Abbreviations
ASC=Archivio Storico Capitolino (Rome)
ASR=Archivio di Stato di Roma (Rome)
ASRSP=Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria (journal)
ASV=Archivio Segreto Vaticano (Città del Vaticano)
BAV=Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (Città del Vaticano)
BNC=Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (Rome)
List of Texts to be Translated
1. Judgements of the Magistri Aedificiorum Urbis. 1233-1332. Published in L. Schiaparelli, “Alcuni documenti dei magistri aedificiorum urbis, secoli XIII e XIV,” ASRSP 25 (1902): 3-69.
These are the earliest extant records of the decisions of the administrators in charge of the streets of Rome, who worked for the Communal government. They are fragmentary and record very specific decisions, concerning individual properties, for example. Yet, they are highly useful for gaining insight into what these officers of the city did at this time.
2. Statuto dei Maestri delle strade 1410 (published in Camillo Scaccia Scarafoni, “L’antico statuto dei ‘magistri stratarum’ et altri documenti relativi a quella magistratura,” Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria (hereafter ASRSP) 50 (1927): 267-80)
This is the earliest extant edict issued by the masters of streets in Rome. It provides wonderful insight into what the masters did – what kind of decisions they made – but also provides a window into what the streets were actually like at this time. Key provisions included those authorizing the masters to remove fences and other obstructions from the street, street cleaning, repair of drains and sewers, and requisitions of money from houses and palaces to be used to pave the streets in front of them
3. Papal bull by Martin V (r. 1417-1431). Etsi in cunctarum (March 31, 1425).
This is the bull issued by Martin the V after his return to Rome in 1420 ending the so-called “Babylonian Captivity,” when the popes lived in Avignon. The bull restored and reinvigorated the office of the masters of the streets (see no. 1), but it also vividly details the actual conditions of the streets in 1425. The city–it states–has suffered “abominable ruin and deprivation.” It describes the revolting things thrown into the street (e.g., viscera and intestines), and the way in which private Roman citizens have taken over public spaces. This bull will be referred to frequently in the next decades in further bulls on the masters.
4. Statutes for the “Maestri de li edifiti,” 1452 under Pope Nicholas V (r. 1447-1455). Published in Emilio Re, “Maestri di Strade” in Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria (ASRSP) 50 (1927): 5-102 (edict on 86-102).
The masters were now placed under the direct authority of the papacy rather than as formerly under the oversight of the Capitoline (city) government. The masters were also given an expanded range of responsibilities. They should destroy structures, such as private porticoes that extended into the public streets; give licenses for private construction; make sure the streets were paved (at the expense of the owners of the houses on the streets); prohibit the disposal of manure, fetid material, and dead animals into the streets; ensure that people clean the streets on a regular schedule; that carters collect waste every Saturday and dump it into the Tiber River; and that the “filth of the Tiber” (probably referring to the sewage thrown on the river banks) be cleaned twice a year at the expense of the same carters.
5. Un Libro di multe 1467. Under Pope Paul II (r. 1464-1471) Published in P. Cherubini, A. Modigliani, D. Sinisi, and O. Verdi, “Un libro di multe per la pulizia delle strade sotto Paolo II (21 luglio-12 ottobre 1467),” Archivio della Società Romana di Storia Patria (ASRSP) 107 (1984): 51-274.
This is a book of fines of 679 citations that were given out by one of the pope’s own trusted men, Girolamo Giganti (ca. 1520s-ca. 1574). Giganti was appointed by the pope to supervise a special commission to clean the streets, which had become intolerably filthy. The citations were made between July 21 and October 12, 1467, primarily for throwing human or animal waste in front of individual houses. We plan to translate only a small sample of this document. It is a sign that Paul had given up on the masters as supervisors of clean streets.
6. Edict of Guillaume d’Estouteville, Camerlengo of the Camera Apostolica, Jan. 4, 1580. Published in Camillo Scaccia Scarafoni, “L’antico statuto dei ‘magistri stratarum’ e altri documenti relativi a quella magistratura,” ASRSP 50 (1927): 239-308, edict on 281-285.
