ABSTRACT
The eighteenth century was an important transitional phase for the city of Rome, between its lively growth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the inevitable marginalisation of the city characterised by the papal power in the nineteenth century. This phase marked the beginning of the downfall of the papacy's international role and inevitably, due to its repercussions on the city of Rome, to a decrease in the capital's demographic growth which had been extremely dynamic between the second half of the sixteenth and the end of the seventeenth centuries, notwithstanding the negative influence of the plague1• This temporary decrease, however, did not mean that things came to a standstill. In fact, in Italy, the demographic growth was only lower in Naples and Palermo than that of other capital cities, in Europe it could compete with such large cities as Paris and Amsterdam.2 In this period, Rome's productive structure was consolidated and reorganised, as it reaped the benefits of the high demand for goods and services that it offered both as a political and religious capital. It was the seat of an imposing court and of important noble families, some of whom were capable of competing, for the splendour of their residences, with many reigning European houses. We must, furthermore, not forget the city's strong cosmopolitan character. It had far more to offer than the normal capital of a regional state, both for its permanent components (diplomatic corps, curia, artists and artisans) and its temporary components (pilgrims, travellers, seasonal workers).
