Manuscrit d’un voyageur, voyages d’un manuscrit

This book deals with an unpublished manuscript, dating back to the 18th century, recently discovered in Nimes. Written in Spanish, it mainly contains inscriptions from Africa Proconsularis. This collection of inscriptions plunges us into the history of epigraphy and the reception of Antiquity, as well as that of travels, and transmission of knowledge. Containing hitherto unpublished information on numerous inscriptions, the manuscript also provides an opportunity to examine the ancient history of the Maghreb. Its author, Francisco Ximenez de Santa Cathalina, stayed in Tunis between 1720 and 1735 with the mission of taking care of the enslaved Christians and was praised by Theodor Mommsen for his abilities as an epigraphist. The collection studied here is the result of a rich period of exploration during which F. Ximenez was dazzled by the antiquities of major sites, in particular Thugga, Sufetula and the Water Temple near Zaghouan. It was sent to Verona to enrich the corpus absolutissimum of Latin inscriptions that Scipione Maffei could not complete. Afterwards, its disordered folios ended up in Nimes, among the bundles of documents bequeathed to Jean-François Séguier.

The first chapter of this monograph places F. Ximenez in his historical and intellectual context and traces the itinerary of his excursions. The second proposes a new order of the folios in order to restore the collection to its original form, while the third chapter contains its transcription and translation into French. The fourth chapter, following the sites in alphabetical order, reports the inscriptions of the manuscript and compares the descriptions and reading variations with those of contemporary works. S. Maffei’s work on the manuscript is also analysed here. The fifth chapter focuses on this Italian scholar, his ambitious epigraphic project, as well as the possible connections between him and F. Ximenez. At the same time, the reception of African antiquities in Europe is closely observed, giving back to F. Ximenez his place in the antiquarianism of the 18th century.