13: Rome, Banquets, and Scappi

Rome as example of 16th century states

bureaucracies bigger, better organized.
- Rome: both Church bureaucracy, Papal States administration
Social stratification
Value placed on education, knolwedge of ancient writers and modern
Value placed on arts and appreciation of ancient and modern
Courts (in most of Europe: ruler)
Religious confession built into political identity

Wars across Europe: 2 main eras

1494 1559 (1529): Wars of Italy

South, Milan under Hapsburg Control
Florence/Tuscany a duchy under Medici control (approval of HRE)
Rome and Papal States depend on Catholic allies for military support
also about the growing dominance of big European states

French Wars of Religion; violence in England

1618-1648: Thirty Years’ War

Main fighting in HRE
Treaty of Westphalia forces states across continent to recognize on another

Particular concern for us: prominent concerns about sovereignty, diplomacy

Why exemplary Rome?

International, mixed roles as capital
Need to rebuild after Schism plus Reformation allows opportunity to modernize

From the era of Platina to the era of Scappi

Need for physical infrastructure (streets, bridges, water)
Church needed to rebuild governance structures
Opportunity to fill clerical administrative ranks with mene of letters
Church’s own physical infrastructure (churches, residence)

City: Meastri delle strade

The Curia: Renaissance Europe’s biggest bureaucracy (from Martin V to Clement VII)

Late Avignon era ca 500-600

1520: over 2k (including vacabilia)

Source: John D’Amico, Renaissance Humanism in Papal Rome

Curia-3

Chancery (Palazzo della Cancelleria)

central church (Rome) more involved in decision-making across Europe (public and private)

Another set of re-organization moves: mid 16^th c

residences: Palazzi (and villas)

Paul II (1464-71)

Palazzo Venezia: Renaissance palazzo, papal residence

Households: the Roman familia

Household staff
professional staff
residents
guests
size: from ca 20-ca 200

Other palazzi: well established in other Italian cities:

Exx: Florence, Palazzo Antinori, Palazzo Medici

Banquets and banquet culture

Communal meals: monasteries (refectory, dining hall)

Andrea del Castagno, Last Supper (1445-50), Museo di Cenacolo di Sant’Apollonia, Florence

Late Middle Ages: from manor house to chateau

The first stone of the Chateau de Chambord was laid in 1519.

Chateau de Chambord (Loire), begun 1519 (Francis I)

Chateau de Cambord website

Ancient models: Roman and Greek banquets: Ficino and Plato’s Symposium

Renaissance Rome: the households, Palazzi and villas of the papacy, cardinals and other elites

London: The Banqueting House (Whitehall), Inigo Jones (1619)

The Spanish triumphal arch (front), 1599 . Triumphal Gate decorated with a representation of king Philip II between his children, for the entrance of Archduke Albert and Isabella of Austria into Antwerp. Historica narratio profectionis et inaugurationis serenissimorum Belgii principum Alberti et Isabellae Austriae archiducum, 1599.