Among the curiosities of Rome we find this anonymous, but at the same time special, building located near Piazza Navona, an interesting palace for its external paintings and also because, in a certain sense, it brings with it traces of a new technology that, effectively, changes the whole world. It is the Palazzo Massimo Istoriato, so called for its pictorial decorations which still today, with difficulty and although following nineteenth-century restorations, adorn the facade of the building, since the sixteenth century (certainly not the only historiated building in Rome, as you can see here).

What makes this place so special are, first of all, the paintings themselves, which attest how the family which owned the building was rich and very prominent at the time. According to them, the Massimo family would even descend from the Roman consul Fabio Massimo known as the Temporeggiatore, protagonist of the war between Rome and Hannibal, capable of defending Rome from the fearsome Carthaginian general by promoting, in fact, a wait-and-see tactic... Their high lineage allowed to own numerous palaces, still known today (I cite Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, seat of the homonymous museum, which I always recommend), including the famous Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, so called for the row of columns that distinguishes the facade and visible along Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. Then, however, this building was divided into several lots, and due to some vicissitudes the large building of the Massimo family was divided into three buildings: Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, Palazzo Massimo known as di Pirro and Palazzo Massimo Istoriato. Given this small presentation, let's go back to these frescoes, perhaps made by Daniele da Volterra, which celebrate the marriage between Angelo Massimo and Antonietta Incoronati (mid 16th century). A sort of chronicle of the time, to celebrate a very prominent wedding.

Only the richest families could afford something like this... Also worth mentioning is the column in front of the building, the only survivor of the Odeon of Domitian (a kind of ancient auditorium built by the emperor in the second half of the first century a.D.), used as a quarry for material and as a foundation for the Palazzo Massimo. And finally, a little final gem: on the ground floor of this building the first printing house in Rome opened! We are in 1467, when two Germans, Corrado Pannatz and Arnold Sweynheym (pupils of Gutenberg), opened their printing house. The first printed book in Rome? It seems it was the De civitate Dei by Sant'Agostino (others extend for some letters from Cicero)...