183.

Casino al Pigneto del Marchese Sacchetti

Located well outside the walls on a slope of the Valle dell'Inferno north west of the city, the Casino Pigneto does not appear on the Nolli map but can be located on the accompanying satellite image. Today only a few overgrown fragments remain of this elaborate suburban villa designed by Pietro da Cortona for the Sacchetti family. Their main residence, Palazzo Sacchetti, survives on Via Giulia, Plate 71. In the caption Vasi notes that in his day the villa was already "abandoned and going to ruin." In the text on the previous page Vasi expands on this, saying that the top floor was gone and the exterior stairways were reduced to mere masonry cores. From this we deduce that his view is a reconstruction based on an earlier print, probably the late 17th century one by Specchi, which it closely resembles. The connection to Specchi is interesting for his design of the Porto di Ripetta, Plate 85, recalls the cascading terraces of the this villa. Vasi remarks that the fountain with the large basin (1) was still in good condition, so he measured it and reproduced its plan on the same page as the text. He probably knew that it too would disappear and wanted to preserve at least its plan for posterity.