This is an edict forbidding an array of abuses that provides a graphic description of city streets filled with the waste of humans and animals and obstructed by debris left over from building construction. It describes many instances of throwing dirt, rubble, fecal matter, garbage, sewage, and other revolting things into the streets. Residents are instructed that everyone who has paving in front of their houses must clean every Saturday and throw the sewage (immunditie) into the river. Those with non-paved streets in front of their houses must throw this material into the river once a month.
7. Papal bull by Sixtus IV (r. 1471-1484). Etsi de cunctarum (1480).
This bull gave the masters of the streets wide-ranging powers to expropriate private property in the interest of opening up streets and piazze. The most important streets were to be widened, porticoes and other construction that obstructed the street had to be removed, and, when suitable, streets had to be paved with brick. Owners of houses and palaces were given permission to appropriate the property of neighbors if that property was unoccupied or in a state of ruin. The owner would be paid a price agreed upon by two experts. It contains many details on situations where neighbors could appropriate the property of neighbors, or the masters could appropriate property for wider streets.
8. Papal bull by Alexander VI (r. 1493-1503). Super aedificiis in Via Alexandrina constituendis.
This bull issued by pope Alexander VI ordered a new street to be cut in the Borgo (the area around St. Peter’s). This was to be a wide straight street to be called Via Alessandrina. It was the first street in which the symmetry was to be accentuated by ordering all the buildings to be the same height on either side, creating a uniform vista. So everyone who had a house on the street was ordered to build (or augment) their houses to a height of seven canne (about 17 yards or 15.6 meters).
9. Papal bull by Leo X (r. 1513-1521). Inter multiplices curas (1516).
This papal bull confirmed and extended the jurisdiction of the masters of the streets. It is referred to many times in the later sixteenth century.
10. Papal bull issued by Leo X (r. 1513-1521). De potestate testandi aedificandi (1516).
This is a bull that concerns building activity, allows neighbors to requisition the property of their neighbors in certain situations and gives the masters of the streets authority to requisition private property as well.
11. Agostino Steuco, De Aqua Virgine in urbem revocanda (Lyon: Sebastianus Gryphius, 1547) Translated by Chiara Bariviera and Pamela O. Long in Waters of Rome 8 (2015), http://waters.iath.virginia.edu/Journal8BarivieraLong.pdf.
This is a tract written by the Vatican librarian Agostino Steuco (1496-1549), a learned theologian, about his search for the (partially lost) channel of the ancient Acqua Vergine that originated at the Salone Springs near Tivoli. It provides fascinating insight into the problems involved in restoring an ancient aqueduct and its maintenance. Steuco’s recommendation that the aqueduct be restored was only taken up fifteen years later under Pius IV. (This has already been translated by Bariviera and Long. It will be revised and included in the volume.)
12. Agostino Steuco, De via Pauli et de fontibus inducendis in eam (Lyon: Sebastianus, 1545).
This is a small tract in which Steuco recommends a new wide street leading from the north gates of the city and named after the pope Paul III (r. 1534-1549). It would feature dramatic fountains with water provided by the newly restored Acqua Vergine (see no. 11).
13. Agostino Steuco, De restituenda navigatione Tiberis (Lyon: Sebastianus Gryphius, 1547).
This is a small tract in which Steuco recommends the dredging and straightening of the Tiber River so that it might be navigable from the town of Gubbio (his home town) to Rome.
14. Edict by Julius III (r. 1550-1555) on street cleaning. ASR, Bandi, Collezione 1, b. 2. No. V.
This is an edict that initiated taxes for street cleaning. It was directed at merchants, store owners, artisanal workshops, inns, wine shops and all other commercial establishments. The proprietors were required to pay four giulii per year for street cleaning, a tax to be collected by the masters of the streets. The edict emphasizes how awful it was for everyone, including cardinals, prelates, members of the Curia, Roman citizens, residents, and visitors, to have such dirty streets. Such streets caused bad air and, as a result, caused many diseases (referring to the then held theory of miasma–that air that smelled bad caused sickness). The edict provided for officers to implement the edict, a collector, a treasurer, and a supervisor of the cleaning with specific duties specified. An overseer was appointed, who was to record all payments and penalties that were prescribed for those who refused to obey.
