ID AND LOCATION
| Stanford #
| 632ab |
| AG1980 #
| 632a-b |
| PM1960 #
| 632 a b |
| Slab #
| unknown |
| Adjoins
| none |
CONDITION
| Located
| false |
| Incised
| true |
| Surviving
| true |
| Subfragments
| 2 |
| Plaster Parts
| 0 |
| Back Surface
| smooth |
| Slab Edges
| 1 |
| Clamp Holes
| 0 |
| Tassello
| no |
TECHNICAL INFO
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| ANALYSIS
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| Description The fragment was part of a slab edge. At top lies an almost horizontal row of tabernae. The shops face downwards. The back corner of the shop furthest left has been cut off, perhaps to accommodate other architecture. A straight line emerges from the back of the row of shops at an oblique angle towards the top edge of the fragment. Below the tabernae, across a passageway, lies another structure, only partially visible. The rooms that face it are poorly engraved. They all seem to open onto the passageway. One, in the center, may not be a room but an entry to the rest of the building below the frontal rooms. A staircase is visible in the section to the right of this entry. This building seems to make a slight curve downwards toward the left.
Identification Rows of tabernae are ubiquitous on the Plan, and the type depicted here are of the most common type seen on the FUR. Each shop consisted of a single room with a wide opening towards the street that could be screened off at night. The owners may have resided with their families on a wooden platform in the back. The rooms at the bottom seem to be part of a larger, multi-storeyed structure, no longer visible. Their function is uncertain, although some of them may have been shops.
Significance This fragment is typical of non-identified fragments of the Plan. No monumental buildings are represented, and the fragment instead provides a view of the lesser known residential and commercial buildings.
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| HISTORY OF FRAGMENT |
| Like the majority of FUR fragments, these pieces were discovered in 1562 in a garden behind the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. From here, they were transferred to the Palazzo Farnese and stored there. The fragments were later used as building material in the 17th c. construction of the Farnese familys Giardino Segreto (Secret Garden) near the Via Giulia, and were rediscovered in 1888 or 1898 when the walls of the garden were demolished. Since then, they have been stored with the other known FUR fragments in various places: the storerooms of the Commissione Archeologica (1888/1898-1903), the Antiquarium Comunale (1924-1939), the Capitoline Museums (1939-1955), the Palazzo Braschi (1955-1998), and since 1998 in the Museo della Civiltà Romana in EUR under the auspices of the Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali del Comune di Roma. (The history of these fragments corresponds to Iter E" as summarized in PM 1960, p. 56.) N.B. PM 1960 does not reveal the whereabouts of the fragments between 1903 and 1924.
Text by Tina Najbjerg |
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| KEYWORDS
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| tabernae, stairs |
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