ROMANIS, Antonio de.  LE ANTICHE CAMERE ESQUILINE DETTE COMMUNEMENTE DELLE TERME DI TITO.

ROMANIS, Antonio de.  LE ANTICHE CAMERE ESQUILINE DETTE COMMUNEMENTE DELLE TERME DI TITO.                                                 

Rome: 1822. Folio. Contemporary printed wrappers. 61 pages. 9 plates, of which 2 double paged.

A carefully illustrated record by a Roman architect of the so-called Baths of Titus on the Esquiline Hill, as revealed by excavations conducted in 1811 to 1814.  The ruins had been famous for their surviving wall paintings since the sixteenth century, but it was not until the present excavations that there was sufficient evidence for their date and nature.  They were in fact part of the Golden House of Nero covered over following his suicide in 69 AD to remove any evidence of his presence in Rome by the following emperors, especially Vespasian and Titus who built the baths and the Flavian Amphitheater over part of the sprawling site.  The Later Roman emperor, Trajan also built his even larger bath complex adjacent to the Baths of Titus on the Esquiline Hall site.  De Romanis' book represents a clear advance over its predecessors.  The plates are also more delicately drawn and etched than those on most contemporary publications, presumably because De Romanis belonged to the De Romanis family of printers and publishers who made special production efforts on his behalf.  Original wrappers a little soiled; some outer top corners creased, but a good fresh copy.

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