Below, an inscription recording a building contract from Puteoli, for the construction of a monumental gateway outside the temple of Serapis; above, reconstruction of the gateway, with a view through it and across a courtyard to the temple. Etching by G.B. Piranesi, 1761.

The inscription below (Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) I.2 698; Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples) is shown as engraved on a slab of marble. It contains a contract for the building of a wall and monumental doorway between two houses across the street from the temple of Serapis at Puteoli (Pozzuoli). On each side of the inscription are trompe l'oeil etchings of broadsheets explaining its inclusion on this sheet: though the inscription had been edited by Gruterus and William Fleetwood, Piranesi's facsimile version enabled the reader to see the lettering for themselves. The inscription was subsequently edited and translated by others (such as Warmington op. cit.). The text of the contract is dated as year 90 from the founding of the colony of Puteoli, i.e. as 105 BC

Above are Piranesi's reconstructions of the wall, the doorway, details of the tiling and fixings, and a perspective view of the wall in relation to the temple. Some of the details are shown as trompe l'oeil drawings pinned to a wall

The inscription specifies the materials to be used: pine tiling, iron fittings, cement and mortar. Cement was a speciality of Pozzuoli, owing to the volcanic origin of its sand

[Rome] : [G.B. Piranesi], [1761]

1 print : etching ; image 39.2 x 61 cm

Haec epigraphe, quae in aedibus farnesianis Romae servatur edita olim fuit a Grutero et Fleetwood; ex ipso lapide accuratius descriptam hoc loco adposuimus; quod iis, quae dicta sunt non parum consentiat, ut apparet ex adjecto schemate. Ab colonia deducta anno. XC, N. Fufidio,. N. F. M. Pullio. duovir., P. Rutilio, Cn. Mallio. cos., Operum lex II. Lex parieti faciendo in area quae est ante aedem Serapi trans viam qui redemerit praedes dato praediaque subsignato duumvirum arbitratu. In area trans viam paries qui est propter viam ... Piranesi f. There is a key: small italic letters added by Piranesi to the inscription are repeated in the etching of the gateway above, serving to link details mentioned in the inscription with Piranesi's reconstructions of them

H. Focillon, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Paris 1918, no. 985, p. 65

John Bodel, Epigraphic evidence: ancient history from inscriptions, London 2001, pp. 53-55

E.H. Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, London: W. Heinemann ; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935-1940, vol. IV: Archaic inscriptions, p. ?

Wellcome Collection 31073i