Foreword by Alberto Moravia.

In this, the first book to be devoted to Carlo Naya and the Naya Collec-tion, Italo Zannier recreates for us the Venice of the 19th. century as one of the major settings for that important event of the period - the development of photography and of «photographic art». His historical and critical study, in tracing the work of Carlo Naya in that lively milieu of photographers and their studios, of publishers, artists and craftsmen, emerges as a rich, well documented account of the history of both photography and Venice between 1850 and 1918. In his article on Naya's reproductions of works of art and of architecture, Vittorio Sgarbi brings out clearly the historical and scientific importance of photography in this field.