The photography album in the collection of the Getty Research Institute belonged to British aristocrat Edward Cheney, and carries his ex-libris in Latin “Fato Prudentia Major” (“by fate a superior knowledge”). A note indicates that Cheney received the album in Palazzo Caetani, Rome on September 20, 1849.

The friendship between Edward Cheney and Michelangelo Caetani is well documented in Caetani’s correspondence. A Roman aristocrat with political, literary and artistic ambitions, Caetani had established connections with both local intellectuals and international travelers.

(Isotta Poggi)