Palazzo Panfilio

Palazzo Panfilio (today Doria Pamphilj) is made up of three adjoining buildings. In this 1754 etching Giuseppe Vasi showed the façade designed by Antonio del Grande in 1660 for that in Piazza del Collegio Romano. The other façades are shown in other two plates - side on Via del Corso and side opposite Palazzo Venezia.

In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Collegio Romano; 2) Palazzo De Carolis; 3) S. Maria in Via Lata; 4) Monastero di S. Marta.

View taken from the monumental work Delle magnificenze di Roma antica e moderna.

Published in 10 volumes from 1747 to 1761, the work features 238 copper engravings, each engraving with a narrative text that provides historical and documentary information.

Known by most simply as the "master" of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Giuseppe Vasi reveals in this monumental work the fullness of his graphic creativity.

The 10 books that compose it each have a title page with a different title and date: Libro primo che contiene le porte e mura; Libro secondo, che contiene le piazze principali di Roma con obelischi, colonne, ed altri ornamenti; Libro terzo, che contiene le basiliche e chiese antiche di Roma; Libro quarto che contiene i palazzi e le vie più celebri; Libro quinto che contiene i ponti e gli edifizj sul Libro sesto che contiene la chiese parrocchiali; Libro settimo che contiene i conventi e case dei chierici regolari; Libro ottavo che contiene i monasteri e conservatorj di donne; Libro nono che contiene i collegj, spedali, e luoghi pii; decimo che contiene le ville e giardini più rimarchevoli.

The Magnificences provide a complete and at the same time unconventional panorama of the City: thus, together with the usual, celebrated shots taken from the best tradition of vedutistica, one also finds an unusual Rome, one that, at times, no longer exists. The author had worked on this work, of central importance in Roman publishing in the middle of the eighteenth century, for almost twenty years, producing a monumental guide to the “Urbe” where, alongside the usual and famous shots taken from the best tradition of vedutistica, he also immortalized unusual views that have since disappeared with the change of the city. The text that accompanies the views in the first volume is by Giuseppe Bianchini, in the second by Orazio Orlandi and in the remaining ones by Vasi himself.