Born at
Orgelet in the
County of Burgundy, then part of the
Holy Roman Empire, Lafreri settled in Rome around 1540. He became famous for his work as a publisher. Most of his engravings from 1544 to 1553 were copies of works by his rival
Antonio Salamanca, whose associate he became in 1553. Their contract was broken in 1563 by Salamanca’s son Francesco. Lafreri’s most important work, the
Speculum romanae magnificentiae, was by its nature unfinished. It was an album of plans and views of Rome, executed between 1545 and 1577 by the best engravers in Rome. By 1567 it comprised 107 plates. The project, intended to give an account of ancient Rome, contained numerous reconstructions and extended to the architectural work of
Michelangelo’s period, as well as to some events and festivals. The plates were captioned in
Latin and in 1575 the collection was given a title page. The success of the project gave rise to various new editions, and some plates were replaced. Lafréry’s edition of the
Vestigi dell’antichità di Roma, engraved by
Étienne Dupérac, was more particularly concerned with giving an account of
ancient Roman sculpture, both public and private. Lafreri’s catalogue, published in 1572, was the first of its kind, both in the realm of engravings and in that of books. It mentioned some 500 titles, including an Atlas which comprised 35 views of the city and 80 maps and marked the beginning of modern cartography. On Lafreri’s death, his property was inherited by his cousins: Étienne Duchet (d. 1583), who sold his share to Paolo Graziani in 1582, and Claude Duchet (d. 1587) who executed exact copies of Lafreri’s engravings. == Lafreri atlases ==