Dominicans and Franciscans in Medieval Rome: History, Architecture, and Art (Medieval Monastic Studies, 6) 9782503578835, 2503578837

Citation preview

Dominicans and Franciscans in Medieval Rome

MEDIEVAL MONASTIC STUDIES Volume 6

General Editors Janet Burton, University of Wales Trinity Saint David Karen Stöber, Universitat de Lleida Editorial Board Frances Andrews, University of St Andrews Edel Bhreathnach, Discovery Programme, Dublin Guido Cariboni, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano Megan Cassidy-Welch, Australian Catholic University James Clark, University of Exeter Albrecht Diem, Syracuse University Marilyn Dunn, University of Glasgow Sarah Foot, Oxford University, Christ Church Paul Freedman, Yale University Alexis Grélois, Université de Rouen Johnny Grandjean Gøgsig Jakobsen, University of Copenhagen Martin Heale, University of Liverpool Emilia Jamroziak, University of Leeds Kurt Villads Jensen, Stockholms Universitet William Chester Jordan, Princeton University József Laszlovszky, Central European University Budapest Julian Luxford, University of St Andrews Colmán Ó Clabaigh, Glenstal Abbey Tadhg O’Keeffe, University College Dublin Antonio Sennis, University College London

Dominicans and Franciscans in Medieval Rome History, Architecture, and Art

by Joan Barclay Lloyd

F

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

© 2022, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2022/0095/122 ISBN: 978–2-503–57883-5 e-ISBN: 978–2-503–57884-2 DOI: 10.1484/M.MMS-EB.5.114679 ISSN: 2565–8697 e-ISSN: 2565–9758 Printed in the EU on acid-free paper.

Table of Contents List of Illustrations

6

Preface

17

Abbreviations

20

Colour Plates

21

Introduction

27

Part I The First Dominican and Franciscan Foundations in Rome

Chapter 1 The Dominican Nunnery at S. Sisto (now S. Sisto Vecchio), founded c. 1218–1221

43

Chapter 2 The Dominican Priory at S. Sabina, founded c. 1220–1222

95

Chapter 3 The Franciscan Church and Friary of S. Francesco a Ripa, founded in 1229

153

Chapter 4 The Franciscan Nunnery of SS. Cosma e Damiano (S. Cosimato), founded in 1234

177

Part II A New Generation of Dominicans and Franciscans and their Foundations in Rome Chapter 5 The Friars Minor at S. Maria in Aracoeli, founded c. 1248–1252

213

Chapter 6 The Friars Preachers at S. Maria Sopra Minerva, founded c. 1266–1276

257

Chapter 7 The Franciscan Nunnery at S. Silvestro in Capite, founded in 1285

307

Chapter 8 Medi­eval Dominican Penitents from c. 1286 and Catherine of Siena (1347–1380)

341

Conclusion

355

Glossary

363

Biblio­graphy

367

Index

411

List of Illustrations Colour Plates Plate 1. Icon of S. Sisto (Maria Advocata / Hagiosoritissa ), encaustic technique, sixth or early seventh century, Byzantine, now at the Dominican nuns’ church of S. Maria del Rosario, Monte Mario, Rome (photo: © Giulio Archinà)

21

Plate 2. Copy of the icon of S. Sisto with the gold attachments, which were added to the original in the seventh century (photo: © Giulio Archinà)

21

Plate 3. Unknown artist, a medi­eval Dominican nun, a member of the Sant’Eustachio family, at the feet of Christ, as patron of the fresco on the upper left wall of the chancel at S. Sisto, c. 1400 (photo: Archivio Fotografico, Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

22

Plate 4. The Mother of God holding the Christ Child, surrounded by saints and patrons, a recently found fresco in the narthex of S. Sabina, painted in 708–15 (photo: author)

22

Plate 5. Margaritone of Arezzo, Saint Francis of Assisi, c. 1260–1272 (photo: author)

23

Plate 6. Icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria, from S. Cosimato, now in the Poor Clare nunnery on the Little Aventine (Photo: Alberto Ferri)

23

Plate 7. Maria Advocata, icon of the late eleventh century, S. Maria in Aracoeli (photo: © Giulio Archinà)

24

Plate 8. A fragment of a mosaic from the Colonna Chapel at S. Maria in Aracoeli, with St Francis, Giovanni Colonna, St John the Evangelist, the Mother of God and Child, and angels, 1277–1291 (photo: © Galleria Colonna, Rome)

25

Plate 9. Icon of the Mandylion, Byzantine, sixth or seventh century (?) in a seventeenth-century frame, formerly in S. Silvestro in Capite, now at the Vatican in the Sala del Pianto, Papal Treasury (photo: B.N. Marconi – Genoa – ; permission to publish granted by the Ufficio delle Celebrazioni liturgiche del Sommo Pontefice )

26

Plate 10. Saint Francis and the Virtue of Heavenly Love and Saint Dominic and the Virtue of Holy Emulation, fresco from the ‘Aula Gotica’ in the palace of Cardinal Stefano Conti, at SS. Quattro Coronati, c. 1246 (photo: Archivio Fotografico, Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

26

list of illustr ati o n s

Figures Introduction Figure 1.

Map of Rome showing thirteenth-century Dominican and Franciscan foundations, 1–7 and two fourteenth-century nunneries, A and B (Pietro Ruga, Pianta della città di Roma [Map of the city of Rome], 1824, detail; BSR Library Collection, Maps, 609.2.82.2, adapted by David R. Marshall).

28

The Dominican Nunnery at S. Sisto (now S. Sisto Vecchio), founded c. 1218–1221 Figure 2.

Mario Cartaro, Large Map of Rome, det. of Antonine Baths and S. Sisto, 1576 (Frutaz, Piante di Roma, vol. ii, 1962, detail of Tav. 242)

44

Figure 3.

Giovanni Battista Nolli, Map of Rome, det. of Antonine Baths and S. Sisto, 1748 (Frutaz, Piante di Roma, vol. iii, 1962, detail of Tav. 403)

45

Figure 4. S. Sisto, church and nunnery buildings, Plan I: Ground floor (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

46

Figure 5.

Filippo Cicconetti, Plan of the S. Sisto buildings, 1869 (BSR, no. JHP-0220) 47

Figure 6.

Remains of S. Maria in Tempulo (photo: author)

Figure 7.

S. Sisto, view of façade, campanile, and side wall (photo: © David R. Marshall) 49

Figure 8.

S. Sisto, interior of the church today looking north-west. (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

50

Figure 9.

S. Sisto, interior of the church, looking towards inner façade (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

50

48

Figure 10. S. Sisto, church and nunnery buildings, Plan II: First floor (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

51

Figure 11. S. Sisto, side door of Cardinal Pietro Ferrici y Comentano, 1478 (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT).

