The historian Kate Lowe explains that the convent at San Cosimato has a unique history of artistic patronage during the 15th and 16th centuries. During this period, the sisters at the convent seemed to behave less like active buyers and commissioners…

In the 1230’s, just 25 years after the foundation of the Franciscan orders, the convent of San Cosimato was formed when Pope Gregory IX gave a male Benedictine house to the Clares. The convent was one of three female Franciscan convents in Rome. The…

The Church of San Francesco a Ripa (or Ripa Grande) represents the oldest and perhaps the most significant Franciscan memory in Rome. Before the foundation of the church in 1229, there was a Benedictine monastery including a pre-existing church of…

A devoted early follower of St. Francis of Assisi, Jacoba of Settesoli (Italian Giacoma di Settesoli) was affectionately known to the Franciscan friars as Brother Jacopa (Fra Jacopa). She was an integral figure in the creation of a Roman Franciscan…

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…

Founded in the 10th century as a Benedictine monastery, the convent of San Cosimato came into the possession of the Franciscans in 1234, when Pope Gregory IV ordered the Benedictines to give the space to the Clares, an order of Franciscan nuns. San…

This is a typical parish church in the densest settlement in between the river and Via della Lungaretta. It is in a prevailing style with an arcaded narthex extends along the façade, a campanile rises within it. The period of eleventh and twelfth…

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 S. Cosimato. San Cosimato began as a…

Walking through medieval Trastevere, it is easy to forget about the classical Roman city that once flourished across the river. This neighborhood, now home to much of Rome’s nightlife and many of its most recognizably medieval buildings, was included…

By the time Pope Leo IV (847-855) fortified Porta Portese (Rome's southernmost gate) with three defensive towers to combat Muslim pirates, the Ripa Grande (depicted on Antonio Tempesta's map of Rome, seen above) had emerged as one of Rome's premiere…