Exterior building materials were varied in medieval Rome, but homes were often made of wood. In a world constantly worried about the risk of fires (indeed, once one broke out, there was little to be done), living in a wooden structure required precautionary measures. For those who could afford it, these included moving the kitchen up to the uppermost level, directly below the roof: with this layout, flames that started in the kitchen would only rise up and through the roof, instead of starting on the ground level and rising through the entire home. Of course, this also meant that homeowners were then faced with transporting water for cooking and cleaning up and down all those steps. Oftentimes, stairs would be located outside the building, typically covered with a protective roof and leading up to a balcony or loggia. Floor plans suggest that each level had only one or two rooms. For wealthy families, the walls would be lined with fabrics designed to keep out both frigid winds and summer humidity; middle class residents would paint their walls to suggest they could afford the same temperature regulation; and lower-class Romans lived with bare walls, unable to even keep up appearances.
Frugoni, Chiara, and Arsenio Frugoni. A Day in a Medieval City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Krautheimer, Richard, and Marvin Trachtenberg. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
1300s
Medieval Roman homes often had a storefront at street level, just as this home does today. Back in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, these spaces would have been cramped, spilling out into the street in a search for space. The interior of the shop would have featured hanging space for tools and shelves for storage (or a sleepy apprentice looking for a makeshift bed), while cupboards were uncommon. Due to tight quarters indoors, there was much more of an expulsion of people and things out into the streets than we see today. Picture Romans, desperate for more space and natural light, chatting to neighbors leaning out of upper story windows, or relaxing after a long day of shopping on benches propped up next to houses. In fact, external walls were used quite extensively. As a space-saving measure, homeowners eschewed interior blinds for awnings that projected out into the streets. Laundry would be strung up to dry outside; that practice is still common today in some parts of Italy, though perhaps hanging bird cages and assorted household items on hooks, chains, and poles along facades is less so. This practice demonstrates a blurring of the lines between private homes and the public sphere.
1200s
The Casa Mattei is a great example of what a medieval house would look like for a powerful noble family. While these types of families would hold many properties throughout an entire neighborhood, the norm was that the whole family would live together under one roof. As a result, you get impressive structures such as the Casa Mattei. The house is designed like a family complex, with many different rooms to house the large family. Columns on the wall may point to the presence of a portico, in which business could be conducted, and the outer walls point towards some level of fortification for protection. The complex also consists of a loggia, which would create a space for the women of the household to spend time outdoors, allowing them to enjoy the outdoors and a cool breeze off the river, while still remaining out of sight from everyday men and women on the street. The house is located on the Via Della Lungaretta, one of the most important and densely populated thoroughfares in Trastevere since ancient times. Powerful families, such as the Mattei, lived on the Via Della Lungaretta because of its economic importance, which stems from its location right by Tiber Island and its bridges to Tiber bend, and its religious importance, as it leads to Santa Maria in Trastevere and acted as a major route for religious processions. The Mattei family would have held property all along the area, receiving rents from shopkeepers and other residents in the forms of money, wine, grain, and more. However, the Casa Mattei would have acted as their home and headquarters, an impressive complex fit for a powerful noble family, establishing their dominating presence in Trastevere.
Brentano, Robert. Rome before Avignon : A Social History of Thirteenth-century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. (p. 26, 35.) Robbins, Deborah. “Via Della Lungaretta: The Making of a Medieval Street.” In Streets : Critical Perspectives on Public Space, edited by Çelik, Favro, Ingersoll. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994) p.166.
Azienda Ospedaliera San Giovanni Addolorata
Giovanni Colonna in 1216 raised a charitable establishment, “the hospital buildings,” to the west of the Lateran. At the tail end of the 13th century, the Colonna established the confraternity to “man the church and hospital complex of St. Peter and Marcellinus as part of their bid to take over the Lateran.” Starting in 1330, this confraternity, the Raccomandati, received various ruined houses as a donation, which they later made hospital and becomes today’s St. John Hospital in Lateran. In 1332, municipal administration regained Colosseum, and the confraternity received the license allowing them to run a public hospital in the following year. The complex of the Raccomandati is split into two parts. The buildings in the northern complex were mainly gained from the Annibaldi family, which comprised of a cemetery that is now a formal garden, the women ward and the Annibaldi’s tower house that is now attached to it, and a funerary chapel - a small church with the apse turned toward the street. The buildings in the southern complex were comprised of the new and the old Ward that was perpendicularly positioned, blocking an ancient kilns inside that was reused by the confraternity, and the church of S. Andrea and the Holy Angel - the confraternity’s main infirmary, with its portico along the street and a clear emblem over the arch. The infirmary belongs to the Roman hospital type for an “aisleless, single-story hall articulated by diaphragm arches in the interior and buttresses in the exterior.” Some of the more significant expansions of this confraternity were during the Black Death and the Jubilee. That is not surprising, for the Black Death tested the reliability of the confraternity’s complex and the pilgrims coming for the Jubilee who entered from Porta Maggiore would soon see the complex and the emblem of this confraternity, right behind St. John in Lateran. The emblem depicts a kneeling figurine bearing candles adore the Christ effigy of the Salvatore Achiropita. When one was sick and poor during the Middle Ages, that is precisely the symbol one would be looking for. The Raccomandati was closely related with the Senate, for running the hospital was itself a civic leadership role, a promise of competent administration; self-governing entrepreneurial elites viewed themselves of constructed social and corporate identity. The charitable services enlarged their self-esteem by shaping an image of capable governance. And in 1386, the municipal authority assigned civil and penal jurisdiction over Via Maior (now Via San Giovanni) and officially entrusted the confraternity with the protection and development of this area, which the Raccomandati reshaped around 1395, of the road junctions, and made it an enclosed and easily controllable urban sluice gate.
Keyvanian, Carla. Hospitals and Urbanism in Rome, 1200-1500. Edited by Walter S. Melion. Leiden: Brill, 2015. p.289 - 338
The Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia, or the first monumental hospital built in Rome, was established under Pope Innocent III in the early 13th century CE. The complex got its name from its location at the site of the former Schola Saxonum, which was created under Saxon rule during the 8th century BCE. Santo Spirito was one of three of Innocent’s hospitals that he built during his papacy; Innocent also commissioned the hospitals of Sant’Urbano ai Pantani and San Tommaso in Formis. It is important to remember that Santo Spirito was a complex. Other than the main, one-floor infirmary hall, it also included the Palazzo del Commendatore, a tall building connected to the hospital that housed the people who ran the complex. In addition, the Church of Santo Spirito, which was dedicated to Santa Maria, was also part of the complex. The hospital was run by the Hospitallers confraternity, which was a group that, along with working at the complex, also gave assistance to needy pilgrims, fighters in holy lands, and even helped to protect papal property. In return for their services the Hospitallers received special privileges from the papacy. The hospital hall built by Innocent III no longer exists, today as it was demolished in the late 15th century when Pope Sixtus IV rebuilt the Santo Spirito complex. Sixtus commissioned a larger infirmary hall, called the Sistine Ward, in place of the old one. The Sistine Ward is still visible on the eastern side of the modern-day complex. In addition to the Sistine Ward, Sixtus also built a library, an impressive octagonal tower, and cloisters as part of the new complex. Sixtus’s construction solidified the Borgo area as the official home and seat of power of the papacy. To strengthen papal power, which was waning in 13th century Rome, Innocent III changed several government conventions: along with tying himself closely with multiple confraternities and monastic orders, he also reduced the number of allotted Senate councilors. Innocent’s hospitals served as signs of papal power and even forms of protection for the papacy’s rule. Innocent was able to show off the wealth and influence of the papacy as well as his own piety through his hospital complexes. These large, impressive constructions were meant to reinforce the papacy’s authority and might in Rome.
