Re: Dovetail battlements in Rome?

[Jorge Stolfi <stolfi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    > [John Grove:] While scanning the online Vatican Library images I found
    > this 1498 sketch of Rome...
    > http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/b-archeology/images/arch25.jpg

The caption to that figure is
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/vatican.exhibit/exhibit/b-archeology/Extra_objects2.html

  J. Annius, Antiquitates
  Rome, 1498 

  [Image]

  This image of the earliest stage in the development of Rome is much
  cruder than Pietro del Massaio's. Though the unknown artist tried to
  represent the small compass and exact contours of the early city, and
  labeled the Forum and other places of note, the crenelated walls and
  towers reveal the limits of his imagination. Unfortunately the text he
  illustrated was even less accurate; it was a forgery by the papal
  theologian Giovanni Nanni of Viterbo.

  Inc. II 274 fol. M verso arch25 TG.15 

Just for the record, here is some biliography about the author, courtesy of Google:

    http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01541a.htm
    Catholic Encyclopaedia

      Annius of Viterbo (Giovanni Nanni). Archeologist and historian,
      born at Viterbo about 1432; died 13 November, 1502. He entered
      the Dominican Order early in life and won fame as a preacher and
      writer. ... He was skilled in the Oriental languages, ... Among
      his numerous writings may be mentioned: ... "Tractatus de
      imperio Turcorum" (Genoa, 1480) ... He is best known, however,
      by his "Antiquitatum Variarum", 17 vols. (Venice, 1499, et sæp).
      In this work he published alleged writings and fragments of
      several pre-Christian Greek and Latin profane authors, destined
      to throw an entirely new light on ancient history. He claimed to
      have discovered them at Mantua. This work met at once both with
      believers in the genuineness of his sources, and with severe
      critics who accused him of willful interpolation, or even
      fabrication. The spurious character of these "historians" of
      Annius, which he published both with and without commentaries,
      has long been admitted. It would appear that he was too
      credulous, and really believed the texts to be authentic. ...
      The more important of his unpublished works are: "Volumen libris
      septuaginta distinctum de antiquitatibus et gestis Etruscorum" ...

Another mildy curious thing that Google led me to:

   http://panizzi.comune.re.it/mostre/incu/pacioli.htm
   
   [ A sample page of LUCA PACIOLI, "Summa de arithmetica, geometria,
   proportioni et proportionalità" (Venezia, Paganino de' Paganini, 1494),
   showing an original way of encoding numbers up to 999 with finger-signs. ]