Photograph: courtesy of Penn State Press, University Park PA

Heather Hyde Minor
The Culture of Architecture in Enlightenment Rome

University Park: Penn State Press, 2010, 312 pp., 36 colour and 112 b/w ill., 6 maps, $ 95.00
ISBN 978-0-271-03564-2


In 1730 Rome faced an acute crisis. The pope’s political power was in steep decline, and the economy of the Papal States sputtered. To remain vital, the papacy urgently had to bolster Rome’s relevance on the European stage. As Prospero Lambertini (the future Benedict XIV) stated, the pope ‘has to maintain prestige by making Rome a model for other cities in learning, the sciences and the arts’. Beginning her book with this quote, Heather Hyde Minor resolves to show how the papacy used architecture and erudition to accomplish it.

Rome was never in short supply of erudite men or architects, and Minor focuses on their florescence during the papacies of Clement XII Corsini (1730-40) and Benedict XIV Lambertini (1740-58). Advisors, reformists, antiquarians, and ecclesiastical historians saw an opportunity to advance learning and alter policy. They also wanted to build, and Minor details how scholars helped to construct papal Rome. They animated commissions with learned debates and programmatic meanings, and the architects Ferdinando Fuga and Alessandro Galilei responded by drafting designs for the façades for S. Giovanni in Laterano and Santa Maria Maggiore, a new Palazzo Corsini, and the Palazzo della Consulta. Minor’s book is the first to examine comprehensively the buildings of this period, and the structures are handsomely presented with numerous illustrations. Most importantly, she unites scholars and designers, crafting a broadly interdisciplinary book that sees architecture through the lenses of theology, ecclesiastical history, and philosophy.

Minor resurrects names of learned men that, while present in footnotes and specialized studies, have been absent from broader narratives. She gives them flesh with incisive biographies. We glimpse Pier Filippo Strozzi excavating beneath the tribune of Santa Maria Maggiore; catch Lione Pascoli outlining reforms for the Papal States; observe Alessandro Capponi’s careful administration of the newly established Capitoline Museum; and cannot escape Giovanni Bottari, who weighed in on matters from ecclesiastical history to architectural taste. Minor assigns these men varying roles in shaping architecture. Pascoli’s advocacy for reform had only an indirect influence on the development of the Quirinal Hill. Strozzi and Giuseppe Bianchini likely directed Fuga in his restoration of Santa Maria Maggiore. A focus on antiquities and church history by Bottari left its mark in the chaste ‘gusto antico’ of Galilei’s Lateran façade. Even when their roles are tangential, Minor brings learned men into the conversation on architecture to expose the rich intellectual milieu that surrounded commissions. She is correct to do so, as she shows in her examination of Galilei, who sought to ignite his career by bolstering his reputation for learnedness.

How intellectual debates influenced building practice is a major contribution to the architectural history of Italy, and the key strength of the book. Minor backs her claims with abundant documentary evidence from the archives of the Corsini Library and the Archivio di Stato di Roma, citing the copious records and letters of Bottari, Capponi, and Neri and Bartolomeo Corsini. These documents allow her to pinpoint the motivations for each commission and the meanings of the resulting architecture. She also carefully examines the buildings themselves, noting how ornament and style were calibrated to convey messages of history, doctrine, and familial politics. Meticulous in her use of textual and visual evidence, Minor wears her learning lightly. Each chapter is a delightful read, and begins with clever headings, such as ‘How Alessandro Gregorio Capponi Finally Convinced Everyone He Was Important’. Witty aplomb animates the entire text, propelling the reader through each detailed building history.

Given her narrative gifts, one wishes that Minor had included a few additional biographical sketches. For example, while Galilei emerges clearly in the book’s pages, Fuga remains in the shadows. Characterizing his life and work would help orient those unfamiliar with the architect, and could also clarify how he engaged with antiquarians. Pope Benedict XIV also seems to deserve more attention. The Bolognese prelate was one of the most learned men to occupy the papal throne. His quote about the political importance of learning and art opens the book, and he provided the funds for the façade of Santa Maria Maggiore, but otherwise he is largely absent.

Wishing these figures had a more prominent place does not diminish Minor’s accomplishment. Indeed, by desiring more, one pays the author the highest compliment. Filled with discussions of taste, doctrine, ecclesiastical history, familial strife, archaeology, and book history, Minor has arrayed a rich feast of information around the architecture of papal Rome in the eighteenth century. She brilliantly resurrects the aspirant ambitions of popes, scholars, and architects that built in order to keep Rome a centre of art and learning.


Robin Thomas
Pennsylvania State University