callimachus of Cyrene (310/05–240 BC), a poet-scholar at the famed Library of Alexandria, composed a now-lost commentary, “ϑαυμάτων τῶνεἰς ἅπασαν τὴνγῆνκατὰ τόπους ὄντων συναγωγή,” or “Collection of Wonders across the Whole World [Listed] by Place.” The theme was continued in a later poem by Antipater of Sidon describing θεάματα, “things to be seen” (second century BC), fortunately preserved by a Byzantine scribe in the Anthologia Palatina, where we find the first surviving canon of seven buildings: the Walls of Babylon; the statue of Zeus at Olympia; the Hanging Gardens; the Colossus of Rhodes; the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; the Pyramids; and, most impressive of all, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.5 The tradition continued in the writings of Greek and Roman authors closer to Pliny’s time, such as Diodorus Siculus,6 Strabo,7 Pausanias,8 Vitruvius,9 Propertius,10 and Martial.11 There were, in fact, two traditions that ran in tandem.12 The first was a canon of seven monuments, most of which are still familiar to modern readers, the original idea for which has been credited to Ctesias. The second group is less clearly defined and arose from political wrangling between cities, resulting in further marvels being added; by late antiquity this parallel collection included as many as thirty structures.13 The early canonical Seven, as given in Antipater, are all mentioned at some point in the Naturalis historia: from the Walls of Babylon (praised in Book VI on Near Eastern geography)14 to the Colossus of Rhodes and the chryselephantine statue of Olympian Zeus (both located in Book XXXIV on metals),15 then on to the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus,16 the Pyramids at Giza,17 the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,18 and the Temple of Diana (Artemis) at Ephesus19 (all four scattered around Book XXXVI).20 But judging from his use of language, Pliny subscribed to the second tradition as well;21 his descriptions of lesser-known structures are often prefaced by a verb that denotes communication –“legitur” (“it is read”), for instance, or “dicun- tur” (“they are said”) – suggesting that here, again, he relied on pre-existing written accounts.22 Consulting this more expansive list led Pliny to include © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07986-1 — Pliny the Elder and the Emergence of Renaissance Architecture Peter Fane-Saunders Excerpt More Information PLINY THE ELDER AND HIS PLACE IN WRITINGS ON ARCHITECTURE 13 many more wonders than the canonical septem miracula. Indeed, some are known from his text alone.23 Pliny’s literary sources on marvellous architecture are many and varied. In Book I, he lists the subjects that he covers in each volume, followed by the authors that he consulted, both foreign and Roman.24 Afewofthenamesarestill familiar to us, but many more are obscure, their works extant only in fragments or known solely through Pliny. Of the foreign authorities, the best known are Herodotus and Theophrastus; others such as Juba, Demoteles, and Apion less so. Pliny does not name Strabo in his list of authors, but the brief description of early imperial Rome found in Strabo’s Geographia – perhaps derived from a common source – proved influential on his vision of Rome: both writers admire the sewers and aqueducts that had been cut through mountains, feats of engineering that they regard as utilitarian ornament to the city.25 Pliny was well versed, too, in Latin literature on the subject. In fact, the Naturalis historia contains excerpts about remarkable architecture taken from a wide range of Roman texts, most of which no longer survive. One of his most important sources was the republican-era polymath, Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BC); from various references and quotations in Book XXXVI, it is clear that Pliny turned to Varro’streatiseDe novem disciplinis, a composition that considered architecture worthy of being studied as a liberal art alongside grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, and medicine. Several of Pliny’s passages on exceptional marble sculpture, as well as his description of the peculiar tomb of the Etruscan king Lars Porsenna, derive from Varro’slostwork.26 Also prominent is Gaius Licinius Mucianus, one of Pliny’s contemporaries.27 Governor of Lycia, then of Syria, where he failed to put down the Jewish revolt and was replaced in 69 AD by Vespasian, Mucianus compiled a treatise – now lost – on the natural history and geography of the East that covered the miraculous events, architecture, and phenomena that he had either encountered directly or heard others recollect. Pliny incorporates a number of Mucianus’s observations on a variety of topics, from the petrification of funerary goods28 to the vast numbers of statues on the island of Rhodes.29 Not surprisingly, given this rich seam of source material, Pliny’s catalogue of ancient architectural marvels is the most varied to have survived from the antique world. Book I lists a series of overseas structures, the opera mirabilia in terris (“marvellous works in foreign lands”), a lively selection of monuments made from various types of stone that is as diverse as any presented by a Greek historian and, for the most part, unavailable in other classical sources: The Egyptian Sphinx The Pyramids The Pharos [Lighthouse at Alexandria] Labyrinths [Egyptian; Cretan; Lemnian; Etruscan] © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-07986-1 — Pliny the Elder and the Emergence of Renaissance Architecture Peter Fane-Saunders Excerpt More Information 14 PLINY THE ELDER AND HIS PLACE IN WRITINGS ON ARCHITECTURE Hanging Gardens A hanging city [Thebes in Egypt] The Temple of Diana at Ephesus Remarkable aspects of other temples [buildings at Cyzicus] The fugitive stone The sevenfold echo Buildings without nails30 These headings relate to a substantial section that begins roughly a third of the way into Book XXXVI. For compositional reasons, two other structures are located slightly earlier in the same book: the “Mausoleum of Caria”–that is, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus – features in connection with artists working in marble; while the discussion of obelisks, including “the one that acts as the upright pin of an astronomical device [gnomon] in the Campus Martius,” is incorporated into a previous chapter dealing with the applications of red granite.31 pliny, vitruvius, and the glories of ancient rome To counterbalance the presence of so many far-off monuments in what was, after all, a composition aimed at a Roman audience, Pliny offers an immediate corrective: “eighteen wondrous works at Rome” (“Romae miracula operum XVIII”), a large section in Book XXXVI that is devoted solely to Roman architectural achievements. Linking the two parts – metaphorically and physi- cally – is the Sublician Bridge, which, in common with one famous foreign structure, had been erected in wood but without the use of nails.32 The choice is apt since the bridge had, by merit of its design, prevented Lars Porsenna from fording the Tiber, thus preserving Rome’s integrity from harmful foreign influ- ences – not least, the Etruscan passion for building outlandish monuments, notably the type of labyrinth-tomb that Porsenna had raised to his personal glory.