Rome - St. Jean de Latran / S. Giovani in Laterano

Albumen on paper, mounted on a contemporary support, circa 1875/80.

The photograph shows the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, with the main facade designed by architect Alessandro Galilei and the adjacent Lateran Palace. At the bottom is the stamp of Giovanni Battista Maggi.

Giovanni Battista Maggi was an important Italian photographer, publisher, and geographer active in the second half of the 19th century. He is best remembered for his valuable urban documentation work and for promoting photography at the dawn of its spread in Italy. He was active from 1850 to 1885 in Turin at Via Po 2. After 1870, he opened a branch in Rome at Via del Corso 328/29, and in 1884 he exhibited architectural photographs at the Turin General Exhibition. He was Her Majesty's print supplier; better known for his activities as a publisher and bookseller, he is nevertheless remembered among those who, from the very beginning, were interested in photography and promoted its diffusion. This interest, for example, includes the exhibition of Guido Gonin's photographs that he organized in the window of his shop, reported in the “Gazzetta Piemontese” of January 19, 1853. As a publisher, he published a vast series of images of Turin's monuments and squares in carte de visite format, while as a bookseller he represented the photographs of Brogi, Luigi Crette, and Charles Marville and imported three French photographic series with romantic scenes that were sold, framed by passepartouts, under his own brand.