52

Figure 12. S. Sisto, Chapter Room, façade (photo: author)

52

Figure 13. S. Sisto, Section CC1 (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

53

Figure 14. S. Sisto, Chapter Room, interior in the twentieth century (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

54

Figure 15. S. Sisto, interior of Chapter Room in the nineteenth century (photo: Father Peter Paul Mackey, OP, 1890–1901, BSR: ppm_1284)

54

Figure 16. S. Sisto, Refectory in 2019 (photo: author)

55

Figure 17. S. Sisto, column and capital of the early Christian basilica (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

55

7

8

li s t of i l lus tr ation s

Figure 18. Ancient Roman floor mosaic found at S. Sisto, detail with cock (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

56

Figure 19. C. Varetti, Plan of the early Christian basilica of S. Sisto (from Geertman, ‘Ricerche’, (1968–1969))

57

Figure 20. Gieronimo Francino, S. Sisto, View of atrium and façade (from Le Cose Meravigliose…, ed. Fra Santi, 1588, p. 66r – photo: © 2018 BAV, Cicognara.III.3685)

57

Figure 21. C. Varetti, Reconstruction of the entrance to the early Christian basilica of S. Sisto (from Geertman, ‘Ricerche’, (1968–1969))

58

Figure 22. Sempringham, Priory church, plan of excavations under­taken in 1939 (H. Brown, from R. Graham, ‘Excavations…’ Journal of the British Archaeo­logical Association, NS, 5 (1940))

64

Figure 23. Watton Priory, plan of excavations (W. H. St. John Hope and H. Brakspear, from W. H. St. John, ‘The Gilbertine Priory of Watton…’ Archaeo­logical Journal, 58 (1901))

65

Figure 24. View of the S. Sisto buildings before 1908–1917 (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

68

Figure 25. Unknown artist, Crucifix, c. 1250, from S. Sisto and now in the Chapter Room, University of Saint Thomas, the ‘Angelicum’ (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

72

Figure 26. Frescoes on the wall to the left of the apse, with an image of Pentecost below Scenes from the life of Saint Catherine of Siena, a patron of the work, and Saint Eustachio (photo: author)

75

Figure 27. Unknown artist, Angels in adoration, late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century fresco (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

76

Figure 28. Unknown artist, Pentecost, upper section, late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century fresco (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

77

Figure 29. Unknown artist, Presentation of Mary in the Temple, late thirteenthor early fourteenth-century fresco (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

79

Figure 30. Unknown artist, Girls at the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century fresco (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

80

Figure 31. Unknown artist, Presentation of Christ in the Temple, late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century fresco (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

81

list of illustr ati o n s

Figure 32. Unknown artist, Saints Peter Martyr, Dominic, John the Baptist, and Paul, late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century fresco (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

84

Figure 33. Unknown artist, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Eustace and a medi­ eval nun, late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century fresco (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

85

Figure 34. Unknown artist, Coat of arms of the Sant’Eustachio family, late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century fresco (photo: Direzione Regionale Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

86

The Dominican Priory at S. Sabina, founded c. 1220–1222 Figure 35. Giovanni Battista Nolli, Map of Rome, 1748, det. of Aventine (Frutaz, Piante, vol. ii, 1962, detail of Tav. 407)

97

Figure 36. Carlo Fontana, Plan of the west side of the Aventine Hill, 1700 (Modena, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, MS Campori 379, B. 1. 6. f. 54 – photo: Biblioteca Estense Universitaria)

99

Figure 37. Map of the Aventine Hill near S. Sabina (Spencer Corbett, 1962, published in Krautheimer, Corpus, vol. iv, 1970, fig. 67 – adapted by the author)

100

Figure 38. S. Sabina, diagram of the site ( Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

101

Figure 39. S. Sabina, exterior view of the basilica (photo: author)

102

Figure 40. S. Sabina, interior of the church towards the apse (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

103

Figure 41. S. Sabina, Plan I: Ground floor (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

105

Figure 42. S. Sabina, Plan II: First floor (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

106

Figure 43. S. Sabina, Plan III: Second floor (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

107

Figure 44. S. Sabina, Section AA’ (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd) 108 Figure 45. S. Sabina, Section BB’ (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd) 108 Figure 46. S. Sabina, Section CC’ (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd) 108 Figure 47. S. Sabina, inscription on the inner façade (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

110

9

10

li s t of i l lus tr ation s

Figure 48. S. Sabina, inner façade mosaics in the late seventeenth century (photo: BAV © 2018, from Ciampini, Vetera Monimenta, vol. 1, Tab. XLVIII)

111

Figure 49. S. Sabina, the fifth-century wooden doors (photo: Alinari Archives)

112

Figure 50. Leonardo Bufalini, Map of Rome, 1551, detail of S. Sabina (Frutaz, Piante, vol. ii, 1962, detail of Tav. 203)

114

Figure 51. S. Sabina, view of narthex interior looking south-east towards Via Santa Sabina (photo: author)

115

Figure 52. Giacomo Fontana, narthex interior looking north-west from Fontana, Raccolta, vol I, tav. XXIX (photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

115

Figure 53. S. Sabina, narthex, view from garden D, drawing by Adriano Prandi (photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

116

Figure 54. S. Sabina, the bell tower, as seen from the left aisle (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

118

Figure 55. S. Sabina, vault in the bell tower (photo: author)

118

Figure 56. S. Sabina, view of the façade, narthex, bell wall, south-east wall of wing R, and garden D (photo: Father Peter Paul McKey, OP, 1890–1901, BSR, ppm_1274)

119

Figure 57. SS. Giovanni e Paolo, narthex, built from 1154 to 1180 (photo: author)

120

Figure 58. S. Saba, thirteenth-century narthex with fifteenth-century loggia above it (photo: Alinari Archives)

121

Figure 59. S. Sabina, tomb of Perna Savelli, died 1315 (photo: author)

130

Figure 60. S. Sabina, tomb of Munio of Zamora, died 1300 (photo: author)

130

Figure 61. Gieronimo Francino, S. Sabina, View of side portico, from Le Cose Meravigliose…, ed. Fra Santi, 1588, p. 66v (photo: BAV, © 2018, Cicognara.III.3685)

131

Figure 62. S. Sabina, view of the side portico with the door to the priory on the left and the side entrance to the basilica on the right (photo: author)

131

Figure 63. S. Sabina, tracery from an apse window now in cloister (photo: author)

132

Figure 64. Unknown architect, Spada plan of S. Sabina, c. 1483 (photo: BAV, © 2018, Vat. lat. 11257, fol. 178)

133

Figure 65. Francesco Borromini and workshop, plan of S. Sabina, c. 1640 (photo: © The Albertina Museum, Vienna – www.albertina.at)

134

list of illustr ati o n s

Figure 66. S. Sabina, View of the convent walls with the plaster removed, and showing niches in Wing P (photo: author)

138

Figure 67. S. Sabina, the cloister between 1982 and 2002 (photo: author)

139

Figure 68. Reconstruction of the S. Sabina buildings when the Dominicans arrived (drawing by Jeremy M. Blake)

140

Figure 69. S. Sabina, cloister ambulatory in wing R, showing entrance to the Chapter Room (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

140

Figure 70. S. Sabina, Wing Q, remains of two blocked arches of the loggia (photo: author)

141

Figure 71. S. Sabina, loggia in Wing Q, reconstruction (drawing: Jeremy M. Blake)

141

Figure 72. S. Sabina, room in wing PW, on the ground floor of the priory (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

144

Figure 73. S. Sabina, room in wing PW, on first floor of priory (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

145

Figure 74. Savelli castle, wall of enceinte (photo: author)

149

The Franciscan Church and Friary of S. Francesco a Ripa, founded in 1229 Figure 75. Mario Cartaro, Map of Rome, 1576, detail: Trastevere (Frutaz, Le Piante di Roma, vol. ii, 1962, detail of Tav. 245)

