Given the influx of pilgrims, lovers of classical antiquity, and the merely curious, it is little wonder that the guidebook as a distinctive literary genre developed in Rome as nowhere else. One immediately thinks of the Mirabilia urbis Romae, the Libri Indulgentiae, and the Historia et Descriptio urbis Romae. It was the famous architect, Andrea Palladio (1508–80), however, who by far and away had the greatest influence on Roman guidebooks. In 1554 he published two works, L’antichità di Roma di M. Andrea Palladio, raccolta brevemente da gli autori antichi & moderni, and Descritione de le chiese, stationi, indulgenze et reliquie de Corpi Sancti, che sonno in la città di Roma. While Palladio considered these two works as a unit, the one on the churches turned out to be much more influential. It was in small octavo format, containing sixty-four pages, cheaply priced, and portable, thus perfectly adapted to the needs of the pilgrim. The author added an appendix enumerating the stations, indulgences, and graces to be gained in the churches. Palladio’s aim was to facilitate the pilgrim through organizing the churches in a more streamlined fashion. Dividing the seven basilicas and 117 churches into five distinct groupings, using the Campidoglio — the heart-center of ancient Rome — as a hub for three of them, he thus succeeded in combining symbolic and geographical aims.

Le chiese was published again in 1557 under a new title, Le cose maravigliose dell’alma città di Roma, but with no reference at all to Palladio as author. Palladio’s introduction was omitted, but otherwise the text was printed in full. This new edition also contained Un breve trattato delle antichità, chiamata la guida romana. Composed by the English musician Thomas Schakerly, papal organist and chief musician to the cardinal of Ferrara, this latter work was intended as a guide for the tourist who had only two-and-a-half days to spend in Rome. The 1557 edition also contained an appendix giving lists in chronological order of popes and emperors, as well as the kings of France and Naples, the doges of Venice, and the dukes of Milan. Le cose meravigliose served both the pilgrim and the general traveler. It was reprinted again and again with revisions and updates as found necessary. Editorial revisions began as early as 1561. The 1563 edition contained an index of the churches, whose number by this time had increased to 140. Valerio Dorico, publisher of this edition, also included a copy of L’antichità di Roma in the text with full acknowledgment of Palladio as author, even though Le chiese remained anonymous. The 1575 edition proved very popular with 400,000 pilgrims visiting Rome for the Holy Year, the first jubilee since the Council of Trent and the defeat of the Turks at the battle of Lepanto (1571).

In a shrewd move anticipating the jubilee proclaimed by Pope Sixtus V for 1590, Girolamo Franzini published a new edition in Venice in 1588. Dedicated to the pope, this edition paid special attention to his ambitious building program in Rome, focusing on the obelisks and aqueduct. The number of churches had by then risen to 149, with particular prominence given to Santa Maria del Popolo, which had displaced San Sebastiano as one of the seven basilicas in 1586, given that it was too far outside the city walls to guarantee pilgrims’ safety.

Franzini’s most novel addition was the inclusion of ninety-three wood engravings. These not only enhance the overall effect of the work, but actually display valuable architectural features no longer extant. One thinks in particular of Santa Maria della Pace and San Giacomo degli Spagnoli. Franzini’s edition contains more references to works of art than previous guides, the most contemporary being Michelangelo’s statue of Christ in Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

Flavia Cantatore has now produced an anastatic reprint of a copy of Franzini’s edition, replete with a most helpful introduction and bibliography. Not only is this work of historical value, but you can actually walk the streets of Rome with it in your pocket just like a late sixteenth-century pilgrim, amazed to discover how much of that city still remains to be enjoyed.