La Roma triumphans e la nascita dell'antiquaria: Biondo Flavio e Andrea Mantegna

Roma triumphans and the birth of antiquarianism : Biondo Flavio and Andrea Mantegna. Biondo Flavio completed his Roma triumphans, the foundation of the Renaissance antiquarian movement, in 1459 while in Mantua. The work was immediately successful : in a letter written in December 1460 to Ludovico Gonzaga, Biondo himself reported that it was already being read and copied in courts all over Europe. First published in Mantua in 1473 and continually reprinted from the late 15th century to the mid-16th century, Roma triumphans rapidly became a crucial point of reference for the study of Roman antiquities. The first two books, devoted to religion, presented a reconstruction of the myths, cults and ceremonies of ancient Rome, with the help of a wide variety of sources. The origins of the cult of the goddess Cybele was thus recreated through the selection and unprecedented restitution of antique sources, which correspond precisely to those depicted in Mantegna's The Introduction of the Cult of Cybele in Rome. The artist must therefore have known the work, of which he undoubtedly owned a copy : in fact, a volume containing the writings of Biondo appears in the estate inventory of Ludovico Mantegna, the painter's son and heir, drawn up in 1510.