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.]]>
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.]]>
The complex of the Raccomandati is split into two parts. The buildings in the northern complex were mainly gained from the Annibaldi family, which comprised of a cemetery that is now a formal garden, the women ward and the Annibaldi’s tower house that is now attached to it, and a funerary chapel - a small church with the apse turned toward the street. The buildings in the southern complex were comprised of the new and the old Ward that was perpendicularly positioned, blocking an ancient kilns inside that was reused by the confraternity, and the church of S. Andrea and the Holy Angel - the confraternity’s main infirmary, with its portico along the street and a clear emblem over the arch. The infirmary belongs to the Roman hospital type for an “aisleless, single-story hall articulated by diaphragm arches in the interior and buttresses in the exterior.”

Some of the more significant expansions of this confraternity were during the Black Death and the Jubilee. That is not surprising, for the Black Death tested the reliability of the confraternity’s complex and the pilgrims coming for the Jubilee who entered from Porta Maggiore would soon see the complex and the emblem of this confraternity, right behind St. John in Lateran. The emblem depicts a kneeling figurine bearing candles adore the Christ effigy of the Salvatore Achiropita. When one was sick and poor during the Middle Ages, that is precisely the symbol one would be looking for.

The Raccomandati was closely related with the Senate, for running the hospital was itself a civic leadership role, a promise of competent administration; self-governing entrepreneurial elites viewed themselves of constructed social and corporate identity. The charitable services enlarged their self-esteem by shaping an image of capable governance. And in 1386, the municipal authority assigned civil and penal jurisdiction over Via Maior (now Via San Giovanni) and officially entrusted the confraternity with the protection and development of this area, which the Raccomandati reshaped around 1395, of the road junctions, and made it an enclosed and easily controllable urban sluice gate.]]>
In addition, the Church of Santo Spirito, which was dedicated to Santa Maria, was also part of the complex. The hospital was run by the Hospitallers confraternity, which was a group that, along with working at the complex, also gave assistance to needy pilgrims, fighters in holy lands, and even helped to protect papal property. In return for their services the Hospitallers received special privileges from the papacy.

The hospital hall built by Innocent III no longer exists, today as it was demolished in the late 15th century when Pope Sixtus IV rebuilt the Santo Spirito complex. Sixtus commissioned a larger infirmary hall, called the Sistine Ward, in place of the old one. The Sistine Ward is still visible on the eastern side of the modern-day complex. In addition to the Sistine Ward, Sixtus also built a library, an impressive octagonal tower, and cloisters as part of the new complex. Sixtus’s construction solidified the Borgo area as the official home and seat of power of the papacy.

To strengthen papal power, which was waning in 13th century Rome, Innocent III changed several government conventions: along with tying himself closely with multiple confraternities and monastic orders, he also reduced the number of allotted Senate councilors. Innocent’s hospitals served as signs of papal power and even forms of protection for the papacy’s rule. Innocent was able to show off the wealth and influence of the papacy as well as his own piety through his hospital complexes. These large, impressive constructions were meant to reinforce the papacy’s authority and might in Rome.]]> Hospitals and Urbanism in Rome, 1200-1500. Edited by Walter S. Melion. Leiden: Brill, 2015.

“Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia.” Wikipedia, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ospedale_di_Santo_Spirito_in_Sassia

Picardi, Nicola. “Birth in Rome of the First Hospital in the History of Europe. Further Development of the Roma’s Hospitals.” (Italy: Annali Italiani di Chirurgia, Edizione Digitale, 2010), 329-335. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c097/6b48404fdb4ed1408529cbf524024e03a605.pdf]]>
The complex initially was the Mausoleum of Emperor Augustus, built in 28 BC, which became a stronghold of the Colonna family in the Middle Ages. Giacomo intended to redeem the honor of the house by doing charity for more people in Rome, as well as showing the family power. The location of the hospital is near Tiber river and next to Portages del Popolo, allowing easier accessor for food and medicine supply coming by the river and providing convenience for the pilgrims coming from a long distance on food.

