Discover Keats-Shelley House

The Keats-Shelley House is a museum and library at Piazza di Spagna 26, in the house at the foot of the Spanish Steps where the poet John Keats died on 23 February 1821, at the age of twenty-five. He had arrived in November 1820 and occupied a two-room apartment on the second floor; the painter Joseph Severn nursed and looked after him until his death.

The effort to buy and restore the apartment began in 1903 at the instigation of the American poet Robert Underwood Johnson. The house was purchased late in 1906 and dedicated in April 1909 for the use of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association, which runs it still.

The association describes its holdings as one of the finest libraries of Romantic literature in Europe and a unique collection of manuscripts, paintings and literary relics. Wikipedia puts the library at 10,000 volumes and records holdings relating to Keats, Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth, the Brownings and Oscar Wilde.

Open Monday to Saturday, 10.00-13.00 and 14.00-18.00, last entrance 17.45. EUR 7, reduced EUR 5.

This is not a building you visit for the building. The Keats-Shelley House is an apartment on an upper floor of an ordinary eighteenth-century house on Piazza di Spagna, and its architectural interest is almost entirely incidental: the interest is that the rooms are the rooms.

What the interior does carry is the scale of a lodging, which is worth registering. Keats and Severn had two rooms, and the poet's is small — a bed, a fireplace, and a window onto the square. Nineteenth-century literary fame has a way of implying a grander setting; the house corrects it immediately.

The rooms are now hung and cased as a museum, with the library shelved through the adjoining spaces. The single architectural feature that matters is the window: it looks directly down onto the Spanish Steps and Bernini's Barcaccia fountain, and it is the only part of the visit that is unaltered and unarranged.

The museum was made by subscription, not by a state. The campaign to buy the apartment began in 1903, at the instigation of the American poet Robert Underwood Johnson; the house was bought late in 1906 and dedicated in April 1909 for the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.

What was assembled afterwards is the collection rather than the fabric: manuscripts, paintings, letters and relics, and a working library of Romantic literature that Wikipedia puts at 10,000 volumes.

The hardest part of its history was keeping it. In December 1941 the plaques came off the wall and the most precious items went to Montecassino — Severn's last drawing of the dying Keats, first editions of Endymion and Lamia, locks of Keats's and Shelley's hair, letters by Shelley, Byron and Mary Shelley. The abbey was then bombed, and the boxes were rescued by its archivist and returned to Rome. The library itself had stayed in the house. When Rome was liberated in June 1944 the house reopened immediately and the boxes were unsealed in front of the British and American ambassadors.

Is this really where Keats died? Yes. He arrived in November 1820, took a two-room apartment on the second floor, and died there on 23 February 1821, aged twenty-five.

Who was with him? The painter Joseph Severn, who nursed and looked after him until his death.

Is Shelley connected to the house? The museum is a joint memorial and holds Shelley material — letters, a lock of hair — but Shelley did not live here. He drowned off the Tuscan coast in 1822.

When is it open? Monday to Saturday, 10.00-13.00 and 14.00-18.00, last entrance 17.45. Closed Sundays.

How much? EUR 7; EUR 5 for under-18s, over-65s, students and members; free for ICOM members, under-6s and visitors with disabilities.

How big is the library? The association calls it one of the finest libraries of Romantic literature in Europe; Wikipedia gives the figure of 10,000 volumes.

What happened to the collection in the war? The most precious items went to Montecassino in December 1941. The abbey was bombed, the archivist rescued the boxes, and they were unsealed before the British and American ambassadors when Rome was liberated in June 1944.

How long does it take? About 45 minutes.