Peter's Basilica Research Articles

Saint Peter's, Leo the Great and the leprosy of Constantine

È possibile rialzare all'età di Costantino la datazione di due mosaici situati sull'arco di trionfo e sull'abside della basilica vaticana di San Pietro, sulla base della reinterprctazione delle loro iscrizioni. Sulla facciata della chiesa possiamo anche ricostruire il soggetto apocalittico di un terzo importante mosaico e attribuirlo al periodo di Papa Leone Magno (440–61). Alcune sillogi del VII secolo d.C. ci informano circa la presenza dell'immagine di Costantino accompagnata da una lunga iscrizione in cui si fa allusione alla sua guarigione miracolosa dalla lebbra e al suo battesimo. Questo testo ha evitato la discussione sull'origine dell'AchisSilvestri, che ha una notevole importanza in quanto è il primo documento che attesta chiaramente questa leggenda. Inoltre esso è significativamente connesso a Papa Leone Magno — nel contesto del dibattito circa la supremazia del papa di Roma — e probabilmente con la famiglia di Costantino stesso. Infatti il mosaico fu pagato da Flavius Avitus Marinianus, pretoriano prefetto del 422 e console un anno più tardi, e da sua moglie, Anastasia, che fu probabilmente una stranipote dell'imperatore Costantino.

Front and Back Covers, Volume 23, Number 4. August 2007

Front and back cover caption, volume 23 issue 4COMMEMORATING THE ‘POLISH POPE’The cover of this issue illustrates Ewa Klekot's article about how Pope John Paul II (Karol Jósef Wojtyla, 1920–2005) was popularly commemorated in Poland during the ‘Week of Vigil’, 1–8 April 2005. One of the longest‐serving pontiffs of modern times, and the only non‐Italian to have been elected since the Dutch Adrian VI in the 1520s, Pope John Paul II died on 2 April and was buried on 8 April in the grottoes under St Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Tomb of the Popes. During this week unprecedented expressions of grief and mourning were displayed in Polish cities. Whole streets and squares were converted into temporary shrines, decorated with burning candles, flowers, papal portraits, letters to the departed Pope and both papal and Polish flags.The front cover shows a mother and daughter paying homage by lighting and placing candles along John Paul II Avenue, one of the biggest streets in central west Warsaw. The back cover shows a spontaneous memorial in the form of a large cross in Pilsudski Square, Warsaw, where John Paul II had celebrated mass during his first visit to Poland in 1979, the year after he was elected Pope. The memorial incorporates lanterns, flower offerings and a commemoration board made by primary school children.In constructing unofficial, vernacular and temporary commemorative sites from candles and flowers, Polish citizens re‐enacted both the rituals of All Saints Day and the tradition of arranging flowers and candles in public places. The latter is, in the Polish context, more than an expression of grief provoked by deaths of important Polish personalities: it is also historically a way of expressing popularly shared feelings and values, and of asserting a degree of autonomy from the government of the day.Until 1990, Pope John Paul II symbolized powerful nationalist‐Catholic sentiments that had helped Polish citizens stand up to communism. However, the slogan ‘I didn't mourn the pope’ which appeared on T‐shirts made by a young Polish artists' group suggests that this new alliance between religion and official politics is being contested.Mourning rituals surrounding public figures frequently have a multivocal quality, and are barometers of change. As part of its ongoing engagement with public events, ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY invites debate on how collective memories are punctuated and shaped by historical moments such as these.

Framing St. Peter's: Urban Planning in Fascist Rome

The Via della Conciliazione is the thoroughfare that leads to St. Peter's basilica in Rome. Designed under the Fascist regime in 1936 by Marcello Piacentini and Attilio Spaccarelli, it is often dismissed as a reprehensible intervention in a historic site. However, it managed to carry out the long-sought restructuring of the Vatican Borgo area; succeeded in framing St. Peter's, with its problematic facade, in a new vista; made concrete the union of church and state authorized by the Lateran Pact, imperative to Mussolini's political agenda; and exemplifies strategies of urban planning widely used in Fascist Rome.

