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The via Papalis in early cinquecento Rome: a contested space between Roman families and curials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2010

VALERIA CAFÀ
VALERIA CAFÀ*
Affiliation:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York 10028 NY, USA
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Abstract:

On the definitive return of the pope to Rome in 1420, following the so-called Avignonese captivity, the city underwent major modifications. The ‘romanam curiam sequentes’, the court and administration that followed the traditionally itinerant pope, settled in the city, leading to Rome's population doubling in the space of a few years. Furthermore, with the support of the pope, the members of the curia came to take possession of spaces, offices, roles and rituals that had previously been the reserve of the local Romans. This article considers the reaction of the community of the local nobility (here described summarily as Roman families) to the encroaching presence of the curia within the specific context of the development of the built form of the via Papalis. It is argued that the via Papalis, one of the most important and prestigious streets in Rome, became the theatre within which these two communities played out their conflict through the medium of built and ephemeral architecture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 37 , Special Issue 3: Locating communities in the early modern Italian city , December 2010 , pp. 434 - 451
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 On the via Papalis see Albertini, F., Opusculum de mirabilibus novae et veteris urbis Romae (Rome, 1510)Google Scholar, in Valentini, R. and Zucchetti, G. (eds.), Codice topografico della città di Roma, 4 vols. (Rome, 1940–53), vol. IV, 535Google Scholar; Ceen, A., The quartiere de’ Banchi: Urban Planning in Rome in the First Half of the Cinquecento (New York and London, 1977)Google Scholar; Valtieri, S., ‘Storie e architetture intorno ad un antico percorso di Roma: la “via Papalis”. Il tratto di via del Governo Vecchio (I)’, Quaderni PAU, 2 (1992), 9–42Google Scholar. The creation of corso Vittorio Emmanuele II, between 1883 and 1885, brought about a profound transformation in the area; see Cimino, M.G., Massafra, M.G. and Santi, M. Nota (eds.), Corso Vittorio Emanuele II luoghi e personaggi (Naples, 1997)Google Scholar; Cimino, M.G. and Santi, M. Nota (eds.), Corso Vittorio Emanuele II tra urbanistica e archeologia. Storia di uno sventramento (Naples, 2000)Google Scholar.

2 On this topic see Modigliani, A., Mercati, botteghe e spazi di commercio a Roma tra medioevo ed età moderna (Rome, 1998)Google Scholar.

3 On papal possesso see Cancellieri, F., Storia de’ solenni possessi de’ sommi pontefici da Leone III a Pio VII (Rome, 1802)Google Scholar. Valtieri, ‘Storie e architetture’, 18. A remarkable source remains Pastor, L., The History of the Popes, 39 vols. (London, 1937–57), vol. VIGoogle Scholar. Ingersoll, R., ‘The possesso, the via Papale, and the stigma of Pope Joan’, in de Mare, H. and Vos, A. (eds.), Urban Rituals in Italy and the Netherlands. Historical Contrast in the Use of Public Space, Architecture and the Urban Environment (Assen, 1993), 39–50Google Scholar.

4 Orsini settlements can also be traced to the area of the modern-day palazzo Braschi (on piazza San Pantaleo) and in the environs, between the via Papalis and Campo dei Fiori in correspondence with the ancient Theatre of Pompey. On the Orsini strategy regarding their urban properties see Mahler, G. Ajello, ‘The Orsini family papers at the University of California, Los Angeles: property administration, political strategy, and architectural legacy’, Viator, 39 (2008), 297–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar. From Miglio's numerous relevant publications see Miglio, M., ‘L'immagine dell'onore antico. Individualità e tradizione della Roma municipale’, Studi Romani, 31 (1983), 252–64Google Scholar; idem, Il leone e la lupa. Dal simbolo al pasticcio alla francese, in Brezzi, P. and Lorch, M. De Panizza (Eds.), Umanesimo A Roma Nel Quattrocento (Rome, 1984), 31–46Google Scholar.