154

Figure 76. S. Francesco a Ripa, plan of the church and former conventual buildings, 1979 survey by Roberto Marta and Bruno Menichella (1979_DRW_SFrancesco-a-Ripa_Marta-Menichella, ICCROM)

157

Figure 77. Leonardo Bufalini, Map of Rome, detail of S. Francesco a Ripa (Frutaz, Le Piante di Roma, vol. ii, 1962, detail of Tav. 208)

164

Figure 78. Gieronimo Francino, S. Francesco a Ripa, façade (Le Cose Meravigliose…, ed. Fra Santi, 1588, p. 20v; photo: BAV, © 2021, Cicognara.III.3685)

166

Figure 79. Baldassarre Peruzzi, drawing of a project for a trefoil burial chapel for Ludovica Albertoni in S. Francesco a Ripa, 1533–1536 (Uffizi, Florence, Prints and Drawings, n. 1643A – under licence from MiBACT)

167

Figure 80. Giuseppe Sanità, OFM, Reconstruction plan of the thirteenthcentury church of S. Francesco a Ripa (1960s – adapted by author)

168

Figure 81. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Giovanni Battista da Sangallo, Monte Cassino, plan for remodelling the choir of the church of Saint Benedict (photo: Florence Uffizi Gallery, Prints and Drawings, U 181 A – under licence from MiBACT)

170

11

12

li s t of i l lus tr ation s

The Franciscan Nunnery of SS. Cosma e Damiano (S. Cosimato), founded in 1234 Figure 82. S. Cosimato, Plan I, Ground Floor (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

179

Figure 83. S. Cosimato, prothyron, viewed from north-west (photo: author)

180

Figure 84. S. Cosimato, church façade, as rebuilt in 1475 (photo: author)

180

Figure 85. S. Cosimato, thirteenth-century cloister, west wing B, viewed from east (photo: author)

181

Figure 86. S. Cosimato, fifteenth-century cloister S, west wing (photo: author)

182

Figure 87. S. Cosimato, southern wall of thirteenth-century south wing C (photo: author)

182

Figure 88. S. Cosimato, view towards southern side of Conference Room (photo: author)

183

Figure 89. S. Cosimato, Plan II, First Floor (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

184

Figure 90. S. Cosimato, Plan III, Second Floor (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

185

Figure 91. S. Cosimato, Section XX’ (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

186

Figure 92. S. Cosimato, Section YY’ (survey by Jeremy M. Blake and Joan Barclay Lloyd)

187

Figure 93. S. Cosimato, Plan made in 1875 (ASC, Contratti. Atti privati, 1875, parte seconda) permission to publish granted by the Soprintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali

187

Figure 94. Ospizio Umberto I, Plan of Ground Floor, c. 1892, detail (from photocopy given to Jeremey M. Blake by the former architect at Ospedale Regina Margherita)

188

Figure 95. S. Cosimato, Plan drawn in 1892, indicating changes planned in the church (ACSR, AABBAA, II, II. Busta 402, All.B.13)

189

Figure 96. S. Cosimato, continuation of the southern wall of the church (photo: author) 192 Figure 97. S. Cosimato, church interior looking towards the east (photo: Biblio­ theca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

196

Figure 98. S. Cosimato, Church interior, counter façade (photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

197

list of illustr ati o n s

Figure 99. Antonio del Massaro (attributed to), Madonna and Child enthroned, with Saint Francis and Saint Clare, c. 1478–1494 (photo: author)

200

Figure 100. S. Cosimato, side chapel, altar made in 1685 from sculpture from the former tomb of Cardinal Lorenzo Cybo († 1503) (photo: Biblio­theca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

202

Figure 101. S. Cosimato, side chapel, grille opposite the altar (photo: Biblio­ theca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

203

Figure 102. S. Cosimato, campanile viewed from the east (photo: author)

205

Figure 103. S. Cosimato, cloister, north colonnade, wing A (photo: author)

207

Figure 104. S. Cosimato, cloister, east wing D, detail, showing the system of piers and arches (photo: author)

207

Figure 105. S. Cosimato, cloister, south wing C, viewed from the north (photo: author)

208

The Friars Minor at S. Maria in Aracoeli, founded c. 1248–1252 Figure 106. Antonio Tempesta, Map of Rome, 1593, det. the Capitoline Hill, with S. Maria in Aracoeli on the left (Frutaz, Le Piante di Roma, vol. ii, 1962, detail of Tav. 266)

212

Figure 107. Stefano Dupérac, Map of Rome, 1577, det. the Capitoline Hill, with S. Maria in Aracoeli lower right (Frutaz, Le Piante di Roma, vol. ii, 1962, detail of Tav. 250)

212

Figure 108. Giacomo Fontana, plan of S. Maria in Aracoeli, c. 1838, from Fontana, Raccolta, vol. ii; photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

214

Figure 109. S. Maria in Aracoeli, interior, looking east (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

216

Figure 110. S. Maria in Aracoeli, façade and cavetto (Luigi Rossini, Le Antichità Romane, 1819–1823, Tav. 58; photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

218

Figure 111. S. Maria in Aracoeli, south transept, side entrance, and chapels (photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

219

Figure 112. Anonymous, plan of S. Maria in Trastevere, 1510–1530 (Rome, Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, vol. mmdx, No. 32746 [35] – under licence from MiBACT)

228

Figure 113. S. Maria in Aracoeli, ‘Cosmatesque’ opus sectile pavement showing an outline of the medi­eval apse (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

229

13

14

li s t of i l lus tr ation s

Figure 114. S. Maria in Aracoeli, Spada plan, c. 1480 (BAV, © 2018, Vat. lat. 11257, pt. A, _0405-fa_0185r)

229

Figure 115. Old St Peter’s, transept, reconstruction (drawing: Lloyd, published in Krautheimer, Corpus, vol. v, 1977, fig. 229)

230

Figure 116. Marten van Heemskerck, view of S. Maria in Aracoeli from the south (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Inv. Nr. 79 D 2 a, fol. 16r)

232

Figure 117. S. Maria in Aracoeli, upper part of a clerestory window (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

238

Figure 118. Gieronimo Francino, façade of S. Maria in Aracoeli (Le Cose Meravigliose…, ed. Fra Santi, 1588, p. 50 v; photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

242

Figure 119. Anonymous Fabriczy, S. Maria in Aracoeli, side view of the façade (photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

243

Figure 120. S. Maria in Aracoeli, ribbed vaulting in the former chapel of Saints Peter and Paul in the bell tower, which since 1564 has been the side entrance (photo: author)

246

Figure 121. Cavallini (attributed to), Madonna and Child, with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, c. 1295–1300 (photo: author)

249

Figure 122. S. Maria in Aracoeli, tomb of Matteo da Acquasparta, c. 1302 (photo: author)

252

Figure 123. View of the cloister with a well at S. Maria in Aracoeli (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

253

The Friars Preachers at S. Maria Sopra Minerva, founded c. 1266–1276 Figure 124. Alessandro Moschetti, View of Piazza di S. Maria sopra Minerva, engraving, 1842 (photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-PlanckInstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

258

Figure 125. S. Maria sopra Minerva, view of interior (photo: Anderson: Alinari Archives)

259

Figure 126. Antonio Tempesta, Map of Rome (1593), detail of S. Maria sopra Minerva and the Pantheon (Frutaz, Piante, vol. ii, 1962, detail of Tav. 265