The Vatican Rotunda: A Severan Monument and its Early History, c. 200 to 500

The rotunda that stood on the site of the former Circus of Gaius and Nero beside old St Peter's in Rome was first constructed at the beginning of the 3rd century, as demonstrated by archaeological evidence. It was finally demolished only in 1777, and a clear picture of the building prior to this is established from early graphic sources. The rotunda stood over a podium-crypt; it had eight radiating exedrae at the main floor level; and it was surmounted by a clerestory and a ribbed dome. Scholarly discussion has disagreed on how much of the building belonged to the original structure, and how much may have been rebuilt at some date in the late Roman period. This paper reexamines the evidence for the form of the building and then seeks to place it within its architectural-historical context. It argues that a 3rd-century date for the whole structure is plausible, but this raises further questions about its function, context and patron. A funerary or commemorative function is probable, and this could find its context in the reigns of Caracalla and Elagabalus. The subsequent history of the rotunda up to the end of the 5th century is reviewed, including the impact of the construction of St Peter's basilica, and the burials of members of Honorius' family in an adjacent rotunda mausoleum.

The Anointment of Dionisio: Prophecy and Politics in Renaissance Italy (review)

Reviewed by: The Anointment of Dionisio: Prophecy and Politics in Renaissance Italy Christopher S. Celenza The Anointment of Dionisio: Prophecy and Politics in Renaissance Italy. By Marion Leathers Kuntz. (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. 2001. Pp. xviii, 446. $55.00.) In February of 1563, a certain Dionisio Gallo, rector of the Collège de Lisieux in Paris, experienced what he later described as an anointment by the Virgin Mary, an anointment that occurred on the outside of his body and on the inside, from "the top of my head to the tip of my toes" (p. 8). He seems to have frequented the circle of the King, Charles IX, perhaps having even served as one of his tutors. Yet Dionisio, after his anointment, became a fervent believer in reform, and he came to consider that the French monarchical apparatus, including Catherine de' Medici, was too lukewarm to carry out a desired reunification of a fractured Christendom. His public voicing of these opinions did not play well in Paris, and he was sent back to his home city of Gisors. Thus began a series of peregrinations which took him to Savoyard Turin, the Rome of Pius V, the Florence of Cosimo I, Este Ferrara, and, finally, to la Serenissima, where he wound [End Page 165] up imprisoned and tried by the Venetian inquisition; there, on August 12, 1567, he was sentenced as "guilty of public assemblies, contrary to the command of the Holy Office" (p. 176). His crimes, however, were attributed to a "humoral imbalance," and so he was let off relatively lightly, banished from Venice and its possessions. Marion Leathers Kuntz has expertly reconstructed this fascinating and hitherto unstudied story with patient archival research, historiographical breadth, and fine comparative readings of Dionisio's surviving works. Various themes come to the fore. The first is Dionisio's style of prophecy, which Kuntz fleshes out from a number of different perspectives. Dionisio seems to have recapitulated a number of different available prophetic tropes: from the Joachite tradition, he propounded an apocalyptic perspective; from the Old Testament tradition, he appeared, not as a hair-shirted extremist, but as a learned, serious, and leader-like person who was able to gain access to important political figures wherever he went. Unlike his contemporary Nostradamus, Dionisio was a prophet of the present, not of the future. This present-oriented tendency meant that he was intensely aware of the use of symbols and of the importance of associating himself with locally-important political ideas. In Venice, for example, he preached from within the cortile of the Palazzo Ducale, thus associating himself symbolically with a Venetian propensity toward an idealistically understood "justice." In Rome, he walked through the streets bearing a seven-foot cross, before presenting Pius V with a letter in St. Peter's basilica, a letter which Pius reportedly kept on his nightstand for a day or two thereafter. In Turin, he supported the idea held by Emanuele Filiberto of the importance of an Italian league to defeat heresy—a league that would be led by Emanuele. In Florence, Dionisio played on Cosimo's competitiveness with Emanuele to continue to urge the formation of a (secularly led) Italian league, before Dionisio had to leave after angering the papal nuncio in Florence. In his various works and in the testimony from the inquisitorial trial, Dionisio propounded a consistent set of reform ideas. These ideas centered on the reform of the clergy, the extirpation of heresy, charity and consolation toward the less fortunate (including the idea that one-third of the Church's wealth should be given back to the poor), and the leading of Jews and Turks toward Christ. Through it all, he maintained that the clergy and the Roman Curia must be reformed first; this reform would then spread, by its own power and shining example, outward to the rest of society and naturally bring heretics and "infidels" into the fold. Significantly, he stressed that if the Church could not carry out this reform itself (and he clearly believed it could not), then secular rulers were obligated to take the lead and compel the Church to reform. According to Kuntz, this lack of satisfaction...

