Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

Links to this page can be found in Book 5, Map C3, Day 6, View D8, Rione Trastevere and Rione Regola.

The page covers:
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view
Ponte Sisto
Statue of Emperor Valentinian I
Sepolcro dei Platorini

The Plate (No. 89)

In Book V, which covered the monuments along the River Tiber and which was published in the first months of 1754, Giuseppe Vasi made use of some copperplates he had engraved in the 1740s for Vedute di Roma sul Tevere, a book covering the same subject, but with views of a smaller size; these early works showed landscapes, rather than focusing on specific monuments.
In the foreground of this plate Vasi shows Passo della Barchetta all'Armata, a small boat which ferried passengers between the steps leading to S. Giacomo alla Lungara, on the right bank of the river, and S. Eligio degli Orefici.
The view is taken from the green dot in the small 1748 map here below. In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Giardino Farnese (Farnesina); 2) Collegio Ecclesiastico; 3) S. Sabina sul Monte Aventino; 4) S. Grisogono. All are shown in detail in other pages; the small map does not show S. Sabina sul Monte Aventino and S. Grisogono but 3) Ponte Sisto; 4) Passo della Barchetta all'Armata and 5) approximate location of Sepolcro dei Platorini.

Today

The view in March 2010

In the 1880s the river bed was enlarged and high walls were built on the banks to prevent floods; the spire of S. Grisogono (red dot) is still visible while some modern buildings obstruct the view of S. Sabina, but not that of the stone pines of an adjoining garden.

Ponte Sisto

(above) Ponte Sisto; (below) inscriptions: that on the left is factual, that on the right is a request

In 1450 a mule became unruly on Ponte S. Angelo during a crowded Jubilee Year procession and many people fell into the river. In view of the forthcoming 1475 Jubilee Year, Pope Sixtus IV built a new bridge to facilitate access to S. Pietro and to avoid a repetition of the 1450 accident.
The Pope wanted the bridge to bear his name (Xystumque suo de nomine appellari voluit), as stated in the first inscription; in a second inscription he also asked those who crossed the bridge to pray for his health. The inscriptions were written by Bartolomeo Platina, the Pope's librarian and the author of Vitae Pontificum, a book on the lives of the popes from St. Peter to 1474; at the end of the second inscription Platina wrote a sentence which brings to mind epitaphs on ancient tombs: Bene vale quisquis es ubi haec precatus fueris "Farewell (in the literal sense of fare+well) to you, whoever you are, as long as you prayed (for me)". You may wish to see Bartolomeo Platina (on his knees) and Pope Sixtus IV with his nephews in a famous painting by Melozzo da Forlì (it opens in another window), a detail of which can be seen in the icon of "Abridged History of Rome" at the end of this page.

Upstream views of Ponte Sisto

Ponte Sisto made use of the remaining piers of ancient Pons Aurelius; their bases had the shape of a boat with the bow facing the stream.
Other images of the bridge can be seen in another plate by Vasi and you can see it with a crowd waiting for the passage of Madonna Fiumarola, a religious procession dear to the inhabitants of Trastevere or with a view of some monuments of that rione. The image used as background for this page shows the coat of arms of Pope Sixtus IV.

Statue of Emperor Valentinian I

Museo Nazionale Romano: Recomposed gilded bronze fragments which were found near Ponte Sisto in 1878: (left) headless statue; (right-above) head of Valentinian I; (right-below) wing, probably of a Nike (Victory)

