The inscription (1943) could be read at the entrance of Palazzo Regis Linotte, better known as “Farnesina ai Baullari” (Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 166a). It was authored by Raffaello Santarelli.

The inscription was carved in Roman square capitals on a marble plaque fixed on the left wall of the palazzo’s courtyard. The text is dated to 29 October 1942, the day after the twentieth anniversary of the March on Rome (restitutos fasces post annos vicenos Italis feliciter celebrantibus), yet in fact, it was carved in January 1943. The inscription was deleted because of its explicit references to the Fascist regime after a decision of the Municipality of Rome of 28 May 1945 and specifically targeting this inscription. We know the text of the inscription, as well as about its vicissitudes, thanks to archival sources (see Nastasi 2019: 673–75).

The inscription records that Gian Giacomo Borghese (1889–1954), governor of Rome (1939–1943), assigned the Palazzo Regis Linotte to the magazine Capitolium to serve at its editorial seat. Capitolium was a monthly illustrated magazine established in 1925 by the Fascist Governorate of Rome. Its principal aim was to record (and celebrate) the governorate’s activities, with a special interest in Rome’s urbanistic transformations (archeological sites, restoration, and construction projects, etc.). The magazine continued to be published after the demise of Fascism under the democratic Municipality of Rome until 1976. The text shows phrasings and stylistic features typical of Santarelli’s style (see praefectus Urbi to indicate Rome’s governor and the words Romani nominis laudem used also in the inscription no. 1 of the Istituto per le Case Popolari). However, it also shows some peculiarities. First, Victor Emmanuel III is not only called king but also emperor, after the conquest of Ethiopia and the proclamation on 9 May 1936. Moreover, the expression nomen omenque evokes the famous Latin proverb nomen est omen (the name is a sign). In general, the text is more elaborate and uses more elaborate rhetoric than other inscriptions Santarelli authored. The optimistic rhetoric of the inscription stands in contrast to the political realities of the time, since Italy was increasingly suffering from the ongoing war.

Palazzo Regis Linotte, better known as “La Farnesina ai Baullari”, was built in 1523 and bought by the Municipality of Rome in 1885; it was restored and partially rebuilt between 1889 and 1904 and has been hosting the Museo Barracco ever since 1948. The marble plaque that carried the inscription was reused in 1948 for a new inscription in Italian, saying: “Il museo / che con amore di storico / e d’artista / Giovanni Barracco / istituì / e generosamente donò / a Roma / la civica amministrazione / riapre al pubblico in questa sede / il 13 novembre 1948” (“The civic administration reopens to the public the museum which Giovanni Barracco founded with the love of a historian and of an artist and which he generously donated to Rome, in this seat on 13 November 1948”).

Bibliography

Golzio, Vincenzo. 1942. ‘La Farnesia ai Baullari sede di “Capitolium”’. Capitolium 17 (11): 317–78.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870-2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar.

Antonino Nastasi