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Credit
Minerva, as goddess of the arts, shaking hands with Italia; behind them Mercury, the messenger god. Engraving by F. Bartolozzi, 1789, after Burney. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
"In the plate belonging to the title, the Colisseo or Amphitheatre, alludes to the ancient, St. Peter's to the modern Italian literature. The majestic woman, in the act of rising, by the assistance of Minerva, who takes her by the hand, represents Italy in its actual state of reviving in sciences, arts &c. The idea of the figure of Mercury is taken from a copy of the original of Raphael in the Farnesina, drawn upon the spot by the masterly hand of Mr James Barry; the whole executed by the very ingenious youth, Mr Charles Burney, and engraved by Bartolozzi."--Il Mercurio Italico p. 18, presumably written by Francesco Sastres. The Colosseum is in the background, left, andSt Peter's on the right. The subject represents Italy as a source of the arts and sciences, and the publication Il Mercurio italico as the communicator of those arts to the rest of the world
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