Edited sentence: "Flavio Biondo"."Flavio Biondo" in Catholic Encyclopedia (1907).At the time the ruins of ancient Rome were overgrown and unexplored.Flavio and fellow humanists like Leone Battista Alberti began to explore and document the architecture, topography and history of Rome, and in the process revived a vision of Rome's former glory.Flavio published three encyclopedic works that were systematic and documented guides to the ruins and topography of ancient Rome, for which he has been called one of the first archaeologists; subsequent antiquaries and historians built on the foundations laid down by Flavio and by his older contemporary, Poggio Bracciolini.Flavio's first work was De Roma instaurata (Rome Restored, 3 vols, 1444-1446), a reconstruction of ancient Roman topography.In Encyclopædia Britannica Online.It was and remains a highly influential humanist vision of restoring Rome to its previous heights of grandeur by recreating what Rome used to look like based on the ruins which remained.Italy Illuminated, Volume 1 : Liguria and Lombardy, Edited by Jeffrey A.Rome Restored, Edited by Marc Laureys and William McCuaig, English translation, To be announced.The Forum, buried in eroded topsoil, was grazed by cows—the Campo Vaccino— and pigs rooted in its unweeded vegetation.The book was highly influential in reviving Roman patriotism and respect for ancient Rome, while presenting the papacy as a continuation of the Roman Empire.The second was the highly popular De Roma triumphante (Rome Triumphant, (1459)) about pagan Rome as a model for contemporary governmental and military reforms.This work was the first systematic and well documented guide to the ruins of Rome, or indeed any ancient ruins, and he has thus been called one of the first archaeologists.When in 1430 Bracciolini climbed the Capitol he saw only deserted fields.White, English translation, ISBN 0-674-01743-9 (June 1, 2005)