Rome

It’s the city where history, spectacle, and sensuality collude around every corner, where Baroque drama flourishes alongside ancient Classical wonders. Where necks crane to admire Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, where Fellini made Dolce Vita history, and where Mussolini crafted fascist ideology into the mega-structures of EUR.

This bumper photographic portrait of Rome brings together hundreds of photographs from the 1840s through to today to explore the extraordinary history, beauty, and art of this incomarable cultural capital. Through some 500 sepia, black-and-white, and color images, the collection brings photographers like Giacomo Caneva, Pompeo Molins, Giuseppe Primoli, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Carlo Bavagnoli, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Pasquale De Antonis, Peter Lindbergh, Slim Aarons, and William Klein to reveal Rome in its many compelling guises: as nexus of the Ancient Roman Empire, as hotbed of the Renaissance, as treasured travel destination, as a rich patchwork of varied neighborhoods, as home to the Vatican and center of the Roman Catholic church, as political stage, and as perfect backdrop to film and fashion shoots.

About the Author

Giovanni Fanelli, professor of Architecture History at the University of Florence, is the author of several works of architectural history, urban history, graphic arts and photography, translated into several languages; he has been the Scientific Director of the Fondazione Ragghianti (Lucca) and is director of several series of Laterza publishers (Rome).