Gardens of the Roman Empire

Antinous' tomb (Fig. 1, n. 25)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Villa Adriana, erected by emperor Hadrian at the beginning of the II cent. A.D., occupies a vast area of 126 hectares. It was a beautiful estate strategically located near Tivoli and, at the same time, not very far from Rome (WINNEFELD 1895; KÄHLER 1950; AURIGEMMA 1961; RAKOB 1973; BROWN 1964). Prior to the Hadrianic settlement, an ancient villa, dating back to the late republican time, already stood there. Probably it belonged to Hadrian's family and, as a matter of fact, many scholars think that Hadrian chose this estate as the ideal one because he already knew the place and was attached to it (LUGLI 1927). Certainly he preserved and restored the original building and made it the nucleus of his private quarters.

The realization of this magnificent residence must have been a cherished dream of Hadrian, and he must have planned it long before becoming an emperor. This is the only way to explain how the works for its construction began immediately after his election and his return to Rome in 118 A.D. Hadrian died in 138 A.D. when his ideal residence was nearly completed. Nearly, because there was still some work to be done. Some important halls of the Great Baths were not finished, and the model for a Stadium, found among the ruins of his last building-yard in the quarters of the stonecutters (CAPRINO 1996-97; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1992-93, p. 73; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 144-147), was never brought to the unknown place where Hadrian had planned to build it. The Emperor's death put an abrupt end to all activities, and some of the gardens he planned to create, and for which fountains and pavilions had already been built, were never done or, if ever they were completed, seem to have been soon abandoned (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1992-93, pp. 000-000). As a matter of fact after him Villa Adriana was only partially lived in by his successors and was solely used for occasional visits. It became just one of the many country houses pertaining to the imperial praedia. Some of the existing gardens (Fig. 1), the ones nearer to the center of the residence and the monumental ones, were maintained and irrigated up to the end of the Roman Empire, a fact which is now proved by the concentration of extractable lead found in their soil, and which is due to the use of lead pipes for irrigation (FOSS ET ALII 1990; FOSS 1989-90; FOSS 1992; TIMPSON ET ALII 1994; FOSS, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1996). As a consequence of Hadrian's death, some others sites, which he had planned to be attractive and important, got no irrigation at all, thus their soil contains only a minimal quantity of extractable lead, about the same amount that is ordinarily found in modern agricultural fields.

Garden

Antinous' tomb (Fig. 1, n. 25)\

Antinoeion at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 652231746

Keywords

Garden Description

When, after having asked Dr. Reggiani to write about the garden emerged by her excavations, I began to study the map she kindly sent me (Fig. 75). Mari had informed me that the big structure beside the entrance gate was a Nymphaeum, but this seemed to me really improbable: It was too big and not in scale with the rest. I soon discovered that not only it was not a Nymphaeum but that it was a tomb and I easily connected it with Antinous, the same Antinous who had been deified by the Egyptians (E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2002-2003). Hadrian was more than pleased to accept him as a god, thus he could build to his memory a very important monument, something that he could never do for a simple boy. A temple more than a tomb.

I told my discovery to Dr. Reggiani and she decided to send Mari - who up to then had been absolutely sure of his Nymphaeum theory - to do a probe and test my hypothesis.

The excavations proved that I was right and that, also if never completed, there the tomb was made. First of all after his return from his second voyage around his empire Hadrian searched for the right place where to build it and drew his plan (Fig. 76). The place he chose was in direct view from his own quarters so that he would be able to see it - as we say -, " first time in the morning, last time at night" (Fig. 77). As the area was slanting, the first thing he did was to prepare a platform for the temple and the surrounding garden (Fig. 78).

From our researches we understood that at Hadrian's death in the 138 A.D. the garden with its Egyptian temples and its enclosure was the only thing to have been completed. The part where the temple-tomb would have been erected (Fig. 79) was only indicated by the big stones with which the architects traced on the ground the principal lines of their plans (VITRUVIUS, I CENT B.C.; W. JONES). However the garden was there and from the soil analysis we also learned that it did survive until the end of the Empire and that was proved by the content of lead of its soil, the same quantity of the one we find in the Canopus' area and in the other monumental parts of the Imperial Residence created on the plots of never irrigated land acquired by Hadrian, and tended up from the first II century's years till the end of the Roman Empire (J. E. FOSS, 1989-1990; J. E. FOSS e E. SALZA PRINA RICOTTI, 1996).

Of course all Hadrian's successors had no intention to complete Hadrian's plan and, just to give the garden a finishing touch, they substituted the colossal temple-tomb by a modest porch where Hadrian would not even bury a dog (Figg. 80 and 81).

However the garden had been completed and we could reconstruct it basing ourselves on the trenches for the boxtrees edges and the flowering bushes that had been cut in the tufa (Fig. 82). Then, going on, studying its interesting facade wall with niches for statues on both sides, the east ones turned to the entrance road and the west ones looking at the garden (Fig. 83): 20 niches in which probably the 20 Egyptian statue found in the CVII and CVIII centuries excavations were displayed (C. FEA, 1790). Probably here at the two sides of the entrance door stood the two Telamons (H. WINNEFELD, 1895; E. Q. VISCONTI, 1782; II, 18; PENNA III, 29) similar to the representation of Antinous as an Egyptian god (WINNEFELD, 1895) (Fig. 84) the one that with a Harpocrates, had been found in a nearby store room. No document exists for the two Telamons now set at the two sides of the entrance of the "Sala rotonda" in the Vatican Museums, but it is pretty certain that these two statues which in 1500 were set at the two sides of the door of Tivoli's archbishopric see have been excavated in the Antinous' tomb area.

In the garden people could admire low white marble basins in which pure water fell by the over standing niches, the two Egyptian marble temple ad all sort of adornments. At the end it was also completed by an obelisk on which, in hieroglyphs, was inscribed the following declaration:

The god we find (Antinous represented in the destroyed higher part of the obelisk) rests in this place that is hidden in the property of "the Lord of prosperity" (princeps) of Rome (then Hadrian in his Villa Adriana).

Basing myself on all this information I drew a garden looking probably like the old one (Fig. 85).

Obviously then, with the fall of the Roman empire and the Barbarian invasions, this place stood exposed to all the pillages that ruined the Roman's monuments. Heliogabalus began taking the obelisk and bringing it to Rome to be placed in his new circus. Then there were the pillages of the Middle Age. For centuries the local people considered Villa Adriana as an enormous quarry where they went to refurnish their churches of columns and their floors with luxurious slabs of marbles (Fig. 86). They also took bricks for their buildings and burned in their kilns fragments of statues or architectonic moldings to make lime (Fig. 87). They thought it was a very nice thing to do, because, starting from the VIII cent. A.D., the Church requested all believers to destroy the "pagan" works of art and they did it with enthusiasm: Besides completing this "worthy action", it helped them to obtain the best lime possible for their mortar.

After the passage or this horde of locusts the only things that were left to Villa Adriana were its naked walls and not even all of them, because in 1650, when the Jesuits decided to make there a thriving vineyard, they completely cleaned the area and demolished all the walls that were still standing in Antinous' garden. The only things that were left untouched were the bases of the two temples. To destroy those large masses of conglomerate would have taken lot of work. Thus they were left there where they stood, and, cutting low trenches in them, were treated exactly as if the they were part of the tufa's platform (Figg. 88 and 89).

Today on this rocky plain, left naked by an exaggerate excavation, we can see all that happened here, from the big mass of marble fragments prepared for the kilns (and that was left there by the local people who, now had more than enough lime, and never burned them) to the long furrow traced in the tufa platform by the holy Fathers in such a way as to held rain water in them, keep always humid the soil and by capillarity irrigate the young vines.

As we have said at the beginning the Temple-tomb was never completed. Antinous who, at the end of the works, would have been transported there, was left in Antinoopolis' temple (J. C. GRENIER 1986). Anyway he now was a god with a well asserted religion, and temples (Fig. 90) in a great part of the known world. A cult that thrived up to the middle of the IV century (ATTANASIUS 350 A.D.). However also if Antinous was left in the desert's sands his memory is still here and visiting Villa Adriana, one can always feel his presence.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 75: Map of the Reggiani Excavations at Antinous' tomb, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 76: Plan of the garden of Antinous' tomb, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 77: Visual connection between Hadrian's quarters and Antinous' tomb, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 78: Cross-section of the area cut to create a platform for Antinous' tomb, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 79: Plan of Antinous' garden at Hadrian's death, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 80: Changing the grand plan of Hadrian into a little porch, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 81: Transformation of Hadrian's plan into a modest porch by his successors, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 85: Reconstruction of the garden of Antinous' tomb, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 88: Cuts made in the tufa of the tomb's platform by the Jesuits, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 90: Map of temples to Antinous, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 82: The trenches cut in the tufa for boxtree edges and flowering bushes in the garden of Antinous' tomb, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 83: What remains of the east facade of Antinous' tomb, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 84: Representation of Antinous as an Egyptian god, from H. Winnefeld 1895, p. 154.

