Nuova Cinta di Fortificazione in Civitavecchia

The plate belongs to a series of aquatints made by Paolo Cacchiatelli and Gregorio Cleter, to publicize the artistic, architectural, urban planning and scientific enterprises promoted by Pius IX. The prints were published with the explanatory title Le Scienze e le Arti sotto il pontificato di Pio IX (The Sciences and the Arts under the Pontificate of Pius IX), with commentary by various scholars of the time.

Interesting and valuable work that represents the precise will of Pope Pius IX, pontiff from 1846 to 1870, to disseminate and promote his cultural policy characterized by significant urban, architectural and artistic interventions.

The series was born to be distributed monthly, in dossiers, with the publication of two plates per month with relative commentary, at an affordable price. A review that appeared in a Roman periodical of the time clearly exemplifies the objective of the pontiff: "The purpose of this atlas is to preserve a living and speaking memory of all the benefits that the Pontificate of Pius IX has brought to the sciences and the arts in his States".

Starting from the 1850s, Rome began a frenetic succession of enterprises aimed at connecting numerous localities with the city by rail, also as a result of the merger of the various companies, which held the concession of the various sections, in the Pio-Centrale. One of these new connections is the Rome-Civitavecchia (1859), which sees the growth of the stretch of the line from Porta Portese to the new central station that was being planned.

Copper engraving, in excellent condition.