20 May-18 July 2004. Drawings and prints from the Corsini family collection.

The collections of the Corsini and Cesi families , begun by Lorenzo Corsini who became Pope Clement XII, were extraordinarily rich in prints and drawings by masters from the 16th to 20th centuries and were housed in Palazzo Corsini on Via della Lungara. What was left after they had been reduced by war and other historical vicissitudes was eventually given to the Accademia dei Lincei and Corsini libraries owned by the Italian state. Here is a vast selection from this treasure including Drer, Schnguaer, Filippino Lippi, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Piranesi, Rubens, Bernini, Goya, even Balla and Morandi.

A fine reconstruction of the original main hall of the library gives an inkling of the life of the scholarly princes. They had not only the prints but also collections of astronomy and a botanical garden to instruct and delect them. Edith Schloss