The "Ritratto di Roma moderna" by Pompilio Totti
Pompilio Totti’s guide to Rome had two new features compared with its predecessors: it is in two distinct volumes edited and published at different times, but which complement one another: the “Ritratto di Roma antica” (1627), and a Portrait of Modern Rome (1628). In addition to this, the guide’s illustrations were the first to systematically use the more refined chalcographic process. The volume dedicated to modern Rome dispensed with the standard guidebook approach of the day. Instead, it adopted itineraries organized into days and districts. Although obviously based on an earlier work by Panciroli, its description of churches combined architectural and artistic notes with information on the origins, history and administration of churches, as well as on the Companies and Confraternities to which they belonged. The two-volume Ritratto continued to be published anonymously for sixty years by the de’ Rossi publishing house. It also came out in German and Dutch translations. The specimen on display is a 1652 edition updated with information and images of works commissioned by Innocent X: the Fontana dei Fiumi in Piazza Navona, the Lateran refurbished for the 1650 Jubilee, and Pietro da Cortona’s recently-completed frescoes at Chiesa Nuova.
Pompilio Totti, Ritratto di Roma moderna... in questa nuova editione accresciuto, e migliorato in molti luoghi, Roma 1652