Credit: Courtesy of Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 86: Opus sectile marble inlays on the floor of Hadrian's Villa, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 87: Marble bricks and fragments of statues and architectural moldings taken over centuries from Hadrian's Villa to be used in buildings or burned in kilns to make lime, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 89: Cuts made in the tufa of the tomb's platform by the Jesuits, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "La ricerca della tomba di Antinoo a villa Adriana," in Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. 75 (2002-2003), pp. 113-144, figg. 1-19. (worldcat)
Vitruvius, De Architectura, trans. W. Jones I; I; 4.
C. Fea, "Memorie di varie escavazioni fatte in Roma, e nei luoghi suburbani vivente Pietro Santi Bartolo" in Miscellanea filologica critica e antiquaria dellìavvocato Carlo Fea I. Roma 1790, p. CCLXII, n. 139. (worldcat)
E. Q. Visconti, Museo Pio Clementino II, 1782, p. 140. (worldcat)
A. Penna, Viaggio pittorico nella Villa Adriana, Roma 1831, III, 29. (worldcat)
J. C. Grenier "L'emplacement de la tombe de Antinous d'après les textes de l'obelisque Barberini," in J.C. Grenier, F. Coarelli, "La tombe de Antinous à Rome," in Mélanges de l'École française de Rome, Antiquité XCVIII (1986), pp. 217-229. (worldcat)
Attanasius 350 A.D. – From a letter of Saint Attanasius "And then this is the new god, Antinous, Hadrian's servant, a boy who was a slave of the emperor's depraved and against nature lust... This scandalous and shameless boy died in Aegypt during an imperial court's visit to this country. Immediately His Imperial Majesty issued an order and an extremely rigorous edict obliging all his subjects to recognize the deity of the dead boy..."

Places

Antinoeion at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 652231746

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

Garden arrangement under the Libraries' terrace (Fig. 1, n. 9)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

Garden arrangement under the Libraries' terrace (Fig. 1, n. 9)

Keywords

terrace gardens AAT:300404778

Garden Description

The principal element of this garden (Fig. 28) is the sustaining wall of the overhanging terrace, a kind of theater scenery decorated by a series of 23 alternatively semicircular and square niches (Fig. 29).

However the garden did not occupy the entire plateau. A substantial concentration of lead is found only in the area set in front of the sustaining wall where a garden with its flowerbeds must have been set, while the most northern part of the plateau, where lead is scantily present, must have been occupied by trees and bushes which did not need much watering (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7).

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 28: Plan of the Garden under the Libraries, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 29: Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67 (1994-95), pp. 69-85, fig. 7. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

Garden between the nymphaeum on the E side of the Academy and the Praetorium (Fig. 1, n. 24)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

Garden between the nymphaeum on the E side of the Academy and the Praetorium (Fig. 1, n. 24)

Keywords

Garden Description

These gardens, (Fig. 72) never completed, would probably have covered 35.000 square meters. One extended itself between the impressive Nymphaeum waterfall (Fig. 73) set at the eastern side of the Academy and the noble upper part of the so-called Praetorium where a beautiful exedra occupied the center of an elegant pavilion (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, pp. 388-390, fig. 17; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 377-381, fig. 137). The two elements faced each other at a distance of 347 m. The minimal presence of lead in the soil of this area and its position connected with the palatial Academy - which now, due to the results of the soil analyses, we know was never completed or inhabited – explain what happened. After the nymphaeum with its beautiful waterfalls (Fig.74) and the facing Praetorium pavilion had been erected, Hadrian died. Everything stopped and Villa Adriana was never completed. Thus, today we can only see the two principal features of this garden: the pavilion and the nymphaeum.

The waterfall-nymphaeum is a very interesting garden monument. Pirro Ligorio first documented it in a sketch now found in the Royal Library of Windsor Castle. It was also represented in all the successive maps of Villa Adriana, starting from Contini, and up to my time. Unluckily Ligorio's plan was faulty and, what is even worse, everybody copied his drawing without taking the pain to study it more thoroughly. Ligorio's error was probably due to the masses of brambles that usually cover these ruins. It seems possible that the only elements that he could see were a small portion of the first waterfall and the total extension of the nymphaeum. Thus he reconstructed what was hidden by the vegetation following his own fantasy and sketched it as a series of narrow waterfalls, obtaining an effect very similar to the one given to visitors of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli by the celebrated alley of the "Cento Fontanelle".

I had the chance to find this nymphaeum cleaned from vegetation and therefore I was able to survey it properly (Fig. 73). Originally it seems to have consisted of eight waterfalls, 3.55 m wide, four on each side of a very large one 15 m wide. The waterfalls were divided by pillars of masonry of 2.30 x 1.50 m decorated by semicircular niches 1.40 m wide and m 1.90 high.

In a second moment, after the nymphaeum had been completed, the first small waterfall on the western side was destroyed and an exit to the Great Carriages Underground Road was created in its place. To understand when this change was done we must keep in mind that, as the last findings about lead content of the archaeological sites' soil prove, the Academy, that was probably destined to Sabina, who - I suspect - returned ailing from her travels with Hadrian and never came to Villa Adriana. She stayed in Rome and there she died. Thus the access of the carriages to this area must have been decided in Hadrian's time, when it was still thought that the residence would have been lived in. The successors of Hadrian; who didn't wish to occupy this part of Villa Adriana, would never have cared to open an access to the underground carriages road. In conclusion this change must have been done between 128 and 136 A.D. It certainly was decided by Hadrian.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 72: Academy planned but never made gardens, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 73: The Academy's nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 74: Perspective showing the waterfalls of the Academy's nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell'acqua", in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, pp. 388-390, figs. 17. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 377-381, fig. 137. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

Garden in the courtyard of the buildings to the East of the Inferi Nymphaeum (Fig. 1, n. 22)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

Garden in the courtyard of the buildings to the East of the Inferi Nymphaeum (Fig. 1, n. 22)

Keywords

Garden Description

The presence of a garden on the eastern side of this luxurious pavilion with its monumental exedra is denounced by the high presence of lead in its soil (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7). Although peripheral to the Hadrianic residence, this place must have been of great importance. There was a very large building that at this moment is still a bit of mystery (Figg. 65 and 66). It is quite far away, it has a monumental terrace on which Piranesi imagined a little round temple; during my survey I found fragments of fine marbles all around it and the floors of the rooms around the terrace are paved with mosaic. Apart of all this it must have had some special meaning also for the successors of Hadrian as it was tended with particular care up to the end of the Empire. That is very strange. This garden is set in an area where some very important buildings, as the Academy, the Odeon and other luxurious pavilions existed but, at Hadrian's death, were abandoned and never watered, while the so called "Temple of Pluto" was tended up till the end of the Roman Empire. We can't avoid asking ourselves: "Why?"

The only explanation seems to be the fact that Hadrian, who not only was introduced to the Eleusinian mysteries but reached in them the highest degree. Thus he could have wanted to recreate in his residence a memento of them, and not only as Spartianus wrote: " And as nothing could be missed, there he created also the Inferi." A death reign all for him! I don't think it is very alluring, but a memento to the Eleusinian misteries, definitely yes, and for this it is acceptable to believe that he created a big holy building and near by a grotto to remember everybody of the Plutonium (Fig. 67).

