Ruined Roman Bridges, Timber Bridges and an Aqueduct, Montfaucon, 1722

This is an original antique copper engraving, uncolored, a double page folding plate from Montfaucon's Antiquity Explained, and Represented in Sculptures. Across the top a ruined masonry bridge stands in a river landscape, its broken arches overgrown with plants between rocky banks and hills. Below it a long bridge with timber arches on stone piers is drawn in elevation, with buildings at each end. The lower half holds a single wide arch over a rushing stream, a coastal view with a row of broken piers running out into the sea beside a tall ruined building, an aqueduct of two tiers of arches over a valley, and several small timber bridges, one standing on two stone piers.

The captions name the sources: "Agustina Martinelli." under the ruined bridge, "Col. Trajana" under the timber bridge, "Bullifon" under the coastal view, and "Col. Antonina" four times under the small timber bridges. The bridge on piers is lettered "Designed at Rome". The figures are numbered 1 to 9 with 9 used twice, ten numbers in all. The corners read "Vol. IV." at foot left, "Plate 39." at foot right and "Pag. 116" at top right.

"Col. Trajana" is Trajan's Column in Rome, and "Col. Antonina" the column of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, which Montfaucon calls the Antonine pillar. Bernard de Montfaucon (1655 to 1741) was a French Benedictine monk and scholar; his L'Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures appeared in Paris in 1719, and this English translation by David Humphreys was printed in London by J. Tonson and J. Watts in 1722. Volume four closes with carriages, roads, bridges, aqueducts and shipping, and this sheet belongs to the bridges and aqueducts.

The landscape views at top and center make this one of the more pictorial sheets of the volume.

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