“They showed me great things in small things”: Pirro Ligorio, palatial ships and multi-scalar phenomena

Abstract

This paper investigates a series of figures from the «nave» entry (‘ship’) in Libro XIII dell’antichità (1569–1580) by Pirro Ligorio, a subject that has hitherto received only sporadic historiographical attention. Ligorio provides a graphic interpretation of Hellenistic and Roman palace-ships—notably Hiero II’s Syrakosia and Ptolemy IV Philopator’s Thalamegós—by synthesizing classical literary sources with an extensive numismatic collection. The study of these «cose [...] piccioline» (‘tiny things’) enabled Ligorio to conceptualize fragments of ancient Rome and to replicate them, appropriately rescaled, in the ‘Rometta’ fountain within the gardens of Villa d’Este. This sequence of scalar shifts characterizes Ligorio’s intricate methodology: moving from stylized iconography on ancient coinage to the naval reconfiguration of the Tiber Island (Esculapii navis), and transposing these into virtual reconstructions of ancient floating palaces that ultimately manifest among the water features of Villa d’Este. This study contextualizes the phenomenon, systematizes the primary sources, proposes new correlations, and offers a comprehensive interpretation, while highlighting hitherto unexplored avenues of research.