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.]]> 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.]]>
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.]]>
Krautheimer, Richard, and Marvin Trachtenberg. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.]]>
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.]]> 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.]]> Rome before Avignon : A Social History of Thirteenth-century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Frugoni, Chiara, and Frugoni, Arsenio. A Day in a Medieval City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.]]> Rome, Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980. 295]]>
Later, in the time of a Christian Emperor Phocas, Pope Boniface re-consecreated the temple to the Blessed Virgin Mary and arranged that the Roman Pontiff should sing mass there and give communion. ]]> The Marvels of Rome. Edited by Francis Morgan Nichols. Second. New York, New York: Italica Press, 1986.]]>
Unfortunately, this miraculous temple was destroyed by the blessed Sylvester who feared that orators who came to Rome would wander through it and other profane buildings instead of churches- furthering paganism rather than celebrating Christianity. He kept the head and hands of Phoebus in the Lateran to remember the temple, but they are now known falsely and vargarly as Samson’s Ball.]]> The Marvels of Rome. Edited by Francis Morgan Nichols. Second. New York, New York: Italica Press, 1986.]]>
The statues he made are the ones you see at the top of the stairs leading to the Capitoline Hill. “The naked horses which trample on the earth, that is on the mighty princes of the world that rule over the men of this world. And there shall come a very mighty king who shall mount the horses, that is, upon the might of the princes of the world. Meanwhile there are two men half-naked, who stand by the horses with their arms raised high and with fingers bent who tell of the things that are to be, and they are naked as all world knowledge is naked and open to their minds” (The Marvels of Rome 19).

Under a Christian lens, the prophecy of the mighty King who shall mount the horses that trample the earth is a foretelling of the coming of Christ. What is fascinating, however, is that if you look up the name Dioscuri in the dictionary you will see it comes from the Greek Διός κούροι meaning the sons of Zeus. This appellation normally refers to Castor and Pollux who make up the Gemini constellation. They are often associated with horses and are the patrons of the equites which were a Roman order of Mounted knights whose membership was originally based on wealth, birth, and education.

]]> The Marvels of Rome. Edited by Francis Morgan Nichols. Second. New York, New York: Italica Press, 1986.]]>
Once arrived at the Lateran, the pope would perform his ritual possession of the church known as the possessio. The pope would cast coins at the marble seat, the sedes stercoraria, at the Latern’s entrance. He would be led up to this seat where he would sit down. The cardinals would raise him up to fulfill the saying: “He raised the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the dunghill to give them a place with princes and to assign them a seat of honor” (1 Kings 2:8, cf. Psalm 112:7-8). The pope would then remove denarii from his garb and throw them into the crowd while reciting Acts 3:6 “I have neither gold nor silver but what I have I give to you”.

This ceremony is similar to those conducted by Byzantine emperors upon their accession, illustrating Byzantine influences in Rome during this time. One interpretation of the possessio is that the coins thrown by the pope are his gift to those who had elected him and is an offering made by the possessor of the church, the pope, to its owner, the people.

Popes were crowned at the Lateran until 1870 when Rome became the secular capital of Italy.]]> The Catholic Historical Review 85, no. 4 (1999): 531-40. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.carleton.edu/stable/25025585. Macadam, Alta, and A. B. Barber. Blue Guide to Rome. 11th ed. London: Somerset Books, 2016.]]>
The pope’s return from Avignon doubled the population of Rome as he brought over the papal bureaucracy and business followed suit. This led to the transformation of the via Papalis as new palaces were constructed to house this inflow of residents, as well as conflict between the old Roman elite and new papal curia. Often times the pope enacted policies that favored new curia and penalized native Romans such as granting these new members construction permits and privileges over members of the old elite. To increase papal control along the via Papalis, the pope demolished porticoes, some of the most important spaces in the city where business and legal matters were conducted. The destruction of porticos and widening of narrow streets served to improve papal defense in the chance of a revolt.

In this way, the via Papalis became the theater for tensions between the old and new elite which manifested themselves in the utilization of space and construction of palaces. When the pope processed down the via Papalis, he would often have been facing the people most critical of him: old noble Romans. As the pope walked along the road during his coronation, a member of his cavalcade would toss coins into the crowd. By completing the papal procession along this route, traversing the territory of the Roman elite and the most important religious and secular sites, the pope claimed to unify and dominate the city, often provoking stoning and rioting in the process.
]]> Urban History 37, no. 3 (2010): 434–51. doi:10.1017/S0963926810000556.

Partridge, Loren. The Art of the Renaissance in Rome, 1400-1600. London: Laurence King Publishers, 2012.]]>