Pisa Cathedral, Main Portal

Between 1850 and 1853, the scholar and antiquarian Piot, who had already mastered the daguerreotype, used paper negatives to produce some one hundred large-format views of Italy’s most significant architectural monuments. He intended to publish them in installments as L’Italie Monumentale. Although only one installment was issued, the art critic Francis Wey wrote of Piot’s endeavor, “Thus begins the series of art travel books illustrated by photography: Mr. Piot has created a new commercial field.” Inky tones lend this salted paper print the quality of an etching or lithograph—fitting since Piot borrowed from printmaking traditions by mounting his photographs to paper sheets with lithographic text.