The Discovery of Piranesi's Final Project
Stephen Lauf



22 February 1778   Sunday
Vases, Candelabra, Grave Stones, Sarcophagi. Tripods, Lamps and Ancient Ornaments   volume I

To Mr. Guglielmo Uyse English Knight, lover and follower of the fine arts.
in deed of respect Cavalier Gio. Batt(ist)a Piranesi D. D. D.
Ancient vase of great size that can be seen in the Villa of the Most Excellent Casa Lanti on Mount Gianicolo. The body of the same is surrounded by eight heads of Fauns and Silvani. The foot that currently holds it is made of porphyry and does not correspond to the proportions of the Vase, therefore it is understood that it belonged to someone else; all the more so as we discover the width of the surface A. B. which rested on its ancient foot with a greater circumference corresponding to the size of the Vase.
Cavalier Piranesi delin. and inc.


22 February 1812   Saturday

Morning without a cloud, wind NW. Therm. 22°. The sun's power over the snow was scarcely ever[?] more visible. I intended to ......... in the sleigh to bring home my son Jabez from school before noon, but the snow had melted so fast that I ordered the carriage. I found the track of the road nearly bare[?]. Therm. rose to 35°. The sky continued clear till near sunset when clouds appeared in the W horizon. At 8 a large halo around the moon.


22 February 2005
Eutropia is a Syrian, you know
So who is Eutropia?
The wife of Maximian
The stepmother of Theodora
The mother of Maxentius
The mother of Fausta
The stepmother-in-law of Constantius (the father of Constantine)
The mother-in-law of Constantine
The stepgrandmother of the six children of Constantius and Theodora
The grandmother of the five children of Constantine and Fausta
The best friend of Flavia Julia Helena Augusta
The person responsible for the building of the first Christian church at the Oak of Mamre


22 February 2023   Wednesday

Ichnographia Campus Martius   Tab. VII   second state     plan of the Roman Forum and the Circus Maximus   second state

Morning good jokes, then demolition squad drama, "Will there be severed parts?" Then an unavoidable deflation; lying in long stillness the best cure. All in Miers Fisher's quondam back garden.
"It's the art work that's giving you the nightmares."
"No. . .it's your face."
Is the present day intellectual architectural hierarchy still most fearful of leaving the proverbial ivory tower behind, and hence, unable to see actual historical changes (of the narrative) happening right in front of their eyes?
I got Perspecta 6 off the shelf and was quite surprised to see what Tafuri described as "not by chance was a whole number of Perspecta taken up by the Villa Adriana." Looking at everything in Perspecta 6 along with lots of reading, it became easy to see why Tafuri wrote such a lie: he didn't know, and hence didn't want anyone else to know, that an enemy's territory could be so globally diverse.

Raccolta de' tempj antichi   Parti I

Large demonstration of parts of the Temple of Vesta and that of the Sibyl.
Figure I. A Mouldings of the cornice, frieze, architrave, capital, and sommoscapo of the column, and its plan of the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli. B Moldings of the Base, Cimasa, base, and imoscapo of the Column, plan.
Figure II. Moldings of the floor plan, base, cymatium, base, and imoscapo with plan of the Column of the Temple of the Sibyl.
F. Piranesi drew and engraved       1780




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