Michelangelo's Signature

Michelangelo signed only one work with his name, the Pietd in Saint Peter's Basilica. As his first public commission in Rome, the sculpture gave the young artist an opportunity to establish his reputation and public image. The band across the Virgin's chest serves no other function than to hold Michelangelo's signature, which was not added as an afterthought as Vasari claimed in his 1568 biography of the artist. Although Michelangelo had carefully planned his inscription, its style of execution suggests letters that are spontaneously written, not carved. This effect calls attention to the artist's manual presence. Michelangelo also revived the ancient Greek use of the imperfect verb tense in his signature; Pliny the Elder had recalled that Apelles and Polyclitus used it. The separation of Michelangelo's name into two words, Michael Angelus, emphasizes his association with his namesake, Michael the Archangel, and introduces the image of the artist as a divinely inspired creator, who conveys God's messages and ideas as angels do.

Bernini and the bell towers: architecture and politics at the Vatican

In 1638, the great artist-architect Gianlorenzo Bernini began one of the most ambitious architectural projects of his career: to design and construct massive twin bell towers atop St. Peter's basilica at the Vatican. But the project failed spectacularly. Bernini's reputation was permanently tarnished, and the scandal of the bell towers sparked a controversy that persists to this day. What happened? Who was responsible? How did events unfold in this dramatic episode of architectural history? This illustrated volume tells the complete story of the bell towers. Presenting both visual and documentary evidence, Sarah McPhee reconstructs the entire affair, the architectural and political milieu, the evolution of the designs, and the varying influences of all those involved in the project. McPhee examines the multiple constraints under which Bernini worked, including the ambitions of the Pope, the criticisms of rival architects, the financial and political constraints of the building committee, the monumental history of the basilica, and the geology of the site. She reinterprets Bernini's role as architect and shows convincingly that the failure of the bell tower was not Bernini's own. Instead, it was the failure of the institution of the Vatican, driven by liturgical and political imperatives, that doomed the project despite the architect's heroic efforts.

Designed for Ceremony: The Cappella Paolina at the Vatican Palace

This article explores the renovations of the ceremonial rooms of the Vatican Palace executed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger under Pope Paul III Farnese (r. 1534-49). The focus of the investigation is the evolution of Sangallo's design for the Cappella Paolina. From the evidence it is clear that the various ceremonial and liturgical functions performed in the chapel defined the ultimate design and the strategic, yet problematic, location at the nexus of the papal palace and St. Peter's basilica. The Cappella Paolina replaced the medieval Capella parva and assumed its functions, which necessitated that the new chapel be built in an analogous form and site in order to maintain papal ceremonial continuity. A new look at documentary evidence provides a revised chronology for the construction of the main ceremonial spaces and a new sequencing and interpretation of the surviving drawings.

The Foundation Horoscope(s) for St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, 1506: Choosing a Time, Changing the Storia

St. Peter's Basilica is a familiar cultural landmark, begun under the patronage of Pope Julius II by the architect Donate Bramante and substantially completed by Michelangelo. Following a common Renaissance practice, a horoscope was produced for the foundation ceremony of the great structure. It suggests several features of Renaissance astrological practice in coordinating the heavens with the earth. This essay argues that the horoscope published in 1552 is not the original horoscope but, rather, a "rectified" chart made after the church construction had been stalled for nearly forty years; that the date had been chosen according to religious and political dictates, and so the astrologer(s) had to work with the planetary positions that pertained on 18 April 1506; that the astrologer(s) chose the time of day-a time correctly noted not in the published horoscope but in the diary of Julius's personal secretary-because it coordinated the founding of the basilica with the important horoscopes of its patron and its region; that the primary patron of the basilica was not Julius but, rather, Christ, whose geniture was discussed in astrological texts of this era; that the coordination of the basilica's horoscope with that of Christ simultaneously coordinated the great structure with the thema mundi, the horoscope for the birth of the world; and that several putative horoscopes for Julius II seem related to those of the basilica and of Christ.

