gems, glyptic, engraved gems, agate, cameo, intaglio

Giovanni Pietro Bellori’s Veterum Illustrium Philosophorum, Poetarum, Rhetorum et Oratorum Imagines is an antiquarian study of portraits of celebrated Greek and Roman philosophers, poets, rhetoricians, and orators preserved on ancient coins, engraved gems, and other antiquities. The work reproduces these portraits in a substantial series of engraved plates accompanied by brief explanatory text, using inscriptions and comparisons among surviving objects to identify the individuals represented. Of particular gemological interest is its extensive use of ancient engraved gemstones as historical and iconographic evidence, documenting important examples of classical glyptic art known in 17th-century European collections. The volume is an important early contribution to the systematic study and publication of ancient gems and to the development of classical archaeology, portrait iconography, and gem collecting.