ENGLISH VERSION Filippo Titi, Studio di pittura, scoltura et architettura, nelle Chiese di Roma. Firenze, Centro Di, 1987

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION

Filippo Titi
Studio di pittura, scoltura et architettura, nelle Chiese di Roma [Essay on Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in teh Roman Churches]

'Comparative' edition 
by Bruno Contardi and Serena Romano

2° voll, Firenze, Centro Di, 1987

Rome. Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza (Francesco Borromini)

"The first fully-fledged guide of Rome came out at the beginning of the eighteenth century (1708) and was the work of abbot Titi from Città di Castello [...]. It was frequently reprinted throughout the century and considerably enlarged" writes Julius von Schlosser in his Letteratura artistica (Literature on art) on Filippo Titi. 

Rome, The so-called 'Twin Churches' of Piazza del Popolo:
Santa Maria in Montesanto  - alias The Artists' Church - (1675, left)
and Santa Maria dei Miracoli (1678, right) 

This is actually an inaccurate statement, since the first edition of the guide by the abbot from Città di Castello is of 1674, and the one quoted by the Austrian scholar is only the fourth of six editions that followed along approximately a century: 1674, 1675 (a "pirate" version), 1686, 1708, 1721 and 1763. He was however not wrong in saying that the Studio di pittura (Essay on painting) was the first "modern" guide of Rome. Mind you: the list of printed guides and travel reports on Rome is endless, starting with the much quoted Mirabilia Urbis Romae (Marvels of the town of Rome). But they are – just up to Titi – works intended primarily to pilgrims, mainly related to religious interests: a tour of the churches of Rome, then, is an opportunity to mention the presence of relics rather than works of art, to talk about miracles, and not about styles, and to support the peace of mind of travellers and not to stimulate their interest for art. 

Roma, Piazza Navona. The Church of S. Agnese in Agone (Francesco Borromini)

Titi still always refers to the churches; and, as it is clear from the introduction, the guide is mainly intended for the pilgrims who are about to visit Rome for the Holy Year of 1675. However, this time, he sets aside relics and studies a route that, starting from St. Peter, allows the reader to follow the most convenient and shortest routes (a fact that seems trivial to us today; however, all previous guides were organized according to the hierarchy of importance of the relics, and not to the comfort of the stranger) and focuses precisely on art pieces. His work, then, has two indisputable strengths: it is comfortable enough to be carried around during the visit (it is in 12°), and is very complete. The art pieces are listed with no aesthetic judgment and with extremely sparse descriptions. But there is not the slightest comparison to any previous guides, with 277 churches and chapels surveyed, and 350 painters, 130 sculptors and 50 architects cited. 

A 'comparative' edition

The first thing you notice, therefore, where looking through this modern edition of Titi, released in 1987, is the difference in the size of the work: the edition turns from a little book for travellers to two large volumes (one with the text and one containing a valuable iconographic apparatus). Yet, we are not faced with a critical edition, or an edition with commentary, but what the editors call a "comparative edition." What is meant with this? Quite simply, that the purpose of the editors is to provide, from the text of the first edition, the indication of all changes and additions made to the same in the subsequent editions of 1675, 1686, 1708, 1721 and 1763. A very difficult task (which today would surely be facilitated by IT tools), especially when you consider that, in the course of a century, the book changed form: there are, in this sense, two editions of particular importance, namely that of 1686 (still edited by Titi, who was alive) and that of 1763, organised by the famous scholar Giovanni Gaetano Bottari: in both editions the text was considerably increased. The result of the meticulous work of the modern editors, however, is a text that can be read with great difficulty, getting lost in the original, variants and variants of the variants; moreover, it seems a work whose basic structure is indeed not fully convincing. Why? 

Roma, Piazza Navona, The Fountain of Four Rivers (Gian Lorenzo Bernini) and the Egyptina obelisk

The basic thesis of the editors is that the guide of Titi was not just written to answer the curiosity of visitors, but as a form of inventory of an immense heritage for the benefit of Cardinal Gasparo Carpegna, protector of Titi and responsible of the holy heritage of Roman churches as from 1671, a task commissioned by the pope. Thus, it was forward looking work. Liliana Pittarello writes in her introduction: "Understood in this way, the work of Titi permitted to enhance operational capabilities of government and was therefore well ahead of the first measures taken by the most advanced Italian pre-unification states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which began to take action in order to protect their art wealth from dispersion risk, just preventively establishing lists of objects" (p. xi). 

Rome, Piazza Navona, The Fountain of Four Rivers: the Nile

I now apologize, if I am opening a digression (and, above all, I would like to start it by clarifying that I have nothing against this particular book). Still, to declare the work of an individual as an 'anticipation', in any context of human knowledge, is an old habit of those who look at things with the benefit of hindsight. All works must be contextualized in the period in which they are executed or written; we cannot attribute to them intentions which are contemporary to us. Let me explain: the second volume of this edition presents the iconographic reproduction of the art works mentioned in the Guide by Titi as from the second edition onwards (1675) and chronologically dated after 1674. "Obviously, this is all of which the text of the Titi and his updaters may be a veritable source of information, and not - as in the case of the artistic heritage from the Middle Ages until the 60s of the seventeenth century – simply a scholarly recapitulation or even a repetition of earlier sources (Vasari, Mancini, Baglione and above all Bellori). To tighten up the corpus that was so forming, also works have been removed from it which, although mentioned in the variants, are actually dated before 1674. Especially the last edition [...] updated by Bottari, is rich in these expansions that are not relevant, however, for the intention of our current work" (p. xvi). In summary: the wish the editors is to provide, through the various editions of the Guide by Titi, a repertoire of works of art made ​​in the churches of Rome from 1674 onwards. This task has been carried out with great dedication, and it is certainly essential today in order to preserve art. But this cannot mean that art preservation was the purpose that Titi set himself. In 1674, the purpose of the abbot was to provide a fully-fledged guide, and not an instrument for art preservation. It responded to both a need for scholarly curiosity originating from the environment of the Roman academies of the seventeenth century (of which both Titi and Carpegna were part) and – in the other hand - to the (commercially attractive) prospect to provide a guide to the pilgrims who arrive in Rome for the Holy Year. 

