INVENTORY OF THE ANNA LAETITIA PECCI-BLUNT COLLECTION OF MAPS OF ROME, circa 1550-1883

Finding aid prepared by Brian Parshall

Descriptive Summary

Title: Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt collection of maps of Rome

Date (inclusive): circa 1550-1883

Number: P850002

Creator/Collector: Pecci Blunt, Anna Laetitia, 1885-1971

Physical Description: 42.0 maps

Repository:

The Getty Research Institute

Special Collections

1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100

Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688

(310) 440-7390

Abstract: The collection consists of 42 printed maps of the city of Rome, dating circa 1550 to 1883, from the library of collector, gallerist, philanthropist and patron of the arts, Countess Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt.

Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy .

Language: Collection material is in Italian

Biographical/Historical Note

Anna Laetitia ("Mimì") Pecci-Blunt was born on 15 March 1885. Her father, Count Camillo Pecci was head of the Guardia nobile pontificia and a nephew to Pope Leo XIII (Vicenzo Gioacchino Pecci), and her mother, Silvia Bueno y Garzon was a Spanish noblewoman from Cuba. After passing the years of World War I in Switzerland, Anna Laetitia Pecci settled in Paris and soon immersed herself in artistic and intellectual circles, becoming friends with Georges Braque and Jean Cocteau. She was introduced to the wealthy and cultured American banker, Cécil Blunt, son of the collector Ferdinand Blumenthal. The marriage between the two was celebrated in 1919 with the benediction of Pope Benedict XV, who gave Cécil Blunt the title of Count Pecci-Blunt. The couple took up residence in Paris where they opened their home to writers, poets, artists and musicians including Salvador Dalì, Cocteau, Paul Valéry, Francis Poulenc and Paul Claudel. The Pecci-Blunts had five children: Dino, Laetitia, Viviana, Camilla and Graziella.

In 1929, the Pecci-Blunts decided to spend part of each year in Rome and they purchased, near the Campodiglio and the Piazza Venezia, the palazzo in Piazza Aracoeli 3 designed by Giacomo della Porta. As in Paris, this residence became a cultural hub, reflecting Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt's desire to foster exchange between Italian and foreign artists, musicians and intellectuals. During this period Pecci-Blunt began to acquire prints, published works, drawings and paintings thematically focused upon the city of Rome. Many of these materials were purchased in Rome, however she also acquired art during her frequent trips to Paris. Pecci-Blunt's collection included views, plans, maps of Rome and depictions of the inhabitants of the city in popular costume. As intense urban development under Mussolini transformed Rome in the 1930's, interest in the city's past grew among certain circles in Rome. The collection came to be known as "Roma Sparita" because of its nostalgic focus on the Rome of a bygone era.

In addition to her collecting activities, Pecci-Blunt's patronage of the arts blossomed during this period. She began hosting an annual series of spring concerts at her palazzo and invited musicians such as Darius Milhaud, Arthur Rubinstein, Poulenc, George Auric, Igor Stravinsky and Nathan Milstein to perform. By 1934 plans were laid to open an art gallery. The Galleria della Cometa opened in April 1935 under the direction of Libero de Libero and featured contemporary artists including AFRO (Afro Basaldella), MIRKO (Mirko Basaldella), Corrado Cagli, Giorgio de Chirico, Guglielmo Janni and Gino Severini, among others. In 1937 a New York branch called The Cometa Art Gallery was opened. Both galleries were named after Pecci-Blunt's family coat of arms, a comet. She had adopted the symbol from her relative, Pope Leo XIII.

For a brief period, both galleries were in operation until mounting political tensions forced the closure of the gallery in Rome in 1938. Anna Laetitia and Cécil Pecci-Blunt spent the years of World War II in New York, before returning to Italy in 1947. Upon her return, Pecci-Blunt resumed her cultural and artistic activities, and in 1948, the first meeting of the Associazione Amici dei Musei di Roma was held in her palazzo. Shortly after, she expressed her desire to donate her collection of drawings, watercolors and other paintings to the Museo di Roma. Over the next twenty-odd years, she continued to support artistic endeavors in all forms, holding concerts, building and operating a theater (Teatro di Cometa), and serving in an advisory capacity to the museums of Rome. She was honored for her artistic patronage and philanthropy in 1960 with a Medaglia d'oro per l'arte e la cultura and in 1964, for her encouragement of cross-cultural interchange, with a Légion d'honneur from the French government.

During her years of activity with the Amici dei Musei di Roma, she provided funds for acquisitions and discouraged purchases that would duplicate items in her own collection. Upon her death in 1971, she donated her collection of drawings, watercolors, and paintings to the Museo di Roma, while her collection of prints and published works were sold and dispersed.

Administrative Information

Access

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Publication Rights

Contact Library Reproductions and Permissions .

