Il Libro delle antichità di Pirro Ligorio
Pirro Ligorio was born in Naples and died in 1583 in Ferrara at the age of 70, and was one of the most famous antiquaries of the Renaissance. As a passionate observer of the classical world, he devoted his life to a work which either in treatise (more than 50 volumes) or in dictionary form (23 volum...
Guardat en:
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Français |
| Publicat: |
1999
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| Accés en línia: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sumari: | Pirro Ligorio was born in Naples and died in 1583 in Ferrara at the age of 70, and
was one of the most famous antiquaries of the Renaissance. As a passionate observer
of the classical world, he devoted his life to a work which either in treatise (more
than 50 volumes) or in dictionary form (23 volumes in alphabetical order) illustrates
every aspect of antiquity in word and image.
Ligorio was a draughtsman, a painter, an architect and an archaeologist, besides
being a collector of coins and medals. After working in Rome at the decoration of
the facades of a number of palaces, he participated in archaeological digs at
Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli in the service of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. He took an active
part in the planning of the garden of the new villa at Tivoli. His best known works as
an architect, however, are the Casina in the Vatican Gardens and the realignment of
the courtyard of the Belvedere for Pope Pius IV (1559-65). His Plan of ancient Rome,
published in Venice in 1553, is also of great importance.
The collection of Pirro Ligorio’s manuscripts preserved in the library of the State
Archives of Turin, described as his ‘Book of Antiquities’ (Libro delle antichità) consists
of 30 illustrated volumes in which material is divided into books numbered by the
author himself. Other Ligorian books are preserved in Oxford (Bodleian Library),
Naples (Biblioteca Nazionale), Paris (Bibliothèque nationale de France) and in the
Vatican Library, which also holds a copy commissioned by Queen Christina of
Sweden.
The first 18 volumes of the Turin collection contain an enormous treatise on classical antiquity in the form of an encyclopaedia. The other books, in some of which
there are gaps, contain various separate essays (on dragons, on the basilisk, on
abbreviations in inscriptions and on Roman law). Volume 23 is of particular importance for its iconographical interest. It contains three books on illustrious men
(heroes, philosophers, poets, historians, emperors, divinities, etc.) amply illustrated
with busts and masks. In the last four volumes, various subjects are gathered together. In volume 28 there is a treatise of some documentary importance on the subject of earthquakes, and an account of that of Ferrara in 1570. The 30th volume,
known as the ‘Book of Drawings’, is a collection of mythological scenes and characters, of portraits and of architectural details.
Trained in the circle of humanists and scholars of the quality of Agustín, Pighius,
and Panvinio, Ligorio nevertheless adopted a profoundly innovative method of working with regard to the tradition of antiquarian studies. His was that of historical illustration, something which is demonstrated by his interest in coins and inscriptions
which richly illustrate his entire work. Being extremely knowledgeable about the art
collections of his day, he himself deliberately aimed to gather together a systematic
corpus of materials with the intention of developing from it a rudimentary scheme
of classification.
The Turin manuscripts were acquired on the antiquarian market in 1615 by Duke
Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy, a great patron of the arts and himself an artist and a
poet. These became one of the ornaments of the Great Gallery which sheltered the
library and the rare and precious objects which the Duke had collected on the pattern of the Wunderkammern to be found all over Europe at that period. |
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