Pietro Martire Felini

Pietro Martire Felini’s Trattato is regarded as a landmark within the evolution of the genre of guidebooks. This text witnesses the progressive emergence of secular Rome as an object of interest equal to that of the ancient city. It bears witness to the increased interest in the city’s monuments in a series of thematic sections, such as the one devoted to Delle Statue, an illustrated gallery of ancient and modern sculptures in Rome, or another that addresses the obelisks, which recounts the interventions of Pope Sixtus V along with a few details on the ancient history of the obelisks. The three-day tour, the guida romana, is preceded by the conventional chapter on the principal sette chiese (seven churches) here organized by an entirely new order that would be imitated until the eighteenth century. The section on antiquities is largely based on Prospero Parisio’s texts that ultimately derive from Andrea Palladio.

Complete digitized book: IIIF Digital View (National Gallery of Art Library, Special Collections)