- chapter 61: Annius of Viterbo –
17 Iohannes Annius, [Giovanni Nanni, O.P.], Antiquitatum variarum volumina XVII a venerando
et sacrae theologiae et praedicatorii ordinis professore Ioanni Annio. Paris: Josse Bade and Jean Petit,
1512, reprinted 1515. This is the fi rst paginated edition of the text, and is normally the one
cited in footnotes. Because of the change in title between the fi rst edition and the Parisian
editions, the work is usually abbreviated as Antiquitates. Here the page is clxxiv recto.
18 Annius, Antiquitates, 3 verso: “Janus primam Etruriam regiam et Surrenam augustalem
condidit.”
19 Louise Adams Holland, Janus and the Bridge, Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome. Rome:
American Academy in Rome, 1960.
20 Godfrey of Viterbo, Pantheon sive Memoriae saeculorum, published in J.-P. Migne, Patrologiae
Cursus Completus, Vol. 198, Paris: J-P Migne Editeur, 1853, col. 1019:
Catalogus regum Italicorum
Italus, primus rex Italiae, regnavit annis quadraginta et uno
Janus, rex Italiae, regnavit annis viginti septem
Saturnus, rex Italiae, regnavit annis triginta quattuor
Picus, rex Italiae, regnavit annis triginta et uno
Faunus, rex in Laurento, id est in Sabinia provincia, regnavit annis viginti novem.
21 Ingrid D. Rowland, “Bramante’s Hetruscan Tempietto,” Memoirs of the American Academy in
Rome, 51 (2006), 225–238
22 In Peter the Deacon’s Graphia aureae urbis Romae, Janus is the son of Noah rather than the
patriarch himself; Valentini and Zucchetti 1946, vol. III, 77–78: “Postquam fi lii Noë
aedifi caverunt confusionis turrem, Noë cum fi liis suis ratem ingressus, ut Hescodius scribit,
venit Ytaliam, et non longe ab eo loco ubi nunc Roma est, civitatem nominis sui construxit,
in qua et laboris et vitae terminum dedit. Ianus vero fi lius, una cum Iano, fi lio Iapheth, nepote
suo, et Camese indigena, civitatem Ianiculum construens, regnum accepit.”
23 For Annius and his literary method, see Edoardo Fumagalli, “Un falso tardo-Quattrocentesco:
lo pseudo-Catone di Annio da Viterbo,” Vestigia: Studi in onore di Giuseppe Billanovich, (Rome:
Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1984), Vol. 1, 337–363; Christopher Ligota, “Annius of
Viterbo and Historical Method,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 50 (1987),
44–56; Walter E. Stephens, Berosus Chaldaeus: Counterfeit and Fictive Editors of the Fifteenth
Century, diss. Cornell University 1979; Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and
Duplicity in the Western World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980).
24 Walter E. Stephens, Giants in Those Days: Folklore, Ancient History, and Nationalism, Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1989.
25 Weiss, “Traccia,” 436, citing Apostolo Zeno, Dissertazioni Vossiane, Venice 1753, II. 92.
26 This copy of the 1515 edition of Annius is in Rome, Biblioteca Hertziana, Zn 500–1120 raro.
27 Brian Curran, “‘De Sacrarum Litterarum Interpretatione.’ Reticence and Hubris in
Hieroglyphic Studies in the Renaissance: Pierio Valeriano and Annius of Viterbo,” Memoirs of
the American Academy in Rome, 43/44, 1999, 167–181.
28 See for example, Antiquitates, ix recto.
29 See, for example, Antiquitates clxix recto.
30 Ingrid D. Rowland, The Scarith of Scornello: A Tale of Renaissance Forgery (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2004).
31 Mario Signorelli, “Fra’ Annio da Viterbo, umanista e storico,” Memorie domenicane, n.s., vol.
XLI, 1965, 102–112. Signorelli’s Etruscan visions are recounted in Il mondo allucinante degli
etruschi, Milan: SugarCo, 1977; Colloqui con i perispiriti etruschi, Rome: Edizioni Mediteranee,
1973.