The statue of Pasquino

On a corner of Palazzo Braschi, with no grand pedestal or gilded plaque, stands a mutilated marble torso, armless and with its face almost worn away. It doesn't look like much, but it is one of the most feared statues in Roman history.

1The statue that talked

It was dug up in this neighbourhood in the late 15th century and, in the early 16th, Cardinal Oliviero Carafa had it set up here. It is a sculpture in the Hellenistic style; scholars identify it as Menelaus holding the body of Patroclus. Every year, on the feast of St Mark, Carafa dressed it up and covered it in Latin verses. Romans soon began sticking anonymous sheets on it at night, full of satire against the pope and the papal court: the «pasquinate», which gave English the word «pasquinade».

There are several stories about the name and none is certain; the most common says Pasquino was a sharp-tongued tailor who lived nearby.

«Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini»: what the barbarians didn't do, the Barberini did.

The line went round when Pope Urban VIII Barberini had the bronze stripped from the Pantheon's portico in 1625. It is linked with the pasquinades, although exactly who wrote it is disputed.

Pasquino didn't talk alone: he held conversations with other «talking statues», such as Marforio, Madama Lucrezia, Abate Luigi, the Facchino and the Babuino, who answered one another from opposite ends of the city.

2What to look for

• The notes people still post today, now on a side board so as not to damage the marble.
• The muscles of the torso, which hint at the quality of the original.
• Palazzo Braschi, home of the Museo di Roma, against whose corner it leans.