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

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. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of figures 8 List of colour plates 20 Preface and acknowledgements 23 Note to the reader 26 List of abbreviations 27 Introduction 30 From Isis to Mary: The Arx and its surroundings from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 37 1 Before the Franciscans: The previous churches on the site 51 Cunctarum prima quae Fuit orbe sita: Literary, documentary and epigraphic evidence from the earliest times to the thirteenth century 51 From S. Maria in Capitolio to S. Maria in Aracoeli: The title 64 Archaeological evidence from the earliest times to the thirteenth century 68 The previous churches and their relationship with the Franciscan building 69 Early medieval church furniture 96 The obelisk 111 The cloisters 112 Conclusion 117 2 The Franciscan ‘appropriation’ of the Arx 119 Franciscan foundations in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe 119 The Franciscans in Rome and their new headquarters 125 The ara coeli 145 The monument and its 'meaning' 145 The ara coeli ‘confessio’? Art for the Benedictines or the Franciscans? 156 New and old cults before the construction of the new church 170 3 The new Franciscan church: Between tradition and innovation 175 An architectural analysis of the medieval building 175 Nave and aisles 175 Transept 188 Chapel L9 193 Original main chapel 206 Façade 227 The decoration of the apse and the Franciscan promotion of the legend of Augustus from Rome to Finland 239 Marble workshop: Window tracery 251 Transmission and reception of formal ideas: Artistic exchanges between Rome and England in the thirteenth century 269 The magister principalis and the builders 286 The deployment of spolia and Franciscan ideas 288 New and old cults in the new Franciscan church: Paths for faithful and pilgrims 312 4 The ‘extended’ space of the Franciscan church: S. Maria in Aracoeli as a lived social and political place 319 The ‘extended’ space of the church exterior 320 The original side entrance and the guardianship of the minors 320 Preaching, politics and religious tribunals 334 The ‘extended’ space of the church interior 338 Inner appearance and family chapels 338 Burying in the Franciscan church 360 Between ‘public’ and ‘private’ in the Rome of the popular regimes: Francesco Felici’s icon tabernacle and family chapel 377 Beyond Rome: The legend of Augustus and the Aracoeli icon in fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century Siena 417 Conclusions 423 Appendix: Chart of intercolumniations 429 Bibliography 454 Index 493 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.