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 65: The Pluto Temple, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 66: Perspective plan of the Pluto Temple, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 67: Comparison between Eleusis and Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67, 1994-95, fig. 7. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

Garden in the Palace Summer part (Fig. 1, n. 14)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

Garden in the Palace Summer part (Fig. 1, n. 14)

Keywords

unspecified

Garden Description

Quite certainly there was a garden here, but we don't have any elements to help us to reconstruct its appearance (Fig. 36). Only a trench was by me excavated in the western part of the courtyard, just in front of the Hadrianic stibadium used in summer for open-air dining (Fig.37). I wanted to ascertain if here, as in the Canopus' coenatio, there had also been an euripus, but the probe gave no result, and anyway the digging was too limited to help our understanding of the place.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 36: Plan of the Summer Residence, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 37: The Stibadium used in summer for open-air dining, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

Garden of the triclinium North of the Maritime Theatre (Fig. 1, n. 7)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

Garden of the triclinium North of the Maritime Theatre (Fig. 1, n. 7)

Keywords

Garden Description

Today what is left of this garden is a nymphaeum 7 m long and 3.50 m large. It was set against a wall on its northern side and served as a background to the area. It consisted of a small, marble lined fountain, with a basin at its front and five square niches set on a semieliptic line at its back (Fig. 23). On the southern end, a porch, with a white mosaic paving, was set in front of a triclinium of the kind called cyzigene, which means a dining room encircled by a garden (Fig. 24). That left free only an area 34 m long and 21 m wide, set between the triclinium and the nymphaeum; not very much but quite enough to create a pleasant green scenery.

This garden, which stood between two of the highlights of Villa Adriana - the Teatro Marittimo to the South, and the Libraries to the East - while the red marble statue of a faun - one of the most important masterpieces found in this imperial residence - was discovered walled up in a niche of the sustaining wall of its terrace, was certainly very important.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 24: A Cyzigen triclinium, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 23: The Nymphaeum North of the Maritime Theatre, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

Garden on a terrace (Fig. 1, n. 15)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

Garden on a terrace (Fig. 1, n. 15)

Keywords

Garden Description

This garden was placed to the east of the Palace and, looking the Valley of Tempe, was sustained by a huge wall (Fig. 1, 15). Now nothing of it is left, but in ancient times a long portico ran all along the eastern side of the terrace. For what is written in Contini's notes, in 1658 many columns of gray marble with corinthian capitals were still standing in the place. Afterwards, Piranesi (who, in 1781, surveyed Villa Adriana, and published a new map of it) found that some of them had been brought to the Vatican Museums. Today only the beautiful view from the terrace and the considerable presence of lead in the soil (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7) denounces the presence of this ancient garden.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67 (1994-95), pp. 69-85, fig. 7. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

Palace nymphaeum (Fig. 1, n. 16)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

Palace nymphaeum (Fig. 1, n. 16)

Keywords

nymphaea (garden structures)AAT:300006809

Garden Description

The Palace nymphaeum (LUGLI 1927) has already been published quite extensively in the proceedings of the last symposium on ancient Roman Gardens held in Rome in 1995 (JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987-88, pp. 151-154, figs. 6-8; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, pp. 385-388, figs. 15-16; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 361-367, figs. 129-133). This water theater was shaped like an auditorium. A monumental entry (Fig. 38, H) led the way to a large paved area where low walls contained either two oval flowerbeds or two small basins (Fig. 38 A). An emicycle concluded the arrangement and sustained the pressure of the higher grounds that rose at the back of the garden.

To understand how it must have been we can study the two cross sections. One, W –W1, shows us the front of the badly ruined nymphaeum (Fig. 39). It collected the water that fell in it presumably to feed the same kind of small marble lined waterfalls we have seen in the so-called Stadium. Probably the same hedges of box trees grown in big mortar containers were set amid them. The other cross section (S – S1) show what once was the emicyle in very bad condition (Fig. 40). During the centuries following the fall of the Roman Empire it was destroyed by the peasants who occupied the area, and its decoration has been completely pillaged leaving only the concrete of the basements. Luckily finding some elements, like the remains of a cistern which provided the water for the water falls, the canal circling the top of the emicycle, and the bottom one which runs on the side of the mixtilinear basin (the same technical elements which we find in the so-called Stadium emicycle), give us the possibility to reconstruct the nymphaeum (Fig. 41).

We can have an idea how it looked at the beginning of the XIX century in a drawing by Penna (Fig. 42). However the modern situation is even worse (Fig. 43). We made a probe along the emicycle (Fig. 44) and at its top we found the rest of the same kind of canal that in the Stadium Nymphaeum brought water to the small marble lined waterfall (Fig. 45). It was then possible to understand that the two were quite similar.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 38: Plan of the Palace Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 39: Cross-section of the front of the Palace Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 40: Cross-section of the Palace Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 41: Perspective of the Palace Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 42: Drawing of the Palace Nymphaeum in the early nineteenth century, by A. Penna.

Credit: Courtesy of Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 43: The modern situation of the Palace Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 44: The probe along the emicycle of the Palace Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 45: The imission canal of the Palace Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare" Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. 60 (1987-88), pp. 145-169. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell-acqua," in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, pp. 385-388, figs. 15-16. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 361-367, figs. 129-133. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

Peristyle-garden on the eastern side of the Republican villa (Fig. 1, n. 18)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

Peristyle-garden on the eastern side of the Republican villa (Fig. 1, n. 18)

Keywords

Garden Description

This garden was set in the middle of a luxurious peristyle (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 335-337, fig. 116). Unluckily only its western part has been preserved. From what we find now on this side of the area, and from the ancient surveys showing the entire garden still existing in the XVIII cent., we can imagine how it must have looked. It was the kind which we call "hortus conclusus", and it was enclosed by high walls decorated by a series of niches with semicircular ones alternating with square ones (Figg. 51; 52 and 53). Columns stood between them, and were set in the walls in such a way that only half of them emerged, looking as a sequence of half columns. Today only the groove left by them in the masonry, and the remains of the fine opus sectile which, once, covered the portico's soil, allow us to imagine how it was decorated. At the two extremities of the western wall two very small nymphaea set in two narrow niches refreshed the air with their fountains (Fig. 51, a and b ). Apart from this today we can only see three large rooms, opening on the garden, which occupied the northern side of the peristyle. All the rest has been devastated by the agricultural exploitation of the land. Savage plowing and the destruction of both the portico and the enclosure to create ampler space for planting more olive trees and other crops, has caused landslides which have engulfed all the eastern part of this garden. Unluckily here there was no tufa platform to save the garden structure, and this is a pity, because this garden, connected with the Palace, must have been very interesting and the quantity of lead present in its soil shows that it was much cared for (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7).

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 51: Plan of the hortus conclusus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 52: A view of the high wall, decorated by a series of alternating semicircular and square niches, which once enclosed the peristyle-garden on the eastern side of the Republican villa, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 53: A second view of the high wall, decorated by a series of alternating semicircular and square niches, which once enclosed the peristyle-garden on the eastern side of the Republican villa, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 335-337, fig. 116. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67, 1994-95, fig. 7. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

Terraced garden of the Libraries (Fig. 1, n. 8)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

Terraced garden of the Libraries (Fig. 1, n. 8)

Keywords

Garden Description

This terrace, leaning to the North on a sustaining wall, is the first one of a series of very interesting overhanging gardens developing on successive sloping down terraces (Fig. 25). Up to now no flowerbeds have been discovered. Today we can only admire the very long euripus (Fig. 26), which was the principal feature of this garden (Fig. 25, A). It ran parallel to the buildings of the libraries and occupied all its northern front. At its extremities the euripus expanded in two octagonal basins which had flowerbeds at their centers (Fig. 26). Two other smaller basins decorated the garden (Fig. 25, B-C). We can see one in the photo (Fig. 27).

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 25: Plan of the Libraries, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 26: Euripus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 27: Fountain, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The area under the Temple of the Venus of Cnidus (Fig. 1, n. 12)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The area under the Temple of the Venus of Cnidus (Fig. 1, n. 12)

Keywords

nymphaea (garden structures)AAT:300006809

Garden Description

Here also the presence of a garden is only denounced by the high content of lead in the soil (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7) and by the decorative setting, which is offered by the towering arches of the Venus of Cnidus' sustaining wall (Fig. 34). Then there is a large nymphaeum with a swimming pool set at the extreme northern side of this embankment (Fig. 31, A).

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 31: Plan of the Venus of Cnidus Belvedere, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 34: The sustaining wall of the Venus of Cnidus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67 (1994-95), pp. 69-85, fig. 7. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The Belvedere of the Venus of Cnidus (Fig. 1, n. 11)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The Belvedere of the Venus of Cnidus (Fig. 1, n. 11)

Keywords

Garden Description

This Belvedere is not really a garden. The area is all paved with luxurious opus sectile, and, therefore, there were no flowerbeds, but in every important park, beside bushes and blooming plants, there are always some elegant pavilions and exedras where one could pause and take a rest reading a book or talking with friends. Of course, you can't have such a thing in small private house gardens where the area is restricted and all the space must be used for growing colorful blossoms. On the contrary in large extension of space they make necessary spots of interest where strollers can pause to enjoy the beauty of the thereabouts (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 388-390, fig. 139). The Belvedere of the Venus of Cnidus (Fig. 31) is one of them and it is also one of the most charming (ORTOLANI 1998). It was placed on a hillock overlooking the so-called Valley of Tempe. Two large exedras (Fig. 31, D) were laid on one of its sides; a round temple (Fig. 32) sheltering a copy of the Venus of Cnidus by Praxiteles stood at its center (Fig. 31, B), and, from it, the view ranged over Tivoli and the Appennine mountains in the background, really an enchanted place with a stunning view.