5 According to the Descriptio urbis: The Roman Census of 1527, ed. E. Lee (Rome, 1985), and most recently Habitatores in Urbe: The Population of Renaissance Rome = Habitatores in urbe: la popolazione di Roma nel Rinascimento, ed. E. Lee (Rome, 2006). The other inhabitants (30–46%) were mostly drawn from the Stato della Chiesa which, at that time, included much of the central region of Italy and its large cities; then there were the 5–15% from Latium; the 20–30% made up of ‘forestieri’, that is people from the Italian Peninsula (especially from Tuscany), but outside the Stato della Chiesa, and the 5–20% of foreigners, who came from European countries. Percentages vary greatly owing to the uncertainty of the data provided. See also A. Esposito, La popolazione romana dalla fine del XIV al sacco: caratteri e forme di un'evoluzione demografica, in Sonino, E. (ed.), Popolazione e società a Roma dal Medioevo all'età moderna (Rome, 1998), 37–49Google Scholar.

6 Miglio, ‘L'immagine dell'onore’; idem, Il leone e la lupa; idem, Roma dopo Avignone. La rinascita politica dell'antico, in Memoria dell'antico nell'arte italiana, 3 vols. (Turin, 1984), vol. I, 73–111.

7 The old Roman nobility (e.g. Cesarini, Santacroce) adopted what Esposito has called a ‘double strategy’, both civil and curial, maintaining roles in the municipality while also acquiring roles within the curia and the church, for which see Esposito, A., ‘“Li nobili huomini di Roma”. Strategie familiari tra città, curia e municipio’, in Gensini, S. (ed.), Roma capitale (1447–1527) (Rome, 1994), 373–88, at 375Google Scholar.

8 With the exception of Martin V Colonna (1417–31), until the election of Paul III Farnese in October 1534, popes were outsiders or foreigners, hailing from Florence, Venice, Savona, Spain or northern Europe, in each case coming to the Eternal City with hundreds of people at their service.

9 A palazzo is a grand building of some architectural ambition that is the headquarters of a family of some renown or of an institution; the word is more broadly used in Italian than its English equivalent ‘palace’. A palazzetto is a smaller one, less ambitious. We will adopt, nonetheless, the English version.

10 Alberini, M., Il Sacco di Roma del MDXXCVII (1547), in Orano, D. (ed.), I Ricordi di Marcello Alberini (Rome, 1901), 484Google Scholar. For additional evidence on this dominant and long-lasting situation see Rebecchini, G., ‘After the Medici: the new Rome of Pope Paul III Farnese’, I Tatti Studies, 11 (2007), 147–200, with bibliographyGoogle Scholar.

11 For example: in December 1483 Francesco de Maximis is reported to have managed to repel an armed attack by papal forces by finding refuge in his property on the via Papalis and setting a sort of private army to defend him (see Chiesa, G. (ed.), Il diario della città di Roma dall'anno 1480 all'anno 1482 (Rome, 1911), 203Google Scholar); another incident is reported by Alberini (Alberini, Il Sacco, 204–5) in which two Romans, Marco Antonio Palosci and Silvio Copparo, murdered an inspector of the Camera Apostolica; again in February 1512 another Roman, Pietro Margani, murdered the papal bargello, Vincenzo Sinibaldi (see Onofri, L. (ed.), M.A. Altieri, Li Baccanali (Rome, 2000), xviiGoogle Scholar). See also Miglio, M., ‘Raccontano le cronache: curia, corte e municipio’, in Rossi, S. and Valori, S. (eds.), Le due Rome nel quattrocento (Rome, 1997), 161–71Google Scholar.

12 Privileges and exemptions were guaranteed to patrons constructing palaces along the new via Alessandrina (1499); among bulls offering such benefits are Etsi universis romanae Ecclesiae (1474) and Etsi de cunctarum (1480) of Sixtus IV, and Inter curas multiplices (1516) of Leo X.

