Epitaph for Quirinia Felicia

The vast majority of surviving Roman inscriptions date from the imperial period – between the reign of the first emperor Augustus (27 B.C. – 14 A.D.) until the third century A.D.. Although it is impossible to estimate the number of surviving Roman inscriptions, it must run into the hundreds of thousands, with archaeologists continuing to uncover more. Epigraphic material such as this provides information about many different aspects of the Roman world, including political, social, and economic features of people’s daily lives. Funerary monuments make up the largest group of Roman inscriptions. The specific details recorded about the deceased, often including their age, occupation, and life history, provides key insight into Roman society.

Exhibited
Writing and Lettering in Antiquity, Folio Fine Art Ltd., London, 9-20 October 1970, no. 52.

Published
Guilelmus Henzen, Johannes Baptista de Rossi, Eugenius Bormann, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. 6, part 4, fasc. 1, ed. Christianus Huelsen (Berlin, 1884), p. 2537, no. 25338.
Writing and Lettering in Antiquity, Folio Fine Art Ltd., London, 9-20 October 1970, no. 52.
Heikki Solin, ‘Analecta Epigraphica’, Arctos: Acta Philologica Fennica, XVI (1982), p. 202.
Alessandro Teatini, I Marmi Reksten e il Collezionismo Europeo di Antichità tra XVII e XIX Secolo (Rome, 2003), p. 128.
Adelina Ramundo, ‘Caratteri e trasformazioni del paesaggio urbano delle vigne intorno a S. Cesareo’, PhD thesis (Roma Tre University, Rome, 2012), p. 242.
Epigraphic Database Roma, EDR129669.
Trismegistos Database, no. 587590.

Provenance
Reportedly found during excavations at the gardens of the Collegio Clementino, Rome, 1731-1733.
Previously in the Private Collection of Francesco Ficoroni (1664-1747), Rome, circa 1733-1735.
Private Collection of William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704-1793), Parkstead House, Roehampton.
Private Collection of William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale (1787-1872), Lowther Castle, Lowther, Penrith, acquired from the above, most likely between 1842 and 1872 and recorded in the c. 1879 catalogue Ancient Sculpture at Lowther Castle, by W. Atkinson.
Most likely sold at: Egyptian, Western Asiatic, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Pottery and Metalwork; Tibetan Tankas and Indian Art; African, Oceanic, and Pre-Colombian Art, Sotheby’s, London, 29 June 1970, Lots 172-176.
With Folio Fine Art Ltd., London, from at least October 1970.
ALR: S00235748, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.