Octavia's Funerary Monument

Onofrio Panvinio, Antiquitatum Veronensium libri octo (Padua, 1647), p. 103, 8.5 in x 12.6 in.

The scholarly interest in ancient Roman inscriptions led to an expansion of epigraphic studies in the sixteenth century. Seen as both authentic archaeological evidence and reliable textual sources, inscriptions were prized for providing important information about antiquity.

Onofrio Panvinio was greatly interested in inscriptions and collected over 3,000 examples through his studies. Here, Panvinio illustrates a Roman funerary relief dedicated to a woman named Octavia, which could be seen at the Church of San Zeno in Oratorio. This representation of a funerary relief is but one of a few that reproduce both image and text in Panvinio's Antiquitatum Veronensium. Above the inscription, one sees an image of a woman on her death bed, surrounded by grieving figures, some of which have been labeled as "uncle" (PATRUUS), "mother" (MATER) and "father" (PATER). The inscription’s rough, fragmented border suggests that what we see here is an accurate depiction of the original monument. However, we cannot be fully sure of Panvinio's accuracy in recording this inscription. In the early modern period, the motif of the broken border was frequently used as a visual convention for indicating that an inscription was ancient.