Bartolomeo Marliani
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Giovanni Bartolomeo Marliano (1488[1] - 26 July 1566[1]) was an Italian antiquarian and topographer, most notable for his study of the topography of ancient Rome, particularly his seven-volume Antiquae Romae topographia, a complete treatment of the city's ancient topography. First published in 1534 and republished nine times, it remained the standard treatise on the city's topography until the 18th century. He lost a debate with Pirro Ligorio on the site of the Roman Forum, but was later proved right in that matter.
Born to Gabriele Marliani in Robbio, Bartolomeo Marliano studied ancient Greek in Milan with Stefano Negri, a pupil of the Greek humanist Demetrios Chalkokondyles. He continued his studies at the University of Padua, where he also met the future cardinal Giovanni Morone. Just before 1525 he moved to Rome, where he was made a knight of the Order of Saint Peter by Pope Paul III. After 1544 Marliani distanced himself from the papal court to concentrate wholly on his studies. He became an Augustinian friar and moved to the Tor Sanguigna near Sant'Agostino in Campo Marzio. In 1549 he published Consulum, dictatorum ..., an edition of the Fasti Capitolini, which had been discovered in the Roman Forum two years earlier - that work had nine editions, including one by Francesco Robortello, published in 1555 in Venice with a supplement of extracts by the publisher.
As well as his topographical studies, Marliani also published several works on ancient Greek writers. In 1545 he published a single edition of a text by Sophocles, though he bequeathed manuscripts of the Iliad and Odyssey and works by Aristophanes, Pindar, Strabo, Lucian, Apollonius and other ancient Greek authors to the library at Sant'Agostino (the future biblioteca Angelica). He had probably used many of these manuscripts for his private reading. A document dating to 1560 shows he belonged to the 'Confraternita degli orfani e delle orfane', a charitable institution looking after male and female orphans which was supported by cardinal Giovanni Morone, with a fellow scholar of Marliani's. He also founded the 'Compagnia di S. Apollonia' which in January 1566, a few months after Marliani's death in Rome, was confirmed in a papal bull by Pope Pius V.
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