Facciata del Collegio Romano fondato dalla felice memoria di papa Gregorio XIII l'anno MDLXXVIII…

Plate from the series Palazzi di Roma de' più celebri architetti designate da Pietro Ferrerio pittore et architetto.

The work was projected and begun by Pietro Ferrerio in about 1638; the second book, Nuovi disegni delle architetture e piante dei palazzi di Roma de' più celebri architetti..., was done by G. B. Falda, who was also the engraver, and was published in 1655 by G. G. De Rossi. Regarding the first book we do not know the name of the engraver: Ferrerio signs the plates only as a draftsman. The most important Roman building typologies are illustrated by Ferrerio both in elevation and in plan, starting from the golden age of Bramante, Raphael, Peruzzi and Michelangelo and then moving on to Vignola, Ammannati, Ligorio, Della Porta, finally dedicating a modest space to the architects of the new century, such as Bernini, Borromini or Domenico Fontana: This is an evident sign of how much the orientation of the culture and taste of the mature seventeenth century tended towards a recovery and a preference for sixteenth-century classicism or late counter-reformed Mannerism.

Each panel is accompanied by a historical inscription that always reports, among other information, the name of the architect who designed the work, and the year in which construction began.

The engravings are characterized by the precision of the drawing, the attention to detail and the sharpness of the image. The work constitutes a sort of guide to Roman architecture between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of great historical-documentary value.

Etching, printed on contemporary laid paper, in good condition.