The collection includes 8 plates (4 circular and 4 rectangular), a fluted dish, a ewer inscribed for "Pelegrina", a flask with embossed scenes, an amphora, 6 sets of horse trappings, with furniture fittings including 4 Tyche figures representing the 4 main cities of the Roman Empire: Rome, Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria, two hands clenching bannisters, and an assortment of jewellery.

These items were found in the ruins of a Roman building, which was at that time in the premises of the monastery of San Francesco di Paola in Rome.

The first official record of the finds was made one year after their discovery by the famous Italian classical archaeologist and later head of the Capitoline Museum Ennio Quirino Visconti.

[6] The treasure passed through many hands before eventually being acquired by the French collector and one-time ambassador to Rome the Duc de Blacas.

[7] However, two other items in the treasure can be found in the Musee du Petit Palais in Paris (a highly decorated trulla or saucepan),[8] and the Museo Nazionale in Naples (a jug in the form of a women's head).

It is partially gilded to highlight some areas, and was made by the repoussé technique – that is the ornamented relief was achieved by means of pressing or pushing back the metal surface.

On the top panel of the lid are half-length figures of a man and woman within a wreath held by standing erotes (or putti in modern terms) and an inscription which reads: "SECVNDE ET PROIECTA VIVATIS IN CHRI[STO] ('Secundus and Projecta, may you live in Christ').

[12] A smaller inscription on the front rim of the lid gives the weight as "XXII-III", meaning "[Pondo] XXII,III [Unciae],S[emuncia]" or "Twenty-two pounds, three and one-half ounces" in Roman units.

[19] Projecta has been associated with an epitaph for a woman of that name who died in 383, shortly before her 17th birthday, written by Pope Damasus I (r. 366-84) that was once displayed in the church of San Martino ai Monti, close to where the find was made.

Though only nine lines long, and described by Alan Cameron as "typically lame and frigid" (for a composition by Damasus) and "a tissue of tags and clichés shakily strung together and barely squeezed into the meter", the epitaph creates a number of puzzles and has generated much scholarly discussion.

[20] The epitaph reads: QVID LOQVAR AVT SILEAM PROHIBET DOLOR IPSE FATERI | HIC TVMVLVS LACRIMAS RETINET COGNOSCE PARENTVM | PROIECTAE FVERAT PRIMO QVAE IVNCTA MARITO | PVLCRA DECORE SVO SOLO CONTENTA PVDORE | HEV DILECTA SATIS MISERAE GENITRICIS AMORE | ACCIPE QVID MVLTIS THALAMI POST FOEDERA PRIMA | EREPTA EX OCVLIS FLORI GENITORIS ABIIT | AETHERIAM CVPIENS COELI CONSCENDERE LVCEM | HAEC DAMASVS PRAESTAT CVNCTIS SOLACIA FLETVS | VIXIT ANN·XVI·M·IX·DIES·XXV·DEP·III·KAL·IAN·FL·MEROBAVDE·ET·FL·SATVRNIN·CONSS.[21]What?

Thus tomb holds the tears (learn, [reader,]) of the parents of Projecta, who had been the wife of Primus, beautiful in her elegance,content with modesty alone; cherished (ah!)

[26] The ivory Symmachi–Nicomachi diptych from the same period and milieu in Rome shows pagan iconography; some 70 years after the conversion of Constantine the old religion still had supporters in the Roman elite.

The four Tyches of the main cities of the empire suggest they were made for the posts of a great official's chair or litter; members of the Turcii held several such positions.