All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it.
Notes:
Page revised in May 2020.
Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller
Candelabro degli Ebrei(Vasi at work in the Grand View of Rome)
Links to this page can be found in Book 1.
The Plate (No. 12 - ii)
In the description accompanying his 1747 etching depicting Porta
Portese Giuseppe Vasi wrote that the area near the gate was used as a
burial ground from the time of Ancient Rome; Vasi accompanied Cardinal Domenico Silvio Passionei on a visit to a Jewish cemetery and
he added a small etching to the text. It shows a tomb with a number of niches and an oil lamp which are both decorated with a menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum which is a symbol of Judaism and can be noticed also in the Synagogue of Ostia Antica.
The Jewish cemetery was affected by the construction of new walls and in 1645 the Jews were assigned a new cemetery near S. Prisca.
Section of the 1748 Map of Rome by Giovanni Battista Nolli
The map shows the new walls built by Pope Urban VIII and the remaining area of the Jewish cemetery (Ortaccio degli Ebrei).
Musei Vaticani: Jewish tombstones with Greek inscriptions which were found in 1906 at Catacomba di Monteverde, not far from Porta Portese (ca IVth century)
Next plate in Book 1: Porta S. Pancrazio.
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