ART. II-A Description of the Antiquities and other Curiosities of Rome. By the Rev. Edward Burton, M. A. Student of Christ Church. 8vo. pp. 590. MR R. Burton opens his book with the approach to Rome, and his object is to chastise the expectations of those persons who have pampered themselves with the prospect of a galaxy of all that is great and glorious, in the Eternal City. This is judicious; both because Mr. Burton's subject leads him principally into detail, and accordingly affords him small scope for fanciful excursions; and also, because we conceive that the first impression of Rome is, in nine instances out of ten, unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, very few travellers approach Rome in the first instance with the moderate expectations of Virgil's Shepherd; prepared for nothing more splendid than what they had been accustomed to see at their own country-towns on a market-day. They have taken on trust the descriptions of the poets, and orators, and historians of a country fertile in such characters; and the Queen of Cities, throned upon her seven hills in marble majesty, the mistress of a world conquered by the valour of her sons, holds up to them a picture, the effect of which they are perhaps unwilling to spoil by filling up all its parts with too curious accuracy; otherwise it is certain that information enough is to be obtained from Roman authors to prepare them for a scene of much more moderate splendour in the capital of Italy. From them they might have learned, before they put themselves on board the packet, that all those points upon which the imagination reposes with so much complacency, are perfectly consistent with disorder and misery and filth they might have learned, that the Tiber was of old but a torpid and muddy stream; that heretofore the streets of Rome were dark and narrow, and crooked; that carriages of pleasure (of which, by the bye, the carpentum, one of the most common, probably very little surpassed our tilted and jolting tax-cart) were by law prohibited from entering them except on certain days, so little space was there for driving; that the sedans, which were used in their stead, put the people to infinite confusion; that there were few scavengers, and no lamps; that when a Roman returned home from a supper party, he had to pick his way along with a horn lantern, and bless himself if he reached his own door without a shower from an attic alighting on his cap of liberty; that the porticos and approaches to the baths were subject to every species of defilement, so that even the symbols of religion were enlisted for their protection; that the statues with which the city was peopled were treated with that contempt which Launce would have rebuked even in his dog; that the images of the gods were disfigured by painted faces and gilded beards; and that, though the Venus de' Medici never appeared in a hooped petticoat, nor the Apollo Belvedere in a blue swallow-tailed coat with metal buttons, yet that the costume of the day, whatever it was, was very generally bestowed on the representatives of heaven; that the houses were for the most part brick, many of them crazy, and supported upon props, and that such as belonged to a Patrician himself, had often the ground-floor assigned to a huckster or a dealer in oil; that in the windows (which were few in number) glass was seldom if ever to be seen, but in its stead a dimly transparent stone, or shutter of wood; that from a want of chimnies, the rooms were full of smoke, which was left to make its escape by the tiles, the windows, and the door; that on this account Vitruvius expressly forbade carved work or moulding, except in the summer apartments, where no fire was admitted, because in the others they would be covered with soot (lib. vii. c. 4.); that amongst the accomplishments of a cook, it was expected that he should be skilful in detecting which way the wind blew, lest, if he opened the wrong kitchen window, the smoke should be driven into the broth;-that, under these circumstances, the ancestors of a Roman gentleman, when they had occupied the niches of his hall for a few years, bore a very striking resemblance to modern chimney-sweepers; that the Romans made as much use of their fingers at a meal as Englishmen do of their forks; and that Ovid, in his Art of Love, gives it as a piece of Chesterfield advice to the young gallants of his time, not to smear their mouths with their greasy hands' more than necessary; that a mappa, or napkin, for each individnal was thus absolutely requisite; that every guest brought his own, and, lest the gravy and sauce-boats overturned should not do it full justice, it was made further serviceable as a pocket handkerchief!—They might have learned, moreover, from the same authorities, that the middle ranks of the citizens were clad in white woollen vestures, which were of course as habitually dirty as might be expected from the general poverty of the wearers, whilst the baser plebeians, not able to affect this shabby gentility, contented themselves with garments of the colour and quality and neatness of a mendicant friar's; that their shirts too were composed of the same material; and that from these causes, aided by the blessing of a warm climate, and the plentiful use of garlic, the effluvia of their public assemblies was so offensive, that even in a roofless theatre the Emperor found it expedient to sprinkle his faithful subjects with showers of rose-water :--and having duly weighed these and similar points of minute history, they might certainly have brought themselves to adopt more sober views of the magnificence of ancient Rome and an ancient Roman, and have ad vanced to the Porta del Popolo with the reasonable chance of having their anticipations in many respects, at least, completely fulfilled. Having landed the traveller in Rome, Mr. Burton proceeds to explain to him the order of his work, that it is divided into three heads-Antiquities, Churches, and Palaces. We are not sure whether he would not have done better by confining himself to the first of them. Perhaps the time and pains which he has bestowed on the two latter divisions would have enabled him to render the part assigned to antiquities more complete; for some points he has overlooked, and others only touched upon, which had at least as good claims to his notice as many which he has laboured with greater care: whilst the churches and palaces, which are described, after all bear so small a proportion to the whole which Rome contains, that the traveller cannot make use of Mr. Burton's book as his guide in this department of his researches, except in a very limited number of instances indeed; a circumstance which he will the more regret, from the able assistance