In the 16th century, Pope Leo X transformed the hospital for the sick and the incurable of all social classes and all genders, with particular attention to the cure of syphilis, which was rapidly and widely spread during the time. Leo X also established free assistance to the sick. The main source of funding was obtained mainly from the donations of the private donors (Pope Leo X was among them), and from the revenues of the various assets that were attributed to the hospital itself.

Also in the 16th century, under the first ambitious reconstruction of the hospital, the Chiesa di Giacomo in Augusta was built next to the hospital. Moreover, Chiesa di Santa Maria Portages Paradisi was rebuilt and given its name in 1523 as part of the extension of an adjoining hospital. Unfortunately, in 2008, the hospital was closed forever by regional law of Lazio for very complicated reasons, arousing a large number of protests and inconveniences.]]> Hospitals and Urbanism in Rome, 1200-1500. Edited by Walter S. Melion. Leiden: Brill, 2015.

Tanner Fliss '16, “Santa Maria Porta Paradisi,” Carleton Guide to Medieval Rome from Reason, accessed May 31, 2019, http://omeka-dev.carleton.edu/cgmr/items/show/245.

"Ospedale Di San Giacomo Degli Incurabili." Wikiwand. Accessed May 31, 2019. https://www.wikiwand.com/it/Ospedale_di_San_Giacomo_degli_Incurabili#/La_medaglia_pontificia.]]>
Its founding is traditionally attributed to Saint Helena, the emperor Constantine's mother. Her relics can be found at the church today, another piece of evidence for the site’s imperial and religious significance. The story goes that site was considered important as it was where Emperor Augustus first saw his vision of the Virgin Mary in her “Altar of the Sky.” By the 9th century, we know that the church was occupied by Benedictine monks; in 1248, Pope Innocent IV dismissed the Benedictines from the property and replaced them with the Franciscans, moving them from their unhealthy and far-off quarters in Trastevere to the heart of the city. The present structure of the church was built in the years following this relocation, as Franciscans had a lot of funding coming in from their ventures abroad.

Some important bits of the site to check out include: The steps, made from Spoliated marble and dedicated to the icon of the Virgin Mary, which rests at the altar. Built in the middle of the 14th century under the rule of Cola di Rienzo, it was believed that the icon had protected the city from a plague. This icon was so important that Cola di Rienzo was said to have submitted himself to it at his coronation at the Campidoglio. It’s important to note that the possession of this icon put the Franciscans in a very powerful position in the religious landscape of medieval Rome.

Also be sure to check out the facade, which remains simple, in the Franciscan style. Be sure to check out the two remaining rose windows as well. To the left of the altar, one can see where the relics of Saint Helena are housed. Beneath is the altar of the original Benedictine church, which one can still see through a panel of glass. Right nearby is the tomb of Cardinal Matteo d’Acquasparta, a very well preserved piece of late medieval tomb work. To the right of the altar is the old Savelli family chapel, called the chapel of St Francis. There you can see the tomb of Luca Savelli, the oldest known layman's tomb in Rome.]]> Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 68 (2005): 27-72.

Bolgia, Claudia. "The So-Called Tribunal of Arnolfo Di Cambio at S. Maria in Aracoeli, Rome." The Burlington Magazine 143, no. 1185 (2001): 753-55.

Noreen, Kirstin. "The High Altar of Santa Maria in Aracoeli : Recontextualizing a Medieval Icon in Post-tridentine Rome." Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 53 (2008): 99-128

Russo, Laura. Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Rome: Fundo di Edifici in Culto. Ministero dell’Interno, 2007

Gardner, Julian. The Tomb and the Tiara : Curial Tomb Sculpture in Rome and Avignon in the Later Middle Ages. Clarendon Studies in the History of Art. Oxford : New York: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, 1992.]]> San Silvestro in Capite is a church with a rich legacy in Rome before it became the home of the Franciscans and the object of Colona patronage. A Dominican convent in the 13th century, it served as the base for rent collection for the church’s multitude of property holdings both inside and outside of Rome.

