A first state printing of Piranesi's celebrated view of the Pantheon, one of the most iconic and sought after of his Vedute di Roma. Piranesi's view shows the building, today the Roman Catholic Church of Santa Maria ad Martyres, as it appeared in his own time, with the Renaissance-era twin bell-towers and wrought-iron colonnade grills that have since been removed from the temple's facade. The Pantheon was commissioned in the late first century BC by the Roman general Marcus Agrippa, as part of the redevelopment plan of the Campus Martius carried out during the reign of Augustus. Piranesi's attribution to Agrippa is slightly erroneous, as the building as it appears in his engraving was a rebuild carried out by Hadrian, after the previous incarnation, built by Domitian, was destroyed in a fire. The name of the temple derives from the fact that it was dedicated to 'all the gods.' The Vedute di Roma was Piranesi's most popular and best known series, celebrating the churches, monuments, ruins, bridges, fountains, and public spaces of the city of Rome. The immense popularity of the series meant that they were in constant demand, and Piranesi continued to reissue and add to the series from the 1740s until his death in 1778. The Vedute were particularly popular with British grand tourists, and had a profound effect on the British neoclassical movement. Demand was such that the series was reprinted numerous times after Piranesi's death, including two Paris editions published by his sons, Francesco and Pietro. Hind 60. i/v, Wilton-Ely 193, F761, C754.