Mario Cartaro e il perduto affresco della Capua Vetus di Cesare Costa (1595)

This article deals with the bird-eye view of the ancient city of Capua, now Santa Maria Capua Vetere, made paint in 1595 by Cesare Costa, archbishop of the new Capua, in his palace. The painting disappeared during the restoration of the palace in 1759, but some engraved copies realized before this date still survive. The study of such copies, together with the exams of printed and manuscript written sources, allows now to reconstruct the complexity of such a story, which during the centuries involved also international scholars such as Lucas Holstenius, Cassiano Dal Pozzo, Scipione Maffei and Bernard de Montfaucon. Thanks to new researches it has been possible to find a drawing representing the ancient Roman amphitheater of Capua, possibly related to the execution of the fresco, and to identify the author of the reconstruction as the painter and mapmaker Mario Cartaro.