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These stunning illustrations were done by Natale Bonifacio for Domenico Fontana’s 1590 manuscript Della Trasportatione dell’Obelisco Vaticano.

In the first century AD, the Roman Emperor Nero often entertained himself at his suburban retreat in Rome’s Ager Vaticanus. There, he had a luxury villa that included a circus, or athletic stadium, with an obelisk at its center. The obelisk had been carved in Egypt during the reign of Nebkaure Amenemhet II (1992-1985 BCE), and had originally stood in the Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis. It was brought to Rome by the emperor Caligula in 37 AD and erected as a symbol of the Roman conquest of Egypt.

It in Nero’s obelisk-embellished circus in the Ager Vaticanus that Saint Peter is said to have been martyred in the 60s AD. His body was then claimed by Rome’s growing Christian community and was buried in a nearby cemetery. Centuries later, when Christianity was legalized by the Roman Emperor Constantine (AD 313), a church that came to be known as Saint Peter’s Basilica was built over the grave of Peter and quite near the Circus of Nero.

The legalization of Christianity in Rome coincided with a turn of fortune in the Roman Empire. As Christianity grew in popularity, the power of the Roman Empire waned, but at the same time, Rome became depopulated and economically troubled. Ancient monuments fell into disrepair and some, like the obelisk in the Circus of Nero, simply fell to the ground.

In the sixteenth century, another reversal of fortune saw Rome reborn. Renaissance Popes and nobles envisioned a Christian Rome that would rival the splendor and grandeur that had been the hallmark of ancient the ancient city and so they began to commission works of art and architecture that would embellish and enhance the Eternal City. One of the most important protagonists in this revival of Rome was Pope Julius II, who in 1506 commissioned the construction of a new Saint Peter’s Basilica, tearing down the fourth century church to begin building today’s splendid building – the project would take about 120 years to complete.

At the end of the sixteenth century, as construction on New Saint Peter’s was underway, Pope Sixtus V decided that the obelisk from Nero’s Circus (then laying on the ground near the construction site) should be displayed in front of the new basilica. In 1585, he gave the commission for moving and erecting the the 330-ton Aswan granite obelisk to architect Domenico Fontana. Though the monument only had to be moved about a quarter of a mile or so, the task was a colossal one, for no one had raised an obelisk since antiquity. The operation was carried out using hemp ropes and iron bars weighing 40,000 pounds, as well as 900 men and 72 horses, and the entire procedure took about 5 months to complete.

For more illustrations and information see this CD Rom: Della Trasportatione dell’Obelisco Vaticano