In 1285 when Pope Honorius IV disbanded the monastery and dispersed the Domincan brothers within, Cardinal Giancomo Colona seized the opportunity to put his own mark on the space. Fresh from a conflict with the former Pope Boniface VIII when he was forced to leave Rome and relinquish some of his land, Giancomo began grand projects to rebuild Colona prestige such as the mosaic program in Santa Maria Maggiore, fire repairs to the Lateran complex, and taking charge of small, run down Benedictine monasteries, such as San Silvestro and the nearby San Lorenzo in Panisperna, and rededicating them to the poor Clares, the female branch of the Franciscans.

The Clares entered the urban church from their monastery outside the city and began practicing business in addition to their usual spiritual pursuits, collecting the rent from the church’s land and becoming more involved in the business aspect of owning such vast holdings.

Also notable is the immense amount of Colona patronage that the church began to receive in exchange for accepting Colona females into the convent as well as burial and remembrance practice for notable Colona men. Over time San Silvestro became a “family church”, a site where wealth and lands could be religiously and respectfully displayed, while still acting as a beacon of Colona power in the urban landscape.

While most of the medieval art has been covered up or moved. Original columns and inscriptions can be found in the courtyard behind the façade. The altar from the church is said to have been moved to either Santi Nereo e Achilleo or San Cesareo in Palatio, both of which are by the Baths of Caracalla. Additionally, if you stand further back in the piazza out front, you can see the top of the old medieval roof and the campanile, or bell tower, which still stands today.

]]> Rome before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Graham, Emily E. “Memorializing Identity: The Foundation and Reform of San Lorenzo in Panisperna.” Franciscan Studies 75 (2017): 467-495. https://muse.jhu.edu/]]> According to legend, San Lorenzo in Panisperna is located on the spot at which the martyr St. Lawrence of Rome was grilled to death and after became a moderately successful pilgrimage church due to the presence of his relics.

Much of the medieval art and architecture of the church has been covered up by later renovations, but the medieval houses that surround the church can still be seen.

In the late 13th century, Cardinal Giacamo Colonna renovated the monastery and ceded it to the Poor Clares, a female subgroup of the Franciscans. Some scholars argue that San Lorenzo was intended to be a “family church” like San Silvestro in Capite, a location where Colona family wealth could be displayed while looking pious rather than greedy. Others argue however that this interpretation minimizes some of the unique circumstances that are wrapped up in the convent’s founding.

Giancomo handpicked all of the nuns for the convent and gave them a degree of freedom from the papacy with carefully timed gifts of land. That coupled with Giancomo’s links to so-called “deviant” Franciscan groups who were slightly outside the religious norm indicates that rather than a family church, San Lorenzo in Panisperna may have been a sort of haven for female Franciscans who may have experienced conflict with religious authority, such as his sister, the Colona saint Margherita who had died several years prior. One of the convent’s most notable residents, Saint Bridget of Sweden, had much in common with Margherita and came to Rome after she experienced a divine vision instructing her to do so. Further strengthening this interpretation is the conflict that Giancomo experienced with Pope Boniface the VIII, indicating a potential wariness towards the papacy and a desire to create spaces outside of its direct control.

The church retained significance within the urban space due to its proximity to Santa Maria Maggiore and the city center. In fact, during the sack of Rome in 1527 the Clares at San Cosimato in Trastevere crossed the Tiber to take shelter in the more centrally located church.

]]> Graham, Emily E. “Memorializing Identity: The Foundation and Reform of San Lorenzo in Panisperna.” Franciscan Studies 75 (2017): 467-495. https://muse.jhu.edu/

Hart, Vaughan and Peter Hicks. Palladio’s Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

|Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Lowe, Kate. "Franciscan and Papal Patronage at the Clarissan Convent of San Cosimato in Trastevere, 1440–1560." Papers of the British School at Rome 68 (2000): 217-39.

