in 1683. It deals with an enigmatic ancient Roman inscription that Malvasia studied and claimed to have deciphered, although his explanation, in the words of one writer, "was not among the most felicitous of the attempts" made by various scholars. The opposite can be said of Le pitture di Bologna, an essential guide book to Bologna and its treasures, first published in 1686. Enthusiastically received, it was reprinted four times before 1704. A new edition revised and enlarged by Giampietro Zanotti appeared in 1706, and was reprinted in 1732, 1755 and 1766. The latest edition, edited by Carlo Bianconi, Marcello Oretti and Francesco Maria Longhi, was published in Bologna in 1776. Felsina pittrice, vite de’ pittori bolognesi Malvasia is the Bolognese equivalent of Giorgio Vasari, and saw his native city surpassing Florence in the artistic supremacy of his time. Felsina pittrice, vite de’ pittori bolognesi is a primary source of information about the Bolognese school of painters of the 14th - 17th centuries, and for some of the artists included, the only source of information. The text is divided into four historical sections, with the first on the trecento painters, the second focusing on Francesco Francia, the third devoted to the Carracci, and the fourth (and most valued today) providing detailed, firsthand accounts of the lives and careers of the artists who rose to pre-eminence during the 17th century in the wake of the Carracci reform, including Guido Reni, Guercino, Domenichino, Lanfranco, Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani. In the years since its first publication, the Felsina pittrice has been used continually and cited endlessly by writers interested in Bolognese art. The book was reissued in an abundantly annotated two-volume edition that was edited by Giampietro Zanotti and published in Bologna in 1841. Luigi Crespi, the son of the leading painter of the late Baroque in Bologna, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, continued Malvasia's massive undertaking with the addition of a third volume, Vite de' pittori bolognesi non descritte nella Felsina pittrice, which was printed in Rome in 1769. Malvasia's book enjoyed considerable success outside of Italy too. On 4 October 1710, the painter Charles de La Fosse began a public reading of his translation of Malvasia's Lives of the Carracci at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture of Paris. A small group of Malvasia's biographies that remained in manuscript after the Felsina pittrice was printed were published in 1961, with an