Studi sul Settecento Romano
Studi sul Settecento Romano is an Italian annual art-history journal focused on the artistic and architectural culture of eighteenth-century Rome.
Last updated August 31, 2026
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Overview
Studi sul Settecento Romano is an Italian scholarly journal devoted to the study of Rome's artistic, architectural, and cultural history during the eighteenth century. Founded in 1985 by art historian Elisa Debenedetti, who served as its general editor, the publication has developed as a specialist venue for archival and documentary research on the Roman art world. Its chronological scope generally extends from the late seventeenth century through the early nineteenth century, allowing contributors to examine the transition from late Baroque culture to Neoclassicism and the changing intellectual, institutional, and social conditions surrounding that transition. The journal addresses a broad range of artistic forms rather than concentrating on a single medium. Its subjects include architecture, urban development, painting, sculpture, decorative arts, drawing, collecting, patronage, artistic professions, craft production, antiquarianism, and the relationship between works of art and their political, religious, economic, and social contexts. The Roman setting is central, but the journal's themes often connect the city to wider European networks of diplomacy, Grand Tour travel, collecting, scholarship, and the circulation of artists and objects. A recurring feature of the publication is the use of archival evidence. Articles draw on manuscripts, correspondence, inventories, institutional records, parish documentation, drawings, and other primary sources to reconstruct commissions, careers, workshops, collections, buildings, and artistic debates. Some issues are organized as monographic volumes dedicated to a defined subject, person, family, institution, or research problem. Topics have included the Albani family and Cardinal Alessandro Albani, Villa Albani Torlonia, Roman palaces and villas, Carlo Marchionni, the relationship between architecture and scenography, Roman sculpture, artists and artisans, the visual representation of Rome, Piranesi, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, drawing and collecting, and the role of antiquity in eighteenth-century culture. The journal is supported by Sapienza University of Rome, Fondazione Marco Besso, and the Centro studi sulla cultura e l'immagine di Roma. Its publishing history includes Multigrafica through 2012, Bonsignori thereafter, and Quasar as its current publisher according to the reference material. The combination of institutional sponsorship, specialist editorial direction, and sustained annual publication has positioned Studi sul Settecento Romano as a continuing research platform for scholars of Roman art and architecture. It is best understood not as a commercial consumer brand but as the title and scholarly identity of a long-running academic periodical.
History
Studi sul Settecento Romano began publication in 1985 under the direction of Elisa Debenedetti, who founded the journal and served as its general editor. From its inception, the periodical was designed as a forum for specialized research into the artistic culture of eighteenth-century Rome. Rather than limiting itself to stylistic interpretation, it emphasized archival investigation and the reconstruction of the institutions, patrons, artists, workshops, collections, buildings, and social networks that shaped Roman cultural life. The journal's subject area includes the late seventeenth century, the full eighteenth century, and the opening decades of the nineteenth century. This broad frame makes it possible to study the persistence of Baroque traditions, the emergence of new forms of classicism, the growth of antiquarian interests, and the development of Neoclassical culture. Its research has covered architecture and urbanism alongside painting, sculpture, decorative arts, drawing, scenography, collecting, and the professional lives of artists and artisans. During its early decades, the publication established a pattern of themed or monographic volumes. Early subjects included the Albani family's commissions, Villa Albani Torlonia, Roman villas and palaces, Carlo Marchionni, architectural culture under Clement XI and Benedict XIV, decoration and the changing relationship between artifice and nature, and the ideological dimensions of collecting. Later volumes expanded the focus to bourgeois housing, Roman churches and jubilees, sculpture as a profession, artists and artisans documented in parish records, and the comparative roles of architects and engineers in shaping the image of Rome. From the late 2000s onward, the journal continued to combine focused studies with larger documentary and historiographical projects. Volumes examined collectors, draftsmen, theorists, palaces, churches, furnishings, painting, manuscripts held by the Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte, Piranesi and his artistic surroundings, Winckelmann, and the history of drawing. More recent issues have returned to the careers and social histories of Roman artists and artisans, while also examining Cardinal Alessandro Albani's collecting, diplomacy, and relationship to the European Grand Tour. The 2024 volume addressed the relationship between eighteenth-century culture and antiquity. The journal has been sustained by the support of Sapienza University of Rome, Fondazione Marco Besso, and the Centro studi sulla cultura e l'immagine di Roma. Its publication passed from Multigrafica to Bonsignori after 2012 and is currently associated with Quasar. Across this publishing history, Studi sul Settecento Romano has retained a consistent identity: an annual, specialist, archival art-history journal using Rome as a case study for the interaction of artistic production, architecture, patronage, collecting, scholarship, and urban society.
- 2024
The eighteenth century and antiquity
[1]The latest listed volume focused on the relationship between eighteenth-century culture and the ancient world.
- 2021
Cardinal Alessandro Albani and the Grand Tour
[1]The journal examined Cardinal Alessandro Albani's collecting, diplomacy, and art market relationships within the wider European Grand Tour.
- 2018
Winckelmann anniversary volume
[1]A volume addressed Johann Joachim Winckelmann in connection with the 300th anniversary of his birth and the 250th anniversary of his death.
- 2016
Piranesi volume
[1]The journal published a volume on Giovanni Battista Piranesi, his predecessors, contemporaries, and successors.
- 2012
Publisher transition
[1]Multigrafica's period of publication ended by 2012, after which the journal was published by Bonsignori.
- 2004
Artists and artisans documented through parish records
[1]A new research sequence used the Stati delle Anime records from 1700, 1725, 1750, and 1775 to investigate artists and artisans in Rome.
- 2001
Roman sculpture series begins
[1]The journal began a multi-volume examination of eighteenth-century Roman sculpture and the profession of the sculptor.
- 1993
Albani patronage studied in depth
[1]A volume focused on Alessandro Albani as a patron of the arts, linking architecture, painting, and collecting in eighteenth-century Rome.
- 1985
Journal founded
[1]Elisa Debenedetti founded Studi sul Settecento Romano and became its general editor. The first volume examined commissions associated with the Albani family.
Products and positioning
A specialist, research-led academic journal offering archival studies of Rome's artistic and architectural culture from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century.
Academic journal · 1985
Studi sul Settecento Romano annual volumes
The journal's principal offering is a yearly scholarly volume containing essays on the artistic and architectural culture of Rome between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries. Issues use archival research to study commissions, patrons, artists, buildings, collections, urban development, institutions, and intellectual contexts. Many volumes are organized around a monographic theme, while recurring subjects include Roman architecture, sculpture, drawing, collecting, antiquarianism, and the professional history of artists and artisans.
Art-history monograph · 1985
Monographic research volumes
Specific issues function as substantial thematic studies rather than conventional mixed-content periodicals. Examples address the Albani family, Villa Albani Torlonia, Carlo Marchionni, Roman sculpture, Piranesi, Winckelmann, Cardinal Alessandro Albani, the history of drawing, and the relationship between eighteenth-century Rome and antiquity.
Brand decisions
2012
Change in publishing houseStrategyBackground
The journal's publication history records Multigrafica as its publisher through 2012, followed by Bonsignori.
Action taken
Publication moved from Multigrafica to Bonsignori after 2012.
Aftermath
The journal continued its annual specialist publishing program under the new publishing arrangement.
- Current publishing association with QuasarStrategy
Background
The reference material identifies Quasar as the journal's current publisher.
Action taken
Quasar became the journal's current publishing house.
Aftermath
No further operational details are specified in the available material.
Sources1 sources
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