The Belvedere was created in those areas bought by Hadrian to have enough space to realize his project. Between it and the republican property ran a road that had deeply cut the tufa and to join the two parts Hadrian had to construct on the road a barrel vault to sustain the necessary soil (Fig. 33).

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 31: Plan of the Venus of Cnidus Belvedere, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 33: Isometry of the Belvedere of the Venus of Cnidus.

Images

Fig. 32: The temple sheltering a copy of the Venus of Cnidus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 388-390, fig. 139. (worldcat)
G. Ortolani, Il padiglione di Afrudite Cnidia a Villa Adriana:progette e significato, Roma 1998. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The Canopus gardens (Fig. 1, n. 2)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The Canopus gardens (Fig. 1, n. 2)\

Canopus at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 856037447

Keywords

Garden Description

The Canopus (Fig. 2 and 3) is perhaps the most important of all Villa Adriana's gardens (JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987-88, pp. 152-162, fig. 11-15; JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1992, pp. 579-585, tavv. I-IV; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, pp. 374-383, fig. 9-13; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 323-324, fig. 80-81, 87, 134-135). It was set at the principal entrance through which Hadrian's important guests were introduced when they came to visit the emperor. Thus the breathtaking view of the Canopus was the first impression visitors received entering this imperial residence. Their glance ran along the narrow valley set at the South side of Villa Adriana's principal entry. An imposing waterway occupied all its length (Fig. 4). Columns and white marble statues reflected themselves in its blue water, and two statuary groups, both representing Scylla in the act of killing Ulysses' mates, emerged from the canal. It was here that Hadrian held his most important receptions and the banquets that, from time to time, he offered to his subjects (MART. 8.49; 9.91). As in ancient Rome dinner began around two o' clock p.m., and as, at this moment, the sun was still very high and very hot, a portico ran along the eastern bank offering its shade to those guests who had to dine on the sunny side (Fig. 2, A). On the opposite one, which was already protected by the hill, there was no portico (Fig. 2, B), but four beautiful copies of the Erecteum's Caryatids and of two Sylens were set on the canal's edge and were reflected on the water (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987, pp. 175-178, figs. 13-20, 35-37). The spectacle was superb: the golden color of the portico's columns, fashioned in the yellow marble of Shimtou, stood out against the green of the well-cut hedges of box-tree that bordered the lowest part of the valley (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000a), while high terraces rose at its two sides scaling the surrounding hills (Figg. 4 and 5) To complete the landscaping, a monumental exedra, (Fig. 6) and two elegant pavilion set at its sides (Figg. 2. D and D1 7) decorated the end of the valley (Fig. 2, C). In the old times the exedra was coated with polished marbles and multicolored mosaics. Some of its niches hosted imposing statues and large waterfalls flowed by other ones, while back, at the end of a central long gallery, a powerful cascade fed the outlying waterway (Fig. 2, E). Nothing could have been more pleasant and at the same time more imposing than the Canopus.

Then excavations in the valley showed the existence of two long flower beds that were set on the two side of the canal (Fig. 8) and in them both we and the Danish archaeologists found amphoras cut in two and with large holes on their sides to let the plant kept in them to branch their roots in the soil and remain strong and flourishing. Our probes are marked on the plan (Fig 2. m; n; o; p; q).

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 2: The Canopus plan, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 3: Autocad rendering of the Canopus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 5: Isometry of the Canopus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 4: The canal at the Canopus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 6: The central gallery at the Canopus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 7: The lateral pavilion at the Canopus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 8: The excavation at the Canopus, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. 60 (1987-88), pp. 152-162, fig. 11-15. (worldcat)
W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazzo d'Oro," American Journal of Archaeology 96, 1992, pp. 579-595. (jstor)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell'acqua," in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, pp. 363-399, fig. 9-13. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 323-324, fig. 80-81, 87, 134-135. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "The Importance of Water in Roman Garden Triclinia," in Ancient Roman Villa Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), Dumbarton Oaks 1987, pp. 175-178, fig. 13-20, 35-37. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Vasi da fiori," in Adriano Architettura e progetto, Milano 2000, pp. 202-203. (worldcat)

Places

Canopus at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 856037447

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The garden between the Small Baths and the Three Exedras Hall (Fig. 1, n. 5)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The garden between the Small Baths and the Three Exedras Hall (Fig. 1, n. 5)

Keywords

Garden Description

It has already been cited in the precedent Jashemski-Ricotti article but only very sketchily (JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987-88, pp. 149-150, fig. 3). Today the finding of the enormous amount of lead in its soil (1234 mg/kg) (Fig. 17) has created a new interest in it (FOSS 1989-90; FOSS 1992; FOSS, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1996; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, pp. 368-370, fig. 3; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 331-334, figs. 114-115). It proves that this plot of land was exploited for a very long time starting from the earlier republican era. Probably at those times a huge reservoir existed there and the land was kept as an orchard. Later on, just before the end of the I cent. B.C., it must have been transformed in a garden (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, p. 78, fig. 5) and the front of this cistern was decorated by an elegant nymphaeum (Figg. 18 and 19). In Hadrianic times the baths displaced the water reserve, but the nymphaeum was preserved. It must have been a particularly fine and elegant monument if Hadrian decided to save it and made it an important part of his new garden arrangement. The Augustan water-theater consisted of a 19.50 m long façade, adorned by two low basins, which stretched out from semielliptical niches (PENNA 1831, p. 59, fig. 59). We still see in them two low pedestals, evidently built to sustain some fountain statues. Other statues must have occupied the three square niches framed by small columns, which, set at a level of 1.84 m from the soil, flanked the basins' ones. The big piscina limaria, that supplied the two thermae, replaced the ancient reservoir and furnished large quantities of water. It soaked the ground and allowed the cultivation of plants that had to be frequently and abundantly watered. It is evident that only an uninterrupted irrigation delivered for at least eight centuries through leaden pipes could deposit in the soil such a high concentration of this metal.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 17: Plan of Villa Adriana indicating the Concentration of Lead in the Soil throughout, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 18: Plan of the Augustan nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 19: The Augustan nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. 60 (1987-88), pp. 149-150, fig. 3. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell'acqua," in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, pp. 368-370, fig. 3. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "The Importance of Water in Roman Garden Triclinia," in Ancient Roman Villa Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), Dumbarton Oaks 1987, pp. 178-180, fig. 21-28, 35-37. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 331-334, fig. 114-115. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67 (1994-95), p. 78, fig. 5. (worldcat)
A. Penna, Viaggio pittorico della Villa Adriana di Tivoli, Roma 1831, p. 59, fig. 59. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The garden in front of the Piazza d'Oro (Fig. 1, n. 19)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The garden in front of the Piazza d'Oro (Fig. 1, n. 19)\

Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 379689233

Keywords

unspecified

Garden Description

Here only the considerable presence of lead in the soil denounces the existence of an ancient garden (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7). It is clear that this space, which was the point of arrival of the most important guests coming to dine with the emperor, must have been elegantly arranged. At its same level we can still admire some luxurious guestrooms with superb marble floorings. It stands to reason that the area around them must have been well planned and well kept.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

Places

Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 379689233

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The Garden of the Piazza d'Oro (Fig. 1, n. 20)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The Garden of the Piazza d'Oro (Fig. 1, n. 20)\

Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 379689233

Keywords

Garden Description

The garden of the Piazza d'Oro is one of the most prestigious and interesting of Villa Adriana. It consists of a peristyle garden set amid a double portico and surrounded by some of the most elegant buildings of this imperial residence (Figg. 54 and 55). The garden, which occupies the central part of the peristyle, was probed in 1987. Afterwards, in 1988, with the sponsorship of Dumbarton Oaks and the help of the Latium Superintendence, it was partially excavated (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987, pp. 180-181, figs. 29-34; JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987-88, pp. 162-169, figs. 16-22; JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1992, pp. 585-595, figs. 8-17; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, pp. 370-374, figs. 4-8; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 339-354, figs. 117-126). Here the nearly surfacing platform of tufa was a great help to find where the flowerbeds were and how the garden was arranged (Fig. 56). The first thing that was discovered was a double line of deep holes, m 1.80 long, 0.90 wide and 1.20 deep which circled all the area (Fig. 56, f). Their size proved that they were meant for trees, but which ones? As we didn't find any seeds, pollens or roots to help us in identifying them, we must rely on what was written in ancient texts. From Pliny we know that in their gardens Romans used cypresses (PLIN. nat. 16.60.139-141; PLIN. epist. 5.6.16-17), plane trees (PLIN. nat. 12.3-5), pine trees, pomegranates, oleanders, laurels (PLIN. nat. 15.49.197) and, at the end of the Republic, even lemon trees (PLIN. nat. 1.15-16; see JASHEMSKI 1979, pp. 77-79).