13 The work of Sixtus IV on behalf of the city is also important as regards legislative measures; in particular, see Bullarum diplomaticum et privilegiorum sanctorum Romanorum pontificum, vol. V (ab Eugenio IV ad Leonem X) (Turin, 1860), Sixtus IV, XXIV.2 (1480), Etsi de cunctarum civitatum, 273–8: (1)274. See also H. Broise and J.-C. Maire-Vigueur, Strutture familiari, spazio domestico e architettura civile a Roma alla fine del Medioevo, in Storia dell'arte italiana, 12 vols. (Turin, 1980–3), vol. XII: Momenti di architettura, and Friedman, D., ‘Palaces and the street in late medieval and Renaissance Italy’, in Whitehand, J.W.R. and Larkham, P.J. (eds.), Urban Landscapes: International Perspectives (London, 1992), 69–113Google Scholar. For a detailed discussion of such urban legislation in Siena, see Nevola, F., Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City (New Haven and London, 2007)Google Scholar. On Sixtus IV see also Miglio, M., Niutta, F., Quaglioni, D. and Ranieri, C. (eds.), Un pontificato ed una città: Sisto IV (1471–1484) (Rome, 1986)Google Scholar.

14 On medieval Rome and its porticoes, see Broise and Maire-Vigueur, Strutture familiari, 97–160.

15 See M. Tafuri, ‘“Roma instaurata”. Strategie urbane e politiche pontificie nella Roma del primo ‘500’, in Frommel, C.L., Ray, S. and Tafuri, M., Raffaello architetto (Milan, 1984), 59–106Google Scholar, and Tafuri, M., Ricerca del Rinascimento. Principi, città, architetti (Turin, 1992)Google Scholar, recently translated as Interpreting the Renaissance: Princes, Cities, Architects (New Haven, 2006); see also Burroughs, C., From Sign to Design. Environmental Process and Reform in Early Renaissance Rome (Cambridge, 1990)Google Scholar; for a contemporary source, Miglio, M. (ed.), Li Nuptiali di Marco Antonio Altieri pubblicati da Enrico Narducci (Rome, 1995)Google Scholar.

16 Tommassini, O. (ed.), Diario della città di Roma di Stefano Infessura scribasenato (Rome, 1890), 79, 85Google Scholar.

17 See D. Toni (ed.), Il diario romano di Gaspare Pontani, già riferito al ‘notaio del nantiporto’ (30 gennaio 1481–25 luglio 1492), Rerum italicarum scriptores, 3/3 (Città di Castello, 1904), 22; also P. Farenga, ‘‘I romani sono periculoso populo. . .’. Roma nei carteggi diplomatici’, in Gensini (ed.), Roma Capitale, 289–315.

18 On via Giulia, see Salerno, L., Spezzaferro, L. and Tafuri, M., Via Giulia, una utopia urbanistica del 500 (Rome, 1973)Google Scholar; on the Tribunal palace project on via Giulia see Butters, S.B. and Pagliara, P.N., ‘Il palazzo dei Tribunali e via Giulia a Roma’, Zodiac, 14 (1995), 15–28Google Scholar.

19 Salerno, Spezzaferro and Tafuri, Via Giulia, 65–9.

20 Gennaro, C., ‘La “pax Romana” del 1511’, Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria, 90 (1967), 17–60Google Scholar; and Tafuri, ‘“Roma instaurata”’. See also Onofri, M.A. Altieri, Li Baccanali, 61ff.

21 For Roman palaces the fundamental text remains Frommel, C.L., Der römische Palastbau der Hochrenaissance, 3 vols. (Tübingen, 1973)Google Scholar. On palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, see Cafà, V., Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne di Baldassarre Peruzzi. Storia di una famiglia Romana e del suo palazzo in rione Parione (Venice, 2007)Google Scholar, with bibliography.

22 On the Pichi family and palazzo see Frommel, Der römische Palastbau, vol. II, 255–62; Valtieri, S., Il palazzo del principe, il palazzo del cardinale, il palazzo del mercante nel Rinascimento (Rome, 1988), 75–98Google Scholar; Cioffarelli, R., ‘Il palazzo di Girolamo Pichi in Roma e gli interventi di trasformazione: dal primo impianto alle demolizioni per il tracciamento di Corso Vittorio Emanuele II’, Architettura Storia e Documenti, 1–2 (1990), 101–20Google Scholar.

