This fourth display marks the end of the series of small exhibitions organised by BSR library and curated by Clare Hornsby and Caroline Barron in the context of the Piranesi Print Catalogue Project.

The prints we have selected are for the most part archaeological and architectural illustrations, many of them are composite images, showing carefully arranged ancient remnants, often not in proportional scale with one another. These are objects from contemporary excavations on the via Appia, including some intriguing inscriptions, and fragments of wall paintings and architectural mouldings, capitals and bases. The prints were originally sheets within the volumes of the Antichità Romane and Antichità di Albano e di Castel Gandolfo amongst others and include pages from two of his polemical treatises – the Magnificenza ed Architettura de’ Romani and Osservazioni sopra la lettre di M. Mariette. There is also a small group of prints focussed on the structure and the decoration of the late-antique Mausoleo di Costanza, still extant on the via Nomentana and now a church, situated within the complex of S. Agnese fuori le Mura.

As ever, Caroline Barron and I would like to thank the staff of the BSR library who have always so enthusiastically assisted our work, in particular Beatrice Gelosia who has been our close collaborator throughout.

Clare Hornsby, May 2024