For Faith and Fortune: The Education of Catholic Immigrants in Detroit, 1805-1925 by JoEllen McNergney Vinyard

322book reviews ent times and places have understood the images. It is also unfortunate that the University of California Press only reproduced small black-and-white photographs , thus ignoring the rich potential that the images have to convey information . Visual Piety joins a number of new books on "lived religions" whose authors persuasively argue that historians of religion can no longer afford to ignore the spirituality of the majority of religious people. Colleen McDannell University of Utah For Faith and Fortune: The Education of Catholic Immigrants in Detroit, 1805-1925- ByJoEllen McNergney Vinyard. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1998. Pp. xviii, 310. $49.95 clothbound; $18.95 paperback.) Make it local and the story is well told. Mrs. Vinyard transforms the national story of Catholic education, told so ably by Timothy Walch (Parish School: A History ofAmerican Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present, 1995) and Harold Buetow (Of Singular Benefit: The Story of Catholic Education in the United States, 1970), into an engaging encounter with the past by focusing on the City of Detroit and its Catholic schools. While Catholics and Protestants in Detroit attempted to open schools in the first period of this story, only the rapid increase in population during the 1830's brought success. The newly developing public school movement competed with these parochial efforts. Taxes were first assessed in the 1840's. This gave rise to Bishop Peter Paul Lefevere's request for public funds for his schools in 1853. This fight differed from those in NewYork and Philadelphia since Detroit was nearly 40% Catholic and the anti-Catholicism was not as vitriolic. Rather, there were more opponents to the bishop's plans within the Catholic fold. Vinyard's book concludes with the account of the state initiatives in the 1920's to force all children to attend public schools. Catholics and Lutherans successfully countered the bigotry, particularly of the Ku Klux Klan, which threatened them. The heart of the book (chapters 3-7) is most fascinating. The author weaves a fabric of ethnic and convent threads through the parochial establishment and management of the city's Catholic schools. Vinyard indicates the differing educational philosophies of the several religious communities which dominated the Detroit educational scene; she notes the strengths and weaknesses of the diverse forms of the sisters' training. Education in Detroit remained tied to parishes, often due to ethnic forces. Parishes and their daughter establishments developed great loyalty to particular religious communities. The author's richest portrayal is of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, Michigan , who held a near monopoly of education in Detroit in the 1800's. BOOK REVIEWS323 Vinyard regularly relates the Detroit scene to parallel events in the nation, seeing both similarity and contrast. One major difference was how strongly the ethnic plurality of Detroit resisted national forces for the centralization of Catholic education in local dioceses. In Detroit the parish remained the locus of the school. One ethnic group which is well represented in this work is the large Polish community,which, due to its own inner divisions, relied on two religious communities, the Felicians and the German School Sisters of St. Francis. Vinyard 's central account ends with the beginning of Catholic high schools. Mrs. Vinyard paints a detailed and attractive picture of a community's struggle to educate its youth, depicts the disparate forces at work in that community which allowed for a colorful diversity in the overall unity of the piece, provides national scenery for background, and induces pride for all who had a hand in producing the current educational landscape. Note only that the text should read "John Lancaster Spalding" on page 93EarlBoyea Sacred HeartMajor Seminary Detroit, Michigan Sharing the Bread in Service: Sisters ofthe Blessed Sacrament, 1891-1991¦ By Patricia Lynch, S.B.S. (Bensalem, Pennsylvania [19020-8502] : Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. 1998. Pp. viii,742.) Quite fortuitously, I happened to be doing some research at the Vatican Archives in the November week that Katharine Drexel (1858-1955) was beatified in 1988, and I found myself seated eight rows from the altar at St. Peter's Basilica for the ceremony. Even more amazingly, the pensione where...