260

Figure 127. Anthonis van den Wyngaerde, Panorama of Rome from the Baths of Constantine on the Quirinal Hill, detail showing the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva to the right of the figure in the middle, with the Pantheon further to the right (Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, WA.C.L.G.IV.96b; photo: Ashmolean Museum)

261

list of illustr ati o n s

Figure 128. Survey plan of S. Maria sopra Minerva (Palmerio and Villetti, Storia edilizia, Rome, 1989, Plate XIV)

262

Figure 129. Plan of S. Maria sopra Minerva in 1855 (Masetti, Memorie istoriche, 1855)

264

Figure 130. Fra Gieronimo Bianchedì’s sections, before (below) and after (above) the nineteenth-century restorations, (Masetti, Memorie istoriche, 1855)

264

Figure 131. S. Maria sopra Minerva, interior view of nave, showing oculi and side aisle (photo: Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome)

266

Figure 132. Florence, S. Maria Novella, exterior of nave and aisle from the south (photo: author)

267

Figure 133. Giovanni di Cosma, Tomb of Durandus, made shortly after 1296, Rome, S. Maria sopra Minerva (photo: author)

273

Figure 134. Florence, S. Maria Novella, plan (Wood Brown, The Dominican Church of Santa Maria Novella, Edinburgh, 1902)

275

Figure 135. Baldassarre Peruzzi, survey drawing of the apse and a plan to remodel it (Florence Uffizi Gallery, Prints and Drawings, U 527v A – under licence from MiBACT)

276

Figure 136. Giovanni Battista da Sangallo, survey drawing of the east end of S. Maria sopra Minerva (Florence Uffizi Gallery, Prints and Drawings, U 1661v A – under licence from MiBACT)

277

Figure 137. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, plan showing the old apse in outline and projected new choir (Florence Uffizi Gallery, Prints and Drawings, U 1310 A – under licence from MiBACT)

277

Figure 138. S. Maria sopra Minerva, reconstruction of the east end by Palmerio and Villetti, (Palmerio e Villetti, Storia edilizia, Rome, 1989, fig. 25)

278

Figure 139. Galuzzi, Reconstruction of the medi­eval church of S. Maria sopra Minerva (Matthiae, ‘Gli aspetti diversi di S. Maria sopra Minerva’, Palladio, NS 4, 1954)

280

Figure 140. Giovanni Maggi, Map of Rome, 1625, edited by Paolo Maupin and Carlo Losi in 1774 (Frutaz, Piante, vol. ii, 1962, detail of Tav. 315)

283

Figure 141. Waterspout with ‘lion head’ in the cloister garden of S. Maria sopra Minerva (photo: author)

284

Figure 142. S. Maria sopra Minerva, Tomb of Beato Angelico (photo: Beth Hay)

291

Figure 143. S. Maria sopra Minerva, angel from Raymond’s tomb of Catherine of Siena (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

292

15

16

li s t of i l lus tr ation s

Figure 144. S. Maria sopra Minerva, tomb of Saint Catherine of Siena under the high altar today (photo: author)

294

Figure 145. S. Maria sopra Minerva, the tomb of Saint Catherine of Siena from c. 1855 to 2000, under the high altar (photo: Alinari)

295

Figure 146. Follower of Fra Angelico (?) Our Lady of the Rosary (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

296

Figure 147. S. Maria sopra Minerva, unknown artist, crucifix (photo: ICCD – under licence from MiBACT)

298

The Franciscan Nunnery at S. Silvestro in Capite, founded in 1285 Figure 148. Antonio Tempesta and Giovanni G. de Rossi, Map of Rome, 1693, (Frutaz, Piante, vol. iii, 1962, det. of Tav. 367)

307

Figure 149. S. Silvestro in Capite, façade and twelfth-century bell tower from south (photo: author)

312

Figure 150. Spencer Corbett and Richard Krautheimer, Plan of S. Silvestro in Capite (Krautheimer, Corpus, vol. iv, 1970, Tav. IX)

313

Figure 151. S. Silvestro in Capite, crypt, eighth-century wall built of large blocks of tufa (photo: author)

315

Figure 152. S. Silvestro in Capite, chapel of the Sacred Heart (now parish office), column and capital from the eighth-century church (photo: author)

316

Figure 153. S. Silvestro in Capite, chapel of the Pietà, column and capital from the eighth-century church (photo: author)

316

Figure 154. Plan of S. Silvestro in Capite by Antonio Tanghero (Florence, Casa Buonarroti, drawings, nos 114 A and 122 A)

327

Figure 155. S. Silvestro in Capite, Colonna and Palombara coats of arms (photo: author)

328

Figure 156. S. Silvestro in Capite, east end of transept, coat of arms of a Colonna cardinal (photo: author)

328

Figure 157. Francesco da Volterra, plan of S. Silvestro in Capite, 1591 (ASR, Collezione Mappe, cart. 86. no. 531, fol. 1 – under licence from MiBACT)

331

Figure 158. Francesco da Volterra, Longitudinal Section of proposed remodelling of the church of S. Silvestro in Capite, 1591 (ASR, Collezione Mappe, cart. 86. no. 531, fol. 3 – under licence from MiBACT)

332

Figure 159. Plan of the church, monastery, and workshops of the nuns of S. Silvestro in Capite, eighteenth century (ASR, Collezione Mappe, 86, no. 531, fol. 2 – under licence from MiBACT)

334

Preface

early history of the two Mendicant Orders are The Dominicans recently marked the eighth revealed through the topo­graphy, architecture, centenary of the death of Saint Dominic and decoration of their buildings in medi­eval (c. 1174–1221), who, on 28 February 1221, opened Rome. This study also discusses the patrons of the first Dominican foundation in Rome. This the architecture and art of these foundations: was the enclosed nunnery of S. Sisto (now called popes and cardinals, members of the great Roman S. Sisto Vecchio), which Saint Dominic began families, Franciscan tertiaries, or other lay people. to establish two or three years before. It was Many people have helped me to write this almost contemporary with a second Dominican book. Inspiration came a long time ago from foundation, the priory of the Friars Preachers at Richard Krautheimer, for whom I worked as S. Sabina, c. 1220–1222. Later, from 1266 onwards, a research assistant for eight years, and who the Dominicans were given a small church and suggested I look not only at medi­eval churches, convent near the Pantheon, where they later but also at the conventual buildings beside built the huge Gothic church of S. Maria sopra Minerva and their priory next door. Although them, and the religious way of life of the men and women who lived in them. Julian Gardner’s Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1181–1226) came to major works on painting, mosaics, tombs, seals, Rome several times, he did not establish any and patronage in thirteenth-century Rome permanent friaries or nunneries in the city, but later four houses for Franciscan friars and nuns widened my horizons in those fields. I thank architect Jeremy M. Blake for making the survey were set up in thirteenth-century Rome: the drawings of S. Sisto, S. Sabina, and S. Cosimato church and friary of S. Francesco a Ripa, close to and for giving me advice about the buildings of the banks of the River Tiber, in 1229; the nunnery S. Francesco a Ripa, S. Maria in Aracoeli, and of S. Cosimato in southern Trastevere, in 1234; the church and friary of S. Maria in Aracoeli on S. Maria sopra Minerva. Beth Hay accompanied me when I visited various sites in Rome, Bo­logna, the Capitoline Hill, from 1248–1252 onwards; Assisi, and Naples and took some photo­graphs and the nunnery at S. Silvestro in Capite, in 1285. for me. Dr Susan Russell, at the British School In the fourteenth century, when the popes had at Rome and in Melbourne, encouraged me left Rome for Avignon, there were two more in my endeavours, and read some drafts of my Dominican and Franciscan foundations: the manu­script. Poor Clare nunnery of S. Lorenzo in Panisperna In 1998, Karin Bull-Simonsen Einaudi and and the Dominican nunnery of Sant’Aurea. This I collaborated on a volume, edited by Marco book is about the history, architecture, and art Vendittelli, on SS. Cosma e Damiano in Mica of the first seven Dominican and Franciscan Aurea (S. Cosimato).1 I look back in pleasure at foundations in Rome, while the two later convents the time we worked together on that book. More are briefly mentioned. An investigation is made of the site of each recently, with Gemma Guerrini Ferri, Alberto thirteenth-century Dominican and Franciscan foundation in Rome, its history, buildings, and art, using archaeo­logical, visual, architectural, 1 Barclay Lloyd and Bull-Simonsen Einaudi, SS. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea. and literary evidence. In this way, aspects of the