Majanlahti, Anthony. The Families Who Made Rome. New York: Pimlico, 2006.

]]> 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 poor and for pilgrims. In the early 13th century, Francis stayed at San Biagio while in Rome to seek approval for the Franciscan order by the pope. This cemented the church complex as an important location for Franciscans, and the cell in which Francis stayed has been preserved in the modern church.

In 1229, Pope Gregory IX ordered the Benedictine monks to give San Biagio to the Franciscans. By the mid-medieval period, Trastevere experienced generally increasing population sizes, and because of its location near the Tiber River port, Biagio/a Ripa became a popular place for the nobility to seek burial. This connection to a variety of noble families helped bring additional prestige to the church and further cemented it as a hub of Franciscan activity in Rome. It became the first Franciscan monastery in Rome, and San Francesco remains a Franciscan church today, though much of its medieval roots are no longer visible due to rebuilding projects.

]]> Brentano, Robert. Rome before Avignon: A Social History of Thirteenth-century Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Robbins, Deborah King. "A Case Study of Medieval Urban Process: Rome's Trastevere (1250-1450)." Order No. 9006487, University of California, Berkeley, 1989. http://ezproxy.carleton.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.carleton.edu/docview/303675283?accountid=9892.

Udina, Cristina. "Dallo xenodocio benedittino al convento francescano,” pp. 21-88 in La fabbrica del convento. Memorie storiche, trasformazioni erecupero del complesso di San Francesco a Ripa in Trastevere, ed. P. Degni and P. L. Porzio (Rome: Donzelli, 2011). Trans. Victoria Morse, 2, June 2019.

Nguyen, Shaylin. “San Biagio to San Francesco a Ripa: Benedictine Rule to Franciscan Control,” Carleton Guide to Medieval Rome from Reason, accessed June 3, 2019, http://omeka-dev.carleton.edu/cgmr/items/show/244.

]]> 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 Cosimato became the first female Franciscan convent in Rome, and remained an integral part of the growing network of Franciscans in and around Rome for centuries. The existing sources about the convent’s history come from chronicles and records written and kept by the nuns; the most complete chronical was written by Suor Orsola Formici in the sixteenth century. It is necessary to note that while women carved both religious and intellectual spaces for themselves at Cosimato, male Franciscans still held the power to make decisions on behalf of the women- female subservience was expected.

Cosimato experienced a busy 15th and 16th century. In 1451, a shuffling around of Clarison convents took place, and Cosimato was re-staffed with nuns from central Italy. In 1439, and again in 1456, papal bulls brought Clarison convents under the auspices of the papacy, which resulted in the Pope and the Franciscan order sharing authority over the Clares. This lead to a closer relationship between the convent, and Franciscans as a whole, with the papacy, and demonstrated the growing popularity and power of the Franciscan movement.

A peak of this close relationship with the papacy occurred in 1471, with the patronage of the first Franciscan pope, Pope Sixtus the IV. Pope Sixtus invested heavily in San Cosimato, supposedly funding a second cloister and a campanile and financing repairs around 1475. Sixtus’ building projects and the original medieval façade can still be seen today, in the hospice care unit of Nuova Regina Margharita Ospitale.

As a result of the patronage of Sixtus and the continued popularity of Franciscan-ism, Cosimato experienced a population increase from 12 in 1451, to 70 in 1521. Considered models of good behavior, the nuns of Cosimato were often sent to other convents to reform them. On a final note, San Cosimato was broken into and robbed during the 1527 sack of Rome. Though the nuns sought refuge at San Silvestro, invaluable records were destroyed during the robbery, significantly affecting the number of primary sources now available on the convent’s history.

]]>
Lowe, Kate. "Franciscan and Papal Patronage at the Clarissan Convent of San Cosimato in Trastevere, 1440–1560." Papers of the British School at Rome 68 (2000): 217-39. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40311030.]]>