A paper by Ginette Vagenheim, Université de Rouen Normandie (ERIAC UR4705), for the Ancient World Seminar

In their desire to live as the ancient Romans, the Humanists attempted to discover in their texts how the ancients lived and to imitate aspects of their daily lives. From this perspective, some erudites (like the members of Paolo Giovio’s family) with the help of antiquarians (like Pirro Ligorio) tried to reconstruct the architecture of the famous Aviary that the Roman Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 a.C.n.) described, as part of his Villa in Casinum, in his third book on Agriculture (III,15,7-10).

Giulio Giovio’s comment on Varro’s description was originally accompanied by a drawing of the building that is lost. This seminar will analyse Giovio’s comment in the light of the unique renaissance drawing of the Aviary that survives–that of Pirro Ligorio. Such an analysis will give us valuable information that can help to resolve the long standing academic debate on the form and function of Varro’s Aviary.

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