ABSTRACT
There was a thriving market for prints in Rome in 1555. This was the age of the collector and the city’s printmakers flourished. The relatively small permanent population of around 55,000 was a wealthy and cosmopolitan one and it was constantly increased by the large numbers of people who came to stay for short periods.1 They came on political and religious business to the city that was both the capital of the Papal States and the administrative and legal centre of the Church. They came also as religious pilgrims to visit the holy sites and as tourists to see and draw or paint the classical remains which were being discovered, and to examine the latest work of modern artists. Roman society, both permanent and itinerant, was affluent, influential and discerning, and its specific taste for prints was provided for by the engravers, printers and dealers who congregated in workshops in Via di Parione,2 and Via del Pellegrino and in the labyrinth of alleys and lanes around these two major roads which run from Campo de’Fiori and Piazza Navona to the Ponte S. Angelo.3 These main routes to the Borgo and the Vatican were crowded daily and those who passed through created a fast growing sophisticated market.4 It was within this thriving industry that our broadsheet was produced.
