066.

Palazzo Panfilio

When the Collegio Romano (1) a Jesuit school, was begun in 1582, this piazza was much smaller in area than it appears in this view (see Plate 162 for a companion view of the same piazza). At that time, a palazzo belonging to the Salviati family occupied most of the open space visible in the print, with only a narrow street separating it from the Collegio. In 1659 the Jesuits bought and demolished Palazzo Salviati so as to enlarge and regularize the piazza in front of their school. At the same time the adjacent Palazzo Aldobrandini was acquired by the Doria Pamphilj and reworked by Del Grande with two perpendicular facades on the piazza, visible in this print. The beginning of a third facade by the same architect can be seen on the street leaving the piazza on the right. This view of the Palazzo Panphilj and its immediate surroundings is augmented by two other views by Vasi, one from Via del Plebiscito to the north, Plate 39, the other from Via del Corso to the east, Plate 44. Vasi shows the shorter wing of the palazzo to be only one bay deep, backing onto the apse of the church of S. Maria in Via Lata (3) whose facade is on Via del Corso. In the first half of the 18th century the Doria Pamphilj consolidated their vast palazzo and developed new facades on Via del Corso and Via del Plebiscito. At the left we see a corner of Palazzo de Carolis (2) now the Banca di Roma, designed by Specchi 1724 while in the right foreground Vasi shows a portion of the church and nunnery of S. Marta (4).