Christian antiquities -- Italy -- Rome; Rome (Italy) -- Antiquities
A descriptive catalogue of these valuables and works of art was kept
in each temple, and sometimes engraved on marble. The inventories
included also the furniture and properties of the sacristy. In 1871
the following remarkable document was discovered in the Temple of
Diana Nemorensis. The inventory, engraved on a marble pillar three
feet high, is now preserved in the Orsini Castle at Nemi. It has been
published by Henzen in "Hermes," vol. vi. p. 8, and reads as follows,
in translation:--
Objects offered to [or belonging to] both temples [the temple of Isis
and that of Bubastis]:--Seventeen statues; one head of the Sun; four
silver images; one medallion; two bronze altars; one tripod (in the
shape of one at Delphi); a cup for libations; a patera; a diadem [for
the statue of the goddess] studded with gems; a sistrum of gilded
silver; a gilt cup; a patera ornamented with ears of corn; a necklace
studded with beryls; two bracelets with gems; seven necklaces with
gems; nine ear-rings with gems; two nauplia [rare shells from the
Propontis]; a crown with twenty-one topazes and eighty carbuncles; a
railing of brass supported by eight _hermulæ_; a linen costume
comprising a tunica, a pallium, a belt, and a stola, all trimmed with
silver; a like costume without trimming.
[Objects offered] to Bubastis:--A costume of purple silk; another of
turquoise color; a marble vase with pedestal; a water jug; a linen
costume with gold trimmings and a golden girdle; another of plain
white linen.
The objects described in this catalogue did not belong to the Temple
of Diana itself, one of the wealthiest in central Italy; but to two
small shrines, of Isis and Bubastis, built by a devotee within the
sacred enclosure, on the north side of the square.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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