The story of early film

A new book is on display in Gallery 3: The Magnificence of Rome published from 1747-1761 contains beautiful etchings of the city at the zenith of its architectural development. Delle magnificenze di Rome antica e moderna contains two hundred and thirty-eight views of the city, then firmly established as the most important Grand Tour destination. Vasi’s views of Rome revel in the contrast of ancient and modern. They abound in comic and satirical details of contemporary Roman life, bristling with encounters of rich and poor, sacred and profane, and offer the modern viewer a glimpse into the world encountered by eighteenth-century travellers to the Eternal City.

This work is the masterpiece of the Sicilian engraver Giuseppe Vasi (1710-82), first recorded as a printmaker in Palermo in 1736. Even after establishing his workshop in Rome, where for a while he mentored the young Piranesi, Vasi continued to enjoy the patronage of the Bourbon family to whom the ten volumes of the Magnificenze are dedicated. Viscount Fitzwilliam purchased the complete set of the first edition, in special oblong format, in 1794, along with several other publications on Rome, its antiquities and its museums. He proudly annotated the first flyleaf of volume 1, ‘This edition on large paper very scarce’.

9 January 2015