Keyvanian, Carla. Hospitals and Urbanism in Rome, 1200-1500. Edited by Walter S. Melion. Leiden: Brill, 2015. “Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia.” Wikipedia, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ospedale_di_Santo_Spirito_in_Sassia Picardi, Nicola. “Birth in Rome of the First Hospital in the History of Europe. Further Development of the Roma’s Hospitals.” (Italy: Annali Italiani di Chirurgia, Edizione Digitale, 2010), 329-335. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c097/6b48404fdb4ed1408529cbf524024e03a605.pdf
1400s
The hospital of San Giacomo in Augusta was the third hospital built in Rome during the Middle Ages. According to Cardinal Pietro Colonna’s will, the initial structure of the hospital was erected in 1339 in honor of his uncle Giacomo Colonna, who had noticed that the incurable patients, wounded and in need for a long period of hospitalization, were rejected by the other two hospitals. The complex initially was the Mausoleum of Emperor Augustus, built in 28 BC, which became a stronghold of the Colonna family in the Middle Ages. Giacomo intended to redeem the honor of the house by doing charity for more people in Rome, as well as showing the family power. The location of the hospital is near Tiber river and next to Portages del Popolo, allowing easier access for food and supplie coming by the river and providing convenience for the pilgrims coming from a long distance on foot. In the 16th century, Pope Leo X transformed the hospital for the sick and the incurable of all social classes and all genders, with particular attention to the cure of syphilis, which was rapidly and widely spread during the time. Leo X also established free assistance to the sick. The main source of funding was obtained mainly from the donations of private donors (Pope Leo X among them) and from the revenues of the various assets that were attributed to the hospital itself. Also in the 16th century, under the first ambitious reconstruction of the hospital, the Chiesa di San Giacomo in Augusta was built next to the hospital. Moreover, Chiesa di Santa Maria Portae Paradisi was rebuilt and given its name in 1523 as part of the extension of an adjoining hospital. In 2008, the hospital was closed by regional law of Lazio for very complicated reasons, arousing a large number of protests.
Keyvanian, Carla. Hospitals and Urbanism in Rome, 1200-1500. Leiden: Brill, 2015. Tanner Fliss '16, “Santa Maria Porta Paradisi,” Carleton Guide to Medieval Rome from Reason, accessed May 31, 2019, http://omeka-dev.carleton.edu/cgmr/items/show/245. "Ospedale Di San Giacomo Degli Incurabili." Wikiwand. Accessed May 31, 2019. https://www.wikiwand.com/it/Ospedale_di_San_Giacomo_degli_Incurabili#/La_medaglia_pontificia.
1500s
Santa Maria in Aracoeli, or “Saint Mary in the Altar of the Sky,” is an incredibly important church that remains a major cultural, civic, and religious monument to this day. Situated on the Campidoglio, the governmental center of 13th and 14th century Rome during the late middle ages, the church served as the center of the city’s civic religion, with its notable owners, the Franciscans, having increased power. Its founding is traditionally attributed to Saint Helena, the emperor Constantine's mother. Her relics can be found at the church today, another piece of evidence for the site’s imperial and religious significance. The story goes that the site was considered especially important because it was where Emperor Augustus first saw his vision of the Virgin Mary in her “Altar of the Sky.” By the 9th century, we know that the church was occupied by Benedictine monks; in 1248, Pope Innocent IV dismissed the Benedictines from the property and replaced them with the Franciscans, moving them from their unhealthy and far-off quarters in Trastevere to the heart of the city. The present structure of the church was built in the years following this relocation, as Franciscans had a lot of funding coming in from their ventures abroad. One important part of the site to check out is the steps, made from spoliated marble and dedicated to the icon of the Virgin Mary, which rests at the altar. Built in the middle of the 14th century under the rule of Cola di Rienzo, the icon was believed to have protected the city from a plague. This icon was so important that Cola di Rienzo was said to have submitted himself to it at his coronation at the Campidoglio. It’s important to note that the possession of this icon put the Franciscans in a very powerful position in the religious landscape of medieval Rome. Also be sure to check out the facade, which is simple, in the Franciscan style. Be sure to check out the two remaining rose windows as well. To the left of the altar, one can see where the relics of Saint Helena are housed. Beneath is the altar of the original Benedictine church, which is still visible through a panel of glass. Right nearby is the tomb of Cardinal Matteo d’Acquasparta, a very well preserved piece of late medieval tomb work. To the right of the altar is the old Savelli family chapel, called the chapel of St Francis. There you can see the tomb of Luca Savelli, the oldest known layman's tomb in Rome.
Jonathan Coyne (2020) Edited by Julia Tassava (2026)
Bolgia, Claudia. "The Felici Icon Tabernacle (1372) at S. Maria in Aracoeli, Reconstructed : Lay Patronage, Sculpture and Marian Devotion in Trecento Rome." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 68 (2005): 27-72. Bolgia, Claudia. "The So-Called Tribunal of Arnolfo Di Cambio at S. Maria in Aracoeli, Rome." The Burlington Magazine 143, no. 1185 (2001): 753-55. Noreen, Kirstin. "The High Altar of Santa Maria in Aracoeli : Recontextualizing a Medieval Icon in Post-tridentine Rome." Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 53 (2008): 99-128 Russo, Laura. Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Rome: Fundo di Edifici in Culto. Ministero dell’Interno, 2007 Gardner, Julian. The Tomb and the Tiara : Curial Tomb Sculpture in Rome and Avignon in the Later Middle Ages. Clarendon Studies in the History of Art. Oxford : New York: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1992.
San Silvestro in Capite is a church with a rich legacy in Rome before it became the home of the Franciscans and the object of Colonna patronage. A Dominican convent in the 13th century, it served as the base for rent collection for the church’s multitude of property holdings both inside and outside of Rome. In 1285 when Pope Honorius IV disbanded the monastery and dispersed the Dominican brothers within, Cardinal Giancomo Colonna seized the opportunity to put his own mark on the space. Fresh from a conflict with the former Pope Boniface VIII when he was forced to leave Rome and relinquish some of his land, Giancomo began grand projects to rebuild the Colonna family prestige. These included the mosaic program in Santa Maria Maggiore, fire repairs to the Lateran complex, and taking charge of small, run down Benedictine monasteries, such as San Silvestro and the nearby San Lorenzo in Panisperna. He rededicated these old monasteries to the Poor Clares. The Clares entered the urban church from their monastery outside the city and began practicing business in addition to their usual spiritual pursuits. They collected the rent from the church’s land and overall became more involved in the business aspect of owning these vast holdings. Also notable is the immense amount of Colonna patronage that the church began to receive in exchange for accepting Colonna men into the convent and burial and remembrance practice for notable members of the family. Over time San Silvestro became a family church, a site where wealth and lands could be religiously and respectfully displayed, while still acting as a beacon of family power in the urban landscape. While most of the medieval art has been covered up or moved, original columns and inscriptions can be found in the courtyard behind the façade. The altar from the church is said to have been moved to either Santi Nereo e Achilleo or San Cesareo in Palatio, both of which are by the Baths of Caracalla. Additionally, if you stand further back in the piazza out front, you can see the top of the old medieval roof and the campanile, or bell tower, which still stands today.