Sharing the Bread in Service: Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1891-1991 by Patricia Lynch, S.B.S.

BOOK REVIEWS323 Vinyard regularly relates the Detroit scene to parallel events in the nation, seeing both similarity and contrast. One major difference was how strongly the ethnic plurality of Detroit resisted national forces for the centralization of Catholic education in local dioceses. In Detroit the parish remained the locus of the school. One ethnic group which is well represented in this work is the large Polish community,which, due to its own inner divisions, relied on two religious communities, the Felicians and the German School Sisters of St. Francis. Vinyard 's central account ends with the beginning of Catholic high schools. Mrs. Vinyard paints a detailed and attractive picture of a community's struggle to educate its youth, depicts the disparate forces at work in that community which allowed for a colorful diversity in the overall unity of the piece, provides national scenery for background, and induces pride for all who had a hand in producing the current educational landscape. Note only that the text should read "John Lancaster Spalding" on page 93EarlBoyea Sacred HeartMajor Seminary Detroit, Michigan Sharing the Bread in Service: Sisters ofthe Blessed Sacrament, 1891-1991¦ By Patricia Lynch, S.B.S. (Bensalem, Pennsylvania [19020-8502] : Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. 1998. Pp. viii,742.) Quite fortuitously, I happened to be doing some research at the Vatican Archives in the November week that Katharine Drexel (1858-1955) was beatified in 1988, and I found myself seated eight rows from the altar at St. Peter's Basilica for the ceremony. Even more amazingly, the pensione where I stayed happened to have a copy of the requisite Positio super virtutibus in specie for Drexel's beatification. The celebration brought into the present the fruit of her lifelong ministry with African Americans and Native Americans. Drexel's ministry concerns were carried forward in the foundation of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Sharing the Bread in Service looks back at the hundred years of the Congregation, which has a strong eucharistie spirituality. Part One surveys Drexel's family background, noting especially the influences which shaped her consciousness about "the Colored and Indians," as they were referred to in her youth. At a time when the American Catholic Church had all it could do to keep up with the pastoral needs of European immigrants, Drexel bore a considerable amount of financial and physical outlay in the evangelization of African Americans and Native Americans. The section ends with the early development of congregational missions devoted to diese groups in the southwest and in some urban areas in Pennsylvania. In time, the Congregation took over several of the Native American schools originally funded by Drexel. Part Two ("Expanding Mission Fields, 1914-1937") notes the growth of the Congregation's work in the Southeast. Part Three ("Deepening Roots, 1937- 324book reviews 1964") examines the transition under new Community leadership other than Drexel's. In Part Four ("Strong Against theWinds, 1964-1991"), the author identifies the fruition of the Sisters' previous efforts and the time of vital changes in the Congregation as a result of the Second Vatican Council, the Civil Rights Movement, and school desegregation. Appendices contain the names and dates of all the members of the Congregation and a list of the 122 missions and convents founded since the Community's inception. The publishers are working on a way to correct the errors in the index. Lynch draws extensively on primary sources in the archives of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for her narrative. By and large, the centennial study chronicles the development of the missions which the Sisters staffed from 1891 , the year that Katharine Drexel made her first profession. With the exception of the section on the 1960's and the Civil Rights Movement, there is little interpretation provided placing the Sisters' work and lives in a larger context of American history. However, by sheer force of the number of pages, as well as the identification of mission locations, the reader is impressed with the considerable role which the Sisters played in the formation and education of the two groups to whom they went in mission. The addition of a map indicating the sites of schools and catechetical centers would...

