Manifesting the sacred: the ‘Ecstasy of St. Teresa’, the ‘Call of St. Matthew’ and the ‘Conversion of St. Paul’ characterized in printed tourist guides

摘要

The traveler in Rome, during the Middle Ages, was fully animated with a religious spirit. In fact, more than a traveler he was a pilgrim. Thanks to the Mirabilia UrbisRomae–the detailed manuscripts over the churches and monuments of the eternal city–hecould easily find the treasures of the metropolis. The Mirabilia continued to be used untilthe end of the 1600 s. After this, when Rome became the destination and fulcrum of theGrand Tour, travelers often wrote down ponderous volumes, in which they expressed thewonders of Rome in a new way, and with a certain esprit de finesse.