23 Girolamo Pichi, patron of the palazzo Pichi, was a maestro di strade (with Domenico Massimo) during the pontificate of Julius II, as reported in an extant stone inscription; see Tafuri, ‘“Roma instaurata”’, 78.

24 For the via dei Baullari see Spezzaferro, L., Place Farnèse: urbanisme et politique, in Le Palais Farnèse, 3 vols. (Rome, 1980–94), vol. I, part 1, 85–123Google Scholar.

25 For the similar, and well-studied case of the house of Lorenzo Manilio see Tucci, L., Laurentius Manlius. La riscoperta dell'antica Roma. La nuova Roma di Sisto IV (Rome, 2001)Google Scholar.

26 The graphic documentation is in Frommel, Der römische Palastbau, vol. III, ad vocem.

27 On the strategic significance of the ‘trident’ see Tafuri, ‘“Roma instaurata”’; Burroughs, From Sign to Design; and Ceen, The quartiere de’ Banchi.

28 Raphael's project, as far as is known, was then carried on by the young Giulio Romano (who left Rome in 1524); see Frommel, Der römische Palastbau, vol. II, 2ff; and P.N. Pagliara, ‘Palazzo Alberini’, in Frommel, Ray and Tafuri, Raffaello architetto, 171–83.

29 Frommel, Der römische Palastbau, vol. II, x, quoting a document in Archivio di Stato di Roma, Coll. Not. Cap., vol. 87, fols. 217–22v, 29 Dec. 1534 (notary: Stephanus de Amannis).

30 Frommel, Der römische Palastbau, vol. II, 11; the present finished aspect of the palace, with three clear façades addressing the street, is actually the result of nineteenth-century interventions, which continued the building according to extant surviving fragments.

31 See Cruciani, F., Il Teatro del Campidoglio e le feste Romane del 1513. Con la ricostruzione architettonica del teatro di Arnaldo Bruschi (Milan, 1968)Google Scholar: other members of the two families were involved, since Ludovico Pichi and Giovanni Alberini were entrusted with the realization of the theatrical representations.

32 For the palace attribution, see Frommel, Der römische Palastbau, vol. II, 257.

33 Various accounts are in Cruciani, Il Teatro.

34 A register of ‘cittadini romani creati’ (newly created Roman citizens) between 1516 and 1532 survives in Archivio di Stato Capitolino (Cred. VI, t. 49); citizenship was subsequently widely awarded, especially by Clement VII de’ Medici onwards. A protracted debate surrounded the awarding of citizenship to the Flemish humanist Cristoforo Longolio, for which see Gnoli, D., Un giudizio di lesa romanità sotto Leone X. Aggiuntevi le orazioni di Celso Mellini e di Cristoforo Longolio (Rome, 1891)Google Scholar.

35 Pagliara, ‘Palazzo Alberini’, 171.

36 Fagiolo, M. and Madonna, M. L., ‘Il possesso di Leone X. Il trionfo delle prospettive’, in Fagiolo, M. (ed.), Festa a Roma, dal Rinascimento al 1870 (Florence, 1997), 42–9Google Scholar. The papal possesso of 1513 was the subject of a paper by Kathleen Wren Christian, delivered at the annual meeting of the Renaissance Society of America in Chicago in 2007 in a session from which this collection ultimately derives; I thank the author for discussing her findings with me. Like the palaces themselves, even the display of antiquities along the via Papalis during the possesso may be viewed as a reminder to the pope that Roman families were the legitimate heirs of Roman tradition and the legitimate inhabitants of the city.

37 On palazzo Gaddi, see Frommel, Der römische Palastbau, vol. II, 198ff; on San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, see M. Tafuri, ‘Progetti per San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Roma. 1518’, in Frommel, Ray and Tafuri, Raffaello architetto, 217–23.

38 In this respect, the contemporary testimony of Altieri (Miglio (ed.), Li Nuptiali, 17) corroborates the impression that Roman families ruined themselves on account of their ‘sumptuoso et excessivo fabricare’ (sumptuous and excessive building), through which they sought to compete with the grandiose construction plans of the new arrivals in the city.