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Franciscan and papal patronage at the Clarissan convent of San Cosimato in Trastevere, 1440–1560

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Kate Lowe
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 68 , November 2000 , pp. 217 - 239
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Copyright © British School at Rome 2000

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References

1 I am very grateful to the present nuns of San Cosimato for their kind help, and to Ian Bavington Jones and Bryan Ward-Perkins. The second article will appear in Papers of the British School at Rome 69 (2001Google Scholar).

2 Formicini composed three versions of this history, writing the first two in her own hand, and dictating the third. The version used in this article is in Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (hereafter BNCR), Fondi minori, Varia 5; it is Formicini's second attempt, and dates from c. 1607. The first attempt is in BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 6 and dates from c. 1603, and the last is in Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (hereafter BAV), Vat. lat. 7847 and dates from c. 1613.

3 Lowe, K., ‘History writing from within the convent in cinquecento Italy: the nuns'version’, in Panizza, L. (ed.), Women in Italian Renaissance Culture and Society (Oxford, 2000Google Scholar).

4 But see the seventeenth-century chronicle by Suora Domenica Salomonia of the Dominican convent of San Sisto (later Santi Domenico e Sisto) now published by Spiazzi, R. (ed.), Cronache e fioretti del monastero di San Sisto all'Appia (Bologna, 1993Google Scholar).

5 The part of the chronicle dealing with the Sack of Rome was published by Quondam, A., ‘Lanzichenecchi in convento. Suor Orsola e la storia tra archivio e devozione’, Schifanoia 6 (1988), 88–125Google Scholar. R. Turi, ‘Il “Libra delle antichità di S. Cosimato” di Suor Orsola Formicini (1548–1615): cronaca di un monastero di clarisse tra XVI e XVII secolo’ (Tesi di laurea in storia moderna, Università di Rome “La Sapienza”, 1993–4) has transcribed the second version of Formicini's chronicle, 97–396. I am extremely grateful to Roberta Turi for helping me with my work on San Cosimato, and in particular for making it possible for me to visit the present-day nuns on the Aventine.

6 Fedele, P., ‘Carte del monastero dei Ss. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea’, Archivio delta Reale Società Romano di Storia Patria 21 (1898) and 22Google Scholar (1899).

7 For the earlier date, see Moorman, J., Medieval Franciscan Houses (New York, 1983), 655Google Scholar; for the latter, Monasticon Italiae I. Roma e Lazio (Cesena, 1981), 50Google Scholar.

8 On the medieval buildings, see Lloyd, J. Barclay, ‘L'architettura medievale di S. Cosimato in Trastevere’, in Lloyd, J. Barclay and Einaudi, K. Bull-SimonsenSS. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea: architettura, storia e storiografia di un monastero romano soppresso (Miscellanea della Società romana di storia patria) (Rome, 1998), 77–126Google Scholar.

9 Moorman, Medieval Franciscan Houses (above, n. 7), 655–6.

10 A ‘repertorio di instrumenti’ of 1600 by Formicini in the possession of the San Cosimato nuns on the Aventine records a notarial document of 7 May 1546 of this sort.

11 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 184v.

12 The fundamental work on this is Fantozzi, A., ‘La riforma osservante dei monasteri delle Clarisse nell'Italia centrale (documenti, sec. XV–XVI)’, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 23 (1930), 361–82, 488–550Google Scholar.

13 See Sensi, M., Le osservanze francescane nell'Italia centrale (secoli XIV–XV) (Rome, 1985), 263–93Google Scholar.

14 See the diagram of this network in the introduction by Nicolini, Ugolino to Sr. Lainati, Chiara Augusta (ed.), Memoriale di Monteluce (Assisi, 1983), xxGoogle Scholar.

