In questo volume:

Emanuele Gallotta, La chiesa trecentesca di San Nicola a Ceccano: costruzione e linguaggio

Abstract: The study deals with the Church of San Nicola in Ceccano, built in the 14th century by the powerful baronial family ‘de Ceccano’. The church is in a good state of preservation thanks to the restoration works carried out after the Second World War and more recently in 2013-2015 but had never been subject of a detailed investigation. Analysis of the architectural elements and masonry revealed new data on the construction phases of the building, where evidently some pre-existing structures were reused. It was therefore possible to contextualise the architecture of San Nicola in the regional artistic panorama of the first half of the 14th century and especially, to compare it with the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Ferentino regarding the design of the volumes of the church and the presbytery. This study reveals that San Nicola represents the last building in Southern Lazio which was indirectly inspired by the architectural renewal triggered in the early 13th century by the reconstruction of the Cistercian abbeys of Fossanova and Casamari.

Anna Bortolozzi, Francesco da Volterra, Antiquity and a lost Libro dei disegni

Abstract: This essay discusses a Libro dei disegni (Book of drawings) depicting ancient architectural fragments, including column bases and capitals, as well as entablatures and cornices, executed between 1570 and 1575 by the architect Francesco da Volterra. Volterra’s original drawings are lost, but their meticulous copies were added to a manuscript treatise compiled and assembled by Giovanni Maggi around 1614. The content of the Libro suggests that the acquisition of first-hand knowledge of the Antiquities was one of Francesco da Volterra’s tools of professional fulfilment and recognition, as it had been for the previous generations of Renaissance architects. The undertaking of the Libro also brings novel evidence to the argument of an unbroken continuity in the practice of copying after antiquity before and after the advent of the printed illustrated book.

Greta Faraone, La chiesa di San Giovanni a Macerata: considerazioni intorno all’opera di Rosario Rosati

Abstract: This essay explores the history of the Jesuit complex of San Giovanni in Macerata, which stands as the result of a distinct design process in several phases. Due to the lack of visual archive material, the previous scholarship has attempted to reconstruct the history of the building solely through the interpretation of written documentary sources, including the response letters from the friars to the design proposals which are lost. For the same reason, neither the features of the pre-existing complex which belonged to the Knights Hospitaller are known, nor the characteristics of the church and the college during the two 16th-century works by the consiliarii aedificiorum Giovanni Tristano and Giovanni De Rosis. Equally ambiguous is the 17th-century project by the architect Rosato Rosati, who introduced the construction of the current complex, presumably very different from the previous one. Shedding light on this last phase is an unpublished drawing, which not only leaves room for further hypotheses on Rosati’s design proposals, but also allows the very project to be considered in a wider panorama of coeval urban programs.

Antonio Russo, Ibridazioni di un genere: la facciata di chiesa con portico a Roma da Paolo V ad Alessandro VII

Abstract: In the extraordinary variety of churches of Rome, a particular urban role is played by those with a portico preceding the temple. The different varieties of this construction type, generally covered by a roof but open in the facades, are linked to the origins of early basilica architecture. The numerous examples dating back to the first centuries of Christianity which are still visible today in the city, repeatedly display a rather essential structure despite their complexity. It is from the second half of the 16th and throughout the 17th century that new solutions started being adopted in Rome. This new experimentation is a clear result of the intention of the period to revise and reprocess the models inherited from early Christian buildings, both in the remodeling of the pre-existing arcades and in the design of the new ones. This essay analyzes in particular the examples dating to the period between the pontificate of Paul V (1605-1621) to that of Alexander VII (1655-1667). In this time span, we observe a gradual process of combination between different kinds of church façade types such as the ones with aedicule, attic, and intersected orders. In this panorama, the subject of this essay, so the facades with a portico, produced outputs with a strongly hybrid character.

Iacopo Benincampi, “Tutto di fabrica muraria e moderna”. Indagini sull’architettura dei Carmelitani Calzati in Romagna fra Seicento e Settecento

Abstract: Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Romagna’s sacred architecture enjoyed numerous renovations which are generally characterized by a good execution quality. The architects involved were mainly local master builders or – at most – aristocratic amateurs, both presumably educated in Rome or at least inspired by the Roman Baroque experimentations. Consequently, their activity led to an extraordinary equilibrium between tradition and modernity which is rare in other areas of the Papal States. For exploring furtherly this development, the emblematic case of the Carmelite churches is particularly significant. Cesena, Ravenna, Forlì, Medicina, Imola and Lugo were the places where this new type of religious architecture was experimented, producing outstanding results which give us today the opportunity to understand the cultural growth of the region more thoroughly. The counter-Reformist model was not abandoned yet gradually adapted to new necessities of liturgical celebration, completely transforming the final output. Applying rich decorative motifs to their austere single nave churches, the Carmelite friars gave shape to an individual style which was the very image of the local lifestyle.

Francesco Repishti, Una memoria di Pirro Ligorio per papa Pio IV Medici

Abstract: The codex S 219 inf. preserved at the Ambrosiana Library consists of a miscellany of documents belonging to the early years of the papacy of Pope Pius IV Medici (1559-1563). These documents refer to the Council of Trent and the administrative and political aspects of its government, to the numerous constructions initiated following the event, and finally, to the relationships of the Pope with his family members. These were probably possessed by the Cardinal Carlo Borromeo and brought by him to Milan after 1565. They document some of the activities carried out by the Apostolic Chamber, such as the role that Borromeo played himself as the papal legate in Romagna and as governor of Ancona as well as memoirs on buildings linked to the interests of the papal family. This set of documents contributes to the already large amount of information relating to the numerous constructions started during this short papacy, on which the pages of Ludovico von Pastor still offer, after a century, an exhaustive yet concise picture. To them are added two memorie addressed to Pius IV: the first by Antonio Trevisi and the second referred to as “Discorso di Pirro” and “Disordini nati sopra acconciar le cose rovinate di Roma”. The latter refers to the poor maintenance of the streets of Rome, the works of the Acqua Vergine and the well-known story of the restoration of the Ponte Rotto.