Material on Corpus Basilicarum Cristianarum Romae

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, George Uvedale Spencer Corbett FSA, FRIBA, the architect, academic and former librarian of the British School at Rome (1954-7), produced fifteen notebooks of detailed notes, diagrams and sketches of the churches of Rome. This information was used for compiling the Corpus Basilicanum Cristianum Romae (1937-1977), partly in partnership with Richard Krautheimer (1897-1994).

The collection comprises fifteen notebooks containing measured drawings, with much critical annotation including references to excavations. Detailed, labelled pen and ink diagrams of the ground plans of the churches with measurements drawn on graph paper. Many diagrams accompanied by notes: assessment of the evidence he has found for the dating of a particular church; queries about the fabric of the churches that the author wishes to resolve; lists of the published literature on the churches; and lists of drawings, views and ‘ancient illustrations’. The notebooks offer a valuable insight into the author’s working practice.