Robert Sayer

Santa Maria del Fiore: View of the Cathedral and Piazza del Duomo with the procession of Corpus Domini. After Giuseppe Zocchi.


During the 17th and 18th century an essential element of any young gentlemen’s education was the ‘Grand Tour’. Intended to lend polish and sophistication the usual itinerary included study of the Arts in the preeminent cities of Europe with a special place reserved for Florence, birthplace of the Renaissance and seat of the Medici’s. A principal settlement of the Etruscan civilisation from the 9th century BC, Fiesole as it was known, was destroyed by the Romans and the garrison of Firenze later established in its place by Julius Caesar 59 BC.

The turbulent rise of Florence magnificently developed its appearance and in the 1730’s the Marchese Andrea Gerini commissioned the local artist Giuseppe Zocchi to produce a series on the city’s most significant landmarks. Zocchi’s views captured Florence in the last days of the Medici’s as the dynasty, begun in the 14th century, became extinct with the death of the youngest son of Cosimo III. From the mid 1740’s Florentine publishers issued engravings after Zocchi’s works which later came to the attention of Robert Sayer, a renowned London entrepreneur and publisher.

At the time Sayer issued Zocchi’s views in 1774, Florence and all of Tuscany had become part of the lands of the Austrian crown and the Holy Roman Empire, enjoying a period of resurgence under Emperor Leopold II. From the beginning of the 19th century, the idea of the Grand Tour would become increasingly commonplace as industries and transport opened up the continent to mass tourism and soon artistic focus turned toward far-flung locations in Asia and Africa, which were becoming more accessible.