28 July 326
Burial of Helena Augusta.
28 July 1778 Tuesday
. . . . . .
Artifacts of the Bianconi vs Piranesi 'Circus of Caracalla' affair 1772-1789
Giovanni Lodovico Bianconi's "Elogio Storico del Cavaliere Giovanni Battista Piranesi Celebre Antiquario ed Incisore de Roma" (1779)
paragraph sixteen
We do not give the catalog of all the works and branches of this great man, because it is printed and can be found everywhere. We hear that a roll of many sheets containing the memoirs of his life written by him has been found, and we want them to be published in print.
Again, an ambiguously provocative statement coming from Bianconi. It begs the question as to what was the source of Bianconi's eulogy?
46 y.o. Francesco Piranesi 1804
Le Antichità della Magna Grecia Parte I
Demonstration in Large and Geometric of the Objects of services which depend on the 1st Tavern, in the City of Pompeii.
Drawn by G.B. Piranesi
Engraved by F. Piranesi Year 12 (1804)
28 July 1812 Tuesday
Morning clear, air from NW very mild, temperature 70. At 10 temperature 76, wind drawing to westward. At 5, 85°. I went P.M. to see my neighbor T Wister, he is better and likely to be relieved. On my return at 7 I found here SL who had brought out William Dixon to spend a few days here.
28 July 1998
mistakes
...Piranesi actually made a few delineation mistakes, e.g., the late(?) inclusion of the Circus of Caligula and Nero and the patch of grass between two of the plates.
One of the mistakes within the Ichnographia Campus Martius where details of two separate plates do not match up. This particular mistake occurs within the Horti Neroniani.
Encyclopedia Ichnographica - a tale of two cities
Today was the first time I thought of the Encyclopedia Ichnographica as the tale of two cities. The idea came to me first with regard to Piranesi's Campo Marzio and Philadelphia, but I soon realized that there is more so the pagan city [of Rome] and the Christian city [of Rome] being written about.
28 July 2015
Borges once claimed...
"Borges once claimed that the basic devices of all fantastic literature are only four in number: the work within the work, the contamination of reality by dream, the voyage in time, and the double."
James Irby in Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings (1964).
I immediately saw a (possible) connection of this quote and the Ichnographia Campus Martius. Would it make a good opening quotation to Changing History? I guess the answer is yes and no. The voyage in time and the double definitely relate, and I suppose all the "sub-themes" could be considered the work within the work (but there really isn't anything like the city within the city or the plan within the plan), but I never felt that the ICM was contaminated by dream unless one considers Piranesi's architectural imagination to be a reality contaminated by dream.
If I were to use the quotation, I'd have to emphasize all four "devices" and how they manifest within the ICM, yet I've never taken the dream angle. Even if the plan is fantastic, it is nonetheless extremely ordered. Perhaps it is the plan/ichnographia itself that contaminated the reality of the viewer into thinking that they are seeing a dream (come true?).
28 July 2017
zero six eight
28 July 2019
ICM plus ultra iq19 working plans
28 July 2023 Friday
I read this morning, "the remains of the Horti di Agrippina have come to light, including structures identifiable with the Theater of Nero."
google: Ancient ruins of emperor Nero's theatre found in Rome
I always liked Piranesi's rendition of the 'Horti Agrippinae' within the Ichnographia Campus Martius.
Part of the 'Horti Agrippinae' is even among the very first plans of the Ichnographia Campus Martius that I redrew using CAD back in Spring 1987.
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