Spencer Lekki (2021) Edited by Julia Tassava (2026)
Brentano, Robert. Rome before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Graham, Emily E. “Memorializing Identity: The Foundation and Reform of San Lorenzo in Panisperna.” Franciscan Studies 75 (2017): 467-495. https://muse.jhu.edu/
According to legend, San Lorenzo in Panisperna is located on the spot where the martyr St. Lawrence of Rome was grilled to death. It then became a moderately successful pilgrimage church due to the presence of his relics. Much of the medieval art and architecture of the church has been covered up by later renovations, but the medieval houses that surround the church are still visible. In the late 13th century, Cardinal Giacamo Colonna renovated the monastery and ceded it to the Poor Clares. Some scholars argue that San Lorenzo was intended to be a family church like San Silvestro in Capite, a location where Colonna family wealth could be displayed while looking pious rather than greedy. Others argue, however, that this interpretation minimizes some of the unique circumstances of the convent’s founding Giancomo handpicked all of the nuns for the convent and gave them a degree of freedom from the papacy with carefully timed gifts of land. That, coupled with Giancomo’s links to so-called “deviant” Franciscan groups who were slightly outside the religious norm, indicates that rather than a family church, San Lorenzo in Panisperna may have been a sort of haven for female Franciscans who may have experienced conflict with religious authority. His sister, the Colonna Saint Margherita who had died several years prior, is an example of one of these women. One of the convent’s most notable residents, Saint Bridget of Sweden, had much in common with Margherita and came to Rome after she experienced a divine vision instructing her to do so. Further strengthening this interpretation is the conflict that Giancomo experienced with Pope Boniface the VIII, indicating a potential wariness towards the papacy and a desire to create spaces outside of its direct control. The church retained significance within the urban space due to its proximity to Santa Maria Maggiore and the city center. In fact, during the sack of Rome in 1527, the Clares at San Cosimato in Trastevere crossed the Tiber to take shelter in the more centrally located church.
Graham, Emily E. “Memorializing Identity: The Foundation and Reform of San Lorenzo in Panisperna.” Franciscan Studies 75 (2017): 467-495. https://muse.jhu.edu/ Hart, Vaughan and Peter Hicks. Palladio’s Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. |Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000. Lowe, Kate. "Franciscan and Papal Patronage at the Clarissan Convent of San Cosimato in Trastevere, 1440–1560." Papers of the British School at Rome 68 (2000): 217-39. Majanlahti, Anthony. The Families Who Made Rome. New York: Pimlico, 2006.
Franciscans in Rome: San Biagio and San Francesco a Ripa
San Francesco a Ripa, consecrated in 1601, succeeded San Biagio, which although no longer visible, is important to early Franciscan history in Rome. Founded in the 10th century by the Benedictines, Biagio functioned as a hospital and hospice for the poor and for pilgrims. In the early 13th century, Francis stayed at San Biagio while in Rome to seek approval for the Franciscan order by the pope. This cemented the church complex as an important location for Franciscans, and the cell in which Francis stayed has been preserved in the modern church. In 1229, Pope Gregory IX ordered the Benedictine monks to give San Biagio to the Franciscans. By the mid-medieval period, Trastevere experienced generally increasing population sizes, and because of its location near the Tiber River port, Biagio/a Ripa became a popular place for the nobility to seek burial. This connection to a variety of noble families helped bring additional prestige to the church and further cemented it as a hub of Franciscan activity in Rome. It became the first Franciscan monastery in Rome, and San Francesco remains a Franciscan church today, though much of its medieval roots are no longer visible due to rebuilding projects.
Brentano, Robert. Rome before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Robbins, Deborah King. "A Case Study of Medieval Urban Process: Rome's Trastevere (1250-1450)." Order No. 9006487, University of California, Berkeley, 1989. http://ezproxy.carleton.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.carleton.edu/docview/303675283?accountid=9892. Udina, Cristina. "Dallo xenodocio benedittino al convento francescano,” pp. 21-88 in La fabbrica del convento. Memorie storiche, trasformazioni erecupero del complesso di San Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere, ed. P. Degni and P. L. Porzio (Rome: Donzelli, 2011). Trans. Victoria Morse, 2, June 2019. Nguyen, Shaylin. “San Biagio to San Francesco a Ripa: Benedictine Rule to Franciscan Control,” Carleton Guide to Medieval Rome from Reason, accessed June 3, 2019, http://omeka-dev.carleton.edu/cgmr/items/show/244.
1600s
Near the Piazza S. Cosimato, a medieval portico juts out from the sides of a nondescript building. The portico leads to the outdoor atrium of the church of San Cosimato, a part of the former Monastery of San Cosimato. It began as a Benedictine house for men in the 10th century. In 1234, it came into the possession of the Franciscans when Pope Gregory IV ordered the Benedictine monks to hand the complex over to the Clares, an order of Franciscan nuns. San Cosimato became the first of three female Franciscan convents in Rome, and remained an integral part of the growing network of Franciscans in and around Rome for centuries. The existing sources about the convent’s history come from chronicles and records written and kept by the nuns; the most complete chronicle was written by Suor Orsola Formici in the sixteenth century. It is necessary to note that while women carved both religious and intellectual spaces for themselves at Cosimato, male Franciscans still held the power to make decisions on behalf of the women- female subservience was expected. Cosimato experienced a busy 15th and 16th century. In 1451, a shuffling around of convents of the Clares took place, and Cosimato was re-staffed with nuns from central Italy. In 1439, and again in 1456, papal bulls brought Clarison convents under the auspices of the papacy, which resulted in the Pope and the Franciscan order sharing authority over the Clares. This led to a closer relationship between the convent, and Franciscans as a whole, with the papacy, and demonstrated the growing popularity and power of the Franciscan movement. A peak of this close relationship with the papacy occurred in 1471, with the patronage of the first Franciscan pope, Pope Sixtus IV. Pope Sixtus invested heavily in San Cosimato, supposedly funding a second cloister and a campanile and financing repairs around 1475. Sixtus’s building projects and the original medieval façade can still be seen today, in the hospice care unit of Nuova Regina Margharita hospital. As a result of the Sixtus’s patronage and the continued popularity of Franciscanism, San Cosimato experienced a population increase from 12 in 1451 to 70 in 1521. Considered models of good behavior, the nuns of Cosimato were often sent to other convents to reform them. Notably, San Cosimato was broken into and robbed during the 1527 sack of Rome. Though the nuns sought refuge at San Silvestro in Capite, invaluable records were destroyed during the robbery, significantly affecting the number of primary sources now available on the convent’s history. We can still learn about the church’s medieval history through what is visible today, like the portico. The church façade is from the twelfth century, and can be identified as medieval by its incorporation of multiple arches and the use of long and thin bricks. The columns that support the arch are spoils from Roman antiquity, which was common in medieval structures. Since the 900s the complex has been continuously used and built upon (and around). The former monastery was converted in the 19th century to the Hospital Nuova Regina Margherita.
Rebecca Margolis (2021), Shaylin Nguyen (2016) Edited by Julia Tassava (2026)
Brentano, Robert. Rome before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. Lowe, Kate. "Franciscan and Papal Patronage at the Clarissan Convent of San Cosimato in Trastevere, 1440–1560." Papers of the British School at Rome 68 (2000): 217-39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40311030.
900s
The park to the southwest of Santa Sabina offers a great view of the large, active Dominican convent. Disguised in a modern facade, the medieval section of the convent still stands towards the Tiber paired with a more modern extension towards the street. Every Dominican convent doubled as a school for training mendicant preachers and Santa Sabina’s school is particularly significant in this tradition. It was here in 1265 that Thomas Aquinas established a new school for the entire province specializing in the study of theology, the first of its kind in the Dominican system. In time this program would come to be known as a studium provincale, a part of Dominican education which served as an intermediate step between the basic curriculum offered to the friars by their convent lector and the advanced curriculum offered at universities. Thomas Aquinas’ program ran for two years, during which time he wrote the Summa Theologiae, a controversial synthesis of theology and philosophy which eventually revolutionized the way Dominicans taught the subject. Santa Sabina remained the center of Dominican theology in Rome until later in the 13th century, when it was replaced by the more centrally located Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.
Mulchahey, Marian Michèle, Michele Mulchahey, and Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. "First the Bow Is Bent in Study-- ": Dominican Education Before 1350. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1998.
