Federico Franzini

In this guidebook, the author and publisher Federico Franzini arranged the text according to the recurring format of Roman guidebooks at the time. The first section dedicated to the sette chiese (seven churches) is followed by descriptions of other significant churches categorized by location. The third section is the guida romana, a three-day tour of Rome in which the author takes the reader across time and space while highlighting the most important sites. The final section is a description of the antiquities of Rome detailed according to its rioni (districts) as they were known at the time. As in Pompilio Totti’s Ritratto di Roma moderna, the entry dedicated to Santa Martina repeats verbatim Panciroli’s text from 1625, mentioning the Compagnia dei Pittori (founded 1478) and the demolition of the Church of San Luca near Santa Maria Maggiore by Pope Sixtus V in 1588.

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