These indications have been confirmed by the studies that Prof. Jashemski carried out in Pompeii, Herculaneum and other places (JASHEMSKI 1979, passim; 1993, passim). Of all the trees listed by the great naturalist we must immediately discard cypresses, as the ones that Pliny the Younger described in the hippodrome-garden of his Tuscany villa (PLIN. epist. 5.6.32-40). Also if those trees could be cut in shapes suited to the garden's design by topiary artists and could be very decorative, their foliage begins at a very low level and the trees tend to be very high, thus they are very good for fencing an enclosure, but here, at the Piazza d'Oro, where the garden was planned to be seen from the surrounding porticoes, they would have completely hidden it. Thereupon we must revert to more convenient trees or bushes, like laurels, which grow very well in the area and whose foliage could be kept very high, in such a way that the trees would not hide the view, or like the ever present box tree (PLIN. nat. 16.28.70) which could be cut in conveniently low green hedges. Flowering bushes and, maybe, Pliny's violets (PLIN. nat. 21.14 and 47) set in decorative designs could have grown in the central part of the garden. In the middle of the area a beautiful white marble euripus, set between the entrance hall, on one side, and the tricliniar pavilion with all its fountains, on the other (Fig. 56, m), reflected the encircling buildings with their polished walls. The view must have been very similar to the scene we now admire on the water of the Taj Mahal's canal at Agra.

Entering in the Piazza d'Oro the ancient garden extends itself before our view (Fig. 57). It is not a garden anymore but we can detect his planning by the structure that are still surfacing and it is stunning. Also fascinating is the spectacle we enjoy looking from the pavilion at the distant domed entrance hall. The large euripus, once all lined by white marble, is displayed before us (Fig. 58): We can easily imagine how, when the building was new and probably resplendent in its revetments, its marbles and all the refined decorations, its view would have been reflected in the limpid cana giving us the same effect that today we can enjoy visiting the Taj Mahal at Agra.

But there were not only the beauty and the refinement that appealed to us at the Piazza d'Oro. Very interesting was discovering all the gardening technics applied in it. Fascinating for instance was the watering system we found in the Piazza d'Oro garden (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1989-90). There were two canals each circling half o the garden. Te western one running 60 cm under the soil infiltrated directly at this level water in canal cut in the tufa and covered by masonry vaults (Fig. 59). The irrigation seeped directly in the garden canals through low rectangular cuts opened in the tufa (Fig. 60). All the flowerbeds had those canals, well cut and done by an accurate team of gardeners (Fig. 61). With this system as a consequence of the phenomenon of capillarity, every time the surface dried, the moisture rose up from the bottom and watered the roots of the plants; thus there was not even the loss of the good elements contained in the soil. Then, when the irrigation went on, little by little the soil, contained at the bottom of these trenches, became very soaked and water ran quickly toward the drainage canal. As a simple sluice, set at the start of the irrigation canal (Fig. 62), controlled all this system. To water nearly all the area a single man had only to lift it, and the same man could with a simple movement close the sluice when the soil didn't absorb more water.

Then when it was closed and all the water furnished by the pavilion fountains went to the eastern canal.

Here there was a different way to water the plants. Due to their inclination the canals were too deep for the capillarity, but all the same were still continued for letting them to reach the drainage canal. Thus in the eastern part of the garden a very old system was used, one that we find in Pasagarde, the splendid Cyrus park. Here marble lined canals joined a series of cubic basins. In the Piazza d'Oro the eastern canal, that in ancient times was completely covered by a vault, but that now for a spell lays in the open, had many little pits excavated in its bottom (Fig. 63). Over each one of them was placed a pump. Probably bronze ones that were pillaged in the middle age at the time of the "metals hunger". The breaks in the canal's vault (Fig. 56, p) seems to confirm this hypothesis.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 54: Plan of the Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 55: Isometry of the Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 56: Cuts in the tufa platform and the irrigation in the Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 59: Irrigation by capillarity in the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 57: The Garden of the Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 58: The Piazza d'Oro, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 60: Western view of the excavations of the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 61: Eastern view of the excavations of the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 62: The cut for the sluice of the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 63: The eastern canal of the Piazza d'Oro garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "The Importance of Water in Roman Garden Triclinia", in Ancient Roman Villa Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), Dumbarton Oaks 1987, pp. 180-181, figs. 29-34. (worldcat)
W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare", Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. 60 (1987-88), pp. 162-169, figs. 16-22. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell'acqua", in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, pp. 370-374, figs. 4-8. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 339-354, figs. 117-126. (worldcat)
PLIN. nat. 16.60.139-141
PLIN. epist. 5.6.16-17
PLIN. nat. 12.3-5
PLIN. nat. 1.15-16
W. F. Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii Herculaneum and the Villas Destroyed by the Vesuvius, I, New York 1979, pp. 77-79 (worldcat)
W. F. Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii Herculaneum and the Villas Destroyed by the Vesuvius, II, New York 1993, passim (worldcat)
PLIN. nat. 16.28.70
PLIN. nat. 21.14 and 47
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro", Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 121-150. (worldcat)

Places

Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 379689233

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The garden of the tomb (Fig. 1, n. 21)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The garden of the tomb (Fig. 1, n. 21)\

Piazza d'Oro at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 379689233

Keywords

tombs AAT:300005926

Garden Description

We always find open spaces around the more important tombs and we know that they were kept as gardens. Just last summer Prof. Foss analyzed the samples drawn from the enclosure of the tomb of Romulus, Massenzio's son, on the Appian way, and found a large quantity of lead in it, lead that was not found in other parts of this emperor's villa, as in its famed Circus (Fig. 64). It is evident that the area around this tomb was kept as a garden and that it was watered for quite a long period. Of the garden around the tomb found on the back of the Piazza d'Oro we can only say that, as the Romulus tomb, it was set in a very large enclosure. Lead was present but not in very large quantity (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7), thus it must have been set with big trees and bushes that didn't need much irrigation If tufa is present here as in the nearby garden, and if ever the Tomb's area will be excavated, we probably might find the same kind of arrangements for planting trees as in the Piazza d'Oro.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 64: The Tomb of Romulus in Massentius' villa, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67, 1994-95, fig. 7. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The gardens at the entrance of Hadrian's villa (Fig. 1, n. 3)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

The realization of this magnificent residence must have been a cherished dream of Hadrian, and he must have planned it long before becoming an emperor. This is the only way to explain how the works for its construction began immediately after his election and his return to Rome in 118 A.D. Hadrian died in 138 A.D. when his ideal residence was nearly completed. Nearly, because there was still some work to be done. Some important halls of the Great Baths were not finished, and the model for a Stadium, found among the ruins of his last building-yard in the quarters of the stonecutters (CAPRINO 1996-97; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1992-93, p. 73; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 144-147; REGGIANI 1997), was never brought to the unknown place where Hadrian had planned to build it. The Emperor's death put an abrupt end to all activities, and some of the gardens he planned to create, and for which fountains and pavilions had already been built, were never done or, if ever they were completed, seem to have been soon abandoned (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1992-93, pp. 000-000). As a matter of fact after him Villa Adriana was only partially lived in by his successors and was solely used for occasional visits. It became just one of the many country houses pertaining to the imperial praedia. Some of the existing gardens (Fig. 1), the ones nearer to the center of the residence and the monumental ones, were maintained and irrigated up to the end of the Roman Empire, a fact which is now proved by the concentration of extractable lead found in their soil, and which is due to the use of lead pipes for irrigation (FOSS ET ALII 1990; FOSS 1989-90; FOSS 1992; TIMPSON ET ALII 1994; FOSS, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1996). As a consequence of Hadrian's death, some others sites, which he had planned to be attractive and important, got no irrigation at all, thus their soil contains only a minimal quantity of extractable lead, about the same amount that is ordinarily found in modern agricultural fields.