From The Pilot, a Boston newspaper, Volume 41, Number 41, 12 October 1878:
IDENTIFYING THE ANCIENT STATUE FOUND IN THE TIBER
The Roman correspondent of The Pilot writes as follows on September 10th:- The remnants of the bronze statue recently found in the bed of the Tiber at the Sistine Bridge, an account of which I sent you, have been placed in the small museum at the Palace of the Caesars. There is nothing in them. They are a series of fragments of gilded bronze, the most part representing drapery. The feet, attached to the marble plinth, and shod in the sandals, I have already described, are pretty enough and are well executed. The arm, with the marks of sword and axe, have also a historical, but not much of an artistic attraction. The opinion put forward by some Roman journals that the pieces found were parts of a statue of Probus, has no foundation up to the present time, as the head has not yet been discovered. When it is, if ever it be, it will be compared with statues and busts and medals in order to assist in its recognition. On September 16th, a week later, The Pilot correspondent writes:- The identification of the statue, the bronze fragments of which were found in the Tiber at Ponte Sisto, has been made; and Baron Visconti, the Papal archaeologist has published the facts in a note to the "Osservatore Romano". The source of information is the inscription cut in a marble slab, which formed the pedestal of the statue. This indicates that the statue was erected by the Senate and the Roman people in gratitude towards the Emperor Valentinianus I, praising him for the providential work which he, with his brother Valens, did for the advantage of the Eternal City. It is known that the Bridge bore the name of Valentinianus, after having borne that of Probus, as the Regionaries record. It remained until the present without any historical record. Ammianus Marcellinos relates that the work of the bridge was concluded by Aurelius Symmachus, Prefect of Rome. This was supposed to refer to the Cestian Bridge. But the new inscription shows that the passage refers to the present Ponte Sisto. The date of the statue and the bridge is therefore between 364 and 365. The great ability and keen judgment of Visconti have now set the disputed question at rest, and put an end to the wild conjectures of minor archaeologists. This is the first result that follows from the discovery of the inscription. A second is, that the statue, which was supposed to belong to the best period of Greco-Roman art, is only a specimen of art in its great decline, though some good qualities are still retained.
In 729 AD, a flood destroyed the bridge which was replaced centuries later by Ponte Sisto. Today art historians and archaeologists believe that the headless statue was made in the Ist century AD and that it was reused for Valentinian. It portrays a man in civilian clothes raising his right arm in the act of delivering an adlocutio, an address to the troops. This statue had a marble base and was placed at the entrance to the bridge. It was reconstructed from 33 fragments found at the site. The recovered head is made up of eight fragments and portrays the upper part of the face including the eyes, nose, part of the skull and of a crown (see a modern bust of Emperor Theodosius wearing a similar crown). The head has been identified as young Valentinian I, though some scholars believe that it is the head of Valens, his brother and Co-Emperor. The right wing of a Statue of Victory is dated from the Ist century AD, similar to the headless statue, but how it was reused is difficult to say. The bronzes were kept in the museum's storerooms for a long time and they are now on display at Museo Nazionale Romano after a lengthy restoration.

Sepolcro dei Platorini

Museo di Roma in Trastevere adjoining S. Egidio: view of Sepolcro dei Platorini in 1880 in a detail of a painting by Ettore Roesler Franz

This tomb was identified in 1880 near the tower of the ancient Roman walls on the river bank, not far from a Roman villa.

Museo Nazionale Romano alle Terme di Diocleziano: Sepolcro dei Platorini and a detail of its decoration

In 1883 the tomb was dismantled because the river bed was enlarged. In 1911 it was reassembled inside Terme di Diocleziano. It was a brickwork building which was faced with marbles. Its decoration is dated early Ist century AD. Two statues and the bust of a girl were found inside the tomb.

Sepolcro dei Platorini: niches and cinerary urns

From an inscription engraved on marble above the entrance door, we learn that the mausoleum was raised in memory of Caius Sulpicius Platorinus, a magistrate of the time of Augustus, and of his sister Sulpicia Platorina, the wife of Cornelius Priscus. The room contained nine niches, and each niche a cinerary urn, of which six were still untouched. These urns are of the most elaborate kind, carved in white marble, with festoons hanging from bulls' heads, and birds of various kinds eating fruit. Some of the urns are round, some square, the motive of the decoration being the same for all of them. The cover of the round ones is in the shape of a tholos, a building shaped something like a beehive, the tiles being represented by acanthus leaves, and the pinnacle by a bunch of flowers.
The covers of these urns were fastened with molten lead. The unsealing of them was an event of great excitement; it was performed in the coffee-house of the Farnesina, in the presence of a large and distinguished assembly. I remember the date, May 3, 1880. They were found to be half full of water from the last flood of the Tiber, with a layer of ashes and bones at the bottom. The contents were emptied on a sheet of white linen. Those of the first had no value; the second contained a gold ring without its stone, - which was found, however, in the third cinerarium; a most extraordinary circumstance. It can be explained by supposing that both bodies were cremated at the same time, and that their ashes were somehow mixed together. The stone, probably an onyx, was injured by the action of the fire, and its engraving nearly effaced. It seems to represent a lion in repose. Nothing was found in the fourth; the fifth furnished two heavy gold rings with cameos representing respectively a mask and a bear-hunt. The last urn, inscribed with the name of Minasia Polla, - a girl of about sixteen, as shown by the teeth and the size of some fragments of bone, - contained a plain hair-pin of brass.
Rodolfo Lanciani - Pagan and Christian Rome - 1892

Next plate in Book V: Spiaggia detta la Regola.
Next step in Day 6 itinerary: Porta Settimiana.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:

Ponte Sisto Janiculense fu l'antico nome di questo ponte per il monte Gianicolo, che li sta appresso; e se fu questo il rifabbricato dall'Imperatore Antonino, si può dire, che da questo furono fra gli altri buttati nel fiume i corpi de' ss. Calepodio, Ippolito, ed Adria, fermati poi intorno all'isola Tiberina. Indi restando per lungo tempo rotto, nell'anno 1473. fu rinnovato da Sisto IV. perciò da questo ha preso il nome moderno.