cities in text: rome
Cities in Text: Rome is a project in conjunction with the Historic Urban Environments Lab (HUE), an interdisciplinary team working to create new tools to study the built environment. The project aims to provide virtual access to historic travel literature and the buildings and monuments they describe.
As a research assistant to Professor Selena Anders, Ph.D, I specifically focused on Giuseppe Vasi’s historical guidebook Itinerario Istruttivo Diviso in Otto Gironate. The text, originally published in 1763, details an eight-day walking itinerary through the city of Rome featuring nearly 400 buildings and monuments. Over the course of two and a half years, I researched over 150 sites Vasi describes on his Day 5, Day 6, and Day 7 itineraries using archives and primary library resources. I then wrote descriptions articulating the history of these sites, which were integral to the development of the website and interactive mobile application. Additionally, I followed Vasi’s itineraries while I was based in Rome to accumulate photographic documentation for the project and entered images and text into the project database.
The website and application allow the user to read Vasi’s digitized text, follow his outlined itineraries using geolocation services, and learn about evolution of the sites of Rome based on the historical descriptions. By combining primary source material with multimedia technologies, Cities in Text: Rome grants a larger audience virtual access to Vasi’s historic travel guide and creates an interactive and methodological approach to studying the architectural and urban development of Rome. Vasi’s itineraries reveal how knowledge of Rome spread through literature and are an essential tool to compare the modern city to the historical city.
borromini’s baroque legacy: evolution through time
My research aimed to understand how Borromini translated his studies of different typological precedents in Rome, from both antiquity and the Renaissance, into the novel Baroque design for San Carlo. Borromini’s study of these classical precedents strongly influenced his design for the church, although they were not strictly applied as “true classicism.” Through this research, I discovered how Borromini interpreted precedent in an innovative manner, and gained a greater understanding of his method of first analyzing and then adapting architectural precedents.
Francesco Borromini was first introduced to architecture in Milan, where he learned the art of stonecutting. Upon his return to Rome, Borromini worked as a stonesman and draftsman under the Italian architect Carlo Maderno, one of the fathers of Baroque architecture. Under Maderno, Borromini gained valuable experience, but it was not until 1634 when he received his first independent commission for the church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane from Cardinal Francesco Barberini. Located on the Quirinal Hill, the church complex was designed for the Spanish Trinitarians, a religious order dedicated to freeing Christian slaves, and was constructed from 1638-1646.
The church established a reputation for the little-known architect at the time for its complexity and grandeur at such a small scale. One of the most revolutionary aspects of the design was Borromini’s emphasis on geometry. While other architects of the time focused on anthropomorphism and determined their designs based on the proportion of the human figure, Borromini used geometry to form the basis of his designs. This was controversial, as the idea of anthropomorphism was central to antiquity, the basis for architectural design at the time.
While in Rome on a Nanovic Institute Grant, I analyzed precedents Borromini studied for the church of San Carlino including the Pantheon, the Basilica of Santa Prassede, and Michelangelo’s Palazzo dei Conservatori. Through a series of measured drawings, sketches, and photographs, I was able to better understand how he evolved these various precedents into the design for San Carlino.
I aim to compile my studies and analytical drawings into a book, therefore creating a historical guidebook to Borromini’s design process. The guidebook will depict the features that he adapted from Roman precedents and how he applied them in an innovative manner. The visuals will provide a clear explanation of Borromini’s design process and demonstrate how he used principles from antiquity in his design, even though they were not the strict reproduction of antiquity other architects strived for during the time.
FRANTIK ARCHITECTURE 