Petrine Landmarks in Two Predella Panels by Jacopo di Cione

Two panels from Jacopo's polyptych of the Coronation of the Virgin depict Roman landmarks associated with the story of the crucifixion of St. Peter. The story involves tapered tombs, or metae, near two city gates on different sides of town. One gate was on the road to St. Peter's basilica and the other on the way to St. Paul's Outside the Walls. Two metae were near the Castel Sant'Angelo on the way to St. Peter's. Documentation comes from twelfth-century texts, the Ordo Romanus and the Mirabilia Urbis Romae, which call one tomb the Sepulcher of Romulus. The latter text states that Peter was crucified nearby. Paired city gates belong to the story. In the northwest part of Rome, the Porta Collina was associated with the crucifixion. At a southerly gate on the way to St. Paul's, according to tradition, Peter and Paul parted from each other before their martyrdoms. A pyramid nearby, called Gaius Cestius, which still exists, was known in the Middle Ages as the Sepulcher of St. Remus. On this road, the Ostiense, Paul was martyred. In medieval lore, Romulus and Remus, the founders of ancient Rome, were identified with Peter and Paul, the fathers of Christian Rome. It was said that the saints were martyred where Romulus and Remus were buried. Moreover, a well-known sentence quoted by Eusebius mentions trophies of Peter and Paul. The sentence seems to refer to a road in the vicinity of the Vatican called Via Triumphalis. Jacopo's panels suggest that gates associated with the saints' victories over death were interpreted by him as triumphal arches.

The History of the Site of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

The History of the Site of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

The Repertory of the Cappella Giulia in the 1560s

An inventory has recently been discovered of the music books belonging to the Cappella Giulia (the choir of St Peter's Basilica in Rome), compiled by the singer Simon Prince some time between 1559 and 1566. The great majority of the books listed survive, either in the Cappella Giulia collection of the Vatican Library or (in the case of two prints) in other collections. Nearly half of the compositions contained in these books are the work of Carpentras, Festa, and Morales, the dominant composers of the Cappella Sistina from 1513 to 1548; the remainder show a bias towards French compositions and are virtually restricted to works composed before 1550. The conservativism of this repertory, paralleled by that of the Cappella Sistina, is emphasized by the fact that the books in Prince's inventory contain no music by Palestrina, though he had been chapel-master of the Cappella Giulia in 1551-54. It appears, in fact, that most of his sacred music was composed after he returned to the Cappella Giulia in 1571; this was probably in response to the Tridentine reform of the liturgy in 1568-70.

:The History of the University of Oxford, Volume III: The Collegiate University

Eamonn O Ciardha, Ireland and the Jacobite Cause, 1685-1766: A Fatal Attachment, Dublin, Four Courts Press, 2002, pp. 468, hb. euro45, ISBN: 18518255437Via del Corso is one of the best known thoroughfares in Rome, running as it does in a straight line from Piazza del Popolo to Piazza Venezia and leading on to the imposing Victor Emmanuel monument. If instead of entering Piazza Venezia one turns left by Via Quattro Novembre and left again one arrives at Piazza dei Santi Apostoli. At the north end of this piazza, number forty nine, stands Palazzo Balestra, formerly known as Palazzo Muti. This was the residence given by Pope Clement XI to the Old Pretender, James III in 1719. It was here that both his sons were born, Charles Edward on 31 December 1720, and Henry Benedict in March 1725. It was here that James expired on 1 January 1766 and it was here too that Charles Edward, better known as Bonny Prince Charlie, died on 30 January 1788. The palace is now occupied by offices and the only reminder that it was once the Stuart court in exile is a plaque on the left wall of the corridor that leads into the courtyard containing the following inscription:Abito questo palazzoEnrico Duca poi Cardinale di Yorkche figlio superstite di Giacomo III d'Inghilterraprese il nome d'Enrico IXIn lui nell' anno MDCCCVIIS'estinse la dinastia de' Stuardi.This translates as follows: Henry Duke, later Cardinal of York, lived in this palace. As the surviving son of James III of England, he took the name of Henry IX. In him in the year 1807 the Stuart dynasty expired.When James's wife, the Polish princess Maria Clementina Sobieska, died in 1735, her body lay in state for three days in the adjacent Basilica dei Santi Apostoli before being buried in St Peter's Basilica. But her heart is preserved in the former church. At the bequest of the Friars Minor Conventual, the proprietors of the Church, Filippo della Valle erected a moving monument to contain her heart in 1737 with the Latin inscription stating that only the praecordia were contained in the monument, as heavenly love did not allow the heart to survive. A much more imposing monument was erected to Queen Clementina in the left aisle of St Peter's Basilica in 1742, composed of both sculptural figures and a mosaic portrait of the queen, this incidentally being one of the very few representations of a lay person to be found in St. Peter's. The mosaic was actually the cause of some controversy, as the scrupulous Cardinal Landfredi objected to the queen's scollatura and protested to the Pope Clement XII. The blind but wily pope, a good friend of the Stuarts, pointed out that a decision as to the portrait's suitability or otherwise could not be taken while work was still in progress. Landfredi's death before the monument was completed ensured that the mosaic was left in St Peter's. The Latin inscription on the sarcophagus reads as follows: Maria Clementina M. Britain. Franc. Et Hibern. Regina - a public endorsement in the very heart of the Vatican of the legitimacy of the Stuart claim. It is not too fanciful to imagine the Irish Jacobite poet Liam Inglis, an Augustinian friar arriving in Rome to study for priesthood in 1743-4, standing enthralled before this monument. Inglis' arrival in Rome coincided with preparations for a French invasion of Britain under Marshal Saxe that included the deployment of troops of the Irish Brigades, the Irish Brogades. And in this image are gathered together many of the various strands that made Irish Jacobitism such a potent force, the Catholic powers of Europe both civil and ecclesiastical, the Irish diaspora on the continent including the Irish brigades, the Irish Catholic clergy, the Irish poets and literati.All these topics are treated in depth in Eamonn O Ciardha's new study on Irish Jacobitism. He also highlights the importance of rappareeism as a facet of popular Irish Jacobitism and gives due attention to the small but influential group of Protestant Irish Jacobites. …

