- Ingrid D. Rowland –
Figure 61.5 Etruscan sarcophagi in the courtyard of Palazzo Civico, Viterbo (formerly Palazzo dei
Priori). Photograph: author.scholarship of the curial staff. At the same time, his account of ancient history shifted its
focus to satisfy new patrons, not only the Spanish pope, but also the Spanish sovereigns
Ferdinand and Isabella. Magister Giovanni’s scope became more international, and more
keyed to a public of readers rather than listeners. In 1498, with the fi nancial help of
Ferdinand and Isabella, the papal printer Eucharius Silber published his latest book, an
imposing quarto volume in Gothic typeface, with the title Commentary on the works of
Various Authors Speaking about Antiquities.^16
The compiler of this monumental tome no longer went by the title of Magister Iohannes
Nannius. The Pope’s theologian had changed his name to a much more impressive and
ancient Iohannes Annius Viterbiensis, Annius of Viterbo. “Nanni” meant nothing more
than “Johnson,” but the ancient family of the Annii, as the new book revealed, had been
an Etruscan dynasty of particular importance:^17 “The city of Etruria was both the native
region of the early kingship and of the Annii Veri, an extremely ancient Etruscan family,
adorned by the august Emperors Antoninus [Pius] and Commodus.” Thus “Annius of
Viterbo” was more than a pen name for the Master of the Sacred Palace: this Dominican
of exceptional talents, exceptional bravery, and controversial opinions had taken on a
whole new identity.
Nor was Annius the only protagonist of his tale to change names. The great city of
Etruria, “native region of the early kingship” was his new title for Viterbo, and his latest
work on the city showed that he had shifted his attention from its Egyptian founders to
its long and important position at the center of an Etruscan Golden Age.
At the same time, however, Annius began to concentrate on the primeval history
of Rome, and especially on the city’s left bank, which lay on the Etruscan side of the
traditional border that divided the Latins from the Etruscans. He also kept an attentive
eye on the Vatican and the Spanish church of San Pietro in Montorio, set on the slopes
of the Janiculum Hill, the outcrop that loomed over the Seven Hills across the river, and
bore the name of Janus, the oldest of the Etruscan gods.^18