In an area to the south of the Aventine Hill and the east of Monte Testaccio in Rome lies the Protestant Cemetery (Cimiterio Accatolico), the burial ground of non-Catholics which would later become famous as the final resting place of British poets John Keats (1795–1821) and the heart of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822).
1 This sketch, taken from the Protestant Cemetery, depicts the Pyramid of Cestius, a funerary monument of white marble which stands at the eastern end of the burial ground. Built between 18–12 BC for the magistrate Gaius Cestius Epulo, the pyramid was later incorporated into the Aurelian Walls and the Porta San Paolo, one tower of which can be seen beyond on the left.
2 At the bottom of the page Turner has recorded two Latin inscriptions found on the eastern flank of the tomb. His transcription, however, is not entirely accurate. The texts should read ‘C. CESTIVS. L. F. POB. EPULO.PR.TR.PL.| VII.VIR.EPOLONVM’ [Caius Cestius Epulone, son of Lucius, of the tribe of Poblilia, praetor, tribune of the plebs, member of the College of the Septemviri Epulones],
3 and ‘INSTAVRATVM.AN.DOMINI.MDCLXIII’ [Anno Domini 1663]. The latter commemorates excavation and restoration work carried out on the orders of Pope Alexander VII during the seventeenth century. In the bottom right-hand corner, are two detailed studies of the column base visible in front of the pyramid. On the far left-hand side of the page is a small part of the sketch from the opposite sheet, see folio 8 verso (
D16449). There is also a separate view in the bottom left-hand corner of an unidentified landscape.
