At the Petit Palais (Palazzetto Baviera), the second exhibition devoted to the first periods of the history of photography (1839-1914). Una raccolta di fotografie storiche risalenti al periodo compreso tra la metà dell’Ottocento e i primi del Novecento

In the first room, the compositions of Count Minutoli, a work driven by the dream of creating the first virtual museum in the world to contribute to the training of students in applied arts. A project that seduced Queen Victoria at the Crystal Palace.

In the second, some of the oldest known photographic portraits: American daguerreotypes.

Then, photographs on paper from the years 1840-1860, calotypes and albumens. "Variazioni Monocromatiche", We will discover the great variety of nuances obtained in the printing of proofs reputed to be monochrome, these rare and curious works come from the Serge Kakou Collection, Paris.

Then 25 Albanian portraits by Pietro Marubbi, the oldest preserved photographs, taken in the 1870s by the first Balkan studio in Scutari, Albania, then still under Ottoman administration. On display for the first time, these originals, coloured with mud and natural pigments by the artist, were brought back by one of the very first travellers to venture into Albania. They are now in the Pierre de Gigord Collection, dedicated to the Ottoman Empire.

Luigi Naretti was the first reporter in Abyssinia and Eritrea, these period proofs were (re)discovered in the archives of the Antonelliana Library in Senigallia by a local historian, Leonardo Badioli.