Two views of the gardens of Pope Sixtus V (later of Cardinal P. Savelli; later known as the Villa Peretti-Montaldo; today almost entirely destroyed), from G. B. Falda, "Li giardini di Roma," Rome 1683

An issue that provoked much heated debate and inspired a mass of printed dissertations in Rome in the second half of the sixteenth century was the question of whether or not the waters of the Tiber were drinkable, and whether they should be celebrated for their therapeutic qualities or regarded with distrust and suspicion. This was a recurrent theme in the work of Alessandro Petroni, Andrea Bacci,...