15 Sr. Angela Emmanuela Scandella (ed.), Ricordanze del monastero di S. Lucia osc. in Foligno (cronache 1424–1786), with Bocalli, G. (ed.), Appendice su altri monasteri osc. in Umbria (Assisi, 1987Google Scholar), contains the chronicles of Santa Lucia in Foligno, Santissima Trinità in Gubbio, Santa Maria della Pace in Norcia and Santa Chiara in Città di Castello. Another edition of the Norcia chronicle exists in Cordelia, R., ‘Il ‘Memoriale’ della clausura di Norcia’, Picenum Seraphicum 16 (1981–1983), 163–93Google Scholar. See n. 2 for details of the San Cosimato chronicle and n. 14 for the Monteluce chronicle. The seventh chronicle, of a Clarissan house at Borgo San Sepolcro, is in Florence, Archivio di Stato, as yet unpublished. Jim Banker and I are preparing an article on this short history.

16 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 133r.

17 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 135r.

18 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 169r and 175r–v.

19 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 168r.

20 This is probably Suora Perpetua Sterpini. See BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 302r.

21 Moorman, Medieval Franciscan Houses (above, n. 7), 684–5.

22 Wadding, L., Annales Minorum sen Trium Ordinum a S. Francesco Institutorum (second edition), 23 vols (Rome, 1731–Ancona, 1859), XV, 451Google Scholar.

23 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 173r–v, 232v.

24 Wadding, , Annales Minorum (above, n. 22), XX, 472–3Google Scholar.

25 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 257v–258r.

26 On Clarissan convents in Tivoli, see Moorman, Medieval Franciscan Houses (above, n. 7), 670.

27 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 239r–v.

28 See Formicini's comments on the state of the convent when the nuns returned after a two-month stay in San Lorenzo in Panispema, BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 187r–v.

29 Rome, Archivio di Stato (hereafter ASR), Diplomatico, Santi Cosma e Damiano, cass. 19, perg. 380.

30 ASR, Diplomatico, Santi Cosma e Damiano, cass. 20, perg. 428.

31 ASR, Diplomatico, Santi Cosma e Damiano, cass. 20, perg. 436.

32 For a list of these, see Müntz, E., Les arts à la cour des papes pendant le XVe et le XVIe siècle, 3 vols (Paris, 1882), III, 152–68Google Scholar, and Benzi, F., Sisto IV Renovator Urbis: Architettura a Roma, 1471–84 (Rome, 1990), 54–196Google Scholar.

33 See Tomei, P., L'architettura a Roma nel quattrocento (Rome, 1942), 161–3Google Scholar.

34 Lotz, W., ‘Bramante and the quattrocento cloister’, Gesta 12 (1973), 112–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 Kajanto, I., Papal Epigraphy in Renaissance Rome (Helsinki, 1982), 81–5Google Scholar.

36 See Forcella, V., Iscrizioni delle chiese e d'altri edifici di Roma dal secolo XI fino ai giorni nostri, 14 vols (Rome, 1869–1884), X, 322Google Scholar, and Adinolfi, P., Roma nell'età di mezzo III. Rione Trastevere, 4 vols (Rome, 1881), III, 122Google Scholar. My reading differs from their two versions. The inscription is somewhat garbled and not entirely clear, but seems to be extending the privilege of indulgences to the nuns' relatives, as well as to themselves. These indulgences were placed inside the altar in the convent church. The inscription reads:

A DI. XXII. DI IVNIO. MoCCCCLXXV. / EL S(ANTISSI)MO S(IGNORE). NO(STR)O. SISTO. PAP(A). IIII. FV AL MO / NASTE(R)o. DI S(AN)CTO COSMATO. ET. / CONCESSE. AD TUATE [sic]. LE MONA/ CHE. P(RESE)NTI. ET. FVTVRE CH(E). I(N). Q(VE)LLO / ALTERE [sic]. DENTRO. FVSSERO. TVCTe / LE. I(N). DVLGE(N)TIE [sic]. DI RO(M)A. COSSI. COMO / SONO. LOCO. ET. T(EM)P(OR)E. ET. CO(N)CESSEL(I) /sic] / CN. [sic for CHE] LE POTESSO. DARE. ALI PARE / NTI. LORO. VIVI. ET. DE. FUN(C)TI.

37 BAV, Vat. lat. 7921A, 33r, n. 93.

38 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 235r and 276v.

39 According to a necrologio in the possession of the San Cosimato nuns on the Aventine, Suora Giovanna Romana died on 25 July 1571. If indeed she had been present at one of Sixtus's visits, she must have been over 100 when she died.

