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.

In the 15th century, Pope Sixtus IV completed a reorganization of the offices of Maestri di Strada (Masters of the Streets) and Magistri Aedificorum (Masters of Buildings), 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, street design and maintenance were the province of private and semi-private parties, namely wealthy families, leaseholders, and the church.

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.