Preferred Citation

Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt collection of maps of Rome, circa 1550-1883, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. P850002.

Acquisition Information

The collection was acquired in 1985 as part of the library of Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt, which was sold in 1972 after her death, along with her printed maps of Rome. The prints were integrated with the Getty Research Institute's Special Collections and divided into two collections: maps of Rome, Accession no. P850002, and views of Rome, Accession no. P850003.

Processing History

The finding aid and the processing of the collection was completed in June 1997 by Brian Parshall; revisions of the finding aid were made in September 2012.

Related Archival Materials

The collection is complemented by a collection of 97 prints of views of Rome, also held by The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. P850002, and by other holdings from Pecci-Blunt's library. Search the Getty Research Institute's library catalog using the phrase "Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt" for the Research Institute's holdings from the Pecci-Blunt library.

Scope and Content of Collection

The Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt collection of maps of Rome comprises 42 printed maps of Rome, dating from the mid-16th to the late 19th centuries, with captions identifying sites. The majority of the maps were printed in Rome (29), although several were printed in other Italian cities: four from Venice, and one each from Siena and Bologna. The remainder are German (4), French (2), and Dutch (1) in origin. Included are examples by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) and Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630).

Arrangement note

Arrangement is by chronological order.

Indexing Terms

Subjects - Topics

Maps--Private collections

Pecci Blunt, Anna Laetitia, 1885-1971--Art collections

Subjects - Places

Rome (Italy)--Maps

Genres and Forms of Material

Maps--Italy--16th century

Maps--Italy--17th century

Maps--Italy--18th century

Maps--Italy--19th century

Contributors

Pecci Blunt, Anna Laetitia, 1885-1971

Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778

Tempesta, Antonio, 1555-1630

To request an item:

Bibliographic Note: Amato Pietro Frutaz. Le piante di Roma (Roma: Istituto di Studi Romani, 1962); Camillo Scaccia Scarafoni. Le piante di Roma possedute dalla Biblioteca dell'Istituto [di archeologia e storia dell'arte] e dalle altre biblioteche governative della città (Roma: Libreria dello Stata, 1939); Christian Hülsen. Saggio di bibliografia ragionata delle piante iconografiche e prospettiche di Roma dal 1551 al 1748 (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1933).

Citations from Frutaz and Hülsen have been verified. Scarafoni citations have been verified only so far as they are reflected in Frutaz, notations in the inventory indicate when the citation in Scarafoni was not verified.

Container List

Box 1*, Folder 1

"Roma". 180 x 270 mm.

21 sites identified. circa 1550.

Frutaz CI

Scarafoni 127

Box 2*, Folder 2

Nicolas Beatrizet (c.1520-1470). [Roma Moderna.] Plan of modern Rome, the so-called "Pianta della guerra di Napoli," a bird's-eye view dedicated to Paul IV showing the fortifications built by the Pope during the recent wars and after the sack of Rome of 1527. 360 x 475 mm. Rome: Antoine Lafréry (1512-1577), 1557.

Frutaz CXIII

Scarafoni 148

Huelsen 25

Box 1*, Folder 3

Jenicken, Balthazar (d.1599). Panoramic view of medieval Rome. 350 x 250 mm. At bottom, eight 4-line legends in German Gothic script. c.1560.

Frutaz XCVIII

Scarafoni 129

Huelsen (page 9)

Box 1*, Folder 4

Panoramic view of medieval Rome. 265 x 170 mm. 22 sites

identified. c.1565.

Scarafoni 131 (not verified)

Box 1*, Folder 5

(Bertelli, Donato) Panoramic view of medieval Rome (after No. 1 above). 263 x 185 mm. Sites A-X identified. Venice, "Alla Libreria del Segno de S. Marco in merzeria. D.B." 1565.

Scarafoni 130 (not verified)

Oversize 6

Pitor, Leon. Panoramic plan of modern Rome. 510 x 490 mm.

Venice, 1568.

Frutaz CXXII

Scarafoni 154

Huelsen 19

Oversize 7

Dupérac, Etienne (ca. 1525-1604). Small archeological plan of Rome. 455 x 595 mm. Rome, Antoine Lafréry, 1573.

Frutaz XXI

Scarafoni 17

Huelsen 51

Box 2*, Folder 8

Panvinio, Onofrio. "Anteiquae Urbis Imago." 89 sites identified. 330 x 445 mm. (1565) reprinted Venice, 1580.

Frutaz XX

Scarafoni 14

Huelsen 48

Box 2*, Folder 9

Brambilla, Ambrozio. Archeological plan of ancient Rome, after Dupérac. 385 x 490 mm. Rome, Claude Duchet, 1582.

Frutaz XXV

Scarafoni 23

Huelsen 53

Box 2*, Folder 10

Brambilla, Ambrozio. Plan of modern Rome. "Urbis Romae Descrptio."

