10 October 1778 Saturday
Circumstances raise doubts as to whether Piranesi will attend the Accademia de S. Luca meeting tomorrow.
48 y.o. Francesco Piranesi 1806
Le Antichità della Magna Grecia Parte III
Bronze vases with movable handles, believed to contain oil.
Drawn and Engraved by F. Piranesi Year 1806
10 October 1812 Saturday
Morning clear, wind S, air moderated. I was to see a new two ovened stove, bespoke one after breakfast. Visited Judge Rush about the return of the viewers, he promised to hold the return under advisement till I could see it. Called on Judge Washington, he agreed to dine with me tomorrow. Thence I went to SW Fisher who accompanied me to the register's office and was my surety[?] in $10,000 as administrator[?] of my son's estate. Thence I stopped at the County Council[?] where Judge Rush promised to have curia[?] advisors .... ...... upon the return of the valuation of my land until I could appear and attend to it. I called upon J Hallowell who agreed to bring out Judge Washington to dinner tomorrow. Thence to my brother's to leave a memorandum with him for some articles not yet landed from the Bainbridge lately arrived from Liverpool. Thence to Nic[?] Lloyd's to bespeak a newly invented stove with 2 ovens in it, which I hope has some of the properties of the Russian with its numerous flues[?]. I dined at J Smith's and got off about 1/2 past 3 bringing my daughter H. home. She has been in town 2 or 3 weeks.
I was too much fatigued to read the newspapers I brought out, though I had read in the carriage on all my errands in town, but had stressed[?] my right knee which had been painful for some days and retired before 10. Having extinguished the candle I observed through he window that the clouds over the city were highly illuminated and I did not doubt but that it was by a great fire.
My tenant farmer had sowed part of east field with wheat today.
10 October 1994
32.
I looked in Lewis Mumford's The City in History for a reference to the idea of man first starting as a nomad (before settling in villages and cities), and nothing jumped out at me immediately, however, on page 9 bottom there is:
"...Thus even before the city is a place of fixed residence, it begins as a meeting place to which people periodically return, the magnet comes before the container, and this ability to attract non-residences to it for intercourse and spiritual stimulus no less than trade remains one of the essential criteria of a city, a witness to its inherent dynamism, as opposed to the more fixed and indrawn from the village, hostile the outsider."
It is perhaps the "magnet comes before the container" that I remember from my school days--I distinctly remember making a point in class about how the magnet implies movement and pull towards it, and, in a sense, nomads came first and later came cities and their various attractions pulling nomads in.
This is all related to man's starting on foot. The history of man starting down at the foot.
33.
The metaphor starts with the predominant duality of the human body - the legs and the feet. The legs and the feet represent the separation between God and man. This metaphor opens up a new level of symbolism. The symbolism operates by looking at the various parts of the body and then looking for the "self-evident" symbolism in each part
34.
The duality of the legs becomes the singularity of the torso. The point of transition from two to one is exactly where sex occurs. The point of transition is also the halfway point between the soles of the feet and the top of the head. Sex occurs at the center point, as does natural birth. Both sex and birth occur at the most critical juncture of the body.
10 October 2005
Phenomenology
"Inside the Density of G.B. Piranesi's Ichnographia Campus Martius"
It's all about the co-joining of memory (i.e., mental reenactment) and architecture.
I wonder if Robbe-Grillet began Jealousy with a floor plan because that's how the ancient Roman art of mnemonics was taught? The Ichnographia Campus Martius is certainly Piranesi's greatest mnemonic floor plan.
Are people without good memories instinctually jealous of those that have good memories?
Does having a good memory also make for having a better phenomenology?
10 October 2015
Hadrian's Villa new plans
10 October 2021
10 October 2022 Monday
I wish I had the time today to further translate and analyze Focillon's passages regarding the 1772 Righi affair at the Accademia de S. Luca and Piranesi's counter proposal. It appears there is more than one way to interpret the "facts" presented by Focillon, and Piranesi's proposal may well be a summarizing example of his mature design sensibilities.
10 October 2023 Tuesday
Is tomorrow, in 1778, when Piranesi made his last public appearance? Was Piranesi at this point obviously already a dying man? Were the days between his last birthday and his death ultimately Piranesi's time in purgatory--half there and half not there? Was he beginning to see his todays more and more clearly while at the same time seeing his tomorrows less and less clearly?
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