ROMA - Vatican City State; F. Panini / F. Barbazza - VEDUTA DELLA BIBLIOTECA VATICANA edificata da Sisto V con l'architettura di Domenico Fontana [...] - 1761-1780

VIEW of the Vatican Library built by Sixtus V with architecture by Domenico Fontana, containing the majority of the manuscripts and books that were in the other building already erected by Nicholas V and Sixtus IV

In Rome from the Calcography of the Reverenda Camera Apostolica near the Innocenzian Curia, in the year 1767

Francesco Panini delineò
Francesco Barbazza incisore

From: Vedute delle quattro principali basiliche e monumenti di Roma nel XVIII secolo, Calcografia Camerale, Roma 1767

The title refers to the various developments and enlargements the Library benefited from after the papal return to Rome, with Niccolò V Parentucelli granting access to consultation of the precious membranous codices, his successor Sixtus IV Della Rovere authorizing even external lending and beautifying the reading rooms, up to Sixtus V who, to address the lack of space, entrusted his trusted architect Fontana to create a new seat, which is the current building that houses the library.

Engraving, aquatint and burin on thick, non- rag paper, verso blank, good margins, weakening of the paper and abrasions visible especially on the verso.

Size: 47 x 72 cm the print sheet

Francesco Panini, or Pannini (1745-1812), a Piacenza-born painter, was a skilled landscape artist particularly attentive to Roman architectures that he would immortalize in his works, much admired by contemporaries and others.
Francesco Barbazza worked in Rome as a landscape engraver, particularly of those drawn by Panini.