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The Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae is a collector's album of
engravings of Renaissance Rome that takes its name from a title-page designed by
Etienne Dupérac (ca. 1573-1577) and published by Antoine Lafréry. In his shop at
Rome, Lafréry offered for sale well over a hundred prints of Roman subjects,
which could be supplemented with other prints and bound up by visitors to the
Eternal City. These sixteenth-century albums were in turn acquired by later
collectors who further expanded them.
The Avery-Crawford Speculum is what may be called a "super"
Speculum, consisting of over 600 prints assembled by the 26th
Earl of Crawford (James Ludovic Lindsay, 1847-1913), most probably from two
Speculum exemplars of 168 and 433 prints each. As was the fashion with
these nineteenth-century amalgamations, the prints were removed from their old
mounts and bindings, laid down on fresh sheets, and boxed. The Avery-Crawford
Speculum is distinguished by the number of unusual suites and single
prints it contains, as well as its size. One such print is this engraving for a
monument with the dioscure designed by Giovanni Guerra.
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