18

p r e fac e

Ferri, Anna Maria Velli, and other members of the voluntary association ‘Mica Aurea’ in Rome, there has been some more ‘popular’ interest in S. Cosimato, resulting in lectures, conferences, guided visits of the buildings, and two collections of essays.2 Dale Kinney has often discussed with me the architecture and art of Roman medi­eval churches. Margaret Manion, at the University of Melbourne, encouraged me to study the history and art of medi­eval nuns in Rome. I visited S. Sabina with Manuela Gianandrea, examining fascinating features of the church, the priory, and the museum. I have also received encouragement and inspiration from the following scholars: Frances Andrews, Lisa Beaven, Claudia Bolgia, Brenda Bolton, Elizabeth Bradford-Smith, Caroline Bruzelius, Robert Coates-Stephens, Sible de Blaauw, Anne Dunlop, Laura Gigli, Alison Inglis, Carola Jäggi, Lezlie Knox, Kate Lowe, David Marshall, Angela Ndalianis, Alana O’Brien, John Osborne, Alison Perchuk, and Andreas Rehberg. I began research for this book, when I was teaching Art History at La Trobe University in Australia. I thank my former colleagues and students for their interest and support. I am grateful to the University and the Australian Research Council for funding several trips to Rome to work on this project. Many other people, named and unnamed, have helped me and I thank them all. I think particularly of the Dominican friars at S. Sabina and S. Maria sopra Minerva, and the modern Dominican Sisters at S. Sisto; the Franciscans at S. Francesco a Ripa and S. Maria in Aracoeli; the Pallottine Fathers at S. Silvestro; and the staff directing the Poliambulatorio (medical centre) at the ex-Ospedale Nuovo Regina Margherita (formerly S. Cosimato). In Rome, I studied at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and at the

2 See Guerrini Ferri and Barclay Lloyd, ed., San Chosm’ e Damiano e ‘l suo bel monasterio …’; and Velli, ed., Nuovi Studi su San Cosimato.

Archivio Segreto Vaticano; at Rome’s Archivio di Stato, at the Roma Capitale, Archivio Centrale dello Stato di Roma, and at the Archivio Storico Capitolino di Roma. I was made welcome at the Archivio Generale dell’Ordine dei Predicatori at S. Sabina by successive archivists, and at the Archive of S. Maria sopra Minerva by Fabiana Spinelli and Father Luciano Cinelli, OP. Valerie Scott, Librarian of the British School at Rome, and members of her staff gave me invaluable assistance. At the Bibliotheca Hertziana, librarians like Dr Sonja Kobold helped me, as did Marga Sanchez of the library’s Fototeca. Other Roman libraries I have worked in are at the American Academy in Rome, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, and the Centro Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani. In Australia, I studied at the Borchardt Library at La Trobe University, the Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne, and at the La Trobe State Library of the City of Melbourne. I am grateful to Janet Burton, Karen Stöber, and Guy Carney of the Editorial Board of Medi­ eval Monastic Studies for accepting this book for publication in this series. The recommendations of the anonymous reviewer were very helpful and inspired me to revise the text extensively. My thanks are due to the staff of Brepols for their expert editing and publishing. I have enjoyed the friendly support of members of my family: Bernard and Emily, Megan, and Miriam; Alex and Luzcil; and particularly Margaret and Colin, my sister and brother-in-law, who live in France, and who took me to see ‘Dominican sites’, such as the rebuilt nunnery at Prouilhe, the centre at Fanjeaux, the Houses of Pierre of Seilhan, and the beautiful church and priory of the Jacobins in Toulouse. They also introduced me to the Communauté de l’Agneau, a modern Dominican and Franciscan Congregation. In Australia, the Missionaries of God’s Love, too, are inspired by the ideals of Saints Dominic and Francis. I am personally very grateful to the members of la Communauté de l’Emmanuel

p reface

(the Emmanuel Community) in Paris, Rome, Melbourne, Manila, and elsewhere, who have given me moral support and who have encouraged me to complete this project. I grew up in Zambia, Central Africa. Our parish was run by Conventual Franciscan Friars and my mother became a Franciscan Tertiary in later life. I attended three schools staffed by Dominican Sisters, where I received an excellent education. Little did I imagine that many years later I would write a book about the history, architecture, and art of Dominicans and Franciscans in medi­eval Rome. I hope that what I have expressed here embodies the Dominican motto ‘Veritas’ (Truth) as well as the Franciscan greeting ‘Pax et Bonum’ (Peace and Goodness).

As always, there are sure to be some mistakes, for which I alone am responsible and for which I apo­logize. As this work nears completion, I think of how the Dominicans end each day solemnly chanting the ‘Salve Regina’, which addresses the Virgin Mary as ‘Advocata’ (her title in the icons of S. Sisto and S. Maria in Aracoeli [Plates 1, 2, and 7]), praying, ‘illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte’ (turn […] your eyes of mercy towards us). Joan Barclay Lloyd Rome, 28 February 2021

I dedicate this book to two friends:

Father Paul Murray, OP (Dominican priest, poet, and professor) and

Sister Mary-Louise Slattery, FMM (Franciscan Missionary of Mary among Aboriginal and other people in Australia)

19

Abbreviations AASS Acta Sanctorum ACSR Archivio Centrale dello Stato di Roma AFH Archivum Fratrum Historicum AFP Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum AGOP Archivum Generale Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum AM Archivum Minervitanum ASC Archivio storico capitolino ASR Archivio di Stato, Roma ASV Archivio Segreto Vaticano BAV Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana BF Bullarium Francescanum BOP Bullarium Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum BSR British School at Rome DBI Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, ed. and directed by Alberto M. Ghisalberti, Massimiliano Pavan, and Fiorella Bartocchi, (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Trecciani) FAED Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, 4 vols: i. The Saint; ii. The Founder; iii. The Prophet; iv. Index, ed. by Regis Armstrong, J. A. Wayne Hellman, and William J. Short (New York: New City Press, 1999–2001) ICCD Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione ICCROM International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property LP Le Liber Pontificalis, ed. by Louis Duchesne. 2 vols (Paris: Editions E. Du Boccard, 1981) MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica MGH SS Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores MiBACT Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e per il Turismo MOPH Monumenta Ordinis fratrum Praedicatorum Historica NCE New Catholic Encyclopedia OFM Order of Friars Minor OP Order of Preachers PBSR Papers of the British School at Rome PL Patro­logiae Cursus completus. Series Latina, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, 221 vols (Paris: Bibliotecae Cleri Universae, 1844–1864) RB Rule of Saint Benedict