40 BNCR Fondi minori, Varia 5, 276v: ‘Più volte detto pontifiche visitò poi detta chiesa amando molto questo locho’.

41 ASR, DiPlomatico, Santi Cosma e Damiano, cass. 19, perg. 382: ‘De mandate instantia et auctontate Sanctissimi in Christo patris et domini nostri D. Sixti divina providentia pape iiii qui noviter hanc ecclesiam sanctorum martirum Cosme et Damiani a fundamentis eius integre restauravit’.

42 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 146v.

43 Scandella (ed.), Ricordanze del monastero di S. Lucia (above, n. 15), 9–12.

44 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 145v–147v.

45 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 147v.

46 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 146v: ‘si vede per le arme sue qual vi sono in chapella, in chiesa i nelli capi di travi e scritte in marmoro’.

47 Gigli, L. (ed.), Guide rionali di Roma. V. Trastevere (Rome, 1987), 40Google Scholar.

48 ‘[SY]XTVS. IIII. PON. MAX. FVNDAVIT. ANNO. I(V)BILEI. MCCCLXXV.’ The L of the date was obviously initially missed out, and had been squeezed in later.

49 ‘SYXTVS. IIII. PON. MAX. FVND (here there is a gap, where it looks as though two pieces of stone have been stuck together; so perhaps originally there was the whole word ‘FVNDAVIT’) ANNO. IVBILEI. MCCCCLXXV.’

50 Forcella, , Iscrizioni delle chiese (above, n. 36), X, 323Google Scholar.

51 Archivio Segreto Vaticano (hereafter ASV), Reg. lat. 714, 224v–225r.

52 Serafini, A., Torri campanarie di Roma e del Lazio nel medioevo (Rome, 1927), 181Google Scholar. Unfortunately, it was not possible to locate and verify this coat of arms in March 1999 because of building works taking place around the campanile.

53 ASR, Camerale I, Mandati camerali 847, 227v. See also the transcription and discussion in Cecchelli, C., ‘Note e documenti su chiese romane’, Roma 21 (1943), 81–2Google Scholar. Müntz, , Les arts (above, n. 32), III, 159Google Scholar quoted from a document in the ASV dated 14 January 1482 which refers back to the November transaction. On the campanile, see Barclay Lloyd, ‘L'architettura medievale’ (above, n. 8), 96–7.

54 Serafini, Torri campanarie (above, n. 52), 181. A bell dated 1238 is still preserved in San Cosimato, in the ante-room to the sala capitolare; see Amidei, E., ‘Campane di Roma’, Capitolium 42 (1967), 293Google Scholar.

55 da Firenze, Mariano, Itinerarium Urbis Romae (ed. Bulletti, P.E.) (Rome, 1931), 100Google Scholar.

56 For example, Sixtus donated some wine to the convent in 1484, ASR, Congregazioni religiose femminili, Inv. 26/11, n. 34, 40 bis.

57 On the della Rovere PAPAL family, see Pastor, L., The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages IV (London, 1910), 231–3Google Scholar.

58 de Villeneuve, L., Recherches sur la famille della Rovere. Contribution pour sevir à l'histoire du pape Jules II (Rome, 1887), 53Google Scholar.

59 ASR, Camerale I, Mandati camerali 845, 103r. Lee, E., Sixtus IV and Men of Letters (Rome, 1978), 34Google Scholar, believed that the two were Luchina and Franchetta whereas Pastor, , The History of the Popes IV (above, n. 57), 233Google Scholar named Bianca and Luchina.

60 ASV, Reg. Vat. 667, 245r–v.

61 ASV, Reg. Vat. 668, 342r.

62 Sicari, G., ‘Monastero dei Santi Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea: sue proprietà in Roma’, Alma Roma 23 (1982), 35Google Scholar.

63 BAV, Cod. Vat. 7921 A, 33v, n. 94.

64 GENEROSE / FRANCHETE / DE RVERE / SIXTI IIII PONT / MAX SECVNDVM / CARNEM SORORIS / DVLCISSEME [sic] / MVLIERIS RELIGIO / SSIME. CORPVS / SVB. HOC. LAPIDE / IACET. Cf. Forcella, , Iscrizioni delle chiese (above, n. 36), X, 323Google Scholar.

