Ottavio Panciroli

This guidebook is the second edition of Ottavio Panciroli’s I tesori nascosti nell’alma città di Roma, originally published in 1600—a fact that would explain the attention paid by this text to devotional practices, especially those that concerned the Jubilee. The guida romana is here replaced by itineraries organized by the modern rioni (districts) of the city. Despite the absence of illustrations, Tesori nascosti gives a thorough art-historical description of Roman monuments from antiquity to the early modern era. In the section dedicated to the Church of Santi Luca e Martina, the author mentions the church as being given to “i Pittori” (the painters) in 1588 by Sixtus V, following the pope’s decision to destroy the original Church of San Luca near Santa Maria Maggiore, where the Compagnia dei Pittori was housed since 1478.

A handwritten note on one of the book’s flyleaves attributes the authorship of this second edition not to Ottavio but to his brother, the Jesuit priest Ippolito Panciroli, and hints at the dispute that surrounded the authorship of this second edition reported in contemporary sources. By these accounts, Ippolito’s text was deemed luteum negotium (loosely meaning “a poor commodity”) by the censor committee of the Compagnia del Gesù and therefore not suitable for publication. Ottavio then agreed to publish Ippolito’s work under his name through the publisher Heredi d’Alessandro Zanetti.

Complete digitized book: IIIF Digital View (National Gallery of Art Library, Special Collections)