The basilica of Santa Sabina dates from the fifth century, making it one of the oldest basilicas in Rome. Pope Honorius III donated the basilica to the Dominicans in 1220 in response to the newly recognized order’s need for a center of operations in Rome. Analysis of the architectural makeup of the buildings and written sources shows that the initial donation consisted only of the basilica, one dorm off the narthex, a second wing off the apse, and a baptistry original to the fifth century which is now lost. Soon afterward Honorius III donated Santa Sabina a permanent wall called a tramezzo was erected, splitting the basilica in half perpendicular to the nave. The priests and congregation used the half towards the apse while the friars used the half nearer the narthex for additional study and worship space. This physical seperation demonstrates that, though parish preaching would later become a part of their work, the friars were originally there only to study and prepare for itinerant preaching. Santa Sabina’s is the earliest known Dominican tramezzo and the practice soon spread throughout Dominican spaces in Europe. By the late 13th century the Dominicans’ complex at Santa Sabina had grown into a full cloister which can still be seen in a remodeled form at the western end of the park to the southwest of the basilica. The clergy’s side of the complex also expanded when, in 1285, the Savelli Pope Honorius IV built a family palace adjoining Santa Sabina. He lived there throughout his papacy and the public park to the northeast of the basilica still contains the original walls of his estate. Though the palace was eventually given to the friars and fell into disrepair, the Dominicans’ complex continued to grow into the active center you see today.
Lloyd, Joan Barclay. “Medieval Dominican Architecture at Santa Sabina in Rome, c. 1219–c. 1320.” Papers of the British School at Rome 72 (2004): 231–92.
The abbey of San Sisto was created by Innocent III and finished by Honorius III to consolidate the smaller communities of uncloistered “holy women” that were flourishing in Rome during the 13th century. After Dominic came to Rome in 1216, he lobbied the pope to give him control of the new covent, as he shared the popes’ the “problem” of mendicant women, many of whom may have been influenced by the Cathars and their institution of perfectae, a role that allowed women to be religiously active. To counter this phenomenon in Rome, Dominic used the force of his personality to convince the nuns of Rome, starting with the community of Santa Maria Templa, to join San Sisto. Once they did, he made sure that they could not leave, taking the keys to the abbey with him and eventually giving it to the 16 Dominican friars assigned to oversee the abbey. He also brought nuns from Southern France to the abbey to implement a rule similar to the cistercians. After Dominic’s death, the convent survived its fairly constant financial problems by playing a part in Rome’s politics of family patronage. Many noble families would send gifts of either art or nuns. In 1331, the abbey included nuns from the Colonna, Pierleoni, De Giudice, and Anibaldi families. The Boccamazzo family, a line stemming from the Saveli, also played a major role in financing and growing the convent and supplying nuns.
B. Bolton, 'Daughters of Rome: all one in Christ Jesus!', in W.J. Sheils and D. Wood (eds), Women in the Church (London, 1990), 101-15. Brentano, Robert. Rome before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-Century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.00818.0001.001. Dunlop, Anne. “The Dominicans and Cloistered Women: The Convent of Sant’Aurea in Rome.” Early Modern Women 2 (2007): 43–71. Lloyd, Joan Barclay. The architectural planning of Pope Innocent III's nunnery of S.Sisto in Rome in Innocenzo III : Urbs et Orbis : atti del Congresso internazionale, Roma 91-15 settembre 1998 (2003). 2.292-1311. McNamara, Jo Ann. Sisters in Arms: Catholic Nuns through Two Millennia. Harvard University Press, n.d.
The frescoes in the San Sisto nun’s choir are divided into two parts. The first, painted in the style of Cavalini between 1295 and 1314, consist of scenes from the life of Mary, including the Presentation of the Virgin, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, the Adoration of the Magi, and a Pentecost scene. The Pentecost scene also includes the Prophet Joel, Saint Peter Martyr, Saint Dominic, Saint Paul, and John the Baptist. All of these figures were held up as ideal preachers for the Dominicans to emulate. While the nuns could not preach themselves, they were expected to support the friars through their prayers. This is evident in the prevalence of Mary in this fresco program, a figure that nuns were expected to emulate. The second part of the program, painted by a Sienese artist between 1380-1411, covers the life of Saint Catherine of Siena. A venerated figure in the Dominican order, Catherine is depicted clothing a poor man while receiving a red robe from Christ. While Catherine is depicted as a holy woman, she is not depicted as a traditional nun, such as the figure in the patron’s position in the fresco. This differentiation was important for the Dominican order to further circumscribe and distinguish the boundaries of monastic life for nuns, countering the potential threat Catherine’s life might pose. The inclusion of Saint Eustace in this program most likely tells us that the Sant’Eustachio family, of the rione of the same name, commissioned this cycle and most likely had a patron relationship with the abbey.
Lloyd, Joan Barclay. “Paintings for Dominican Nuns: A New Look at the Images of Saints, Scenes from the New Testament and Apocrypha, and Episdoes from the Life of Saint Catherine of Siena in the Medieval Apse of San Sisto Vecchio in Rome.” Papers of the British School at Rome 80 (2012): 189–232.
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva was the second Dominican Basilica in Rome. In the late 13th century, the site was ceded to the Dominicans by the nuns of Santa Maria. The transfer was ratified in 1279 by Aldobrandino Cavalcanti, a Dominican and Vicar to Gregory X, and construction on the current site began in 1280. Calvalcanti's relationship to Gregory X highlights the importance of Papal connections for the advancement of the order. These connections is what brought the well-positioned Basilica into Dominican hands. Its proximity to the center of Rome, north of Tiber bend, allowed easier access to the urban population. It would eventually become the preeminent Dominican church of Rome, demonstrating the importance of space for the success of these churches and their orders. Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is a rare example of Gothic architecture from medieval Rome, replicating Santa Maria Novella in Florence. It’s pointed arches, quatrefoil compound piers, small stained-glass windows, and vaulted aisles/nave are all elements of Gothic design, which was typically very unpopular in medieval Rome due to its more traditional aesthetic leanings. The original Dominican Gothic structure had a nave six bays long, a transept, a polygonal apse, two side chapels, and two aisles. In the 14th century, six other side chapels were added to the building. Like most Dominican churches, it was split into an Eastern friar’s church and a Western laymen church, but Santa Maria had no clear dividing line and allowed visitations to the Eastern side chapels, displaying a less rigid spatial structure than Santa Sabina and perhaps a more ministerial purpose. Large parts of the original church were transformed in the Renaissance, Baroque, and premodern periods, including the facade, which was a 16th century Renaissance construction. Much of the churches design received modifications in the 19th century when Girolamo Bianchedi redesigned the church into a Neo-Gothic look, pointing more arches and windows, adding ribbed vaultings, and replacing the 16th century windows with rose designs. Near the main altar is a 19th century marble effigy of St. Catherine, a Dominican Saint who died in Rome in 1380, marking her current burial place. She was originally housed in the chapel of Saint Dominic, to the left of the transept. After her canonization in 1461 by Pope Pius II, she was moved in 1466 by Cardinal Angelo Capranica to the Capranica chapel, elevating the importance of the family space. In 1449 the chapel was originally given to Cardinal Domenico Capranica, who had a relationship with Pius, to house the family tombs and was later inherited by his family. The wall frescoes were commissioned by the Capranica family in the 16th century as part of an agreement with the Dominican Pope Pius V for allowing the chapel’s name to change to Rosary. They depict scenes from the life of Saint Catherine. Other decorations show the Rosary, the Capranica family, and the Madonna. These range from the 16th to 18th century.
Bagliani, Agostino. "CAVALCANTI, Aldobrandino in "Dizionario Biografico"." In Dizionario Biografico. Accessed June 02, 2019. Krautheimer, Richard, and Marvin Trachtenberg. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton University Press, 2006,211-212. Lloyd, Joan Barclay. "SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA'S TOMB AND ITS PLACE IN SANTA MARIA SOPRA MINERVA, ROME: NARRATION, TRANSLATION AND VENERATION." Papers of the British School at Rome 83 (2015):113. TOSINI, PATRIZIA. "New Documents for the Chronology and Patronage of the Cappella Del Rosario in S. Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome." The Burlington Magazine 152, no. 1289 (2010): 517-22. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.carleton.edu/stable/25769709. White, John. Art and Architecture in Italy: 1250 to 1400. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1990, 7-8.
