These inscriptions (1934) can be read in Palazzo Carpegna, still the seat of the Academy of Saint Luke (Accademia di San Luca), an art academy established in 1593 and named after Luke the Evangelist, patron saint of painters. They were authored by Raffaello Santarelli.

Inscription 1 is carved in Roman square capitals and runs along the three sides of the decorative frame on the exterior of the building along Via della Stamperia 80-81 on the side of the courtyard; inscription 2 is carved in Roman square capitals, retraced with black colouring, on a plaque fixed on one of the walls of the same courtyard.

The text of inscription 1 is a shortened version of the text of inscription 2, relating only its core message, that is the moving of the academy in 1934 from its original seat to this site. The original seat of the Academy was next to the church of Saints Luke and Martina at the Roman Forum. Like many other buildings, it was demolished to make way for the construction of the Via dell’Impero (today Via dei Fori Imperiali).

The longer inscription shows features that are typical of Santarelli’s style, including the title praefectus Urbi to indicate Rome’s governor Francesco Boncompagni Ludovisi (1886–1955) and the title vir clarissimus (literally ‘very famous man’, also in the inscription of Trajan’s Market) to indicate not only a senator, but also more generally a member of an important ministerial board such as, in this context, the Consiglio Superiore di Antichità e Belle Arti (in the imperial period, it was assigned only to the members of the Roman senatorial class). While Ludovisi served in the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy (1929–1943), Giovannoni was not a senator strictly speaking, but his membership of the Consiglio might have justified the title vir clarissimus for Santarelli. The Fascist dating formula a renovatis fascibus, repeated in both inscriptions, emphasizes the concept of novelty and renewal also expressed by renovandas and novam. 

Line 2 of the second inscription, mentioning Mussolini, as well as the Fascist dating in line 12, were erased because of the post-Fascist damnatio memoriae, but were restored later (Brancato 1999: 76). Traces of these interventions are still visible today.

Palazzo Carpegna was designed by the baroque architect Francesco Borromini (1599–1667) and was constructed between 1643 and 1650; its restoration and amplification in 1934 were conducted by the architects Gustavo Giovannoni (1873–1947), who also presided over the Academy between 1932 and 1934, and Arnaldo Foschini (1884–1968), who also contributed to shaping the Città Universitaria and the EUR area in Rome.

Bibliography

[Accademia di San Luca]. 1934. La reale insigne Accademia di San Luca nella inaugurazione della sua nuova sede, anno 1934. Rome: Società tipografica Castaldi, 61–62.

Brancato, Nicolò Giuseppe, Gianni Loperfido, and Eugenia Serafini. 1999. Roma: iscrizioni dal medioevo al duemila. La storia della città raccontata sui muri. Latina: Il Gabbiano.

Ferraironi, Francesco. 1937. Iscrizioni ornamentali su edifici e monumenti di Roma con appendice sulle iscrizioni scomparse. Rome: Industria Tipografica Romana, no. 218.13.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870-2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar, 57–59.

Salvagni, Isabella. 2000. Palazzo Carpegna. Rome: De Luca, 143–59.

Antonino Nastasi