Sometimes you need to draw things out ... literally!

I’ve been struggling to understand a certain segment of this Roman block I am studying. The buildings I’m working on have been there for hundreds of years, and have been altered countless times. I have documents and photographs that tell us (spottily) who lived and worked there, show us the exteriors of apartments and shops, and reveal the current state of decline and ruin.

But it’s not always easy to line it all up. I’ve walked the streets and as possible visited the buildings that line them, I’ve read, I’ve sorted through many images. Finally I decided the only thing I could do to piece it all together was to draw the space myself. So here is my sketch of two medieval palaces as they look today, and my attempts to organize some of the things that happened there into something that makes sense.

Below the sketch are some of my sources. This book is a gigantic jigsaw puzzle—a great brain teaser, and fascinating to assemble—and I appreciate everyone who has helped me get this far.

Above: My drawing of the Palazzo Albertoni Pier Mattei and Palazzo Bellomo, Via dei Delfini, Rome. Left and center = Via dei Delfini, 1939 and a proposal by Cesare Valle for rebuilding, Archivio “Ing Arch. Cesare Valle” con sede Circonvallazione Clodia, 76/a – Rome; right = residents at Via dei Delfini 14, 1848 census, Archivio Storico Capitolino, Rome; I took the contemporary photographs in January, 2024 with the kind assistance of Dr. Matteo Ricci.