Introduction to Dominicans in Medieval Rome
On this tour we will examine how the Dominican entry into Rome began to change the religious landscape of the city and how the Order established their newfound significance by developing theological curriculum at Santa Sabina, creating new mendicant convents in San Sisto, and introducing architectural styles from outside Rome in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, these being the three churches we will visit on this tour. One of the many changes happening in early thirteenth century Rome was the rise of mendicant religious orders. Mendicant orders were religious groups who steered away from the traditional monastic life of strict seclusion and meditation, and instead dedicated themselves to a hybrid lifestyle of traveling into cities and preaching while still retaining spiritual aspects and committing themselves to a life of poverty and urban engagement. The two most famous of these are Franciscans and our focus for the tour, Dominicans, who had a complicated relationship given their cohabitation and differing approaches. Founded in 1215 by Dominic de Guzman and granted approval by Pope Honorius III in 1216, the Dominican Order rapidly grew in importance. By 1222 the papacy had given them control of Santa Sabina and San Sisto Vecchio, and by the late 13th century they would gain control of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva giving them great influence on Rome’s religious landscape. It is important to understand how significant orders like the Dominicans interacted with the people of Rome; they went directly into piazzas, streets, and poor neighborhoods to spread their message and provide aid, marking a large shift of attention from the countryside to the city. The Dominicans presented themselves as an immediate resource for religion that spoke straight to the people, and this, coupled with their tradition of theological education that allowed them to be well equipped to preach, strengthened the presence of Christianity in the urban population. This makes their appearance in thirteenth century Rome undeniably significant and an integral component of understanding medieval Rome.
Bruzelius, Caroline. Preaching, Building, and Burying: Friars and the Medieval City. Yale University Press. New Haven. 2014. Stephany, Christie Fengler. “The Meeting of Saints Francis and Dominic.” Franciscans Studies. 47, 1987, pp. 218-233 Lloyd, Joan Barclay. “Medieval Dominican Architecture at Santa Sabina in Rome, c. 1219-c.1320.” Papers of the British School at Rome. 72, 2004, pp. 231-292
Urban Processes in the 15th Century: The Streets of Trastevere & the Banks of the Tiber
Medieval Rome’s systems of urban governance mirrored those of other medieval Italian cities but were somewhat less centralized. In the 14th century, when the papacy left Rome for Avignon, the municipal government had to grow in order to fulfill responsibilities regarding the maintenance of public space. But by the latter half of the 15th century, as popes sought to rebuild and reinforce ties between the papacy and Rome, Pope Sixtus IV completed a reorganization of the offices of Maestri di Strada (Masters of the Streets) and Magistri Aedificorum (Masters of Buildings), placing them under the authority of the pope and chamberlain and giving them new mandates focused on ensuring the safety, convenience and health of public spaces with the explicit goal of aiding the flow of visitors and commerce. In many cases, however, street design and maintenance were the province of private and semi-private parties, namely wealthy families, leaseholders, and the church. These parties considered it their responsibility to ensure the public function of private property, effectively self-regulating and thus influencing the physical city in a way that aligned with the principles contained in the statutes of the Magistri. Deborah Robbins points to a 1455 document that addresses a property on the Tiber next to the Ponte Rotto leased by the canons of Santa Maria in Trastevere to Cipriano Magnonibus of Florence who was living in Trastevere. A Trasteverine (possibly an earlier lessee) had begun building on the property on either side of a road, which Cipriano could continue under certain conditions enumerated in the lease agreement: he had to maintain public right of way through the property and keep the road clear or straight (Robbins notes that the Latin is unclear as to the specific nature of the requirement). The road on the property Cipriano was leasing led to both the Ponte Santa Maria (Ponte Rotto) and a public street that led to houses owned by the hospital of SS. Quaranta Martiri, two sites that pilgrims could have wanted to access. The road also ran all the way to the Tiber and was thus a potential aqueduct site if Cipriano kept it clear. The inclusion of these public space-conscious regulations in a private lease agreement demonstrates the attitude Robbins describes, whereby private parties saw their properties in a larger context and acted accordingly to preserve the public function of their private property in keeping with the values passed from the 15th-century popes to their urban professionals.
Blondin, Jill E. "Power Made Visible: Pope Sixtus IV as Urbis Restaurator in Quattrocento Rome," in The Catholic Historical Review Vol. 90., No. 1 (Jan., 2005): 1-25. Robbins, Deborah King. "A case study of medieval urban process: Rome's Trastevere (1250-1450)." Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1989. Robbins, Deborah King. "Via della Lungaretta, The Making of a Medieval Street." In Streets: Critical Perspectives on Public Space. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994, 164-77.
This bridge was built as Pons Aemelius in 179 B.C. As early as the 6th century, during the papacy of Gregory the Great, it formed a vital connection between the two most populated areas of Rome: Trastevere and the area between the east bank and the foot of the Capitoline. Central in the Early Medieval city, it began colloquially to be called the Pons Maior. In 1231, a flood collapsed the bridge, and as with many floods, the fallout was attributed to divine wrath, in this case a punishment for expelling Gregory the IX. After this collapse, the bridge—now called Ponte Santa Maria after its proximity to Santa Maria in Cosmedin—joined its brethren along the Tiber in an ongoing cycle of repair. By nature, bridges impede water flow, and the current of the river wears away at piers, so taxes were constantly being levied to repair one bridge or another. In 1557, the bridge fell to a flood again, and this time the flood also took out the Ponte Sisto, built in 1475, and the Ponte Fabricius up the river. As the climate changed, floods grew more common in the 16th century, stalling repairs—it took at least a decade to repair the Ponte Sisto after the flood in 1557 and 16 years to repair this bridge, putting serious stress on the bridges to Tiber Island which bore the brunt of the mercantile traffic during that time. The delays in repair stemmed partly from arguments about how to rebuild the two fallen arches, and the end result of the repair was insufficiently stable to save it from the flood in 1598 that swept away half the bridge. The broken bridge, now called the Ponte Rotto, remained a fixture of the Roman city, its three remaining arches used as a fishing pier. A painting by de Heusch from the 17th century shows the lingering bridge and the river life around it. In the 19th century, two arches were demolished during the building of the embankments and the enlargement of the river bed, and the one arch in the modern photo is all that remains today.
Bard Swallow (2018) Edited by Tim Abbott (2026)
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Hong Kong: Princeton University Press. Rinne, Katherine Wentworth. The Waters of Rome: Aqueducts, Fountains, and the Birth of the Baroque City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.
The Fountain of Ponte Sisto is currently located at Piazza Trilussa, on the west side of Ponte Sisto. According to its niche inscription, this fountain was moved to its current location for the purpose of widening the river’s opposite bank in 1898. The original location of the fountain was at the head of Via Giulia and on the east side of Ponte Sisto. The historical etching shows that this fountain was incorporated into a building facing the direction of the Vatican and was connected with the Ponte Sisto. This fountain is fed with water from Acqua Paola, an early 17th century aqueduct restored by Pope Paul V to provide water to Vatican and Trastevere areas. Since the 16th century, popes have restored three ancient aqueducts and built new public fountains in order to restore Roman authority and Catholic Church’s prestige. The Fountain of Ponte Sisto supplied water to the area on the east side of Ponte Sisto where the other two aqueducts could not reach. Rinne identifies two types of public fountains from the 16th and 17th century: highly ornamental civic fountains and less ornate semi-public fountains. On the one hand, the main purpose of civic fountains was to glorify the city, impress visitors, and demonstrate the papacy’s opulence. There were restrictions against using the civic fountain for utility purposes, such as drinking and laundry. Soon, a type of drinking fountain as a supplement to civic fountain, beveratore, appeared as free standing fountains and drew water from the runoff water of the nearest civic fountain in the same piazza. On the other hand,semi-public fountains were initiated in the 1570s where wealthy individuals were given a quantity of water for free in exchange for constructing a public drinking fountain. Semi-public fountains were usually small and scattered around the city. Rinne does not specify the fountain type of Ponte Sisto. It is likely a civic fountain that pays homage to its builder, Pope Paul V. The Fountain of Ponte Sisto probably acted as a mini-distribution center for secondary fountains and for powerful individuals. Individuals might have built a private conduit or pipeline to lead the water to their houses. In 1621, Cardinal Odoardo Farnese was granted 40 oncie of Acqua Paola run-off water by Pope Gregory XV from this fountain for use in the Palazzo Farnese. There was also a modest donation of one oncia of water from this fountain to the nearby hospital of San Sisto delle Mendicanti in 1616.