Colour Plates

Plate 1. Icon of S. Sisto (Maria Advocata / Hagiosoritissa ), encaustic technique, sixth or early seventh century, Byzantine, now at the Dominican nuns’ church of S. Maria del Rosario, Monte Mario, Rome (photo: © Giulio Archinà)

Plate 2. Copy of the icon of S. Sisto with the gold attachments, which were added to the original in the seventh century (photo: © Giulio Archinà)

22

co lo ur p l ate s

Plate 3. Unknown artist, a medi­eval Dominican nun, a member of the Sant’Eustachio family, at the feet of Christ, as patron of the fresco on the upper left wall of the chancel at S. Sisto, c. 1400 (photo: Archivio Fotografico, Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

Plate 4. The Mother of God holding the Christ Child, surrounded by saints and patrons, a recently found fresco in the narthex of S. Sabina, painted in 708–15 (photo: author)

co lo u r p lates

Plate 5. Margaritone of Arezzo, Saint Francis of Assisi, c. 1260–1272 (photo: author)

Plate 6. Icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria, from S. Cosimato, now in the Poor Clare nunnery on the Little Aventine (Photo: Alberto Ferri)

23

24

co lo ur p l ate s

Plate 7. Maria Advocata, icon of the late eleventh century, S. Maria in Aracoeli (photo: © Giulio Archinà)

co lo u r p lates

25

Plate 8. A fragment of a mosaic from the Colonna Chapel at S. Maria in Aracoeli, with St Francis, Giovanni Colonna, St John the Evangelist, the Mother of God and Child, and angels, 1277–1291 (photo: © Galleria Colonna, Rome)

26

co lo ur p l ate s Plate 9. Icon of the Mandylion, Byzantine, sixth or seventh century (?) in a seventeenth-century frame, formerly in S. Silvestro in Capite, now at the Vatican in the Sala del Pianto, Papal Treasury (photo: B.N. Marconi – Genoa – ; permission to publish granted by the Ufficio delle Celebrazioni liturgiche del Sommo Pontefice )

Plate 10. Saint Francis and the Virtue of Heavenly Love and Saint Dominic and the Virtue of Holy Emulation, fresco from the ‘Aula Gotica’ in the palace of Cardinal Stefano Conti, at SS. Quattro Coronati, c. 1246 (photo: Archivio Fotografico, Musei Lazio – under licence from MiBACT)

Introduction There are many venerable churches, monasteries, In the thirteenth century, these seven churches were ceded to the two Mendicant Orders, and and shrines in Rome. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, pilgrims were encouraged to then remodelled or rebuilt. The first Dominican visit seven churches in and around the city.3 These foundations in the city were S. Sisto (called were among Rome’s most important sanctuaries: ‘S. Sisto Vecchio’ from the late sixteenth century the cathedral of S. Giovanni in Laterano (St. John onwards), where Saint Dominic founded a Lateran), S. Pietro in Vaticano (Old St. Peter’s), nunnery c. 1218–1221,7 and the Dominican priory S. Paolo fuori le Mura, S. Croce in Gerusalemme, of S. Sabina, which was established between S. Maria Maggiore, S. Sebastiano, and S. Lorenzo c. 1220 and 1222.8 The Franciscans took over the fuori le Mura. These churches were not only great church and ‘Hospital’ (meaning in this case a shrines; they were also significant examples of hostel for pilgrims) of S. Biagio near the Ripa early Christian architecture, being among the Grande (the main river port in Rome) in 1229 most famous basilicas in Rome, built originally and transformed them into the church and friary 4 from the fourth to the sixth century. Sometimes, of S. Francesco a Ripa.9 In 1234, SS. Cosma e from the end of the sixteenth century onwards, Damiano in Mica Aurea (called ‘S. Cosimato’ two other holy places, south of the city, were from 1238 onwards), was transformed into a added to this list: S. Maria Annunziata and the Franciscan nunnery.10 These were the first four 5 sanctuaries at Tre Fontane. This book is about another group of seven churches in the city, together with their adjacent For an overview of recent studies of Dominican and Franciscan architecture and art, see Bruzelius, ‘The conventual buildings. They are less well-known Architecture of the Mendicant Orders’. Among such than the traditional seven basilicas, yet they are studies, the following stand out: Schenkluhn, Architektur der Bettelorden (translated into Italian as Architettura significant because they were the houses where degli Ordini Mendicanti); Jäggi, Frauenklöster; Cannon, the Dominicans and Franciscans resided in Religious Poverty, Visual Riches; and Bruzelius, Preaching, 6 Rome in the later Middle Ages (Fig. 1, 1–7). Building, and Burying.

3 See, for example, Panvinio, De praecipuis Urbis Romae sanctioribusque Basilicis and Severano, Memorie sacre delle sette Chiese. 4 Krautheimer, Corpus; Brandenburg, The Ancient Churches of Rome. Of course, by the sixteenth century, many changes had been made to these early basilicas. 5 See, Baglione, Le nove chiese. 6 This map, by Pietro Ruga, was published in 1824. By then, buildings had spread north-west of S. Silvestro in Capite and along the banks of the Tiber. Although this is not an accurate representation of the medi­eval city in the thirteenth century, it shows the location of the medi­eval Dominican and Franciscan foundations, before the exponential urban growth that came after 20 September 1870, when the Risorgimento troops took the city and Rome became the capital of Italy.

7 See the three volumes edited by Raimondo Spiazzi: Spiazzi, La chiesa e il monastero di San Sisto; Spiazzi, Cronache e Fioretti; and Spiazzi, San Domenico e il monastero di San Sisto; Bolton, ‘Daughters of Rome’; and Barclay Lloyd, ‘The Architectural Planning of Pope Innocent III’s Nunnery of S. Sisto’. 8 Barclay Lloyd, ‘Medi­eval Dominican Architecture at Santa Sabina’; and Gianandrea, Annibali, and Bartoni, ed., Il convento di Santa Sabina, published in 2016. 9 Menichella, San Francesco a Ripa; Del Vasto, Church of S. Francis of Assisi a Ripa Grande and, recently, Degni and Porzio, ed., La Fabbrica del Convento, published in 2011. 10 Barclay Lloyd and Bull-Simonsen Einaudi, SS. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea. Recently, two volumes of essays were published in 2013 and 2017, respectively Guerrini Ferri and Barclay Lloyd, ed., ‘San Chosm’ e Damiano’ and Velli, ed., Nuovi Studi su San Cosimato.

28

i n tro d ucti o n

Figure 1. Map of Rome showing thirteenth-century Dominican and Franciscan foundations, 1–7 and two fourteenth-century nunneries, A and B (Pietro Ruga, Pianta della città di Roma [Map of the city of Rome], 1824, detail; BSR Library Collection, Maps, 609.2.82.2, adapted by David R. Marshall).