"Joannes Orlandi formis romae." Lists 117 buildings. 405 x 545 mm. Rome, Claude Duchet, 1582.

Huelsen 78

Box 1*, Folder 11

Cadorin, Mattio. "Roma." Small plan of modern Rome. 135 x 170 mm. Padua, c.1590.

(undocumented)

Oversize 12

Brambilla, Ambrozio. "Novissima Urbis Romae Descriptio." 130 sites identified. 550 x 415 mm. Rome, Nicolas van Aelst, 1597.

Frutaz CXXXIII (who reproduces 1590 edition showing 125 sites)

Scarafoni 169 (not verified)

Huelsen 64

Box 1*, Folder 13

Boissard, Jean-Jacques and Theodor de Bry. "Novissima Urbis Romae Descriptio." 260 x 380 mm. Frankfurt, 1597.

Frutaz CXXXVIII (variant)

Scarafoni 170 (variant)

Huelsen 81

Box 1*, Folder 14

Bertelli, Francisco. "Roma." Small plan of modern Rome. 120 x 175 mm.

Venice, c.1599.

Frutaz CXXXIX

Box 2*, Folder 15

Florimi, Matteo. "Novissima Urbis Romae Descriptio." 86 sites identified. 370 x 570 mm. Sienna, c.1599.

Frutaz CXLI

Scarafoni 171

Huelsen 70

Box 1*, Folder 16

"Antiquae Urbis Perfecta Imago." After Brambilla.

262 x 380 mm. c.1600.

(undocumented)

Box 2*, Folder 17

"Antiquae Urbis Perfecta et Nova Deliniato." After Brambilla/van Aelst. 90 sites identified. 400 x 510 mm. c.1600.

Frutaz XXIV

Scarafoni 24

Huelsen 41

Box 2*, Folder 18

Sciaminozzi, Raffaelo. "Novissima Urbis Romae Descriptio." 120 sites identified. After Tempesta 1593(?) 400 x 520 mm. Rome, Carolus Vaccarus, 1612.

Huelsen, Appendix p.110 (XXA)

Box 2*, Folder 19

De Scaichis, Gottfridus (Geert van Schayck). Small "Roma Antiqua." 52 sites identified. 510 x 370 mm. c.1630.

Frutaz XXVIII

Scarafoni 29

Huelsen 42

Oversize 20

Tempesta, Antonio and Matteo Merian. Plan of modern Rome. Oblong folio 305 x 705 mm. Reduction of Tempesta's large map of 1593. As found in Martin Zeiller, Itinerarium Italiae..., 1640.

Frutaz CXXXV

Scarafoni 186

Huelsen 88

Box 4*, Folder 21a-h

Dupérac, Etienne. "Urbis Romae Sciographia ex Antiquus Monumentis Accuratiss. Delineata." Large archeological plan of Rome in 8 sheets. 520 x 420 mm. each. Reprint by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi (Johannes Jacobus de Rubeis) of 1574 original.

Frutaz XXII

Scarafoni 18

Huelsen 58

Box 2*, Folder 22

"Urbis Romae Novissima Delineatio MDCL." 128 sites identified. 405 x 535 mm. Rome, Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, 1650. Derives from the small plan by Cartaro, and was first published by Giuseppe de Rossi in 1637.

Frutaz CL

Scarafoni 189

Huelsen 68

Box 2*, Folder 23

Maggi, Giovanni. "Descriptio Urbis Romae Novissima AD MDCL." 52 sites identified. 495 x 390 mm. Originally issued in 1600. Rome, Giovanni Battista de Rossi, 1650.

Frutaz CXLIII (1600 version illustrated, plate 283)

Scarafoni 190 (not verified)

Huelsen 93

Oversize 24

Lauro, Giacomo. Archeological plan of Rome. After Dupérac. 279 sites identified. Surrounded by 20 vignettes with text of the history of the city.

480 x 725 mm. Rome, Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, c.1650.

Frutaz XXVII

Scarafoni 32

Huelsen 107

Oversize 25

Jaillot, Hubert and Livino Cruyl. "Plan de la ville de Rome, Comme elle est á présent sous le régne du pape Clément IX." 505 x 830 mm. Paris, H. Jaillot, 1668.

Scarafoni 193 (not verified)

Huelsen 113

Oversize 26

Longhi, Guiseppe. "Descrizione dell'Alma Cittá di Roma..." 810 x 320 mm. At top, 12 views of cities of the papal states; at the sides, six vignettes of tradesmen in costume. Attached below is a separate text detailing a history of the city, 810 x 320 mm. Bologna, Longhi, c.1668. After Federico Agnelli (Milan, Antonio Malatesta, 1667).

