Professor Giuliano Briganti points out, loc. cit., 1966, that the present picture is of particular interest for its meticulously exact record of a quarter of Rome which has been much changed in the intervening centuries. The view is taken from the intersection of the street running from the Colosseum to Porta Maggiore (the Vico Succusano, which corresponds roughly with the present Via Labicana and Viale Manzoni) with that which links Santa Maria Maggiore and San Giovanni in Laterano (a street opened by Gregory XIII in 1575 to replace the previous Via Merulana and which corresponds exactly with the present day Via Merulana). The garden depicted in the foreground may be Vanvitelli's one digression from topographical accuracy, as both Falda's map and Vasi's engraving of the Church of Santi Pietro e Marcellino show ruins at this point. On the left, beyond the walled garden of the Villa Giustiniani with its gateway by Carlo Lombardo, is shown the Lateran Palace. Much of that area, including S. Giovanni in Laterano, the obelisk in the piazza, the women's hospital and the two arches of the Claudian Acqueduct, survives little altered today.
The focal point of the view is the old Church of Santi Pietro e Marcellino with its romanesque bell-tower, which was to be completely rebuilt by Girolamo Theodoli for Benedict XIV in 1751-4. On the façade are clearly depicted the arms of Pope Clement XI Albani, who had the church restored by Carlo Fontana in 1703 (see A. Blunt, Guide to Baroque Rome, London, 1982, p.77). In 1707 he conceded it to the Syrian monks of Saint Anthony Abbot, for whom he had built the small monastery adjoining the church on the right. This date is taken by Professor Briganti as a terminus post quem for the execution of the present picture, which he feels was very probably painted before the end of the first decade of the eighteenth century. No other versions are known