A Proposal for the Foundation Date of the Villa Farnesina

Previous articleNext article No AccessNotes and DocumentsA Proposal for the Foundation Date of the Villa FarnesinaMary Quinlan-McGrathMary Quinlan-McGrath Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes Volume 49, Number 11986 Published for the Warburg Institute and the Courtauld Institute Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/751304 Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright © 1986 by The Warburg Institute. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Mary Quinlan-McGrath The Foundation Horoscope(s) for St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, 1506: Choosing a Time, Changing the Storia, Isis 92, no.44 (Oct 2015): 716–741.https://doi.org/10.1086/385356

The Search for Identity and Community in the Fourteenth Century

THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY I N THE LEGENDS, the collection of stories and anecdotes about Meister Eckhart, it is recorded that " a priest once came to Meister Eckhart and said to him: ' I wish that your soul were in my body '. To which the Meister responded: 'You are really foolish. That would get you nowhere; it would accomplish as little as having your soul in my body. No soul can really do anything except through the body to which it is attached.'" 1 The 14th century background is the " body " to which the " soul " of Eckhart is attached. No age, and no person of that age, can really be understood except when studied in the context of the times to which he was attached. Many challenging and valid comparisons can be made between the terrible Fourteenth Century and our own age. The persons and events of that century may have indeed a particular relevance for our own times. Yet these comparisons can only be validated after we understand Eckhart's age in itself. There are fashions in the writing and study of history. Some centuries are more popular than others. When the Middle Ages had become a respectable field of study, most historians chose to write about the 13th century. Another generation of historians thought the rnth century more interesting ; still others found the 10th or 11th centuries more worthy of close examination. The 14th century-" the terrible times "-was, however, neglected. Catholics and medievalists saw it as a period of unfortunate decline and decay; rationalists and humanists saw in it only the birth-pangs of the glorious Renaissance ·and the resplendent modem world. Two global wars, the overthrow of the Western and Atlantic 1 Raymond M. Blakney, Meister Eckhart: A Mode:m Translation (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1941), p. 258. 18~ THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY 183 political, economic and social order, the erosion of faith in the postulates of liberal and rational Western civilization, the rise of new powers, new ideologies and a half-century of violence, war, and terrorism have all conspired to re-direct our attention to the 14th century. Then medieval civilization was sapped from within, assaulted from without, and a great culture began to die, a marvelous synthesis of faith and learning slowly unravelled and came apart. There were population problems, economic depressions, demands for reforms and a merry dance of hedonists bent upon instant pleasure. It was a time when men and women began to think that the world was coming to an end. They were of course right: a world was coming to an end: the world of the Middle Ages. Engelbert of Admont, at the beginning of the 14th century, saw parallels between his times and the end of the Roman Empire. He said that the Anti-Christ was near. He noted three " wounds " in the human soul that were draining the life-blood from Christendom: revolt against belief, revolt against authority, and revolt against the unity of Christian peoples. Engelbert could not see how these wounds could be healed and he prophesied the imminent end of the world. Catherine of Siena was a child of the 14th century. In January of 1380, Catherine went to pray in the old St. Peter's basilica in Rome. She raised her eyes to the mosaic in the apse of the church, a mosaic that depicted the vessel of the Church tossing upon a raging sea. Catherine moaned and began to fall to the ground, unconscious. When she had recovered , her friends asked the reason for her distress. She replied that she had beheld the Church in a storm of such intensity that, even with the apostolic steersman at the helm, the waves seemed about to engulf the vessel. In a moment of agonized wonder she thought: can even God Himself prevent it from foundering? 2 The Sienese mystic's vision corresponded all too well to reality. In the 14th century, the winds of history had grown to a tempest. Men and women 1 H. Daniel-Rops, Cathedral and Crusade: Studies of the Medieval Church, trans. J. Warrington (New York: Dutton, 1957), p. 28. 184 RICHARD...

