Keats shelley house ( CASA DI KEATS SHELLEY)
The
English Romantic poet John Keats who was seriously
ill with tuberculosis at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, sought shelter in Rome in
the hope that the local healthy climate could
perform a miracle and save his young life;
unfortunately it was of no use and on 23 February
1821 the disease prematurely tore him away from
literature and art at the tender age of twenty-six
inside this house in Rome, which situated at
the bottom of the stair way of Trinita dei Monti
which overlooks the magnificent
Piazza di Spagna.
A
group of his admirers were moved by this terrible
fate and started a collection in 1903 in America
and in England to raise the funds necessary
to purchase the apartment and thus make it a small
corner of the United Kingdom in the heart
of Rome dedicated to the memory of the
unfortunate couple of English Romantic artists
who are buried in the non-Catholic cemetery in
Testaccio.
The
four rooms which make up the apartment were
inaugurated as the Keats-Shelley Memorial House in
1909 by KingVittorio Emanuele Ill.
Here
one can in fact admire, in addition to the original
furnishings; nurnerous relics associated with the
life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, the farnous
poet who died at the age of thirty when he drowned
during a boattrip after an adventurous life also
spent in Italy; manuscripts,
paintings, sculptures, prints and
drawings as well as an important
collection of watercolours by the painter
Joseph Severn who lived in the house with Keats
create the evocative setting to the memory of the
two great English Rornantics and a small
circle of artists frorn the same country such as
Lord Byron, J.L. Hunt and Oscar Wilde.
The
original manuscripts and autographs,
which are kept in the closets along the walls of
the rooms, are joined by a very rich collection
of approximately 10,000 books that document the
useful exchange relations between England and
Italy during the fervent Romantic season
making it a very up-to-date specialised library (it
also publishes a newsletter and a newspaper).
Some
of the particular items on display include a cast of
Keats' face and a lock of his hair, as well as Oscar
Wilde's autograph.
Information and Addresses
Address
Piazza
di Spagna,
27
Visiting
Hours
From
Mondays
to
Fridays
from
9.00
am
to
1.00
pm
and
from 3.00 pm
to
6.00 pm. Saturdays
from
11.00
am
to
2.00
pm. and 3.00
pm.
to 6.00
pm.
Closed
Sunday,
AUG.15 and
the
Christmas
holidays
Telephone
066784235;
Fax 066784167
Price
€
3,50
For
Tours information
– private guided tours – special entrances, no
waiting in line - VIP services
www.tourinrome.com
www.vaticanmuseuminformation.com
www.vaticanmuseumticket.com
