43. The whole edict (Novell. Majorian. tit. vi. p. 35) is
curious. "Antiquarum aedium dissipatur speciosa constructio;
et ut [earum] aliquid reparetur, magna diruuntur. Hinc jam
occasio nascitur, ut etiam unusquisque privatum aedificium
construens, per gratiam judicum . . . praesumere de publicis
locis necessaria, et transferre non dubitet," e. With
equal zeal, but with less power, Petrarch, in the fourteenth
century, repeated the same complaints (Vie de Petrarque,
tom. i. p. 326, 327). If I prosecute this History, I shall
not be unmindful of the decline and fall of the city of Rome
- an interesting object, to which my plan was originally
confined.