From The Discovery of Piranesi's Final Project:
Excerpt from an email sent this afternoon:
It turns out that I have personal histories when it comes to me and my work being omitted from the narrative.
For example, why do Wilton-Ely, Eisenman, Aureli, etc., when writing about and teaching Piranesi’s Ichnographia Campus Martius, all continually omit the fact that I discovered the existence of two different versions of Piranesi’s large plan? They all know of my discovery since 2001, or at least 2005, yet no one ever mentions it. The reason for the omission is shamefully obvious: they want to control the narrative of Piranesi’s Ichnographia Campus Martius, while at the same time make sure I have no control of that narrative. Simple as that.
The main reason Piranesi scholars, prior to circa 2000, failed to discover Piranesi's final project, I suppose, is because they did not have the Internet, particularly the internet of virtual museums, vast digital libraries and archives, and massive search engines, at their disposal. All my Piranesi discoveries, except, of course, the first, 14 May 1999, discovery of the Ichnographia Campus Martius existing in two different printed versions, were facilitated by looking at scanned/digitized Piranesi data gradually made available throughout the internet.
I got a glimpse, last night, of what may have happened soon after Piranesi's death: there was a substantial uptick in book sales, with an exceptionally high demand for Il Campo Marzio--although most buyers just wanted the Ichnographia Campus Martius, the entire Il Campo Marzio volume had to be purchased to get it. What resonated most within my glimpse was the scene of Laura and Francesco looking at each other kind of laughing and wondering whether anyone would immediately recognize that all the circuses within the Ichnographia Campus Martius had been completely altered, despite their father, in extremis, telling them, "In all likelihood, no one will ever notice."
It's starting to get cold outside at night.
2023.10.08
POPICA 001
2017.10.08
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