Frutaz CLV

Scarafoni 195

Huelsen 90

Oversize 27

Schnitzer, Lucas. "Abbildung der vortrefflichen und weltberuhmten statt Rom." 27 sites identified. 300 x 380 mm. (Augsburg or Nurnberg ?), Paulus Furst, c.1670.

Frutaz CXXXVI

Scarafoni 175

Box 1*, Folder 28

Ridolfi, Pietro. Plan of modern Rome. "Roma: Intagliata e dedicata da Pietro Ridolfi nell'Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti all'Eccellentissimo Sig.re Antonio Rosa." c.1680.

Scarafoni 202 (not verified)

Huelsen 122

Oversize 29

De la Feuille, Jacques. "Novissima et Accuratissima Delineatio Romae Veteris et Novae." After the large map of Falda. 464 sites identified. 590 x 500 mm. Amsterdam, c.1700.

Frutaz CLXI

Scarafoni 209

Huelsen 124

Oversize 30a-f

Cingolani, Giovanni Battista. "Topografia Geometrica dell'Agro Romano overo la Misura pianta, e Quantita de tutte le Tenuti, e Casali della Campagna di Roma ...Intagliata da Pietro Paolo Girelli. 6 sheets, 660 x 462 mm. each. Rome, Fulvio Paluzzi, 1692.

Frutaz CLI

Oversize 31

Barbey, Antonio. "Nuova Pianta della Città di Roma..." 464 sites identified. 530 x 570 mm. Rome, Domenico de Rossi, 25 March 1697.

Frutaz CLXII

Scarafoni 205

Huelsen 135

Oversize 32**

De Fer, Nicholas. "Plan Nouveau de la Ville de Rome." 555 x 750 mm. Paris, N. de Fer, 1713.

(undocumented)

Folder 33

Does not exist.

Oversize 34

Bufalini, Leonardo and Giovanni Battista Nolli. "Urbis Romae Ichnographia..." 715 x 960 mm. Rome, 'Officina Homanniana,' 1755.

Scarafoni 136 (not verified)

Huelsen 3

Box 3*, Folder 35a-i

De Rossi, Matteo Gregorio. "Nuova Pianta di Roma presente con I disegni e nomi delle chiese..." 9 sheets, 169 x 129 mm. overall.

Frutaz CLVII

Scarafoni 235

Huelsen 129a

Oversize 36

Piranesi, Giovanni Battista. Plan of ancient and modern Rome and the Campo Marzio. With 402 sites identified. 1210 x 705 mm. Rome, G.B. Piranesi, 1774.

Scarafoni 236 (not verified)

Focillon, Piranesi, p.43, No. 600.

Oversize 37

Nolli, Giovanni Battista and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. "Nuova Pianta Topografica della Città di Roma." 174 sites identified. 680 x 465 mm. Rome, Venanzio Monaldini, c.1780.

Frutaz CLXIX b (variant)

Scarafoni 239

Oversize 38

Bufalini, Leonardo, Giovanni Battista Nolli and Giovanni Brun. "Roma." Plan of ancient and modern Rome. 455 x 680 mm. Rome, Giuseppi Vasi, 1780.

Scarafoni 137 (not verified)

Huelsen 6

Box 1*, Folder 39

Vasi, Giuseppe. "Nuova Pianta di Roma in Prospettiva..." 217 sites identified. 660 x 910 mm. Rome, Giuseppe Vasi, 1781.

Frutaz CLXXIV

Scarafoni 240

Huelsen 127

Oversize 40

Losi, Carlo. "Pianta de Roma come si Trova al Presente..." After Livino Cruyl, 1665. With 10 vignettes of principal buildings, 174 sites identified, and 40 principal streets. 490 x 840 mm. Rome, Carlo Losi, 1784.

Frutaz CLIV is the entry for Cruyl; no mention of this later version.

Scarafoni 241 (not verified

Huelsen 115 describes this as a "reprint" of a 1773 version by Losi.

Oversize 41

Vasi, Mariano. "Roma Antiqua Triumphatrix ex Vetustis Monumenta Expressa." After Giacomo Lauro 1612. 490 x 840 mm. 1792.

Frutaz XXVII

Scarafoni 54

Huelsen 108

Box 1*, Folder 42a-l

Pirro, Ligorio. Reprint of the 1561 large panorama of Ancient Rome. 1500 x 1260 mm. 12 sheets. Rome, Scudellari, c.1820.

Frutaz XVII a-b

Scarafoni 13

Huelsen 35

Oversize 43a-q

Spinetti, Antonio. "Pianta Topografica di Roma." Frontispiece and 16 sheets, 76 x 62 cm. each. 1883.

(undocumented)

frontispiece (a)

I - IIX (b-h)

IX - XVI (i-q)

XVI (j)

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