An 1850 photograph of the Palatine and Meta Sudans by Rev. John Shaw Smith

This interesting item was posted on Twitter here.

Rev. John Shaw Smith, View of the Arch of Constantine, the Meta Sudans, and the Palatine Hill. 1850.

Photographs of the Meta Sudans are always welcome. This one is at an unusual angle and indicates that the destruction facing the Colosseum was not flat 180°, as it often appears in photographs, but nearer 150°.

The photographer, the Rev. John Shaw Smith, was an Irish clergyman who travelled in the Mediterranean around this time over a period of a couple of years, in the relaxed fashion of the day. Photography was new, and everything he took is probably valuable.

There must be a wealth of photographs and other material in Italian archives, but sadly inaccessible. Google increasingly is turning into a commercial portal instead of a search engine, so I doubt this will improve soon.

One thought on “An 1850 photograph of the Palatine and Meta Sudans by Rev. John Shaw Smith”

A great picture! Rome still hasn’t recovered from the catastrophe that destroyed and buried it in the 10th century AD.

Roger Pearse

An 1850 photograph of the Palatine and Meta Sudans by Rev. John Shaw Smith

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