Ciampini, Giovanni [Giustino].

[ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE – CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY – COUNTER-REFORMATION] De sacris aedificiis a Constantino Magno constructis. Synopsis Historica [On the Sacral Buildings Constructed by Constantine the Great. Historical Summary].

Rome: Johann Jakob Komarek, 1693. Quarto (33.3 × 23.3 cm). Contemporary vellum binding; [16], 217, [3] pp. With engraved frontispiece (drawn by Giovanni Battista Lenardi and engraved by Arnoldo van Westerhout) and 35 copper engraved plates, 23 of which are folded and 4 double-page. Occasional leaves with tiny wormholes and somewhat stained; a few plates with glue stains; binding with signs of use; some splitting, losses, and stains; else good or better. Item #54576

First edition of this early standard work of Christian archaeology, which analyzes the category of early Christian architecture for the first time as the subject of an individual illustrated monograph. It remains relevant to the discipline today due to the visual documentation of numerous monuments that have since been destroyed. Ciampini's works are considered to be “the most richly illustrated publications on Italy's medieval architectural heritage” (Francesco Russo, The Printed Illustration of Medieval Architecture in Pre-Enlightenment Europe, in: Architectural History, vol. 54, 2011, pp. 119–170). The engravings are characterized by scientific precision. Ciampini not only measured the architectural objects, but also produced the designs for the engravings himself. He was considered a perfectionist both as a church historian and as an archaeologist, whose descriptions and interpretations were characterized by extensive literary knowledge and detailed knowledge. One of his main interests was not least to reconstruct the liturgical practice of the time on the basis of the architecture and, conversely, to understand the architecture and iconography from this practice. This ideal of a historiography that draws, measures, writes and publishes is visualized right at the beginning of the book in a frontispiece, which Ciampini also prefaced his famous treatise on mosaics. Lenardi, who was known not only as a graphic artist but also as a church painter in Rome, thus allegorically pits these four practices (drawing, measuring, writing and publishing) against a destructive Chronos: In Lenardi's depiction, these allegories, reminiscent of the four titanic muses, document that which is simultaneously exposed to decay by the scythe. In the foreground, the history-fragmenting work of the ancient god is presented in hieroglyphs (which could not yet be deciphered at the time), which remind us that the thread of tradition can break. In this way, the scene is bracketed by temporality and the threat of loss. The majority of the monuments depicted in the frontispiece are also the subject of the investigation, so that the engraving functions on the one hand as a visual announcement of the content and on the other hand also brings the necessity of the work to the point in a memorable way in an image. (Cf. Dietmar Spengler, Glorificatio bistoriae – ein Frontispiz Giovanni Battista Lenardis, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 70).

And Ciampini was right in his warning: some of the monuments documented here have been altered since that time. Tearing down and rebuilding was still a common practice in the seventeenth century. Above all, the demolition of Old St. Peter's and the new construction that lasted for almost the entire sixteenth century left their mark on the city. The art historian Horst Bredekamp even speaks of a “principle of productive destruction”. Ciampini, who wanted to counter this destruction with his practice of documentation and publication, worked together with well-known personalities of his time. The printer was none other than Johann Jakob Komarek, who produced Andrea Pozzo's influential work “Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum”, which established and disseminated the theory and practice of late Baroque illusion painting.

Giovanni Giustino Ciampini (1633–1698) was one of the most outstanding scholars in Rome, known as the "padre dell' antiquaria cristiana". He held the position of "Magister Brevium Gratiae" and "Praefectus Brevium Justitiae" at the Cancelleria Apostolica. In 1671, he founded an academy for Church history ("Academia Conciliorum Canonum Theologiae Mysticae et Moralis") and eight years later, under the patronage of none other than Decartes' patroness, Christina of Sweden, who had converted to Catholicism, he also initiated the Academy of Natural Sciences ("Academia Physico-Mathematica"). Furthermore, he was also known in Rome for his extensive library and his collection of art and antiquities. (Ibid).

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