Rome, Piazza Navona, The Fountain of Four Rivers: the Danube

Let us read anyway what Titi writes in the first edition. It is true that in the dedication to Cardinal Carpegna he states that "I have collected the works of Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, which is to say the marvels that you can admire of them in the churches of Rome (...). I did it to satisfy also to an obligation that – in the same area of the subject of the book – is competence of your eminence, since his Holiness, the Vicar of Our Lord [note of the editor: the Pope] recommended the holy places and things of Rome to your most wise vigilance". However, just before, Titi had mentioned that the occasion of the publication is that the "nations of the world" are coming to Rome for the Holy Year; and after the dedication, the author addresses the reader, explaining that "I had the intention to provide for comfort and leave to you the choice among the art works that I am mentioning here. Therefore, I assure you, that you will enjoy the brevity, which I used to describe them succinctly. [...] I made an effort to find all what was possible for me, also with the study of many authors who dealt with it, as well as with the report of many informed people, and with the cognition of the styles; I assure you that I did not have other purpose, but to serve your virtuous curiosity, and God keep you." What are the sources? In what way are used? Who are the "informed people"? What importance does Titi assign to the “primitives”? All these questions remain unanswered, due to the prior limitation of the area of investigation by the editors. A choice that let us raise our eyebrows. 

Rome, Piazza Navona, The Fountain of Four Rivers: the Ganges

The various editions of Titi's Guide

The Guide by Titi was successful. Maybe, even too much. The following year (we are still in the Holy Year) a pirated edition of the work is sorted out, with a humble and rough layout. It is printed in Macerata by the printer Giuseppe Piccini. Titi, who published his book with the clear intention to spread it during the Jubilee, must have taken it quite badly; certainly, he was not in a position to legally enforce his property rights. He will remember it, at the time of the second edition of the Guide, in 1686. With the new edition, he changes the title, that is now expanded in Ammaestramento utile, e curioso di pittura, scoltura et architettura nelle Chiese di Roma, Palazzi Vaticano, di Monte Cavallo e altri, che s’incontrano nel cammino facile, che si fa per ritrovarle (A useful and interesting education on painting, sculpture et architecture in the churches of Rome, the Vatican Palaces, at the Quirinal Hill and elsewhere, and the easy tour to find them). That of 1686 is a much richer version of the first (and it was not easy to manage it): "The 1686 edition contains 292 churches, 10 palaces, the San Angelo bridge and also the cathedral of Città di Castello. In addition, an appendix was added to many churches which lists the artwork completed during the preparation and printing of the work. The index mentions 426 painters operating in Rome and 24 in the cathedral of Città di Castello "(p. XXVI). It also includes an analytical description of the Vatican Palaces. This time, however, not to take risks, the author obtains a papal decree, let it notarize it and publishes an excerpt of it in the book, proving to have exclusive right on the work for the next ten years.

Rome, The Fountain of Four Rivers: the Rio de la Plata 

The edition of 1686 is the last one organized by the abbot, who died in 1702 (the exact date of death was not known until a few years ago. See Ludwig Schudt e la sua bibliografia. Lettura critica e catalogo ragionato di Alberto Caldana - Ludwig Schudt and his bibliography. Critical Reading and catalogue raisonné, by Alberto Caldana, Rome, Palombi publishers, 2003, p. 58). On the editions of 1708 and 1721, we would like only to point out that the title becomes Nuovo studio di pittura, scoltura, ed architettura nelle chiese di Roma, Palazzi Vaticano, di Monte Cavallo e altri. (New study of painting, sculpture, and architecture in the churches of Rome, the Vatican Palaces, Quirinal Hills and others). In reality, however, revisions are secondary. The case is very different, however, for the last edition of the Guide, which dates back to 1763 (almost a century since the first printing in Rome). Here intervenes a high-sounding name of Roman and in general Italian scholarship, Giovanni Gaetano Bottari. On Bottari, we will only say that he was the editor of a fundamental edition of Vasari's Lives and that his Raccolta di lettere sulla pittura, scultura e architettura (Collection of letters on painting, sculpture and architecture) marked several decades afterwards, with numerous additions and imitations. "The book is a complete redesign of the work by Titi; keeping intact the structure and approach, it however completely changes its contents, expanding the boundaries of the historical-critical survey and changing the method of analysis. Just think of the more than 400 items catalogued in the index, which - in addition to the churches – now includes buildings, schools, hospitals, villas and fountains" (p. XXVIII). The intervention of Bottari therefore completely transforms the Guide by Titi. And it is a very difficult operation, according to what the scholar reports in his correspondence, but also in the presentation of the work. When it is printed, in fact, the new edition already contains an attached section of Aggiunte e correzioni (Additions and corrections) to the text. The reason that Bottari provides Bottari is that "'in the course of twenty years in which it was long interrupted several times, the original work had become as lacking as other previous editions" (p. XXIX). In sum, the editor followed the new version of the Guide at least for twenty years, and realised that the text he had prepared had aged due to numerous interruptions. Hence the decision to make updates only in a special section, without having to re-intervene in the structure already prepared; if that decision had not been taken, Bottari’s version might have risked perhaps not to be published at all.