Reclaiming the Roman Capitol : Santa Maria in Aracoeli from the Altar of Augustus to the Franciscans, c.500-1450 / Claudia Bolgia.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bolgia, Claudia, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint.

S. Maria in Aracoeli (Church : Rome, Italy).

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint--Devotion to--Italy--Capitoline Hill.

Mary.

Franciscans--Italy--Rome.

Franciscans.

Architecture and history--Italy--Capitoline Hill.

Architecture and history.

Church architecture--Italy--Capitoline Hill.

Church architecture.

Sacred space--Italy--Capitoline Hill.

Sacred space.

Rome (Italy)--Buildings, structures, etc.

Rome (Italy).

Buildings.

Devotion.

Italy--Capitoline Hill.

Italy--Rome.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 457 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 26 cm

Other Title:

Santa Maria in Aracoeli from the Altar of Augustus to the Franciscans, c.500-1450

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2017.

Summary:

Prominently located on the Arx, the northern summit of the Capitoline Hill, S. Maria in Aracoeli is the most significant medieval church of Rome to survive to the present day. Second major church of the Lesser Brothers or fratres minores in the Italian peninsula, and Roman headquarters of the Order, the Aracoeli played a vital role in the interaction between the Franciscans and the papacy, the friars and the laity, and the religious and civic authorities, as reflected in its art and architecture. On the basis of an interdisciplinary approach combining archaeological analysis with the finding of new archival evidence, reinterpretation of documents and literary and epigraphic sources, this book offers a reconstruction of the original church, its monuments and its Benedictine as well as eighth/ninth-century predecessors, which differs radically from earlier hypotheses. This reassessment in turn allows the author to revisit a number of major questions, including the Franciscans' physical and theoretical appropriation of the past, the adaptation of an ancient site by a 'modern' religious order, the use and functions of space, the interaction between friars, laity and artists, and the contribution of the Roman Franciscans to the development of Marian devotion, thus shedding new light on the social, political and religious history of late-medieval Italy and its impact beyond the peninsula, from England to Bohemia and the Holy Land. Book jacket.

Contents:

From Isis to Mary: The Arx and its surroundings from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 8

1 Before the Franciscans: The previous churches on the site 22

Cunctarum prima quae fuit orbe sita: Literary, documentary and epigraphic evidence from the earliest times to the thirteenth century 22

From S. Maria in Capitolio to S. Maria in Aracoeli: The title 35

Archaeological evidence from the earliest times to the thirteenth century 39

The previous churches and their relationship with the Franciscan building 40

Early medieval church furniture 67

The obelisk 82

The cloisters 83

Conclusion 88

2 The Franciscan 'appropriation' of the Arx 90

Franciscan foundations in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe 90

The Franciscans in Rome and their new headquarters 96

The ara coeli 116

The monument and its 'meaning' 116

The ara coeli 'confessio': Art for the Benedictines or the Franciscans? 127

New and old cults before the construction of the new church 141

3 The new Franciscan church: Between tradition and innovation 146

An architectural analysis of the medieval building 146

Nave and aisles 146

Transept 159

Chapel L9 164

Original main chapel 164

Façade 198

The decoration of the apse and the Franciscan promotion of the legend of Augustus from Rome to Finland 210

Marble workshop: Window tracery 222

Transmission and reception of formal ideas: Artistic exchanges between Rome and England in the thirteenth century 240

The magister principalis and the builders 257

The deployment of spolia and Franciscan ideas 259

New and old cults in the new Franciscan church: Paths for faithful and pilgrims 283

4 The 'extended' space of the Franciscan church: S. Maria in Aracoeli as a lived social and political place 290

The 'extended' space of the church exterior 291

The original side entrance and the guardianship of the minors 291

Preaching, politics and religious tribunals 305

The 'extended' space of the church interior 309

Inner appearance and family chapels 309

Burying in the Franciscan church 331

Between 'public' and 'private' in the Rome of the popular regimes: Francesco Felici's icon tabernacle and family chapel 348

Beyond Rome: The legend of Augustus and the Aracoeli icon in fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century Siena 388.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 401-439) and index.

ISBN:

9781409417613

1409417611

OCLC:

969973205