"Aqueduct hunting has been a favorite pastime for visitors to Rome since antiquity, although serious study of how the Eternal City obtained its water did not begin until the seventeenth century. It was Raffaello Fabretti (1619-1700), the well-known Italian antiquarian and epigrapher, who began the first systematic research of the Roman aqueduct system.".

"Fabretti's treatise De aquis et aquaeductibus veteris Romae dissertationes tres is cited as a matter of course by all later scholars working in the area of Roman topography. Its findings, while updated and supplemented by more recent archaeological efforts, have never been fully superseded. Yet despite its enormous importance and impact on scholarly efforts, the De aquis has never been translated from the original Latin.

Aqueduct Hunting in the Seventeenth Century provides a full translation of and commentary on Fabretti's treatise, making it accessible to a broad audience and carefully assessing its scholarly contributions."--BOOK JACKET.