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  • Published: 3 July 2006
  • ISBN: 9781844134090
  • Imprint: Pimlico
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $39.99

The Families Who Made Rome

A History and a Guide



A unique, lavishly illustrated and vividly readable guide to Rome through the histories of the noble families who created the city.

How often does a visitor to Rome drift towards some landmark and wonder who created it? Why? What was their story? This fascinating book provides the answers. At once a history and a guide, it divides Rome into the districts dominated by the fabulously rich families of the Popes: the Colonna, della Rovere, Farnese, Borghese, Barberini and others. In each case we learn their story - powerful, bloody and vivid - with all the scandals and intrigues as well as their relationships with artists like Bernini and Michelangelo.

As we stroll through Rome's history - either literally or in the imagination - we discover it afresh. Famous sites like the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and St Peter's take on new significance as we watch the city rise from cramped medieval streets to become a glorious panorama of piazzas and palaces, fountains, towers and domes.

  • Published: 3 July 2006
  • ISBN: 9781844134090
  • Imprint: Pimlico
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $39.99

About the author

Anthony Majanlahti

Anthony Majanlahti is an urban historian who graduated from the University of Toronto, and was for several years a researcher at the British School at Rome. He is the author of The Families Who Made Rome.

Praise for The Families Who Made Rome

[An] intriguing and original book...even the armchair tourist can benefit

Tim Blanning, Sunday Telegraph

Elegant and informative...an entertaining mix of travelogue and history...we flit agreeably through the chequered history of the papacy

Charles Nicholl, Sunday Times

Anthony Majanlahti wears his scholarship lightly and tempers his enthusiasm with humour; he has a thousand tales to tell... Enormously entertaining

Times Literary Supplement

Marvellous... For anyone interested in delving further into one of the world's most beautiful and extraordinary cities, this is essential reading

Tablet

Fascinating... A fine account of a decadent age and place

RA Magazine