Porta S. Spirito

A perspective view showing the monumental Porta Santo Spirito. In 1543, terrified by the dramatic 1527 Sack of Rome and the threats posed by the Ottoman fleet, Pope Paul III Farnese initiated the reinforcement of the Vatican walls (the ancient 9th-century Leonine Mura). He commissioned Antonio da Sangallo the Younger to replace the modest Posterula dei Sassoni (the ancient gateway for Northern European pilgrims) with a monumental entrance resembling a classical triumphal arch. When Sangallo died suddenly in 1546, Michelangelo Buonarroti took over. In open and fierce rivalry with Sangallo, Michelangelo harshly criticized the design and categorically refused to complete its upper section, leaving it truncated. Perfectly framed and soaring above the arch, the bell tower of the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia—from which the gate takes its name—serves as the focal point.

On the left, the scene is dominated by the rugged and powerful profile of the stone and rammed-earth defensive bastion. Upon the summit of the walled spur, surrounded by trees, emerges the outline of the Casino of Villa Barberini.

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.

Starting from the edition of 1786, the work of Vasi, was updated by his son Mariano, who published it under the title Raccolta delle più belle vedute antiche, e moderne di Roma, showing only the name of his father as author. This new edition presented many plates of the first edition, and some new ones. The publication of Mariano Vasi was also printed several times, always with the addition of new plates. 

From the first edition of Vasi's Delle Magnificenze di Roma Antica e Moderna.

This in the plate n. 15, book I.
In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Bell tower of S. Spirito in Sassia; 2) Casino della Villa Barberini; 3) Street leading to S. Onofrio.

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