This booklet presents a comprehensive overview of the evidence pertaining to the imperial Mausoleum, but it does not provide any new knowledge or perspective on the monument. The text is divided into five chapters that cover discrete aspects of the building. The opening chapter by Maria Elisa Garcia Barraco briefly summarizes the death and funeral of Augustus and provides a snapshot description of the Mausoleum. Some of this information overlaps with Giuseppe Lugli's flowery description in ch. 2, a reprint from his Monumenti antichi di Roma e suburbio (1930–38). Lugli emphasizes the unpretentious elegance of the monument and the modesty of the imperial family, but the excerpt also provides additional information such as a stemma of the imperial family from Julius Caesar to Caligula (26–7), a few clarificatory footnotes, section headers and a number of additional images (figs 5, 9–11, 13–15).

The third chapter contains almost no text. Instead, it presents a chronological sequence of ‘disegni antiquari’ from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. A special section is devoted to Piranesi's plates because they provide ‘important testimony about the state of the monument’ (59). The last two chapters deal with written sources pertaining to the Mausoleum. In ch. 4, G.B. presents a brief introduction and translation of the Res Gestae. The Latin and its bracketed editorial supplements are adopted from Alison Cooley's edition (Res Gestae Divi Augusti: Text, Translation, and Commentary (2009)) and juxtaposed with an Italian translation. The last chapter, by Ilaria Soda, is a chronological compilation of Greek and Latin texts that reference Augustus’ death and tomb, each selection followed by Italian translations. The brief note that explains the rationale of this chapter reveals that these translations are not original but ‘chosen on the basis of criteria of reputation, comparing various versions in order to verify their compliance with the original text’ (154). If this method seems curious, the subsequent decision not to provide bibliographic citations for these reference translations ‘because of the heterogeneity of the consulted sources’ (ibid.) is truly bewildering.

The book closes with a brief timeline of Augustus’ life, followed by five black-and-white plates, and indexes of primary sources, illustrations and names. The first and fourth chapters provide ‘essential’ bibliographies on the Mausoleum and the Res Gestae, respectively. Both bibliographies leave out some of the most important titles, most prominently Henner von Hesberg and Silvio Panciera's volume on the Mausoleum (Das Mausoleum des Augustus: der Bau und seine Inschriften (1994)) and John Scheid's edition of the Res Gestae (Hauts Faits du Divin Auguste (2007)).

Like other volumes in the series ‘La collana Antichità romane’, the primary purpose appears to be to provide a complete and accessible description of the evidence and to trace the footsteps of earlier generations of Roman antiquarians and archaeologists, like Andrea Palladio, Christian Hülsen, Thomas Ashby, Luigi Canina and Giuseppe Lugli. The question is who might possibly benefit from a publication like this? The editor's objective to address the deplorable current state of the Mausoleum with a ‘celebratory edition’ (8) is no doubt an exemplary effort. More questionable is the assertion that this compilation will ‘offer coordinates for a reinterpretation of the monument’ (8). The following chapters do not follow through on such a claim, because they do not offer any new information, nor do they chart out any theoretical direction for such a reinterpretation.

Ultimately, the publication does not seem to match any audience particularly well: nothing new is offered to specialists, as is admitted in ch. 3 that covers matters ‘already amply treated by other authors’ (49). The book does not offer any potential for the classroom either, even if fluency in Italian can be expected from students; finally, ‘non-specialists’ (154), for whom the Italian translations in the last two chapters are intended, may stumble over the lack of translations in other chapters (for example, 20, 38, 44). What remains is a volume that conveniently compiles information that is usually divided over several publications. If any factor other than convenience is important, my recommendation is to consult the publications that have covered the Mausoleum more critically.

The volume appears to be produced and copy-edited carefully. The few typographical errors are usually harmless (e. g. ‘traslation and commentari’ instead of ‘text, translation, and commentary’ on 69), but also affect the reconstruction of the Res Gestae (e.g. ‘HIRT]IO’ instead of ‘HIRTI]O’ on 70).