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INVENTORY OF THE ANNA LAETITIA PECCI-BLUNT COLLECTION OF MAPS OF ROME, circa 1550-1883
P850002
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Title: Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt collection of maps of Rome
Date (inclusive): circa 1550-1883
Number: P850002
Creator/Collector:
Pecci Blunt, Anna Laetitia, 1885-1971
Physical Description:
42.0 maps
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The collection consists of 42 printed maps of the city of Rome, dating circa 1550 to 1883, from the library of collector,
gallerist, philanthropist and patron of the arts, Countess Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt.
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Language: Collection material is in
Italian
Anna Laetitia ("Mimì") Pecci-Blunt was born on 15 March 1885. Her father, Count Camillo Pecci was head of the Guardia nobile
pontificia and a nephew to Pope Leo XIII (Vicenzo Gioacchino Pecci), and her mother, Silvia Bueno y Garzon was a Spanish noblewoman
from Cuba. After passing the years of World War I in Switzerland, Anna Laetitia Pecci settled in Paris and soon immersed herself
in artistic and intellectual circles, becoming friends with Georges Braque and Jean Cocteau. She was introduced to the wealthy
and cultured American banker, Cécil Blunt, son of the collector Ferdinand Blumenthal. The marriage between the two was celebrated
in 1919 with the benediction of Pope Benedict XV, who gave Cécil Blunt the title of Count Pecci-Blunt. The couple took up
residence in Paris where they opened their home to writers, poets, artists and musicians including Salvador Dalì, Cocteau,
Paul Valéry, Francis Poulenc and Paul Claudel. The Pecci-Blunts had five children: Dino, Laetitia, Viviana, Camilla and Graziella.
In 1929, the Pecci-Blunts decided to spend part of each year in Rome and they purchased, near the Campodiglio and the Piazza
Venezia, the palazzo in Piazza Aracoeli 3 designed by Giacomo della Porta. As in Paris, this residence became a cultural hub,
reflecting Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt's desire to foster exchange between Italian and foreign artists, musicians and intellectuals.
During this period Pecci-Blunt began to acquire prints, published works, drawings and paintings thematically focused upon
the city of Rome. Many of these materials were purchased in Rome, however she also acquired art during her frequent trips
to Paris. Pecci-Blunt's collection included views, plans, maps of Rome and depictions of the inhabitants of the city in popular
costume. As intense urban development under Mussolini transformed Rome in the 1930's, interest in the city's past grew among
certain circles in Rome. The collection came to be known as "Roma Sparita" because of its nostalgic focus on the Rome of a
bygone era.
In addition to her collecting activities, Pecci-Blunt's patronage of the arts blossomed during this period. She began hosting
an annual series of spring concerts at her palazzo and invited musicians such as Darius Milhaud, Arthur Rubinstein, Poulenc,
George Auric, Igor Stravinsky and Nathan Milstein to perform. By 1934 plans were laid to open an art gallery. The Galleria
della Cometa opened in April 1935 under the direction of Libero de Libero and featured contemporary artists including AFRO
(Afro Basaldella), MIRKO (Mirko Basaldella), Corrado Cagli, Giorgio de Chirico, Guglielmo Janni and Gino Severini, among others.
In 1937 a New York branch called The Cometa Art Gallery was opened. Both galleries were named after Pecci-Blunt's family coat
of arms, a comet. She had adopted the symbol from her relative, Pope Leo XIII.
For a brief period, both galleries were in operation until mounting political tensions forced the closure of the gallery in
Rome in 1938. Anna Laetitia and Cécil Pecci-Blunt spent the years of World War II in New York, before returning to Italy in
1947. Upon her return, Pecci-Blunt resumed her cultural and artistic activities, and in 1948, the first meeting of the Associazione
Amici dei Musei di Roma was held in her palazzo. Shortly after, she expressed her desire to donate her collection of drawings,
watercolors and other paintings to the Museo di Roma. Over the next twenty-odd years, she continued to support artistic endeavors
in all forms, holding concerts, building and operating a theater (Teatro di Cometa), and serving in an advisory capacity to
the museums of Rome. She was honored for her artistic patronage and philanthropy in 1960 with a Medaglia d'oro per l'arte
e la cultura and in 1964, for her encouragement of cross-cultural interchange, with a Légion d'honneur from the French government.
During her years of activity with the Amici dei Musei di Roma, she provided funds for acquisitions and discouraged purchases
that would duplicate items in her own collection. Upon her death in 1971, she donated her collection of drawings, watercolors,
and paintings to the Museo di Roma, while her collection of prints and published works were sold and dispersed.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
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Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt collection of maps of Rome, circa 1550-1883, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession
no. P850002.
The collection was acquired in 1985 as part of the library of Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt, which was sold in 1972 after her
death, along with her printed maps of Rome. The prints were integrated with the Getty Research Institute's Special Collections
and divided into two collections: maps of Rome, Accession no. P850002, and views of Rome, Accession no. P850003.
The finding aid and the processing of the collection was completed in June 1997 by Brian Parshall; revisions of the finding
aid were made in September 2012.
The collection is complemented by a collection of 97 prints of views of Rome, also held by The Getty Research Institute, Los
Angeles, Accession no. P850002, and by other holdings from Pecci-Blunt's library. Search the Getty Research Institute's library
catalog using the phrase "Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt" for the Research Institute's holdings from the Pecci-Blunt library.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Anna Laetitia Pecci-Blunt collection of maps of Rome comprises 42 printed maps of Rome, dating from the mid-16th to the
late 19th centuries, with captions identifying sites. The majority of the maps were printed in Rome (29), although several
were printed in other Italian cities: four from Venice, and one each from Siena and Bologna. The remainder are German (4),
French (2), and Dutch (1) in origin. Included are examples by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) and Antonio Tempesta
(1555-1630).
Arrangement is by chronological order.
Maps--Private collections
Pecci Blunt, Anna Laetitia, 1885-1971--Art collections
Rome (Italy)--Maps
Maps--Italy--16th century
Maps--Italy--17th century
Maps--Italy--18th century
Maps--Italy--19th century
Pecci Blunt, Anna Laetitia, 1885-1971
Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778
Tempesta, Antonio, 1555-1630
Bibliographic Note: Amato Pietro Frutaz.
Le piante di Roma (Roma: Istituto di Studi Romani, 1962); Camillo Scaccia Scarafoni.
Le piante di Roma possedute dalla Biblioteca dell'Istituto [di archeologia e storia dell'arte] e dalle altre biblioteche governative
della città
(Roma: Libreria dello Stata, 1939); Christian Hülsen.
Saggio di bibliografia ragionata delle piante iconografiche e prospettiche di Roma dal 1551 al 1748 (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1933).
Citations from Frutaz and Hülsen have been verified. Scarafoni citations have been verified only so far as they are reflected
in Frutaz, notations in the inventory indicate when the citation in Scarafoni was not verified.