At Rome the situation was different. There was no shortage of

At Rome the situation was different. There was no shortage of attempts to escape from the intellectual climate of the Counter,. Reformation. Technical and philological activity, in fact, found particularly significant expression in the Palace of the Corsini, at Trastevere, with Bottari and Foggini. But these were Tuscans living in Rome, and their gaze was directed more towards Florence than to Rome's ecclesiastical past. Rather than concen,. trating on Muratori's r,ooo years, they preferred instead, as did the whole of the Roman intellectual world during the age of Benedict XIV, to rededicate themselves to the ancient world. In this way they anticipated and then accompanied Winckelmann's neo,. classicism. Even in the enlightened and rational works ofPiranesi and Milizia it was not medieval or more recent history, but ancient and primitive Rome which took pride of place. Rome was overcome by the fascination of the classical world.12