4to; 235x170 mm.; Pp. 27, [1 blank]. (A-B4, C6), woodcut coat-of-arms on title page, woodcut initial. Disbound, as issued, but with traces of having been in a binding for some time. Slight foxing on title page and on the margins. Good untrimmed copy, partially uncut.
Account of the operations performed in 1705 to raise the Column of Antoninus Pius and to lower it onto rollers. Found in 1703 in the garden of the Mission Fathers in Campus Martius during the demolition of some houses, the column was initially mistaken for the Colonna citatoria but soon identified with the column of Antoninus Pious. The column, made of Egyptian red granite, was erected between 161 and 162 in honor of the emperor Antoninus Pius and his wife Faustina.
Clement XI decided to move the column, a commission was formed and the work entrusted to the architect Domenico Fontana and his son Francesco. Ridley: ““One of the most remarkable stories in the history of Roman archaeology, ... is the story of the extraction of the column of Antoninus Pius in the Campus Martius (1703-5). The work was placed in the hands of the ‘noble architects Carlo and Francesco Fontana, instead of competent engineers, and the result was the destruction of the column.””
After some failed attempts in 1704 the column was finally raised and lowered on rolls, ready to be moved to Montecitorio square. Here ends Crescimbeni’s report. The plan, however, ended in disaster and the column was badly damaged, allegedly already in ancient time but actually because the task was badly planned and even worst performed; a later fire didn’t improve its condition.
The fragments of the column are now kept in the Vatican Museums in Rome.