Andrea Fulvio's Illustrium imagines and the Beginnings of Classical Archaeology

Series: Brill's Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History, Volume: 64

Author: Brian Madigan

Andrea Fulvio's Illustrium imagines and the Beginnings of Classical Archaeology is a study of the book recognized by contemporaries as the first attempt (1517) to publish artifacts from Classical Antiquity in the form of a chronology of portraits appearing on coins. By studying correspondences between the illustrated coins and genuine, ancient coins, Madigan parses Fulvio's methodology, showing how he attempted to exploit coins as historical documents. Situated within humanist literary and historical studies of ancient Rome, his numismatic project required visual artists closely to study and assimilate the conventions of ancient portraiture. The Illustrium imagines exemplifies the range and complexity of early modern responses to ancient artifacts.

Andrea Fulvio's Illustrium imagines (1517) was recognized repeatedly in the sixteenth century as the first published book to present systematically material remains of Antiquity, in this case in the form of coins, predominantly Roman. The purposes of the present study are to determine for Fulvio's text the standard of knowledge of Roman history and the methodology employed in exploiting the material remains of Antiquity to corroborate, amplify or correct the understanding of that history as gained exclusively from texts. Methodology should be understood here to mean not simply the processes by which the author examined the coin evidence, but also the inclination of the author to rely on the material evidence against the textual. At a time when all antiquarians were educated exclusively in texts, the willingness to recognize and take advantage of the information available from objects would represent a critical disposition for the development of the disciplines of archaeology and art history.

The Illustrivm imagines presents a history of Rome from its establishment down to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III, presented as a series of summary epitaphs accompanied by an image of the individual in coin format. The concern of the present study is with those entries where the image derives from an ancient coin. The medieval entries, where all the images are imaginary constructions, therefore are not evidence for how visual objects were handled. The examination considers the image on the represented coin and its legend with the aim of establishing the degree of accuracy for both the legend and the image, and thereby identify, where possible, the Roman coin that functioned as a model.

Biographical Note
Brian Madigan, Ph.D. (1982, University of Minnesota), is emeritusprofessor in art history at Wayne State University. He has publishedbooks in the areas of Greek architectural sculpture, Greek vase painting,and Roman ceremonial sculptures.

Readership
Specialists and laymen interested in the historiography of archaeologyand art history, the reception of Classical Antiquity, and the antiquarianand humanist pursuits of the early modern period. Keywords: earlymodern history, Renaissance, Italy, antiquarianism, humanism, arthistory, historiography, historical methodology, reception studies, coins,numismatics, portraiture, book history.

Copyright Year: 2022

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-28812-6
Publication: 21 Oct 2022
USD $129.00

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-29349-6
Publication: 24 Oct 2022
USD $129.00

For more information, or to order, see:
Andrea Fulvio's Illustrium imagines and the Beginnings of Classical Archaeology(https://brill.com/display/title/61698?language=en)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
DWIGHT MANLEY DONATES WORLD'S FIRST ILLUSTRATED NUMISMATIC BOOK TO ANA(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n51a05.html)
STIRLING MAXWELL'S ILLUSTRIUM IMAGINES(https://www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n45a09.html)