Fabio Della Schiava

The De rebus antiquis memorabilibus basilicae S. Petri Romae by Maffeo Vegio (1407-1458) gives a picture of St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican before the radical restoration decided by pope Nicholas V (1447-1455). The treatise has always been considered as a collection of inscriptions and antiquarian data about the Constantinian temple. The identification of classic and medieval sources has now given a key to the writer’s historical workshop and to his project. Vegio’s treatise aims at re-establish - ing the literary genre of the descriptiones basilicarum, not ignoring the most recent theories of humanistic historiography but not discarding the medieval bibliographical tools. The result is a book hovering between past and present but still an important contribute to the historiographical thought in the Italian Quattrocento.