25

(fols 3 and 66) in which the hand is that of the so-called »Kopist des Anonymus Destailleur«, and Kulawik has identified a third (fol. 12 v). [EN 8: Census Reco 227516; Kulawik (note 6), vol. I, p. 87.

The name »Kopist des Anonymus Destailleur» was invented by Hermann Egger in his catalogue of the drawings of ancient buildings in the Albertina in Vienna, published in 1903. [EN 9] He used it to identify the hand of a draughtsman responsible for hundreds of drawings of both ancient and Renaissance subjects which parallel those in the Codex Destailleur »D«. However, it is utterly misleading, as not only do the »Kopist's« drawings include monuments not found among the former (such as Trajan's Column and S. Stefano Rotondo), but also several which appear in both collections are drawn more fully in Vienna. Nor are the Vienna drawings entirely by one hand being, althouhg one predominates, the product of several draughtsmen like those in Berlin. [EN 10: Bernd Kulawik, personal communication.] In my notes for the Census on the Codex Destailleur »D« I suggested that the two sets of drawings either formed part of some joint project or depend on some common prototype, presumably available to both main draughtsmen at roughly the same time. [EN 11: Census RecNo 60460.]

Kulawik has tentatively suggested the joint project might be linked to the programme of the »Accademia della Virtù« or Vitruvian Academy, adumbrated in the famous letter of 1542 by Claudio Tolomei to Agostino de'Landi. [EN 12: …] To accompany its proposed definitive edition of Vitruvius the academy intended a volume of reconstructions of Roman buildings, and Vasari reports that Vignola was employed »to measure fully the antiquities of Rome«, although no drawings by Vignola corroborate this statement. [EN 13: See Campbell (note 3), vol 1, p. 25f. = Campbell 2004.1]

Though it is tempting to try to connect the Codex Destailleur »D« with Vignola's commission, it is worth remembering that there are other possibilities where Francophone draughtsmen may have been involved. Philibert de l'Orme (1514–1570) describes in his »L'Architecture« (fol. 131) his own collaboration with other craftsmen to measure and draw ancient remains. It was first published in 1567 and could refer to a project either during Philibert's definitive stay in Rome from 1533–1536 or to a putative second visit, variously dated between 1553 and 1560. The latter would, of course, fit better with the proposed dating of the Codex Destailleur »D«, although the drawings of St. Peter's relate specifically to the project around 1546. [EN 14: See Campbell (note 3), vol. 3, pp. 851–853. On the dating of the St. Peter's drawings see Kulawik (note 6), vol. 1, p. 24 f.]