This double current of feeling is also recognizable in the 'Dittamondo'
of Fazio degli Uberti, composed about the year 1360--a description of visionary travels, in which the author is accompanied by the old geographer Solinus, as Dante was by Virgil.They visit Bari in memory of St.Nicholas, and Monte Gargano of the archangel Michael, and in Rome the legends of Aracoeli and of Santa Maria in Trastevere are mentioned.Still, the pagan splendor of ancient Rome unmistakably exercises a greater charm upon them.A venerable matron in torn garments--Rome herself is meant--tells them of the glorious past, and gives them a minute description of the old triumphs; she then leads the strangers through the city, and points out to them the seven hills and many of the chief ruins--'che comprender potrai, quanto fui bella.'
Unfortunately this Rome of the schismatic and Avignonese popes was no longer, in respect of classical remains, what it had been some generations earlier.The destruction of 140 fortified houses of the Roman nobles by the senator Brancaleone in 1257 must have wholly altered the character of the most important buildings then standing:
for the nobles had no doubt ensconced themselves in the loftiest and best-preserved of the ruins.Nevertheless, far more was left than we now find, and probably many of the remains had still their marble incrustation, their pillared entrances, and their other ornaments, where we now see nothing but the skeleton of brickwork.In this state of things, the first beginnings of a topographical study of the old city were made.
In Poggio's walks through Rome the study of the remains themselves is for the first time more intimately combined with that of the ancient authors and inscriptions--the latter he sought out from among all the vegetation in which they were imbedded--the writer's imagination is severely restrained, and the memories of Christian Rome carefully excluded.The only pity is that Poggio's work was not fuller and was not illustrated with sketches.Far more was left in his time than was found by Raphael eighty years later.He saw the tomb of Caecilia Metella and the columns in front of one of the temples on the slope of the Capitol, first in full preservation, and then afterwards half destroyed, owing to that unfortunate quality which marble possesses of being easily burnt into lime.A vast colonnade near the Minerva fell piecemeal a victim to the same fate.A witness in the year 1443 tells us that this manufacture of lime still went on: 'which is a shame, for the new buildings are pitiful, and the beauty of Rome is in its ruins.'