#1: nobile opus aut curiositas – How Much Fascination Can Flow From an Ancient Luxury Faucet? - [Reception stories. The Antiquitatum Thesaurus blog]

The BnF holds a unique artefact, classified as a ‘carriage accessory’. The cube with a polyhedron-shaped knob, eight triangular and six square faces and two handles in the shape of a swan's head was depicted by Pignoria, Peiresc and Montfaucon, among others, and the main scene shows a pterophorus (lector priest) with sistrum and situla leaning towards a bird – a depiction that is said to date back to the month of November in the calendar book of 354. Peiresc had a drawing made based on a Carolingian copy, which triggered an exchange of ideas among scholars throughout Europe. The object is said to have once belonged to the city prefect Clodius Adelfius. It was later owned by Peiresc and Achille II de Harlay, among others, before it entered the collection of the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève in 1692 and was taken over by the BnF in 1797. Peiresc interpreted it as an epistomium æreum (bronze fountain key), but today it is considered to be part of a chariot that fixed the reins.