The extremely prolific antiquarian work accomplished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries played a determining role in the birth of neoclassicism. This period was marked in particular by the discovery of Egyptian antiquities, a budding interest for national antiquities, Christian antiquities, and the Middle Ages.

This book explores the printed and graphic works that reproduced antiquities, with a particular focus on illustrated books, which are the most spectacular demonstration of the research conducted at the time.

The study of antiquarian research helps shed new light on a series of questions regarding not only classical art itself, but also the way in which art history and archeology began to develop.