Topografia degli emissari scavati per derivare il già stagnante lago e fiume Velino...

Topographic map showing the course of the river Velino and the Marmore Falls. Plate taken from La Caduta Del Velino Nella Nera Presentata A N. S. Pio Sesto Da Francesco Carrara Segretario Del Concilio, In Roma: Per Il Casaletti, 1779, an interesting piece of writing on the Marmore Falls, which tells us what the waterfall looked like before the works undertaken by the architect Andrea Vici in 1787, in the marshy area of the ancient Lacus Velinus.

In 1545, Pope Paul III ordered the construction of a new canal, which was completed in 1598. The presence of this canal, however, created problems for the countryside in the valley below, as the Nera often overflowed. It was Pope Clement VIII in 1598 who commissioned the architect Giovanni Fontana to reclaim the marshy area; a first, quick remedy to solve the problem was to build a bridge to regulate the water in the Velino, but it was not until 1787 that the architect Vici was commissioned by Pope Pius VI and designed the artificial waterfall known as the Marmore Falls, giving it its present appearance and thus solving most of the problems.

In 1779, Francesco Carrara presented this dissertation to Pope Pius VI, bringing the problem of the area to his attention. Carrara was a cardinal of noble Bergamo origins, with considerable aptitude in the judicial field as a civil auditor of the court of auditor of Camera.

Etching, finely hand-coloured, in excellent condition.

Bibliografia

cf. Lichtenthal 238; Lozzi 5308 (in footnote); Francesco Raco - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 20 (1977).