The Manuscript Annotations of Mariangelo Accursio and Antonio Lelli on the Epigrammata Antiquae Urbis

This paper examines the early circulation of a set of copies of the Epigrammata antiquae urbis (the first and most influential printed epigraphic collection from Rome, published in 1521 by Giacomo Mazzocchi) that contain the same set of annotations. A hitherto unexamined copy, and a copy whose whereabouts had been lost since the nineteenth century, are analysed here alongside the better-known copies of Antonio Lelli and Latino Giovenale Manetti. The debated author of these common notes is definitively identified here as the humanist Mariangelo Accursio (1489-1546), who also prepared the errata list of the book. The article illuminates Accursio's study of ancient epigraphy both in Rome (1517-1521) and during his stay in Augsburg (1532-1533), as well as his enduring engagement with the Epigrammata in the 1530s. Finally, Antonio Lelli's original annotations to the Epigrammata are reassessed, and his actual contribution to the antiquarian field is redefined.