Friars Minor were given the Benedictine church and monastery of S. Maria in Capitolio (or S. Maria in Aracoeli), which they replaced with a large new basilica and a friary.11 S. Maria sopra Minerva, first ceded to the Order of Preachers

Dominican and Franciscan foundations in Rome and they are each discussed in a separate chapter in Part I of this book. Part II deals with the next generation of Dominicans and Franciscans, 11 See, most recently, Bolgia, Reclaiming the Roman Capitol, who moved into other quarters in Rome in published in 2017. A new study of the church by Daniela the second half of the thirteenth century. On Mondini is to appear in Die Kirchen der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter, vol. v. the Capitoline Hill, between 1248 and 1252, the

i nt ro duction

c. 1266, was totally rebuilt by them from about 1280 onwards.12 The Colonna family established a Franciscan nunnery at S. Silvestro in Capite in 1285.13 There were also two other medi­eval Franciscan and Dominican foundations, made in the fourteenth century: the Poor Clare nunnery of S. Lorenzo in Panisperna, founded between 1308 and 1318 by Cardinal Giacomo Colonna, and Sant’ Aurea, a Dominican nunnery established in the mid-fourteenth century (Fig. 1: A and B).14 The history of S. Lorenzo is briefly discussed in Chapter 7 of this book and Sant’ Aurea is mentioned in Chapter 1. This book focuses on the seven major Dominican and Franciscan thirteenth-century building complexes, comparing the earlier ones in Part I with the later ones in Part II. The general aim is to locate each church and convent in the topo­graphy of the city; to trace the history of earlier ecclesiastical foundations on the site; to recount how the Dominicans or Franciscans took them over and renewed them; to analyse and reconstruct the medi­eval architecture, now often obscured by later changes; and to examine

the medi­eval works of art in them that are still accessible, or which are known from written sources. The patrons who paid for these buildings and works of art are also identified, where possible. All this is done within an overarching perspective of the evolution of the two Mendicant Orders. After an initial phase of foundation by Saint Dominic (c. 1174–1221), the Friars Preachers had become known as members of the ‘First Order’ of Dominicans, while the nuns were accepted officially as members of the ‘Second Order’ in 1267. Saint Francis (1182–1226) was joined by many friars and helped Saint Clare to establish a female community at San Damiano just outside Assisi; he also welcomed lay men and women as tertiaries, or a Third Order. Cardinal Ugolino, who later became Pope Gregory IX (1227–1241), founded nunneries, which were related to the two Mendicant Orders; one of these was S. Cosimato in Rome. There were also penitents, or ‘semi-religious’ members of the Franciscan and Dominican Orders, who did not reside in convents.15 One of them, the ‘mantellata’ Catherine of Siena, came to Rome in 1378 and stayed in a house near S. Maria sopra Minerva, the Dominican church where she was buried in 1380. After her canonization in 1461, an inscription on her tomb identified her anachronistically as a member of the ‘Order of Penitence of Saint Dominic’, a Third Order of Dominicans of consecrated life, given papal approval in 1405. After the Pope had moved to Avignon in France in 1309, an inventory, now known as the ‘Catalogue of Turin’, was made of all the churches in Rome.16 This census noted the location of each church and monastery, and the

12 Kleefisch, ‘Die römische Dominikanerkirche S. Maria sopra Minerva von 1280 bis 1453’; Palmerio and Villetti, Storia edilizia; Kleefisch-Jobst, Die römische Dominikanerkirche Santa Maria sopra Minerva; and Villetti and Palmerio, Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Roma. Recently, in 2020, Almuth Klein added a short study of the church in Claussen, Die Kirchen der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter, vol. iv, pp. 310–36. 13 See the 2015 edition of Kane, The Church of San Silvestro and the new English translations of medi­eval documents published with a historical commentary in Visions of Sainthood in Medi­eval Rome, trans. by Field, ed. by Knox and Field, in 2017. 14 For S. Lorenzo in Panisperna, see Rehberg, ‘Nobiltà e monasteri femminili nel Trecento’; Marini, ‘Il monastero di San Lorenzo in Panisperna’; Fallica, ‘Sviluppo e trasformazione’; Sturm, Canciani, Pastor Altaba, and 15 See Makowski, ‘A Pernicious Sort of Woman’; Dominican d’Angelico, ‘Dal monastero di S. Lorenzo in Panisperna Penitent Women, ed. and trans. by Lehmijoki-Gardner; al palazzo del Viminale’. For Sant’ Aurea, see Pecchiai, La and Kilgallon, ‘Female Sites of Devotion’. Chiesa dello Spirito Santo dei Napolitani e I’antica chiesa 16 Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino, MS lat. A 381, fols 1–16, di S. Aurea; Gardner, ‘Nuns and Altarpieces’; Dunlop, published in Valentini and Zucchetti, Codice Topografico, ‘Advocata Nostra’; and Dunlop, ‘The Dominicans and vol. iii, pp. 205–09 and 291–318, and in Huelsen, Le chiese Cloistered Women’. di Roma, pp. 26–43.

29

30

i n tro d ucti o n

number of clergy who lived there, with their nunneries of S. Cosimato and S. Silvestro in status as diocesan priests, canons, or members Capite, each with thirty-six nuns of the ‘Order of religious Orders; it also included information of Saint Clare’ and two Friars Minor.20 This about the communities of nuns. This document, makes a total of ninety-six Friars Preachers and seventy Dominican nuns; and sixty-nine Friars which refers to 408 churches spread over the 17 city, is usually dated c. 1320. The inventory lists Minor and seventy-two Clarissan nuns. The total five patriarchal basilicas; twenty-seven tituli of number of nuns in each Order is almost equal, while, among the friars, there are twenty-seven cardinal presbyters and eighteen of cardinal deacons; twenty-eight communities of monks or more Dominicans than Franciscans. S. Maria friars; twenty nunneries; twenty-five hospitals; in Aracoeli and S. Maria sopra Minerva are eleven papal chapels; twenty-one collegiate comparable communities, with fifty friars each, representing the ‘main’ house of each Order in churches, with from three to six canons; and 261 parish churches with one or two clerics, Rome at that time. The thirty Friars Preachers at forty-three with no ministers, and eleven that had S. Sabina form a medium-sized community, while been demolished.18 Within this conspectus, the the group of fifteen Friars Minor at S. Francesco Catalogue of Turin lists the seven churches that a Ripa is similar to the sixteen Friars Preachers at S. Sisto. are the subject of this study, assigning them to Dominican and Franciscan friars or nuns. While At S. Lorenzo in Panisperna the Catalogue of the friars of the two Mendicant Orders had lived Turin lists eighteen nuns but does not identify in earlier temporary accommodation at some the religious Order to which they belonged other places in the city, these seven churches (Fig. 1, A), perhaps because it was a very new were where the Dominicans and Franciscans foundation.21 They were probably of the Order had become firmly established in Rome by the of Saint Clare and would have increased the total early fourteenth century. number of Franciscan nuns in Rome to ninety. In the Catalogue of Turin, the Dominicans The church was rebuilt in the sixteenth century are mentioned in three places: at the nunnery and still has its nuns’ choir from that time.22 A of S. Sisto, with seventy nuns and sixteen Friars Dominican nunnery, dedicated to Sant’ Aurea, is known to have existed in Rome from at least Preachers; at the church of S. Sabina, with thirty Friars Preachers; and at S. Maria sopra Minerva, the mid-fourteenth century onwards (Fig. 1, B).23 with fifty Friars Preachers.19 The Franciscans are listed at four places: at the church of S. Francesco a Ripa, with fifteen Friars Minor; at S. Maria in 20 Valentini and Zucchetti, Codice topografico, vol. iii, p. 293 Aracoeli, with fifty Friars Minor; and at the two (S. Silvestro in Capite); p. 304 (S. Maria in Aracoeli);