65 ASR, Diplomatico, Santi Cosma e Damiano, cass. 19, perg. 388.

66 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 166v–167r.

67 ASR, Camerale I, Mandati camerali 856, lcv. See also de Roo, P., Material for a History of Pope Alexander VI, 5 vols (Bruges, 1924), V, 148–9Google Scholar.

68 ASR, Camerale I, Mandati camerali 856, 34v.

69 ASR, Camerale I, Mandati camerali 857, 174r.

70 ASR, Camerale I, Mandati camerali 859 bis, 1bv–2r.

71 ASV, Arm. XXIX (Diversa cameralia), 73, 9r.

72 ASV, Arm. XXIX (Diversa cameralia), 54, 11v. See de Roo, , Material for a History (above, n. 67), V, 152Google Scholar.

73 ASR, Diplomatico, Santi Cosma e Damiano, cass. 20, perg. 451. The document itself lacks a date, but 1504 has been inscribed in one of the later inventories.

74 ASV, Arm. XXIX (Diversa cameralia), 73, 31v.

75 Wadding, , Annales Minorum (above, n. 22), XV, 589–90Google Scholar.

76 For information on some of her property, see Adinolfi, P., Il Canale di Ponte (Narni, 1860), 13–16Google Scholar.

77 See the article on Vannozza Catanei by Zapperi, R. in the Dizionario biografico degli italiani 22 (Rome, 1979), 295–8, esp. p. 297Google Scholar. On these institutions, see ‘Repertorio degli archivi delle confraternite romane’, Ricerche per la Storia Religiosa di Roma 6 (1985), especially pp. 246–9, 268–71, 349–51Google Scholar.

78 Gnoli, U., Alberghi ed osterie di Roma nella rinascenza (Rome, 1942), 143–56Google Scholar; Zapperi, ‘Vannozza Catanei’ (above, n. 77), 297.

79 Forcella, , Iscrizioni delle chiese (above, n. 36), VIII, 520Google Scholar. This gift was a direct result of the donatione inter vivos of 15 January 1517, which is mentioned on the inscription.

80 Forcella, , Iscrizioni delle chiese (above, n. 36), VIII, 136Google Scholar.

81 De Roo, , Material for a History (above, n. 67), I, 569–72Google Scholar. Tracing the original of this document using the notary's name and the date has proved inconclusive. Andrea Carusi's notarial records for this period are inventoried in the ASR, but only the first folio of Vannozza's donatione inter vivos of 1517 is bound in ASR, Collegio dei notari capitolini 498, 393r–v.

82 De Roo, , Material for a History (above, n. 67), I, 569Google Scholar: ‘Magnifica et generosa domina domina Vannotia de Cathaneis’.

83 De Roo, , Material for a History (above, n. 67), I, 571Google Scholar.

84 Fedele, P., ‘Carte del monastero dei Ss. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea’, Archivio della Reale Società Romana di Storia Patria 21 (1898), 493Google Scholar; Amayden, T., La storia delle famiglie romane di Teodoro Amayden (ed. Bertini, C.A.) (Rome, 1910), I, 400Google Scholar. See Adinolfi, , Roma nell'età di mezzo. IIIGoogle Scholar. Rione Trastevere (above, n. 36), III, 121, for a sketch of the Formicini coat of arms, which contained three ants (‘formiche’).

85 Amayden, , La storia delle famiglie romane (above, n. 84), I, 400Google Scholar.

86 Falena, U., ‘I benefattori della SS. Annunziata alla Congregazione di Carità di Roma’, La Lettura 4 (1904), 213–20Google Scholar.

87 Gigli (ed.), Guide rionali: Trastevere (above, n. 47), 34.

88 Falena, ‘I benefattori’ (above, n. 86), 213.

89 Caraffa, F. and Lotti, L., San Cosimato: l'abbazia e la chiesa di Mica Aurea in Trastevere (Rome, 1971), 121–2Google Scholar.

90 Menotti, M., I Borgia: storia e iconografia (Rome, 1917), 82–3. The portraits are reproduced on p. 87Google Scholar.

91 BNCR, Fondi minori, Varia 5, 148r.