Roman Walled Camp Enclosures and Soldiers, Montfaucon Engraving, 1722

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, a single page upright plate in four numbered figures on the walled camp. At the upper left a curved wall of squared stone with a battlemented top encloses a crowd of heads, helmeted soldiers and bearded men looking out over a gabled shelter, while two soldiers stand before it, one with a round decorated shield, the other in banded armor with a tall curved shield. At the upper right three soldiers in armor, with tall shields, stand before a brick wall with a gabled, curtained shelter built against it. A small bird's eye view gives a round enclosure fenced with stakes, with tents inside and a square raised platform at its center under an eagle standard. The lower half of the sheet is a large perspective view of an oval enclosure: an outer wall with square towers and an arcaded gallery runs around an open court, and in the middle stands a large building with a pedimented front, statues and an arched entrance, with two small figures walking nearby.

No source captions are engraved on this plate. The figures carry small numbers from 1 to 4. The corners are lettered "Vol IV" at foot left, "Plate 27" at foot right and "Page 83" at top right.

The plate comes from the fourth volume of Antiquity Explained, and Represented in Sculptures, the English translation by David Humphreys of the work of Bernard de Montfaucon (1655 to 1741), a French Benedictine monk and scholar. His L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures appeared in Paris in 1719, and this edition was printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts in 1722. Volume four deals with war, including the dress, arms and armor of Roman soldiers and the camp. Montfaucon drew together figures copied from ancient monuments, coins, gems and the publications of earlier antiquaries, and engraved the name of each source beside its figure.

The upright format and the large view at the foot make a strong architectural image for a narrow wall.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.