Early modern guidebooks flourished in Rome in the 17th century. Written for visitors from abroad, guidebooks described and depicted many of Rome’s most important sites and traditions. Often pocket-sized for ease of reference, some were illustrated with woodcut prints. Along with maps, they are our earliest sources for the location, appearance, and decoration of important places associated with the Accademia di San Luca, as well as other sites around Rome mentioned in the documents that comprise the present database.
Here we present views of 12 guideboooks from National Gallery of Art Special Collections with historical context for the Accademia di San Luca. Specific views of pages or foldout illustrations with interactive annotation layers are given for locations and districts (rioni) mentioned in the Accademia di San Luca project’s archival documents. Annotations appear when viewed at full size.
Francesco Albertini
1523
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (DG805 .D4)
Francesco Albertini’s guidebook is the earliest in date selected from National Gallery of Art digital collections for the Accademia di San Luca project website. This popular guidebook is divided into three sections, the final section focusing on contemporary Rome as Albertini experienced it.
Le cose meravigliose dell'alma città di Roma
Girolamo Francini
Prospero Parisio
1600
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (DG804 .F7)
Published in the Jubilee year of 1600, this guidebook includes material by Prospero Parisio on the principal churches of Rome. The woodcut illustrations were used in other publications by Francini, together considered the first art-historical introduction to Rome of their kind.
Trattato nuovo delle cose maravigliose dell'alma città di Roma
Pietro Martire Felini
1615
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (NA1120 .F44 1615)
This guidebook is regarded as a landmark within the evolution of the genre. It bears witness to the increased interest in Rome's monuments, including an illustrated gallery of ancient and modern sculptures and sections on the interventions of Pope Sixtus V.
Tesori nascosti dell'alma città di Roma
Ottavio Panciroli
1625
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (DG804 .P36 1625)
This guidebook, the second edition of a work originally published in 1600, gives an art-historical description of Roman monuments from antiquity to the early modern era. A section is dedicated to the Church of Santi Luca e Martina, home to the Accademia di San Luca since 1478.
Grandezze della città di Roma antiche e moderne
Giacomo Marcucci
1628
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (DG805 .M32)
This guidebook targets an international audience, including an engraving of a tour guide (cicerone) identified as Giovanni Alto. It is written in four languages: Italian and French for the main descriptions of the sites, and Latin and German, which accompany the illustrations for each entry.
Pompilio Totti
1638
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (DG805 .T68)
Pompilio Totti published guidebooks praising the urban and artistic accomplishments of the Popes. This guidebook is considered the most important book of Totti’s career as a publisher, engraver, antiquarian, and writer of topography of ancient and modern Rome.
Federico Franzini
1668–1677
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (DG805 .F72)
This guidebook is arranged in three sections according to the recurring format of the time, dedicated to the sette chiese (seven churches), descriptions of other significant churches by location, and finally the guida romana, a three-day tour of Rome highlighting important sites.
Rodrigo de Vega
1687
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (DG805 .R75)
Rodrigo de Vega employs a common practice of reusing previous author’s descriptions of sites, such as entire texts from Panciroli (1625) and Franzini (1677). This illustrated guidebook is divided into three main thematic sections with a final chapter on academies in Rome, including the Academy of Painters and Sculptors at the Church of Santa Martina.
Gregorio Roisecco
1725
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (DG805 .R725)
This volume is structured on a ten-day journey and leads the reader in an art-historical tour in which ancient Rome merges with modern Rome. In this text, different aspects of the city meld according to the order in which the sites present themselves to the visitor along the route.
Descrizione del nuovo ripartimento de' rioni di Roma
Bernardino Bernardini
1744
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (DG805 .B4)
This guidebook describes Rome according to fourteen rioni (districts), as reformed in 1743 by Count Bernardino Bernardini, the author. The rioni and their history are described in great detail, along with their respective coats of arms, still visible today on the streets of Rome.
Itinerario istruttivo diviso in otto stazioni
Giuseppe Vasi
1763
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (N44.V357 A37)
Giuseppe Vasi, a member of the Accademia di San Luca, was one of the most important engravers of the views of Rome. This is a pocket-sized volume with engravings and descriptions of monuments, formatted according to an eight-day route.
Giuseppe Vasi
1771
National Gallery of Art Library, Rare (BX2320.5.I8 V37)
Like Vasi's Itinerario (1763), this two-volume guidebook is organized in an eight-day route, primarily focused on sacred history. Easily transportable, it was conceived to meet the needs of the pilgrims who would arrive in Rome for the Jubilee year of 1775.
