This photograph is one of a collection of over 3,300 photographs documenting the principal monuments of Rome from the classical age to the 1600s. The photographs were taken between 1867 and 1870 under the direction of John Henry Parker, the founder of the British and American Archaeological Society of Rome. He employed several local photographers including De Bonis, Filippo Spina, Carlo Baldassare Simelli, Francesco Sidoli, Filippo Lais, Giovanni Battista Colamedici, as well as a Canadian one, Charles Smeaton. The Victoria and Albert Museum houses a selection of the most significant photographs from this collection.
