Temple of Minerva Medica (nymphaeum)

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The so-called Temple of Minerva Medica (Minerva the doctor) is a ruin of ancient Rome, between the via Labicana and Aurelian Wall and just inside the line of the Anio Vetus. Once part of the Horti Liciniani on the Esquiline Hill, now it face the modern via Giolitti.

It derives its name erroneously from the Temple of Minerva Medica and from its misattribution as the Athena Giustiniani's find-spot. It is in fact a 4th century dodecagonal nymphaeum of opus latericium, whose full dome only collapsed in 1828, surrounded on three sides with other chambers added at a later date. In the interior of the hall are nine niches, besides the entrance; and above these are ten corresponding round-arched windows. The diameter of the hall is about 24 metres, and the height was 33. It is very important from the structural point of view, and especially for the meridian ribs in the dome. The outside walls were covered with marble and the interior richly decorated in a similar manner.^[1]

In the fifteenth century Flavio Biondo's Roma Instaurata, these ruins are called Le Galluzze, a name of uncertain meaning that had been applied earlier to some ruins near the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Jord. II.130‑131). Since the seventeenth century the nymphaeum has frequently been called Temple of Minerva Medica, on account of the erroneous impression that the Athena Giustiniani had been found in its ruins^[2].

It places an intermediate piece of its construction here on the way of the Pantheon, a dining room of the Domus Aurea, and nearby Byzantine churches.

There is no mention of this structure in ancient literature or inscriptions.

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[edit] External links

• Nymphaeum