Twelve etchings of the Sala dei Pontefici

A set of twelve outline etchings by Tommaso Piroli reproducing personifications of the Planets and Zodiac signs from the Sala dei Pontefici in the Borgia Apartment, Vatican, frescoed by Perin del Vaga and Giovanni da Udine.

Ruland (1876) notes that these etchings were "published in Appartamento Borgia nel Vaticano, Roma". This could possibly refer to "Peintures de la Sala Borgia, au Vatican", first published in Paris in 1803 by Francesco and Pietro Piranesi, with etchings by Tommaso Piroli.

The vault of this room was frescoed with Planets and Zodiac signs by Perin del Vaga and Giovanni da Udine, surely after September 1520 (when Sebastiano del Piombo writes in a letter to Michelangelo that this work had not being commissioned yet) and before 1524, when Parmigianino was commissioned by Pope Clement VII to decorate the walls of the room. The coat of arms of Pope Leo X is visible in the four corners of the room and therefore, at the time of his death in December 1521, the decoration must have been at a relatively advanced stage (see Bibliographic References for the different opinions about the end date).