Garden

The gardens at the entrance of Hadrian's villa (Fig. 1, n. 3)

Keywords

Garden Description

The Great Entrance Hall of Hadrian's villa (Fig. 9) presents three gardens, two of which (Fig. 9, A and G) are peristyle ones.

a – The main gate to the Hadrianic residence opens up on a peristyle garden, the largest one. Having just been excavated by Dr. Anna Maria Reggiani, the Latium's Superintendent, it is published by her at p. 000 .

b –The other garden (Figs. 9, G, and 10-11), set at the eastern side of the entrance hall, occupies a smaller peristyle with a curved side toward East (REICHARDT 1933). It was crossed in the middle by a path which had a round-shaped space in the center (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987, pp. 175-178, figs. 13-20; JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987-88, p. 147, figs. 1-2; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, pp. 364-366, fig. 1; MARI, REGGIANI, RIGHI 2000; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 323-324, fig. 110). Here some decorative element - a marble vase or a statue - was probably displayed. Two flowerbeds cut in the tufa flanked it (Figs. 10, G, and 11). We are still pretty sure that they were bordered by well-groomed box hedges, a kind of decoration which was afterwards inherited by the "all'italiana" system of landscaping. This fashion, widely employed in many outstanding examples of Renaissance gardens, is still in use nowadays. The presence of well cut green hedges bordering those ancient flowerbeds was a must and it is a sure fact that they existed here, but we know very little about the rest. For instance, what, if anything, could have been set in their central part? Prof. Jashemski found pollen, seeds, roots of flowering bushes and of some trees in her Pompeian gardens, but here at Villa Adriana nothing was left in the ground. We are bound to follow our imagination. Of course there could have been grass in the center of the flowerbeds as well as masses of blossoms. If the latter was the case - but, looking to "all'italiana" gardens, which are basically green gardens, I highly doubt it - the flowers should have been the kinds which were in fashion in ancient Roman times. In his Natural History (nat. 21.10), Pliny the Older explained that Romans didn't use many of them. In their gardens they mainly planted roses and violets. However we must keep in mind that, for Pliny, the word violets meant every kind of small herbaceous species that could produce colored blossoms. He catalogued many kinds of them as the yellow, the purple, and the white kind, and it is highly probable that they must have been pimpernels as well as hyacinths and, of course real violets too. It is, however, evident that any of these plants could create gay clusters of blossoms in the center of a flowerbed and that they could make a very appealing garden.

c – The third garden of the Great Entrance Hall occupies its extreme western part (REICHARDT 1933, pp. 129-130). Here an unpaved courtyard circled a small temple, probably dedicated to the Imperial Lares (Fig. 9, L). The flowerbeds have still to be excavated, but, as in all the Great Entrance Hall's area the tufa is practically surfacing, this must happen also here. Therefore it is highly probable that an excavation will bring to light the flowerbeds cut in the rock for the plants.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 9: Plan of the Great Hall, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 10: Garden in the East sector of the Great Hall, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 11: Garden in the East sector of the Great Hall, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
A. M. Reggiani, "......." in Las casas del Alma. Maquetas arquitectonicas de la Anteguedad (5500 a. C. - 300 d. C.), Barcellona 1997, pp. 240-41, n. 87.
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

W. L. Reichardt, "The Vestibule Group at Hardian's Villa," Memorie. Atti dell'Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 1933, pp. 129-130. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "The Importance of Water in Roman Garden Triclinia," in Ancient Roman Villa Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), Dumbarton Oaks 1987, pp. 175-178, fig. 13-20, 35-37. (worldcat)
W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. 60 (1987-88), pp. 152-162, fig. 11-15. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell'acqua," in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, 364-366, fig. 1. (worldcat)
Mari, Reggiani, Righi, "Grande Vestibolo presso le Cento Camerelle. Indagini e restauri," in F. Filippi (ed.), Archeologia e Giubileo. Gli interventi a Roma e nel Lazio nel Piano per il Grande Giubileo del 2000, Napoli 2000, pp. 478-483. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 323-324, fig. 80-81, 87, 134-135. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The gardens at the entrance of Hadrian's villa (Fig. 1, n. 3)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The gardens at the entrance of Hadrian's villa (Fig. 1, n. 3)

Keywords

Garden Description

The Great Entrance Hall of Hadrian's villa (Fig. 9) presents three gardens, two of which (Fig. 9, A and G) are peristyle ones.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 9: Plan of the Great Hall, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 10: Garden in the East sector of the Great Hall, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 11: Garden in the East sector of the Great Hall, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

W. L. Reichardt, "The Vestibule Group at Hardian's Villa," Memorie. Atti dell'Accademia nazionale dei Lincei, 1933, pp. 129-130. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "The Importance of Water in Roman Garden Triclinia," in Ancient Roman Villa Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), Dumbarton Oaks 1987, pp. 175-178, fig. 13-20, 35-37. (worldcat)
W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. 60 (1987-88), pp. 152-162, fig. 11-15. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell'acqua," in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, 364-366, fig. 1. (worldcat)
Mari, Reggiani, Righi, "Grande Vestibolo presso le Cento Camerelle. Indagini e restauri," in F. Filippi (ed.), Archeologia e Giubileo. Gli interventi a Roma e nel Lazio nel Piano per il Grande Giubileo del 2000, Napoli 2000, pp. 478-483. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 323-324, fig. 80-81, 87, 134-135. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The Libraries' Courtyard (Fig. 1, n. 13)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The Libraries' Courtyard (Fig. 1, n. 13)\

Libraries' Courtyard at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 369692199

Keywords

Garden Description

This garden belongs to the republican period and it is one of the most ancient of Villa Adriana. It is enclosed in a large peristyle 48 m wide, 72 m long. The place seems to have been watered from the Republican time up to the end of the Roman Empire, and the content of lead in its soil is among the highest in the area (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7). At the center of the portico's northern side, there still is a republican nymphaeum with a rectangular plan and very thick walls: a vaulted hall decorated with a series of niches, but quite heavy and gloomy (Fig. 35, E). There must have been flowerbeds in the peristyle, but the garden has still to be excavated. Now an olive grove occupies the place, and I doubt that anybody would dare to cut it down. However, if this would ever happen, we must hope to ascertain the presence of tufa surfacing in this area and, thus, find the hole cut in the rock to create the flowerbeds. It would be the only way to discover how the place had been planned.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 35: Plan of the Libraries' Courtyard, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67 (1994-95), pp. 69-85, fig. 7. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The Pecile (Fig. 1, n. 6)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The Pecile (Fig. 1, n. 6)\

Pecile at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 781209675

Keywords

Garden Description

The Pecile (Fig. 20) was never excavated as a garden. Thus, today, we have only the large pond, 30 m wide x 116 m long (Fig. 21) which hosts a flock of white geese (Fig. 20, A). A garden must have been spread all around it, but its flowerbeds need still to be investigated (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 139-141, fig. 45). If, as in Villa Adriana often happens, they have been dug in the tufa platform, sooner or later we will be able to see their shapes and reconstruct the garden's appearance. For the moment we have to be content with the dark green bushes which, cut in the shape of columns, mark the spots once occupied by the ones of the monumental peristyle 100 m wide and 248 m long. On the northern side of the Pecile, we can still admire the long wall around which, once, ran the double portico used by the Emperor for his daily strolls (Fig. 20, B): three spins around the central wall corresponded to a mile as written on a marble slate (HÜLSEN 1896; MANCINI 1952; COARELLI 1997, pp. 207-209). He could circle around it as many times as his doctor had prescribed him to do (Fig. 22). According to ancient Romans' belief, long walks offered an opportunity to exercise and were necessary to preserve both health and fitness. At the western end of the Pecile, a pillared Belvedere offered to Villa Adriana's inhabitants the possibility to rest from time to time admiring the underlying plain and the city of Rome far away on the horizon.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 20: Isometry of the Pecile, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 21: The pond of the Pecile Garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 22: The wall of the Pecile Garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, 2000, pp. 139-141, fig. 45. (worldcat)
Ch. Hülsen, "Zu den Institutsschriften" Archäologischer Anzeiger, 1896, pp. 47-48. (worldcat) (DigiZeitschriften)
G. Mancini, Inscriptiones Italiae, vol. IV, Regio IV, fasc. I, Tibur, Roma 1952, p. 113, n. 242. (worldcat)
F. Coarelli, "Il 'Pecile' di Villa Adriana e la Porticus triumphi" Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung 104, 1997, pp. 207-217. (worldcat)