Yingying Wang (2019) Edited by Tim Abbott (2026)
Rinne, Katherine Wentworth. "Hydraulic Infrastructure and Urbanism in Early Modern Rome." Papers of the British School at Rome 73 (2005): 191-222.
While no longer visible to the modern visitor, from the 6th to 19th centuries, mills constituted an essential facet of the trading operations on the Tiber. The majority of mills were concentrated where the current was the strongest. Katherine Rinne identifies this as the region from Hospital Santo Spirito to Ponte Santa Maria (today, Ponte Rotto), but mostly at Tiber Island. In the 16th century, most of the mills on the Tiber would have been floating, meaning that the mills were connected to the bank by a walkway which would lead to a small storehouse. At the furthest point of this structure, the wheel was suspended in the water on pontoons. One should not underestimate the mobility that the floating nature of mills afforded the stakeholders. For instance, Cesare Cenci relocated his mill from Ponte Sisto to the area of the Church of Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio after the property changed hands under Sixtus V. Various religious organizations and the Camera Apostolica owned most of the mills, but noble families such as the Cenci and Frangipane also owned mills. The monastery of SS. Cosma e Damiano sold and leased the anchoring sites for floating mills on Tiber Island and the Trastevere bank. Owners commonly rented out their mills to individual millers who were responsible for the work. Interestingly, the church also leased sites to nobles. The 1455 leasing of a site near Ponte Rotto by the canons S. Maria in Trastevere to Cipriano de Magnonibus included the right to build up to three mills on the property. The document included a royalties provision on these mills. It stipulated seven “rubla” of flour annually after the construction of the first mill, and more for each additional mill constructed. This inclusion shows that the canons had correctly identified this site as a prime area for milling. It additionally suggests that the construction of mills in the area was expected and even anticipated for in the contract. Actually seeing these mills is probably the most difficult endeavor that a visitor might undertake while visiting the Tiber. While much of the urban landscape has changed, the natural landscape has been conserved. One can still see the quickening of the river’s current near Tiber Island, and hopefully imagine a wheel puttering through its silty waves. A 1495 drawing from the Codex Escurialensis gives a downstream view of the mills near the Ponte Quattro Capi or the Ponte Fabricio, a bridge still standing today.
Alex Wachino (2018) Edited by Tim Abbott (2026)
Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. Munro, John H. “Industrial Energy from Water-Mills in the European Economy, 5th to 18th Centuries: the Limitations of Power.” In Economia E Energia Secc. XIII-XVIII, edited by Simonetta Cavaciocchi, 223-269. Firenze: Le Monnier, 2002. Rinne, Katherine Wentworth. The Waters of Rome: Aqueducts, Fountains, and the Birth of the Baroque City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010. Robbins, Deborah King. "A case study of medieval urban process: Rome's Trastevere (1250-1450)." Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1989. Image citation: Tempesta Map, 1593, courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain.
Although nothing remains of the original Palazzo Cesi and its surrounding gardens next to St. Peter’s Square, standing in the place where it would have been still gives us insight into the site’s setting in relation to the Vatican and the other cityscape around the palace. The site lies behind the Southern colonnade of the current St. Peter’s basilica on the grounds of the current International College of Saint Monica, the Curia Generalizia and Seminary of the Augustinian Order. The Palazzo was built in the early 16th century to reflect the new power of the Cesi family after the appointment of Cardinal Federico Cesi. The Palazzo was surrounded by an extensive garden built as a pleasure garden and a place for the family to show off their extensive collection of ancient sculptures and inscriptions. The gardens were a source of great pride for Cardinal Federico who put extensive effort into their creation and maintenance. Guidebooks and letters of the time frequently mentioned the gardens as being an impressive site that was worth visiting in Rome, saying that the garden had: “lush vegetation, fountains, precious antiquities, inventive display settings, and [a] convenient location, just steps away from St. Peter’s and the Apostolic Palace.” (Bentz, 141) The garden brought respectability to the Cardinal and his family and gave him a reputation as a responsible man of the community. Even when statues were removed from the garden they still were connected to the family and brought them fame. Cardinal Federico put in place a fedecommeso, to ensure that the space of the garden would not be disassembled or changed after his death. The fedecommeso was a document that created a set of rules of how the property could be handled or inherited after Federico’s death. Unfortunately for his vision of the space, the convenient and impressive place next to the Vatican ended up being the eventual downfall of the property. In the mid 17th century when the papacy decided to redesign the space of St. Peter’s square they paid the Cesi family for the land and used part of the space that the Palazzo occupied to build the curving colonnades. By 1665 the project was finished, but the new design of the palace, and the relegation behind the colonnade structure made the Palazzo inappropriate for the main household of the Cesi family. The year the project was finished was also the first year the land of the garden started to be rented out to others and used for mainly agricultural purposes.
Bentz, Katherine M. "The Afterlife of the Cesi Garden: Family Identity, Politics, and Memory in Early Modern Rome." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 72, no. 2 (2013): 134-65.
Although outside of the city of Rome, Castello dello Cecchignola and Casale della Cervelletta are great examples of fortified areas owned by nobles. These fortified areas would often have controlled large areas of agricultural lands surrounding them. During the middle ages, starting in the 10th-12th centuries, the process of incastellamento became common in agricultural areas. Under this system peasants moved, often under duress, out of their farmhouses to live in or around fortified areas controlled by nobles, and then worked agriculturally in lands also owned by the noble. Families would sometimes rent and work the same land for multiple generations, but sometimes have a short-term lease where land would move from family to family. This system also created the side effect of many peasants becoming commuter farmers, because not all land surrounding fortified areas was arable. While we often think of sustainability as connected to current climate change and environmental concerns, the idea of sustainability would have been important for agricultural management in Medieval Rome as well. Working in a limited space for a long time would deplete the nutrients of the ground without thoughtful use of the land and would result in other negative consequences. Because of a tripling of the population from 800-1300 there was a corresponding rapid growth in cereal farming to feed the population. Records of food shortages across the area of Italy during the 14th century, along with records of major erosion in the 13th-14th century, and reaching Rome in the 15th century, suggest that in these rapid expansions, sustainability was not considered enough. With less land to expand into, soil was farmed continuously and stripped away and depleted of its nutrients. During this era, in the 1330s, reports of major deforestation suggest that this lack of sustainable practices extended to forests as well.
Hoffmann, Richard C. "Medieval Use, Management, and Sustainability of Local Ecosystems, 1: Primary Biological Production Sectors." In An Environmental History of Medieval Rome, 155-95. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Hughes, J. Donald. "The Mediterranean in the Middle Ages." In The Mediterranean an Environmental History, 59-86. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005.
