Resumen de Art of memory: recollecting Rome in Giovanni Marcanova's "Collectio antiquitatum"

• Completed in 1465, the Collectio antiquitatum (Modena, Bibl. Estense Ms. Lat. 992) largely comprises illustrated transcriptions of ancient Latin and Greek inscriptions and monuments, and consequently its content has been identifi ed as proto-archaeological. Its seeming historicism is belied by the inclusion of a series of full-page drawings depicting Roman sites that exhibit notable anachronisms and inventions. This article argues, rather, that many of them adapt a form of visual word-play originally used in classical rhetoric to recall past events. An examination of Marcanova’s work in light of premodern theory about memory as mental process and Renaissance cultural practices further reveals how it functioned as a vehicle for historical commemoration rather than objective documentation.