Places

Pecile at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 781209675

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The so-called Inferi Nymphaeum (Fig. 1, n. 23)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The so-called Inferi Nymphaeum (Fig. 1, n. 23)

Keywords

Garden Description

The so-called Inferi (Figg. 68 and 69) is a garden arrangement placed a little South of the tomb and closely connected with the building called the "Temple of Pluto" set just East of it. This peculiar landscaping arrangement was created excavating a narrow artificial valley in the slopes of the grounds that here are climbing up towards the Santo Stefano Hill, while the Inferi's garden went down to rejoin the same level of the underground carriages' road, which, as a modern subway, connected all the buildings of Villa Adriana (MACDONALD, PINTO 1995, pp. 143-145; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, pp. 390-395, figs. 18-19; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 303-305, figs. 25, 138). The small vale, 128 m long and 17 m wide, terminated, at its southern extremity, in a dark grotto 5.10 m wide and 7.20 m deep (Fig. 68, P). At the end of the small cave a narrow cleaving (Fig. 68, A) not even 40-30 cm large and diminishing all the time, is all that is left of an ancient fountain (Fig.70). At Contini's time the grotto must have been nearly filled by soil and so it still was in the XIX century as we can see in a Penna drawing (Fig. 71), However Contini could have seen only the top of the Inferi. This can explain why the Roman 17nth century architect traced an inexistent gallery connecting the small nymphaeum with the trapezoidal system of large galleries which served as parking place and stables to the Great Underground Carriage Road. Contini, impressed by Aelius Spartianus' assertion "etiam Inferos finxit" (Hist. Aug., Hadr. 26.5), believed that all the gigantic underground parts of this area were a representation of the afterlife. Thus he supposed that a gallery must have connected with this antrum - which he thought to be the entrance of the reign of Pluto - with the Great Trapeze.

In reality the Inferi Nymphaeum, as any other part of Villa Adriana, was only linked to the underground road. A gallery starting from the middle of the eastern semicircular tunnel (Fig. 68, L) connected the little valley, and indirectly also the building called "Pluto's Temple", to the subterranean communication route (Fig. 68, E).

Today the small glen, which from 1969 on and through all 1972 was kept free of vegetation, has just been cleaned, and a kind of wild jungle, that developed in it during the last 30 years, has been uprooted. It needs badly to be excavated and the findings will certainly be rewarding. To begin with it is probable that an euripus will be found in its middle. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that, on both sides of the valley and just 16.50 m before the grotto, we find the openings of the two semicircular galleries leading to the nymphaeum (Fig. 68, B-C). One of them was surely necessary because from its middle started the gallery connecting it with the Great Underground Carriage Road; but the only objective of the other one (Fig. 68, C) was to reach the grotto. Why? If there had not been any hindrance anyone could have gotten there through the vale or, in case of a basin barring the entrance, even through the eastern gallery. There was no need of a second one. Thus this fact points up that:

1 - the access to the Nymphaeum must have been barred, probably by a basin (Fig. 68, H);

2 - a canal running up from the Nymphaeum to the end of the valley (Fig. 68, G) must have divided two sidewalks set on both sides of the small valley. Only this could create the necessity of a second gallery to connect the grotto with the western side of the dale.

Romans, as we know, never did anything unnecessary just for symmetry's sake. Hadrian who along the canal of the Canopus valley set a portico only where it was needed to protects the diners from the sun and not on the other bank which was already shaded by the hill, would never create an underground symmetrical gallery which could be admired only on a map. Moreover the presence of a canal in the middle of the valley seems to be confirmed by a probe conducted with an auger which found a difference of 0.50 m of depth between the sides of the valley and its center.

Coming back to the small cave, this grotto is surely what Aelius Spartianus called Inferi when he wrote "etiam Inferos finxit". The tight connection of it with the mysterious building known with different names - Elysian Fields (Ligorio), Serapis Temple (Piranesi), Pluto's Temple (Penna) - when compared in the same scale with the Telesterion and the nearby Plutonium of Eleusis (Fig. 67) might suggest that this creation was contrived by Hadrian as a memento of the Eleusinian mysteries to which, he had been initiated, and in which he also reached the highest degree.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 67: Comparison between Eleusis and Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 68: Plan of the Valley and Nymphaeum of the Inferi, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 69: Isometry of the Inferi Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 70: The small grotto of the Inferi Nymphaeum, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 71: Early nineteenth-century drawing of the Inferi Nymphaeum, by A. Penna.

Credit: Courtesy of Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

W. L. Macdonald, J. A. Pinto, Hadrian's Villa and Its Legacy, Yale University 1995, pp. 143-145. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell'acqua", in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, pp. 390-395, figs. 18-19. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 303-305, figs. 25, 138. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The so-called Throne Hall garden (Fig. 1, n. 17)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The so-called Throne Hall garden (Fig. 1, n. 17)

Keywords

Garden Description

The so-called "Throne Hall" (MACDONALD, PINTO 1995, pp. 78-81), was not a throne hall at all (Fig. 46). It was a garden (JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987-88, pp. 154-156, figs. 9-10; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, p. 366, fig. 2; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 325-330, figs. 111-113). A probe (Fig. 46, A), in the peristyle cleared that here there was no flooring. Another probe (Fig. 46, B), revealed instead the existence of two flowerbeds (Fig. 46, C), dug in the tufa, and enclosed by low walls of irregular blocks of stone, roughly set together by a poor mortar. Even a small flowerpot was found in the northern flowerbed (Fig. 47). By its small size and its shape, it revealed to have contained some small plant of the kind called by Pliny "viola"(Fig. 48). The garden was crossed in the middle by a central alley: a large path (Fig. 46, P) that led to a podium (Fig. 46, S) set in an ample apse. Today both these two elements are in very bad condition The remains of the apse are scarcely higher than the basis of a series of niches, which - Penna says - were decorated by chunks of pumice tinged with green and bluish hues to imitate the grottoes' rocky walls, a typical decoration for a garden nymphaeum. Today the podium, that was set in the middle of the apse, is quite wrecked. Once it must have been lined with marble but today only the concrete of its basement is left (Fig. 49).

However the presence of the podium and the fragments of the red marble suggests that all this arrangement was created to expose some particularly beautiful piece of sculpture. As a matter of fact, chunks of a red marble statue (a Faun's tail, and a piece of a goat's skin) have been found here. This suggests the presence of a third statue of Faun with a goat, similar to the two that have already been found at Villa Adriana. Unfortunately, the way in which the remains have been broken, and the vicinity of some kilns where many pieces of sculpture were reduced to chalk, makes us think that nothing more will be found. It is a pity, because this statue, probably brought back by the emperor's in 125 A.D., must have been an outstanding piece of sculpture.

It is evident that this peristyle-garden was clearly designed to give a scenographic view of the masterwork (Fig. 50) to people staying in the Doric Pilasters' Hall.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 46: Plan of the Throne Hall garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 50: Reconstruction of the Throne Hall garden.

Images

Fig. 47: Finding a flower pot.

Credit: Courtesy of Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 48: The flower pot found in the Throne Hall garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 49: The concrete basement remaining from the ruined Podium in the Throne Hall garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

W. L. Macdonald, J. A. Pinto, Hadrian's Villa and Its Legacy, Yale University 1995, pp. 78-81. (worldcat)
W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. 60 (1987-88), pp. 154-156, figs. 9-10. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell-acqua," in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, p. 366, fig. 2. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 325-330, figs. 111-113. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The Stadium-garden (Fig. 1, n. 4)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The Stadium-garden (Fig. 1, n. 4)

Stadium-garden at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 190433997

Keywords

Garden Description

Already widely documented, published and discussed, it was surveyed, excavated and reconstructed by A. Hoffman (HOFFMAN 1980). His book is an outstanding and very important work but we can't accept all of his hypotheses, and namely we can't believe the existence of an impossible central basin (HOFFMAN 1980, p. 67, plt. 50. 1). The place, picked for it by Hoffman, is a square area where tufa is surfacing (Fig. 12, d). All the excavations put in evidence that only a thin layer of soil (10 to 5 cm high) covered the rock (JASHEMSKI, SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987-88, pp. 151-154, fig. 4; SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1998, pp. 383-385, fig. 14). Now it stands to reason that, if there had been a basin, it must have had a decorative coating of marble or mosaic. In this case the tufa would have been first smoothed and after that leveled with a thick layer of mortar. But there is no trace of leveling or of mortar here. The surface of the rock is irregular and left as it was in nature. It is difficult to understand how, with this kind of rocks nearly surfacing, anybody could have imagined to find the depth necessary to create a basin. How didn't he calculate the thickness of the layer of concrete necessary to create a horizontal smooth plane, which, as the higher peaks of the rock were at 5 cm from the soil's surface, had to be 6 cm thick at least? How didn't he realize that, to keep the water in, he had to spread over the concrete a layer of at least 2 cm of impervious opus signinum? Then he had to cover it with another layer of mortar necessary for fixing the chosen flooring, and at last, add from 1 to 3 cm of mosaic or marble. There would never have been any place left, not even for enough water to moisten the surface.

