Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi

Antique Architectural Engraving - Santo Spirito Palace

1650

Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi (1627 – 1691) was an Italian engraver and printer, active in Rome in the second half of the 17th century. He also used the name Jo (Johannes) Jacobus de Rubeis. His father, Giuseppe de Rossi (1570-1639), was the founder of the most important and active printing press of the 17th century in Rome. The printing press begun in 1633, by Giuseppe de Rossi, and it passed firstly to Giovanni Giacomo and to his brother Giandomenico (1619-1653), and then later to Lorenzo Filippo (1682-?); in 1738 it became the Calcografia Camerale, from 1870 until 1945 the Regia Calcografica, and today it is known as the Calcografia Nazionale. Here are conserved, amongst many others, the plates of Giambattista Piranesi (1720-1778). Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi was the most involved of all the various family members who ran the press, and he worked between 1638 and 1691, and was to take the company to the height of its success. The artists that he printed the etchings for included Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1665), Pietro Testa (1612-1650) and Giovan Francesco Grimaldi (1606–1680). Publisher; son of Giuseppe; younger brother and successor in 1653 of Giovanni Domenico. His career blossomed from 1657 when he married a rich widow. Privilege in 1664 for ten years for everything that he might produce. Made a fortune, and built a casino on the Janiculum to the design of Baratta. Succeeded by his own son Domenico. Giovanni Giacomo published many sets of Roman views of high quality. The main series were (see Bellini on Falda for full details): Four books of fountains 1. Le fontane di Roma (33 numbered plates, by Falda) 2. Le fontane di Frascati (18 plates by Falda) 3. Le fontane di Roma (28 plates mostly by Venturini, with four by Falda) 4. Le fontane di Tivoli (28 plates by Venturini) 5. Li giardini di Roma (21 plates, by Falda and Simon Felice Delino) Five books of modern Rome 6. Il Nuovo Teatro di Roma Moderna, 1665 (35 numbered plates by Falda) 7. ditto book 2, c.1665/6 (17 numbered plates by Falda) 8. ditto book 3, c.1669/70 (38 numbered plates by Falda) 9. ditto book 4, 1699 (by Alessandro Specchi) 10. ditto book 5, 1739 (by Giovanni Domenico Campiglia) Two books of architectural drawings after Roman palaces 11. Palazzi di Roma, c.1638 (44 plates after Ferrerio) 12. Nuovi disegni dell'architettura e piante de' Palazzi di Roma (book 2), c.1655 (61 plates by Falda, the last of which shows Rossi's own casino)