Le Sette Chiese principali di Roma - 1570

[ A TOURIST GUIDE TO ROME - FULLY ANNOTATED ]

[ 17th CENTURY MOROCCO WITH ARMS ]

PANVINIO (Onofrio)

Le Sette Chiese principali di Roma.

Rome, Heirs of Antonio Blado, 1570. 8vo, brown morocco of the XVIIth century, "Du Seuil" decoration, gilded arms (lion and tree), 8, (4) ff., 346 p., (1) f., 1 f. bl. (sign : *4, A-Y8).

First & rare Italian edition of this "tourist" guide presenting the treasures of the Christian archaeology of Rome. It gives an account of the "Tour of the Seven Churches", which was institutionalized from 1559.

The work was scrupulously annotated by an early seventeenth-century reader - perhaps on the occasion of a scholarly visit to Rome. Even if the binder's knife has considerably reduced the margins a thorough study allows us to understand the annotator's purpose. Among other things he is attentive to the description of the tombs of St. John Lateran and notes in particular that of Pope Sylvester II, a native of Aurillac (p. 157 "sepulcro di Silvestro") and underlines the presence of the relics of St. Chrisan and St. Daria (p. 159), whose names appear in the Hieronymian Martyrology, the oldest in the Latin language.

At the end of the 19th century, Cardinal Barbier de Montault, French archaeologist, acquired this copy and used it for his important scholarly work on Rome ! Exciting & rare annotated guide to Rome