Not Applicable
The via Papalis or via Sacra is a set of streets throughout Rome that connect the Lateran Complex all the way to St. Peter's square, passing through the Castel Sant’Angelo, the Capitoline Hill, and a series of prominent marketplaces along the way. It was the traditional route for the pope to follow upon his election, and as such, many pilgrims followed the route every year. The buildings and streets of the route required significant upkeep, and many of the laborers who did this were immigrants themselves. This was especially true in the early fifteenth century, and may have been because of foreigners following the popes back across the Alps. Immigrant labor was used heavily in projects restoring the Lateran Cathedral and St. Peter’s Basilica. Later in the 15th century the popes ordered the Castel Sant’Angelo be reconstructed, and for the via Sacra to be widened in the stretch between the castle and St. Peter’s Square. Interestingly, these later projects involved fewer trans-alpine workers, but large numbers of immigrants from other Italian cities were involved. This may have been due to foreigners assimilating quickly into Rome and changing their last names to “de Roma,” which would mean we could no longer identify them as foreigners from notarial records. These laborers were paid on a day-to-day contract, and thus enjoyed little stability. The notarial records show that on some days , only 12 "muratores" or skilled laborers were hired, while 94 were hired on others. Manovales, the less skilled counterpart, may have endured even more variation in employment status. Part of this is likely because workers could work on different projects on different days. But in the case of injury or sickness, laborers had no security to fall back on. This was only exacerbated by their immigrant status, which suggests that they may have lacked a support network in Rome to depend upon while recovering. Thus construction work was a sort of vicious cycle, appealing only to those desperate for work, but ultimately ensuring that these individuals remain in the lowest classes.
Jack Lightbody (2018) Edited by Ella Parke (2027) and Julia Tassava (2026)
Lee, Egmont. "Workmen and Work in Quattrocento Rome." In Rome in the Renaissance The City and the Myth, edited by P. Ramsey, 141-52. Binghampton, NY: Center for Medieval & Early Renaissance Studies, 1982. Lee, Egmont. " Notaries, Immigrants, and Computers: The Roman Rione Ponte, 1450-1480." In Sources of Social History: Private Acts of the Late Middle Ages, edited by Paolo Brezzi, 239-49. Rome: Istituto di Studi Romani, 1984. P. Ligorio, Urbis romae situs, Rome, M. Tramezzino, 1552.
In the medieval city of Rome, the Tiber River was an important part of the economic and everyday life. It was used as the major water source, a valuable transportation center, and also the production center for several industries that were restricted by law to the area around the Tiber for reasons such as the repellant smell and the low prestige of such work. As a consequence, people of lower economic status lived and worked near the river. Life along the Tiber was not an easy one for many reasons. Before the walls surrounding the river were built in 1870, floods were quite frequent around the river. Every time the river flooded, workers' jobs which were located on and around the Tiber would be severely impacted. Fishing platforms and mills, which were owned by richer families and institutions and leased out to millers and fishermen in exchange for a portion of their income, would be almost fully destroyed. Since the less prosperous people could not afford to rebuild their businesses immediately after the floods, life of a worker along the Tiber was not an easy one. Some of the most popular jobs in Borgo near the Tiber were held by tanners, fishermen, ferry-men, millers, dyers, laundresses and water-sellers. None of these jobs paid as well as more prestigious jobs that were allowed near the city center such as printing and weaving. A few of the major jobs such as washing laundry and selling water were gendered. For example, laundry businesses were usually held by women while water-sellers were mostly men, except for a few exceptions such as the mother of Cola di Rienzo, Matalena by name, who was both a water-seller and a laundress. Even though the working class of Rome did not receive much support from the rich families and institutions of Rome, there was still some form of protection by the Papacy. The Papacy, for instance, passed a law that banned men and prostitutes from bathing near the bend of the Tiber, such as the beach adjacent to the Hospital of Santo Spirito due to the laundresses who worked, as laundresses usually worked here. In the late 16th century, after the construction of aqueducts and laundry fountains throughout the city, fewer people depended on the Tiber for their businesses. However, the Tiber continued to be an important part of life in Rome as many Romans considered the Tiber’s water to be the best water of Europe, and many laundresses carried on washing their laundry on their usual platforms by the river.
Alperen Turkol (2018) Edited by Tim Abbott (2026)
Rinne, Katherine Wentworth. The Waters of Rome: Aqueducts, Fountains, and the Birth of the Baroque City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010. Bianchi, L. “Medieval Survivals in Modern Rome. ” Transactions on the Built Environment 9(1999): 441-450. Palmer, James A. 2021. “The Great Deeds of Cola Di Rienzo, August Tribune of Rome.” In The Chronicle of an Anonymous Roman. Rome, Italy, and Latin Christendom, c.1325-1360. Italica Press, Inc. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1t8q8mk.24. p. 183. Image Nieulandt, Willem van, II, 1579-1641. Courtesy of the Getty Museum.
Petrarch, Cola, and the Coronation at the Campidoglio
Petrarch was an influential humanist and poet who lived and wrote contemporary to Cola di Rienzo. In 1341, probably on April 8th, Petrarch was crowned poet laureate at the Campidoglio. When he was selected for this honor, he was given his choice of city for the ceremony. He wanted to restore the poetic tradition of the ancients and felt that by choosing Rome he was taking his place among them. If you would like to read his coronation oration, it can be found here: http://www.jstor.org/stable/460017?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents (ignore the introduction). As you stand on the Campidoglio, you can imagine Petrarch giving this speech in the heart of Rome, receiving one of the greatest honors of his life. Petrarch was passionate about renewing the ancient grandeur of Rome and wanted to reinstate it as a central power. He despised the Avignon Papacy and sent letters to the Pope pleading for a Papal return to Rome. So naturally, when Cola rose to power, Petrarch supported him. Petrarch desired to become the Virgil to Cola’s Augustus. He offered his poetic services and Cola readily accepted. Just like Cola’s reign, Petrarch’s support for Cola did not last long, but it was important in framing how the world saw Cola. Because Petrarch’s works were widely read from after his death up until the present day, the letters and poems written about Cola have continued to influence the public view of Cola and his Rome.
Petrarca, Francesco. The Essential Petrarch, ed. Peter Hainsworth. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2010. Smarr, Janet. "Petrarch: A Vergil Without a Rome" Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, vol. 18. Binghamton, New York, 1982. Wilkins, Ernest H. "Petrarch’s Coronation Oration." PMLA 68: 5(1953): 1241. doi:10.2307/460017.
"The three bodies, covered with golden mantles were carried into Santa Maria by the friars into the chapel of Colonna. The countesses came with a multitude of women, tearing their hair to weep and mourn over the dead, over the bodies of Stefano, Janni, and Pietro de Agabito. The tribune had them driven away and refused any honor or obsequies, saying, ‘If they provoke me any further I shall have these three cursed corpses thrown into the pit of the hanged men, since they are perjurers and do not deserve to be buried.’ The corpses were then carried to the Church of San Silvestro and buried by the nuns without lament.” The Life of Cola di Rienzo, Ch. 35, p.87-88. Santa Maria in Aracoeli was completed in the 12th century. It was originally called Santa Maria Capitolio, but was renamed later when it gained the relics of St. Helen, Emperor Constantine’s mother. The church also houses minor relics from the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The 12th-century legend is that the church is built on the place where Tiburtine Sibyl prophesied the coming of Christ to Augustus. When the papacy was in Avignon, baronial families held most of the power in Rome, because they had the land and men to defend themselves. The Colonna, Savelli, and Orsini families controlled much of the land in the area we have termed today as “Cola’s Rome” at this time. Cola di Rienzo despised the baronial families because he thought that their leadership was motivated by self-interest, and that Rome had fallen into a state of disarray because the “tyrants” did nothing to manage the city affairs. Cola’s main mission was to rid Rome of the baronial families and restore civil government. In order to do this, Cola had to first convince the Romans that Rome was in decay and that they should affirm his argument for the powers of the Senate and civic government. Then he had to punish and/or murder the barons, in order to assert his dominance. Santa Maria Aracoeli was one place where he asserted power over the barons. Cola di Rienzo refused to let the Colonna countesses bury their male family members in the family chapel after Cola had murdered them. To understand in larger context why it was such a blow to the Colonna family that Cola refused to let them bury their dead in their family chapel, we need to understand the significance of family chapels at this time. This was a very holy and important church for the people of Rome, and it was the renowned burial site of families who ruled Rome in the 14th century. The chapels are much taller than the aisles of the church. This is because chapels functioned similarly to towers, in that the taller the chapel was, the more powerful the family. The Colonna family had to display their wealth and power, so when they secured the rights to build a family mausoleum, they excavated the wall so they could make their chapel taller than the others. The Colonna chapel is also directly across from the aracoelli, which was the best position in the church because it was the closest to the holy relic. Chapels took on the role of displaying power because they had a much greater chance of survival than towers, which were continuously destroyed by enemies. The family chapels were more stable because they were protected by the friars, and in the minds of Christians, by the Virgin and God.When Cola di Rienzo refused to let the Colonna countesses bury their dead in the church, he was in essence refusing the dead their proper resting place in the afterlife. This brought distress to the living Colonnas, because this was their responsibility. Ironically, Cola di Rienzo met his own death very close to this church.