he will receive from him, whenever he makes him an offer of it. . The churches, however, have been more fairly dealt with than the palaces, though not more than forty, out of a hundred and fifty, (for so many, we believe, stand in the city and its immediate suburbs,) are distinctly specified. It is true that this selection comprises most of those which deserve a stranger's attention ; it does not however include all. Thus we find no mention made of S. Sabina's, on the Aventine, a church attached to a Dominican convent, and every way worth a visit; for it is not only handsome in itself, but contains twenty-four Corinthian pillars of great beauty, and in excellent preservation, which very probably once belonged to the Temple of Diana, supposed to have occupied the site of this convent, and to which allusion is made in the Carmen Sæculare. Again, we find no mention of the church of S. Onofrio, on the Janiculan Hill; and yet it has many charms for all who take an interest in genius coupled with misfortune. The monks to whom the church belongs, affirm that the last year of Tasso's life was spent within the walls of their convent; and 'when Heaven,' as one of the poet's biographers expresses it, ' in consideration of his earthly Jerusalem removed him to that which is above,' his mortal remains were certainly consigned to this sanctuary. A portrait of the bard, by an unknown hand, surmounts the grave; and a Cardinal (Bevilaqua) boasts, in an epitaph inscribed upon a marble tablet, of having had parents who were friends of Tasso. We merely instance these omissions, to show that that Mr. Burton has done either too much or too little. He should either have abstained from modern churches altogether, or have given a more perfect catalogue of them. As it is, the book might mislead a stranger at Rome, by making him suppose that there is nothing worth troubling himself about which is not described in it. That portion of the work which is devoted to antiquities is much more complete, and will form a very valuable and excellent companion to future visitors of those interesting scenes. But, as we have already hinted, some omissions may here also be remarked. No notice, for example, is taken of the colossal prow of a ship, with a snake carved upon it in relief, into which one end of the island in the Tiber is fashioned-a curious monument, recording the introduction of the Old Serpent' as an object of worship into the capital of Italy. This singular vessel may be seen at the water edge in -the garden of the convent of S. Bartolomeo. Again, the picturesque ruin of the Temple of Venus and Cupid (so called from a marble group of those divinities found in it) has escaped Mr. Burton. It stands in a vineyard near the Amphitheatrum Castrense, and is a semicircular coved building, containing niches and windows, with walls springing from it on each side like wings. No attempt is made to ascertain the situation of the Fountain of Egeria; nor are any observations offered upon the valley which has usually gone by the name of that nymph, or upon the grotto graced by the mutilated statue of Almon, (so long mistaken for Numa's favourite,) or upon the neighbouring temples of the Deus Ridiculus and of the Muses, as they are denominated; though these are all objects which want and deserve elucidation. These instances of omission occur to us at the moment. In other cases we sometimes find an impatience of investigation, which they who have ta'en the antiquarian trade' must not allow themselves to indulge. The Forum is dispatched in a somewhat summary manner. The position of the Rostra, the Comitium, as well as of many other objects, is equally uncertain; and though much might be said as to the use which was made of them, and the facts connected with their history, yet in treating of the monuments still existing in Rome, we must omit such subjects as not forming a part of our plan.'-p. 185. This is not satisfactory; who would be contented to quit the Roman Forum without endeavouring to acquaint himself with the probable, if not the real site of the ancient Rostra? Cæsar removed them from their old position in front of the Comitium and Curia, and Nardini gives good reason for thinking that he placed them at the south corner of the present Campo Vaccino, under the roots of the Palatine Palatine near the fountain. Neither is it consistent with Mr. Burton's practice on other occasions, to avoid discussing the site of a building, upon the plea that the building itself has disappeared. Witness his account of the Circus Flaminius (p. 333.), of the Circus of Nero (p. 335.), and of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. These omissions in the plan of his work, Mr. Burton must perceive, we should not have regretted, unless we had in general thought highly of the information which he gives us when he is more communicative; and we have taken notice of them only because we are sure that, with a little trouble, he may hereafter render the Antiquities' (whatever may become of the Churches' and Palaces') so complete, as to leave his friends, when he conducts them per la città dolente,' nothing to desire. .. Having made these preliminary remarks, we shall now proceed with such cursory observations as have suggested themselves to us in the perusal of the book. Mr. Burton seems to doubt whether the Tuscans had not some share in the early republican works of Rome, and quotes Virgil as countenancing a conjecture that there was a city in that place before the time of Romulus. Hæc duo præterea,' says Evander to Eneas, disjectis oppida muris, Reliquias veterumque vides monumenta virorum. Hanc Janus Pater, hanc Saturnus condidit urbem, But however substantial the Tuscan masonry might be, he concludes, and with reason, that we have not so many specimens of the progress of these people in the arts as is commonly supposed; for the vases which are so generally called Etruscan, are undoubtedly Grecian, and come almost all from the kingdom of Naples.' (p. 24.) Much stress has sometimes been laid by the advocates of the ancient Etruscans, upon the oblong cinerary vessels and sarcophagi which are still preserved at Volterra. As early or genuine specimens of the state of the arts amongst that mysterious people, we are persuaded they cannot be adduced with truth or propriety; they are probably cut by Greek artists, and are of a comparatively modern date. The subjects of the reliefs with which they are adorned are Grecian, the Battle of the Centaurs -Meleager's Hunt, and the like. The architecture which is occasionally introduced is also Grecian, and such too as indicates a period of great declension in taste-Corinthian capitals, for instance, combined with triglyphs on the frieze. That they were .. made |