Rome : Portrait of the Eternal City
Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1950. Item #1533 Large 8vo. 285 x 220 mm., [11 ¼ x 8 ¾ inches]. 62, [130] pp., with Appendices: Descriptive List of Plates, Acknowledgements, and an Index of Illustrations and Descriptions. One-hundred and seventy-one black and white photographic plates included on sixty-four separate, unnumbered leaves at the end of the book. Publishers’ navy cloth over boards with gilt lettering on the spine and a stamp of the emblem of the Holy See in gilt on the upper cover; illustrated unclipped dust jacket. Book is Fine: in superb condition with little signs of use or wear. Jacket is Very Good: chipped along the top and bottom edges with minor soiling and shelf wear throughout but still in an attractive state. First Edition. An extensive photographic tour of the most important sites and monuments in Rome which seems to have been prepared especially for the holy year or jubilee announced by Pope Pius XII for 1950. During this year, a complete indulgence was granted to Catholic pilgrims who visited the four major basilicas of Rome – Saint Peter, St. Paul outside the Walls, Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore and Saint John Lateran. To promote the pilgrimage the photographs, taken by pioneering archeological photographer Ernest Nash (1898-1974), focus heavily on these four great churches and other Catholic sites, though not exclusively so. We find, in addition to religious buildings, the monuments of Ancient Rome as well as scenes from everyday life alongside the plazas and facades that decorate the city. The illustrations are accompanied by an extensive commentary by Giuseppe Prezzolini (1882-1982), the celebrated Italian literary critic who emigrated to the United States in 1929 and where he taught at Columbia University.
Price: $35.00