Paolo Mercuri

A few years after his birth, during the French occupation of the Papal States, they were forced to sell their farm and move to Marino, where they rented a vineyard and lived in the vacated Augustinian Convent [it].

His first commission came from the French writer and collector, Félix-Sébastien Feuillet de Conches, who was visiting Italy.

The proposed book was never published, but the drawings are now part of the collection at the Musée Jean de La Fontaine.

In 1829 the French publisher, Camille Bonnard, awarded him a commission to portray two-hundred Medieval Italian costumes and uniforms.

Bonnard's book, Costumes historiques des XIIe, XIIIe, XIVe et XVe siècles, would not be published until 1860.

In 1847, by recommendation from his former teacher, Minardi, Pope Pius IX appointed him master of engraving at the "Calcografia Camerale", an official publisher of old plates.