Catalogue 32
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Technology/Engineering
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Moving The Obelisk
FONTANA, Domenico. Della Trasportatione dell Obelisco Vaticano et delle Fabriche di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto V. Rome, Domenico Basa, 1590.
Folio [41 x 27.5 cm], (1) engraved title, 108, (4) ff. including frontispiece and 35 full-page, one folding and 2 double-page plates (of which 3 are erroneously paginated). Bound in later panelled morocco, spine with raised bands gilt. Title-page expertly remargined; small blank portions of frontispiece and corners of succeeding 7 leaves repaired; former library stamps on frontispiece and errata leaf; repair to clean tear in upper margin of B4; repairs in gutter of f.2 and outer margin of ff.66, 106, marginal tear to ff. 7, 8, 56, paper flaw on f.100, lightly soiled. Otherwise good copy, with the plates in good impression.
$18,500 First edition of the work recording the greatest engineering feat of the 16th century, the spectacular transportation of the Sixtine obelisk around which Bernini would build his Vatican portico, and one of the masterpieces of Baroque book illustration. The project required nearly 1000 men, 150 horses, 47 cranes, and took almost 5 months. The resulting book set a new standard for the communication of technical information and was especially influential on subsequent architectural publications.
"Sixtus V, the least nostalgic of prelates, transformed the relics of Egypt from objects of nostalgia to pivots of Roman public life. He set out first of all to move the Vatican obelisk-the only one standing in the Renaissance-from its old position, at the rear of Saint Peter's, into its present prominent place in the piazza before it. The engineering problems involved were staggering; even Michelangelo had refused to take them on. But Domenico Fontana solved all of them by a combination of meticulous planning and bravura improvisation. In elaborate ceremonies, the obelisk was exorcised and rededicated to the service of the true God; a cross was placed on its top, replacing the ball which had once been thought to contain the ashes of Augustus." - H. Goodman, Rome Reborn, p. 118
* Fowler 124; Mortimer 193; Dibner, Heralds #174 & Moving the Obeslisk, passim
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