Description
Book SynopsisAnalyzes the politics and economics of architecture and the building process in seventeenth-century Rome. Explores topics ranging from the financing of construction to the availability of materials and personnel.
Trade Review“‘When All of Rome Was Under Construction’ will take its place among the most important and substantial contributions to architectural scholarship and Roman Baroque urban history in a very long time. It traces and vitalizes our understanding of individual and institutional interests in Roman architecture in a way that has been hardly, if ever, equaled. Dorothy Habel’s research makes the study of Roman Baroque urbanism more engaging and pertinent than ever before. This is benchmark scholarship.”
—Tod Marder,Rutgers University
“Based on the eloquent voices in personal diaries, the pleadings of interested parties, and essays dedicated to the public good, Dorothy Habel’s richly textured account of mid-seventeenth-century Rome’s urban development is only minimally a story of the great patrons and grand architecture. We learn instead about the negotiations necessary to get things done. Tax policy, financing strategy, and the conflicts among powerful stakeholders structure this history of development. Taking a citywide view, Habel spells out the financial and material connections among projects across the city. This is an account reinforced by the author’s extensive knowledge of Roman topographic imagery and has the great virtue of reintegrating the visual documents with the problems and proposals that give them meaning.”
—David Friedman,Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Habel lays out for us the key decade in the modern development of the piazza, along with revealing glimpses behind the scenes of various other projects, in this richly documented and closely argued book.”
—Joseph Connors Renaissance Quarterly
“Any reader who loves Rome, studies the early modern period in art history, and holds dear the history of architecture will find much to admire in Dorothy Metzger Habel’s study of construction and urban planning in seventeenth-century Rome. ‘When All of Rome Was Under Construction’: The Building Process in Baroque Rome digs deep into archival records to tell compelling stories about how the building trades functioned and who got to boss whom around, along with what were the obstacles, snags, and goals faced by those who helped to shape baroque Rome.”
—Vernon Hyde Minor Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Units of Measure and Monetary Values
Introduction
1 The Urban Redevelopment of Piazza Colonna I: “Senza Spesa Ne Aggravare Alcuno”
2 The Urban Redevelopment of Piazza Colonna II: “Il Negotio Restava Aggiustato”
3 The Repercussions of Building Piazza S. Pietro “in Tempo Che Tutta Roma Era in Fabrica”
4 Lorenzo Pizzatti and His “Roza Riforma”: A Pavonazzo Speaks Up “Tutto per il Ben Publico”
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
