Origins The mosaic may have been indicated in a well-known passage in
Pliny's Natural History concerning mosaic floors in Italy: The Nile Mosaic and its companion piece, the Fish Mosaic, were apparently still to be seen
in situ in the 15th century. When first noticed shortly before 1507 by Antonio Volsco, a humanist in the circle of
Pomponio Leto, the mosaics were still
in situ among the vestiges of
Sulla's sanctuary of
Fortuna Primigenia. Volsco added that these were "arranged in the pattern of a picture". Maurizio Calvesi, in identifying Francesco Colonna as the author of
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, identifies passages in
Hypnerotomachia depending on Pliny that were enriched by direct experience of the mosaics themselves. At that time the town was owned by the
Colonna family of Rome, whose palazzo in Palestrina occupied a section of the ruins. The mosaic was examined in 1614 (with copious sprinklings of water to enliven its colored images) by Federico Cesi, the founder of the Accademia dei Lincei, who came to Palestrina on the occasion of his marriage to Artemisia Colonna. Cesi, who can be considered the true discoverer of the mosaic, ordered the painter Cassiano Dai Pozzo to reproduce it, who drew no less than eighteen plates. About a decade later, the mosaic was purchased by Cardinal Andrea Peretti (bishop of Palestrina from 1624 to 1626), who had it detached, divided into square fragments and transferred to Rome. In 1640 the new cardinal of Palestrina, Francesco Barberini, managed to obtain the mosaic again as a gift, which he had restored by Giovan Battista Caiandra. He then arranged for it to be relocated back to Palestrina, but during transport the mosaic work, placed on wagons to the contrary, suffered such damage that it had to be restored again by the Caiandra who avvaise the panels executed by Cassiano Dai Pozzo. Brought back, after some time, to Palestrina it was placed in a room of the baronial palace.
17th century In the 17th century, Palestrina passed to the
Barberini family, who between 1624 and 1626 removed most of the mosaic from its setting, without recording the overall composition, and, after further movements and damage, put it on exhibition in the
Palazzo Barberini in Palestrina, where it remains. The mosaic was restored and repaired on numerous occasions, but careful watercolors of the sections were made for
Cassiano dal Pozzo before the initial restoration in the
opificio of St. Peter's. Helen Whitehouse's rediscovery of the long-lost watercolors enabled a reconstruction of the surviving segments in a more meaningful way although much remains uncertain about the original composition. The mosaic has been a major feature of the
Museo Nazionale Prenestino in the Palazzo Barberini in Palestrina since 1953. File:NileMosaicOfPalestrina.jpg File:Praeneste - Nile Mosaic - Section 13 color.jpg File:Praeneste - Nile Mosaic - Section 19.jpg File:Praeneste - Nile Mosaic - section 5.jpg File:Praeneste - Nile Mosaic - Section 1b - Detail.jpg ==References==