Abate Filippo Titi was an Italian Roman Catholic

Protonotary apostolic In the Roman Catholic Church, protonotary apostolic (PA; Latin: ''protonotarius apostolicus'') is the title for a member of the highest non-episcopal college of prelates in the Roman Curia or, outside Rome, an honorary prelate on whom the pop ...

, and an art historian, best known for his inventory of the artistic content of churches in Rome, titled ''Studio di Pittura scoltura et architettura nelle Chiese di Roma'', published by Mancini in 1674

Biography

Titi was born in town of

Città di Castello Città di Castello (); "Castle Town") is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of Umbria. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain along the upper part of the river Tiber. The city is north of ...

in Umbria. He studied arts with Virgilio Ducci, a pupil of Francesco Albano. Titi's Studio was republished by Giuseppe Vannacci in 1686. It was then dedicated to Cardinal Gaspero di Carpegna, the papal Vicar. Titi's index lists about 275 churches. The sections include some of the background of the founding of the church, and the descriptions of the interior are curt; however, there is room for tart commentary such as when he states that to obtain the travertine used to build the

Palazzo della Cancelleria The Palazzo della Cancelleria (Palace of the Chancellery, referring to the former Apostolic Chancery of the Pope) is a Renaissance palace in Rome, Italy, situated between the present Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Campo de' Fiori, in the rion ...

nearly half of the

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; it, Colosseo ) is an oval amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built, and is still the largest standing amphitheatre in the world to ...

as well as the entire Arch of Emperor Gordian was undone. His introduction highlights that this book was meant in part to serve as a guidebook to the increasing crowd of visitors that came to Rome as pilgrims or tourists on the

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

. The book was republished over the years A similar guide for Florence had been published nearly a century earlier by Francesco Bocchi.

Notes

A nineteenth century guidebook to Rome, which focused more on antiquity, was published by

Carlo Fea Carlo Fea (4 June 1753 - 18 March 1836) was an Italian archaeologist. Biography Born at Pigna, in Liguria, Fea studied law in Rome, receiving the degree of doctor of laws from the university of La Sapienza, but archaeology gradually attrac ...

.* See

Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome As the home of the Pope and the Catholic curia, as well as the locus of many sites and relics of veneration related to apostles, saints and Christian martyrs, Rome had long been a destination for pilgrims. The Via Francigena was an ancient pilgri ...

for other antecedent or roughly contemporary guidebooks.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Titi, Filippo Apostolic pronotaries Italian art historians Year of death unknown Year of birth missing