p. 306 (S. Francesco a Ripa); and p. 316 (SS. Cosma e Damiano). 21 Valentini and Zucchetti, Codice topografico, vol. iii, 17 Falco, ‘Il catalogo di Torino’, pp. 441–43, found from p. 302: ‘Monasterium Sancti Laurentii Panispernae internal evidence that it must have been written habet moniales XVIII’ (the monastery of S. Lorenzo in after 1313, and he suggested it was completed by 1339; Panisperna has eighteen nuns). For the history of this Huelsen, Le chiese di Roma, p. 16, dated it c. 1320. nunnery, see Rehberg, Die Kanoniker, p. 115; Rehberg, 18 There is some discrepancy between the number of ‘Nobiltà e monasteri femminili nel Trecento’; Marini, churches listed and the total number given in the ‘Il monastero di San Lorenzo in Panisperna’; and Ait, ‘Il summary at the end of the document — for example, Patrimonio delle clarisse di San Lorenzo in Panisperna’. there are 408 churches listed, but the summary refers 22 Its history is compared briefly with that of S. Silvestro in to 414. Chapter 7. 19 Valentini and Zucchetti, Codice topografico, vol. iii, pp. 309 23 For this convent, see Pecchiai, La Chiesa dello Spirito (S. Sisto); p. 308 (S. Sabina); p. 299 (S. Maria sopra Santo dei Napolitani e I’antica chiesa di S. Aurea; see also, Minerva).

i nt ro duction

It is not mentioned in the Catalogue of Turin; and, when the nuns from that convent joined S. Sisto in 1514, the nunnery of Sant’ Aurea was closed, and the site was sold. (A fine altarpiece painted by Lippo Vanni shortly after 1368 was, however, taken from there to S. Sisto in the early sixteenth century and is now in the Chapter Room at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the ‘Angelicum’.24) These two fourteenth-century nunneries — S. Lorenzo in Panisperna and Sant’ Aurea — are briefly mentioned, but they have not been included in separate chapters in this volume. It is said that the Benedictines chose to build their abbeys on hilltops and the Cistercians located their monasteries in valleys, whereas the Dominicans and Franciscans lived in towns. The monks left the world to live in their monasteries, most of which were in the countryside;25 but the friars went into towns and worked among lay people, exercising pastoral care, or ‘cure of souls’. Medi­eval Rome, however, was no ordinary town.26 It was a very ancient city, in antiquity the capital of the Roman Empire, known in the Middle Ages as ‘Caput Mundi’ (the head of the world). Situated on its famous seven hills, Rome had been divided into fourteen regions by Augustus (27 bc–ad 14). Later, in the third century, the popes created seven ecclesiastical regions. By the thirteenth century,

Gardner, ‘Nuns and Altarpieces’; Dunlop, ‘Advocata Nostra’; and Dunlop, ‘The Dominicans and Cloistered Women’. 24 Gardner, ‘Nuns and Altarpieces’; Dunlop, ‘Advocata Nostra’; and Dunlop, ‘The Dominicans and Cloistered Women’. 25 There were urban monasteries in medi­eval Rome, however, see Ferrari, Early Roman Monasteries and Sansterre, Les Moines grecs et orientaux à Rome. 26 See Brentano, Rome before Avignon; Krautheimer, Rome, esp. Part II: Forma Urbis Romae Medi­evalis, pp. 231–326; and Hubert, Espace urbain et habitat. For early medi­eval Rome, see, for example, Osborne, Rome in the Eighth Century; and for the history of the city from 900 to 1150, Wickham, Medi­eval Rome.

some of these divisions remained, but notaries would often refer to buildings as located near a well-known landmark or situated in a smaller medi­eval region.27 From about 1118, there were twelve important regions, some of which were subdivided into smaller ones; beyond these, there were large areas such as Trastevere, or stretches of almost uninhabited land, like that near the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla or on the Aventine Hill.28 From 271, Rome was surrounded by the Aurelian Walls with gates located where ancient roads led in and out of the city. Parts of the ancient road network survived, amid the irregular narrow streets and winding lanes of the medi­eval city. In the thirteenth century, there were still some large ruins from ancient Rome, such as the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Baths of Caracalla, as well as remnants of temples, aqueducts, and triumphal arches. Some less clearly defined ‘crypts’ may have been the large rooms of ancient Roman structures that had been partly buried. In the thirteenth century, the area within the Aurelian Walls was extensive, but it was not all densely inhabited, most people living in small houses, in clusters near large churches or spread out across the city, along the banks of the River Tiber, or in the inner part of the Campus Martius, the so-called ‘Tiber bend’. The city did not have a well-defined centre. Its cathedral was at the Lateran, near the Aurelian Walls to the east, while the greatest pilgrim church was Old St Peter’s, officially outside the city’s boundaries and across the river in the Leonine City at the Vatican on the north-west. From c. 1143, the medi­eval Roman Senate provided civic government and 27 Hubert, Espace urbain et habitat, Chapters 1 and 2. The Catalogue of Turin divides the city into the three ecclesiastical regions governed by the Rectors and Fraternity of the Roman clergy. 28 See, for example, Wickham, Medi­eval Rome, Chapters 4, 6, and 7, who refers to twelve ‘super-regiones’, divided into lesser ‘regiones’, such as those at the Colosseum / S. Maria Nova, Pigna, or Colonna.

31

32

i n tro d ucti o n

a tribunal for the city on the Capitoline Hill.29 Prominent families lived in houses and palaces, with adjoining defensive towers, which were part of the Roman landscape. Because of the complexity of the medi­eval city and its ancient past, the location of each Mendicant church and convent is discussed. It is clear that the Dominican and Franciscan communities took the place of much older ecclesiastical establishments, whose history is briefly outlined. In this way, the Mendicant Orders renewed the Church in Rome spiritually and in its architecture. At first, the Dominicans and Franciscans lived on the periphery of the city — the Dominican nuns at S. Sisto in a sparsely inhabited area on the lower slopes of the Caelian Hill near the Via Appia and the friars at S. Sabina on the Aventine Hill, while the Franciscans occupied the edges of Trastevere at S. Francesco a Ripa and S. Cosimato. Later, the Friars Minor moved to S. Maria in Aracoeli on the Capitoline Hill, which had become the centre of civic government after the creation of the Roman Commune, and the Dominicans opened a new house at S. Maria sopra Minerva near the Pantheon in the densely inhabited part of the Tiber bend. At that time, the friars wanted to be closer to the townspeople in order to minister more effectively to the urban population.30 After being itinerant preachers, speaking to people in public squares, the friars from the mid-thirteenth century onwards began to have their own parish churches, which were often new and large. They also began to establish their own centres of study, with extensive libraries — even though Francis of Assisi had not at first encouraged his friars to be highly educated. In the thirteenth century, Rome was the centre of the Church. The Pope resided in a palace at the Lateran, near the cathedral, and, 31

when he was not in Rome, he stayed in one of the smaller towns in the region, such as Viterbo, Rieti, Anagni, or Perugia.31 At the Lateran, there were the offices of the papal Curia.32 People from many different countries came to negotiate high level ecclesiastical business there, while complex legal cases were decided according to Canon Law at the Church’s legal tribun