This section presents a selection of works published between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, useful for outlining the path undertaken by historical-antiquarian studies and iconography in these three centuries.
All the specimens come from the rich collection, arrived by testamentary legacy, belonging to Domenico Comparetti, professor of Greek literature and well-rounded scholar of antiquity, who had already made substantial donations to the library during his lifetime.
There are four books published in the second half of the sixteenth century: the first systematic collection of illustrations of the ancient statues present in the Roman collections, two works of ancient iconography, relating to the 'illustrious men', where the contribution of Fulvio Orsini to the evolution of the discipline was of key importance, and a collection of tables with busts of the Roman emperors starting from Julius Caesar.
The exhibition continues with three eighteenth-century editions that reflect the new context of antiquarian studies: the amazement and the clamor that accompany the archaeological discoveries and the consequent impact with other extraordinary manifestations of ancient art, are evidenced here in the images of paintings from Antichità di Ercolano e contorni, the research and study of the ancient vestiges that also becomes an exploration of a foreign country in language and customs, as for Jacques d'Orville in his work Sicula or can include, for an Italian individual, the investigation of their past, which despite the scholarly context prelude to the definition of an identity. This section closes with two guides of Rome, an edition of the seventeenth and the other of the eighteenth century, and a collection of views of the eternal city of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, further instruments of documentation of ancient times and their power of attraction, as well as the demolition work carried out over time.
![Le cose maravigliose di Roma, p. [82], Colosseo](../../images/cache_5104218061df0aa1278adbcbf59a6986_e770a12833de06dbb45dfaa95050649d.jpg "Le cose maravigliose di Roma, p. [82], Colosseo")
