This morning I rec'd the following query: >From an archeological perspective I am trying to find a book/literature that >physically describes/shows pictures etc. of Virgil's tomb at Naples. Can you >offer any advice?
I remember seeing some very old photos of the "Scuola di Virgilio" (actually a rock formation on the coast) in a book a couple years ago, but don't remember the context (Virgil and Horace, I think), or whether the author had anything on la tomba. Comparetti (in the English trans., 276-77 n. 44) has this to say: "It is much to be regretted that no serious archaeological researches should ever as yet have been made in the neighborhood of the poet's grave. The traditional site is generally discredited, but the unimportant work of PEIGNOT, _Recherches sur le tombeau de Virgile_ (Dijon, 1840), cannot be said to have proved the point. COCCHIA, _La tomba di Virgilio, contributo alla topografia dell' antica citta\ di Napoli, Turin (Loescher), 1889, maintains that the grave is exactly at the spot where tradition places it, at the mouth of the Grotto at Pozzuoli. The account in the ancient biography is precise and perfectly worthy of credit, and might serve to point out the spot for the excavations when the exact position of the second milestone on the Via Puteolana has been ascertained by a careful study of the topography of ancient Naples. COCCHIA maintains that this condition is fulfilled by the grave in question, and it would certainly be difficult to prove positively that htis was not Vergil's grave or to account for the ancient tradition which described it as such." This, however, was written in 1896. Surely there is something more recent. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- David Wilson-Okamura http://virgil.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] Macalester College Virgil Tradition: discussion, bibliography, &c. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
