Mining Library Treasures

Romae antiquae et novae theatrum (1684) by the author and artist Joachim von Sandrart (1606 – 1688) is a beautifully illustrated book. The book contains many copperplate prints of the so called old and new Rome: pictures of the antique era and modern architecture of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Really remarkable is the large map of ‘new’ Rome that can be found in the book. This map consists out of two folded leaves and forms some kind of wall map. It can be used for decoration or navigation by its reader – preferably at home because the book and map are quite inconvenient to use while travelling due to its size. The question I would like to answer is why the author made this book and what kind of buyers did he had in mind?

The masterpiece of Joachim von Sandrart

Joachim von Sandrart is a famous artist and author from the seventeenth century. He made paintings, prints and worked on a large project for a book that would eventually become his masterpiece. The Teutschen Academie der edlen Bau-, Bild- und Mahlerey-Künste (Nuremberg, 1675 – 1679) is a tree volume book with a lot of illustrations by the author. It focuses on art history, important art theories and practices. A substantial part of the book focuses on biographies of Italian, German, Flemish and French artists. It is also the first study in Europe published about Chinese art. Due to the biographies this book is considered important for art historical research for a long time.

His book about Rome

A few years after the publication of his Teutschen Academie Sandrart made a book about popular historical sites in Rome. The book contains a lot of illustrations and the author even used a copperplate print of his previous book where the legend of Romulus and Remus is pictured. This is one of the frontispieces from the Teutschen Academie with the original text ‘Der Teutschen Academie. Zweiten theils’ still on it. The illustrations in the book about Rome are partially made by Sandart, like the frontispiece with the legend and a few other prints. But there are also illustrations made by other artist such as Johan Meyer and Johan Franck.

The book contains text in Latin and German. The dedication and introduction are written in Latin, a language that was commonly used by scholars, but all the descriptions on the illustrations are in both languages. The book is printed in Nuremberg and taken into account that it is written in Latin and German, it is most likely that this book was published for the German book market and an educated audience.

A large part of the book is filled with illustrations. There are only about nine pages of text and rest of the book is filled with around 60 copperplate prints containing two maps of Rome, illustrations of palaces, antique ruins, houses, and other sights in the city. It is a precious book and must have been sold to wealthy buyers who had travelled to Rome or were interested in the city. Especially by students on the Grand Tour, a journey students made to explore the culture of the Classical period and the Renaissance. Prints and books, like this copy, could serve as a souvenir of the city.

A map of Rome

While many people take a quick look at maps in illustrated books, the large map of Rome in this book is worth taking a closer look. The city pictured on this particular map is from the year 1591, according to the cartouche on the map in the year that Innocent IX was pope in Rome (Fig. 4.1). The cartouche can be found at the upper right side of the map and also mentions the year in which the map was made. According to this information the map was made for the Teutschen Academie from Sandrart in 1667. Noteworthy is that there are other copies of this map, for example in a museum where they have a map that looks a lot like Sandarts map of Rome made by the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Falda (1643 – 1678). Both maps have the same composition and are similar to each other, however they are not printed with the same copperplate because elements on the maps are different. For example the topographical features and compass rose on the right side of the map. Probably one of the maps is copied, once again engraved and printed.

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There are a lot of details to discover on the map. The old ruins of the city are displayed, just like all the other highlights scholars visited on their Grand Tour. The map shows a lot of dynamic: little boats on the Tiber, people walking on the Roman squares and canons firing from a fort at the border of the city (Fig. 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4). There is also a legend displayed on the map with information about the location and different sights in the city indicated by numbers. In conclusion, both the book and the map give the buyer an overview of the many sights Rome has to offer. For when they plan a visit, as a reminder of their time in Rome or to behold the city they maybe never see for themselves.