Colonna Traiana eretta dal Senato
Pietro Santo Bartoli
Rom 1673
“Colonna Traiana eretta dal Senato” means “Trajan’s Column erected by the Senate”. It is published in 1673 and is all about the Trajana column that is built under Trajans rule and mostly about the battles in that time. Trajan was a roman emperor from 98 to 117. He was known as the most successful emperor of this time. The architect of Trajan’s Column is probably Apollodorus of Damascus.
The first pages of the book show every detail and drawings of Trajan’s Column. The biggest part of the book shows how the empire has been protected. There are a lot of scenes of battles which are exactly the Dacian war.
The book is speaking to all the people who are interested in the detailed architecture of Trajan’s column and also in the way of living at that time. The importance of details in every drawing is remarkable. The book has an index where the content is listed alphabetically. There are categories like “aquila aurela fuit” which should mean golden eagle. The book consists almost only of detailed drawings. The battles are drawn in external perspective with a front elevation. The background of the drawings is simply hatched with oblique lines.
The size of the book is 31,5 x 45,5 x 4 cm. It is not very thick but quite big. That matches the importance of the detailed drawings.
The author is Pietro Santo Bartoli. He moved to Rome when he was young. He made antique drawings by reproducing ancient monuments of Rome. The goal was to spread the knowledge of antiquity.