Scale Studies o! Reverberation in Large Coupled Spaces

Reverberation times over a wide frequency range have been measured in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and in St. Mary Queen of the Earth Cathedral in Montreal. The latter is built to a linear half-scale of St. Peter's in its basic architecture which makes possible important comparisons with acoustical theory. However, the decorations, especially the sculpture, are much less extensive in the Montreal church, and furthermore, St. Peter's has more side chapels with openings to act as sound absorbers and coupled air volumes. As a consequence the reverberation times do not scale in the simple ratio as originally anticipated, for the midfrequency reverberation time in St. Peter's is 7.1 sec while that in the Montreal church is 5.9 sec. However, a comparative analysis of the data is important for understanding the influence of coupled air volumes on reverberation and the propagation of sound in large rooms of complex shape. The results are consistent with those previously reported for the four Patriarchal Basilicas in Rome and with measurements in other large churches.

Acoustics of St. Peter's and Patriarchal Basilicas in Rome

This paper reports on acoustical measurements made with Vatican permission in several large churches, including St. Peter's Basilica and the other three Patriarchal Basilicas in Rome: S. Giovanni in Laterano, S. Paolo fuori le Mura, and S. Maria Maggiore. The observed reverberation times for these large churches are unusually short. This is because of the acoustical coupling of the air volumes making up the structures and also the profusion of architectural detail and decoration, especially sculpture, that produces a very considerable amount of sound diffusion. The measured reverberation times are consistent with standard reverberation theory when the coupled nature of the air volumes is considered.

Acoustics of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

With Vatican permission, we made acoustical measurements in St. Peter's Basilica in May 1970. The reverberation times for this largest church in the world (20 000 000 ft3) are much shorter than expected; those for the empty Basilica at midfrequencies being about 7.5 sec. This unexpectedly low value results because St. Peter's is a group of five large churches and a number of smaller spaces weakly coupled acoustically. Analysis by standard reverberation theory and simple considerations of acoustical coupling between the spaces agrees with the observations. Measurements made in 1966 with a large congregation gave reverberation times of about 5 sec. In 1964, when the Basilica was filled with highly absorbing seating for the Ecumenical Congress, the reverberation times were about 312 sec. For the 200th anniversary Beethoven celebration on May 23, 1970, a complete concert-hall stage was installed in the rotunda and the acoustics for Miss Solemnis were judged excellent by critical musicians. The exceptional acoustical properties are due to the multiple coupled air spaces into which the Basilica is divided, and to the diffusion produced by the wealth of architectural detail and sculptural ornament.