Therefore what we find here is simply a piazza 20 m long and 23.75 m wide (Fig. 12, d). It is placed right in the middle of the so-called Stadium (Figg. 14-15), a garden which is the pivotal part of a very important tricliniar area (Fig. 13) (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1987, pp. 178-180, figs. 21-28, 35-37); consisting in the Three Exedras' Hall (Fig. 12, a and e). It stood on its western side, and the overhanging Winter Palace, which rose on the opposite one (Fig. 12, b). In the Stadium, two large tricliniar pavilions (Fig. 12, c, c1) were set at the southern and northern side of the piazza (Fig. 14 and 15) (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 2000, pp. 225-231). Due to its position, this place was conveniently set under the eyes of all the guests. It was their center of interest.

Now, for what we read about Roman everyday life, we know that, while banqueting, people used to enjoy many forms of entertainment (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1983, passim) and, from the Historia Augusta, we also know that, during his dinners, Hadrian always wanted to assist to comedies, dramas and recitals of poetry (Hist. Aug., Hadr. 25.20). Therefore it seems highly probable that this area was intended to be used as a stage, even though not a paved one, because here there are no remains of masonry. We must conclude that its soil was either covered by a layer of very fine red gravel (remains of it were found in the excavation of the Stadium-garden) or - even if there is no knowledge of the existence in ancient times of grasses kept as a kind of lawn - of a green space (Fig. 12, d).

Meanwhile on the northern end of the Stadium the area between three luxurious rooms (Fig.12, n) and the tricliniar pavilion was occupied by a small, elegant garden (Figg. 12, m; 14). Porticoes (Fig. 12, s) ran on both its sides and, in the middle, two square and long flowerbeds flanked a marble lined euripus. We can very well imagine the reflection of the architecture on its calm blue water.

On the opposite side (Figg. 12, H; 16), another garden - an emicycle - imitated the part which, in a real Stadium, was occupied by the public. Only this one was a magnificent nymphaeum (HOFFMAN 1980, pp. 000-000). A canalization, coasting the palace building, circled the top of the emicycle, and water slided from it on the white marble steps of eight small waterfalls. Amid them, hedges of box trees, neatly cut, well groomed, and set in big mortar containers, took the place of the spectators' seats. At the bottom, in a small grotto, a fountain collected the falling water, and emptied it in the nearby semicircular basin, concluding with it this splendid water-theater. A spectacular garden indeed.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 12: Plan of the Stadium-garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 13: Isometry of the Stadium-garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 16: Plan of the Great Nymphaeum in the Stadium-garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Images

Fig. 14: Northern Garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 15: Southern Garden, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

A. Hoffman, Das Gartenstadion in der Villa Hardiana, Mainz am Rhein 1980, p. 67, plt. 50. 1, pp. 000-000. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, L'arte del convito nell'antica Roma, Roma 1983, passim. (worldcat)
W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "I giardini di Villa Adriana: rapporto preliminare," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti, Vol. IX, 1987-88, pp. 151-154, fig. 4. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Adriano: architettura del verde e dell'acqua," in Horti Romani, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, a cura di M. Cima, E. La Rocca, Roma 1998, pp. 383-385, fig. 14. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "The Importance of Water in Roman Garden Triclinia," in Ancient Roman Villa Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), Dumbarton Oaks 1987, pp. 178-180, fig. 21-28, 35-37. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 225-231. (worldcat)

Places

Stadium-garden at Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 190433997

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983

The terrace on the valley of Tempe (Fig. 1, n. 10)

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Region

Region IV

Location

Hadrian's Villa Pleiades: 423127

Location Description

DESCRIPTION

Garden

The terrace on the valley of Tempe (Fig. 1, n. 10)

Keywords

terrace gardens AAT:300404778

Garden Description

This terrace offers a splendid view of Tivoli and its mountains (Fig. 30). The concentration of lead in its soil shows that it was kept as a cultivated area (SALZA PRINA RICOTTI 1994-95, fig. 7). Today we don't have enough elements to understand its landscaping, but we must consider that the terrace is set between two very important garden features of Villa Adriana. On the northern side it is flanked by the enchanting, open air pavilion now called the "Belvedere of the Venus of Cnidus" (Fig. 1, 11) while, on the opposite side of the plateau, another imposing nymphaeum, the so-called "Stallone", concludes the esplanade overlooking the Valley of Tempe. At the back of this terrace a big sustaining wall reinforced by impressive arches ran along the West side, and this embankment was concluded by another more modest nymphaeum, set in front of the Venus of Cnidus' Belvedere. It was decorated by a series of niches which, before the ruin of Villa Adriana, might have contained some decorative elements, giving this garden its final touch. Today the niches have been disfigured opening , in each of them, windows of different shapes the ones from the others.

Plans

Fig. 1: Plan of Villa Adriana, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Fig. 30: Plan of the Terrace on the valey of Tempe, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti.

Dates

Built between 118 and 138 CE

Excavation Date

unspecified

Bibliography

H. Winnefeld, Die Villa des Hadrian bei Tivoli, Berlin 1895, p. 154. (worldcat)
H. Kähler, Hadrian und sein Villa bei Tivoli, Berlin 1950. (worldcat)
S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana, Roma 1961. (worldcat)
F. Rakob, "Der Bauplan einer kaiserlichen Villa," in W. Hartmann (ed.), Festschrift K. Langheit, Bönn 1973, pp. 113-125. (worldcat)
F. E. Brown, "Hadrianic Architecture," in L. F. Sadler (ed.), Essays in Memory of Karl Lehmann, New York 1964, pp. 55-58. (worldcat)
G. Lugli, "Studi topografici intorno alle antiche ville suburbane. VI. Villa Adriana. A. - Una villa di età repubblicana inclusa nelle contruzioni imperiali," Bullettino della Commissione archeologica Comunale di Roma 55, 1927, pp. 139-204. (worldcat)
C. Caprino, "Plastico marmoreo di uno stadio nella Villa Adriana a Tivoli," Rivista dell'Instuto nazionale di archeologia e storia dell'arte 3 s., 19-20 (1996-97), pp. 113-151. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Nascita e sviluppo di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 65, 1992-93, p. 73. (worldcat)
E. Salza Prina Ricotti, Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, Roma 2000, pp. 144-147. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, J. T. Ammons, M. E. Simmons, S. Y. Lee, R. C. Minter, "Genesis of soil developed in volcanic tufa at Hadrian's Villa near Rome," Agronomy Abstracts ASA, Madison WL 1990, p. 291. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Il sistema di irrigazione della Piazza d'Oro," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 62 (1989-90), pp. 151-157. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, "Appendice. Soils of Hadrian's Villa," in W. F. Jashemski, E. Salza Prina Ricotti "Preliminary Excavations in the Gardens of Hadrian's Villa: the Canopus Area and the Piazza d'Oro" American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 96, No.4 (Oct. 1992), pp. 595-597. (worldcat) (jstor)
M. E. Timpson, J.E. Foss, R. J. Lewis, C. A. Stiles, "Soil interpretation of some Roman archaeological sites in Italy and Tunisia," 15th Int. Congr. of Soil Science, Vol. 6b, 1994, pp. 172-173. (worldcat)
J. E. Foss, E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Lead Pipes Use in Ancient Roman Irrigation System and Content of Pb in the Soil of Archaeological Sites," Bulletin of the Metals Museum, Vol. 26 (1996-II), Aoba, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan, pp. 33-47. (worldcat)

E. Salza Prina Ricotti, "Ricerca archeologica ed analisi dei terreni: il caso di Villa Adriana," Atti della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia: Rendiconti 67 (1994-95), pp. 69-85, fig. 7. (worldcat)

Places

Villa Hadriani Pleiades: 423127

Hadrian's Villa (ruins) TGN: 7006983