Keats-Shelley House historical timeline

Last updated on October 4, 2026

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A lodging house that became a shrine, and a collection that survived a bombed abbey.

Chronology

November 1820 — Keats arrives in Rome, already seriously ill, and takes a two-room apartment on the second floor. Structural impact: none — it is a rented lodging. What you see today: the scale of the rooms, which is the scale of an invalid's lodging and not of a memorial.
23 February 1821 — he dies there, aged twenty-five, having been nursed throughout by Joseph Severn. Structural impact: none. What you see today: the room, and the death mask in its case.
1903 — the effort to purchase and restore the apartment begins, at the instigation of the American poet Robert Underwood Johnson. Structural impact: a private flat is identified for preservation. What you see today: the fact that the rooms survived at all.
Late 1906 — the house is purchased by subscription. Structural impact: ownership passes to a memorial association rather than a state. What you see today: an independent museum, funded by its own admissions.
April 1909 — it is dedicated for the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association. Structural impact: the apartment is fitted out as a museum and library. What you see today: the shelving and cases, which date from the memorial rather than from Keats.
December 1941 — with war reaching Piazza di Spagna, the plaques are removed and the treasures are sent 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. Structural impact: the house is stripped of its movable collection. What you see today: objects that left Rome and came back.
1944 — the abbey is bombed; the boxes are rescued by its archivist and returned to Rome. The library's 10,000 volumes had not been removed. Structural impact: none to the house. What you see today: a collection that very nearly did not exist.
June 1944 — Rome is liberated and the house reopens at once, the treasures unsealed before the British and American ambassadors. Structural impact: the museum resumes without interruption. What you see today: the same institution, continuously open since.

Verified against Keats-Shelley Memorial Association, October 2026.

External resources

Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Keats-Shelley Memorial Association — The Keats-Shelley House records that in December 1941, as war reached Piazza di Spagna, the house's plaques were removed and precious items were sent to the abbey of Montecassino for safekeeping, including Severn's famous last drawing of the dying Keats, first editions of Endymion and Lamia, locks of Keats's and Shelley's hair, and letters by Shelley, Byron and Mary Shelley, The Keats-Shelley House records that the abbey of Montecassino was later bombed but the boxes were rescued by the archivist and returned to Rome, and that when Rome was liberated in June 1944 the House reopened at once and the treasures were unsealed before the British and American ambassadors (October 2026).
Checked against Wikipedia — Wikipedia states that John Keats arrived in Rome in November 1820 and died at the age of twenty-five on 23 February 1821 in the house at Piazza di Spagna, where he occupied a two-room apartment on the second floor, Wikipedia states that Joseph Severn nursed and looked after John Keats until his death at the house on Piazza di Spagna, Wikipedia states that the Keats-Shelley house was purchased late in 1906 and dedicated in April 1909 for use by the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association, Wikipedia states that the effort to purchase and restore the two-room apartment in which Keats spent his final days began in 1903 at the instigation of the American poet Robert Underwood Johnson, Wikipedia gives the Keats-Shelley House library as 10,000 volumes, in the context of stating that they were not removed during the Second World War (October 2026).

Keats-Shelley House historical timeline

Chronology

External resources

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