Bolgia, Claudia. “Ostentation, Power, and Family Competition in Late-Medieval Rome: The Earliest Chapels at S. Maria In Aracoeli.” Aspects of Power and Authority in the Middle Ages, volume 14, (2007): 73-105 Ghisalberti, Alberto Maria, and John Wright. The Life of Cola Di Rienzo. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1975.
The Hospital of St. Thomas of Canterbury and Margery Kempe
In the early 15th century, the Roman building that is now the Venerable English College was the Hospital of St. Thomas of Canterbury. This particular hospital was famous for housing Margery Kempe at the beginning and end of her stay in Rome, from Winter 1414 to Spring 1415. With Rome recovering after from the popes’ returning from Avignon and the squabbling powerful families in the area - especially in the Jewish ghetto, in which the Hospital of St. Thomas owned property - the Rome into which Margery Kempe entered would have been on the precarious side of glory. This insecurity comes into play when Margery Kempe, inspired by her travel companion Margarete Florentyn of Assisi, decides to give away all her money, including that which she borrowed from her only other consistent travel companion, a man named Richard. She was evicted from the hospital, after which she went through her famous ‘marriage to the godhead,’ dressed all in white. Through begging, she was eventually able to pay back Richard and support herself. Only at this point was she readmitted to the Hospital of St. Thomas. It was also during this time that, at a loss for a confessor, she befriended a German priest and prayed for thirteen days that he be divinely endowed with an understanding of the English language, thus miraculously forging herself a confessor to serve both as a tool for her faith and as evidence of it. Her admission to the hospital was originally based on her identity as several of the groups helped by hospitals: a woman, traveling alone, from another country -- and at this hospital, specifically from England. Presumably, her encounters with the hospital, locked down for history in her accounts, would have been similar to those of other English pilgrims, other women, and other religiously ecstatic individuals. Margery Kempe spent time at several churches nearby the Hospital of St. Thomas, including St. Bridget’s, the teachings of which also informed her pious behavior, and St. Catherine’s, still around the corner from the College. Her experience as a traveler of Rome was shaped by experiences she could have had only as a pedestrian, and as someone living in such a space; several seminal encounters on her journey would never have happened if she had stayed with an elite friend or traveled with an entourage. Some of these encounters, especially with impoverished women, decidedly shaped her ideas about poverty as a pious technique and about the religious roles of women. All that is left now in the Venerable English College of the medieval hospital is the shield which Henry VII placed over its entryway (now visible inside the main hallway) and the window from the hospital’s church, moved into the central courtyard.
Howes, Laura L. "Romancing the City: Margery Kempe in Rome." 680-90. Studies in Philology. University of North Carolina Press, 2014.
The Hospitallers and the Order of Santo Spirito
Guy de Montpellier, a Templar Knight from France, founded the Order of the Holy Spirit in 1170 and the hospital Saint-Esprit in 1174. The Hospitallers (also known as the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem) were a religious order that adopted a version of the Augustinian rule and arrived in Rome during the pontificate of Innocent III. The Hospitallers were headquartered in the Roman Forums; they ran the hospital of Sant'Urbano in the Forums and took over the former monastery of San Basilio in the early 13th century. Pope Innocent III was instrumental in establishing Guy’s Order in Rome; after having visited the houses in France, he saw that "the hungry were fed, the poor clothed, and the sick ministered to..." and officially recognized the Order in 1198, including the privilege to request from bishops the right to ask for alms “among ordinary Christians." Innocent was so impressed by the charitable Rule of the Order that he "modeled rule of Santo Spirito in Sassia, his hospital in the Borgo, on the Hospitaller Rule" (Keyvanian 149) before gifting them the hospital in another bull from June 19, 1204. This bull also permitted the Order to preach, confer the sacraments, provide burial for their supporters during time of interdict, be exempted from tithes on lands used for the support of the poor, and to receive grants of the tithe revenues of others. Both of these actions emphasize Innocent’s admiration of the Rule of the Order of Santo Spirito, as well as the power the Order had gained by being in a favorable position with the papacy. The mission of the Hospitallers under Guy de Montpellier was to give charity to "newborns, orphans, children, old people, abandoned girls, pregnant women, 'sinful' women, and traveling religious" (Brodman 145). As Brodman also points out, the Order of the Holy Spirit recruited from among the ranks of the female orphans and the abandoned children it raised. The Rule "provided that young girls in these circumstances would have the option of becoming a professed member of the community or else leaving it for matrimony; presumably the order had far less need for adolescent boys" (Brodman 144). Like other Orders and Confraternities of the era, Montpellier’s Order focused on marginalized groups of society, and strove to make sure that poor girls could grow up to have respectable places in society.
Brodman, James William. "The Hospitaller Orders." Chapter 4 of his Charity and Religion in Medieval Europe, 137-49. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2009. Keyvanian, Carla. Hospitals and Urbanism in Rome, 1200-1500. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
1100s
During the period when the seat of the papacy was in Avignon, many of the municipal leaders in Rome began to gain more power over the urban institutions. Once the popes returned to the city they attempted to reestablish control of many of the institutions over which they once had power. There was much dispute of who was truly in control: the popes who, for almost a century, had ruled from afar or the civic leaders. One particular example of this is the hospital at Santo Spirito. In her book on hospitals in medieval Rome, Carla Keyvanian points to three specific examples showing that this hospital had fallen under the influence of the municipal authorities. In 1369, the senate publicly honored the governor of the hospital for providing fighting men to the Senate. A governor of the hospital participated in the coronation of Cola di Rienzo. Finally, the senate decided to erect a statue of Pope Clement VI (1291-1352) on the grounds of the hospital. The popes went to a lot of trouble to reclaim their hold over the institution. Pope Eugene IV (1383-1447) claimed to have found a register of the confraternity of Santo Spirito that stated that former popes had established the hospital and therefore it was papal property. Paul II (1464-1471) launched a restoration of the hospital to regain the moral rights over the institution. Following him, Sixtus IV (1414-1484) abolished the longstanding confraternity of Santo Spirito and started a new one, with members loyal to the papacy like relatives and liegemen. But the best way for Sixtus to stake his claim over the hospital was to rebuild its buildings. The building that Innocent III had built was deteriorating, so in 1473 Sixtus began his restoration. He extended the infirmary to the east towards the Ponte Sant’Angelo. In doing this, Santo Spirito became the largest hospital in Europe and became the center for medical research. To ensure the rights of those who fund and build these institutions, Sixtus issued three Papal Bulls -- in 1476 and again in 1477 -- declaring that he built Santo Spirito. Then in 1478, he issued a bull that established legal ownership over public works by those who funded them.
Keyvanian, Carla. Hospitals and urbanism in Rome, 1200-1500. Leiden: Brill, 2016.