Ecclesia S Sebastiani

Etching and engraving, circa 1605, unsigned and without printing details.

This work is part of a series of engravings depicting the Jubilee churches of Rome. Each plate features the Latin name of the basilica at the top center; a perspective view, approximately 142 x 130 mm; and below the image, a long historical note on the construction of the church, the related cults, and the relics preserved there.

At the bottom of the first plate - San Giovanni in Laterano - we find the editorial details: Franciscus Vill’aęna excudit Romę. Cū Privilegio Sum. Pont et Superiorū licentia Anno 1609.

This work is extremely rare and is not listed in the major repertoires. Some plates from the series are present, in very poor condition and without captions, in the collection once owned by Cassiano dal Pozzo, now held at the British Library. Mark McDonald writes: “Three other prints on folio 67 come from a different series, which presumably covered all the pilgrim churches of Rome: they are titled and numbered and once had further description that has been trimmed from these impressions. Another print from the series, which retains this lettering, can be seen on a later folio in this album. Based on the information in the prints, the series seems to have been made around the beginning of the seventeenth century. The print of S. Maria Maggiore, for example, does not show the Cappella Paolina nor the canons' palace, implying a terminus ante quem of 1605. Gamrath suggests the prints could have been designed by Giovanni Maggi (Gamrath 1987, p. 143)” (see The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo, Architecture, Topography and Military Maps, vol. I, p. 219). Thus, Gamrath - without knowing the copy with Villamena's excudit and the date 1609 - describes them as works outlined by Giovanni Maggi before 1605. Maggi's graphic style appears evident in the plates, and Villamena may have merely overseen the printing of the works. Moreover, their extreme rarity suggests a project abandoned by Maggi - perhaps one that Villamena resumed - or a fleeting collaboration between the two engravers/publishers that did not yield the desired results.

The collection was present in the Palazzo Massimo, as we learn from Vittorio Massimo, in Notizie istoriche della Villa Massimo alle Terme Diocleziane… of 1836. Eight plates from the series are present in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, in the Barberini collection [Stamp.Barb. X. I. 31], with a subsequent imprint by Giovanni Marco Paluzzi (active 1655–90). It can therefore be assumed that the series consisted of ten plates, likely engraved and published by Giovanni Maggi; a second issue of the works was subsequently published by Villamena, and the third edition by Paluzzi.

A magnificent work, printed on contemporary laid paper, with margins, mounted on a contemporary paper support (likely from a small album), in excellent condition.

A work of great rarity.

Bibliografia

H. Gamrath, Roma Sancta Renovata: studi sull’urbanistica di Roma nella secondametà del sec. XVI con particolare riferimento al pontificato di Sisto V, Roma, 1987; V. Massimo, Notizie istoriche della Villa Massimo alle Terme Diocleziane…, 1836,  p. 268; Mark McDonald. The Print Collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo, Architecture, Topography and Military Maps, vol. I, pp. 219-220, 238, nn. 2026, 2029, 2064.