15. Pope Paul IV (r. 1555-1559), Cum nimis absurdum (July 14, 1555).
This is the papal bull that ordered all Jews in papal territories to live separately from Christians and created the ghetto in Rome. It forced Jews to move into one area of the city and to limit their contacts with Christians. This bull has been translated before, but we include here a new translation with annotations.
16. Papal bull by Pius IV (r. 1559-1565), Cum vices eius (March 6, 1562).
This is a papal bull, issued by Pius IV, which was an attempt to curb the endemic violence of the city by gun control. The bull forbade carrying small firearms less than 17 inches long (so that they could not be hidden in clothing). The bull discusses the reasons for this new bull–the many murders that are committed in the city.
17. Alessandro Pallantieri, Governor of Rome, Edict that expels prostitutes, vagrants, and beggars from the city. Sept. 24, 1564. Archivio Segreto Vaticano (ASV), Misc. Arm. IV, Bando 60, fol. 207r. “Bando contra le Cortigiane e altre persone scandalose.”
This edict expelled prostitutes and vagrants from the city.
18. Alessandro Pallantieri, Governor of Rome. Edict against courtesans and other Scandalous people of the city. ASR, Arm Misc. IV, tom. 60, fol. 210r.
This is another edict against prostitutes and other “scandalous people” in the city.
19. Marc Antonio Bardo (fl. 1560s). Facultates Magistratus Curatorum Viarum (Rome: Antonio Blado, 1565.
Marc Antonio Bardo from Siena was in Rome by 1557 and, under Pope Pius IV (r. 1559-1565), he was an official in the magistracy of the masters of the streets. He was the right hand man of the president of the streets (usually a cardinal) and the person who oversaw the magistracy and the masters. His official title was accessor or auditor of the magistracy. In these two tracts, Bardo describes the offices of the Magistracy of the Streets and their duties. It is the clearest delineation available of how actually the department was structured and gives illuminating details, although it has never been translated.
20. Bardo, Tractatus iuris protomiseos sive congrui . . . Ad interpretationem bullarum . . . super aedificiis construendis, ad decorum Almae Urbis (Rome: Antonio Blado, 1565).
In this tract Bardo (see no. 19) provides a legal justification for the preemption of property that is allowed in Pius IV’s papal bulls (see below), using the medieval scholastic form of quaestiones. It includes numerous re-publications of previous bulls and edicts (which we will have translated and which come before this). We will not translate them, but will translate only the section that is original to him and offers an illuminating window into how the administration of the streets in sixteenth-century Rome was organized.
21. Papal bull by Pius IV, Inter multiplices curas (August 23, 1565).
This is a papal bull about the streets of Rome, which reinstates the provisions of Pius’s predecessors. It gives permission for property owners and the masters of the streets to appropriate the property of neighbors in certain situations. It describes the filth of the streets and orders street cleaning. It also orders the paving of the streets with bricks – because of the theory that stone paving (sampietrini) would cause too much humidity in the city and therefore illness. It orders the cutting down of overgrown vegetation and rushes by the river, which provides hiding places for criminals. All gardens in the Borgo were to be eliminated (because watering them caused “mal-aria”= bad air), with the exception of artichokes which don’t need to be watered. Each craft was to occupy a particular area of the city and crafts that produced noxious stuff (such as candle making, butchering, tanning) were relegated to the area between Ponte Sisto and the Tiber Island). Stairs and porticoes protruding into public areas must be removed, and houses must not have pipes discharging sewage into the streets.
22. Papal bull by Pius V (r. 1565-1572), Cum nimis (April, 1, 1566).
This bull orders prelates to prevent beggars and vagrants from wandering through the church during services.
23. Papal bull by Pius V, Innovatio et ampliatio constitutionum (July 5, 1566).
This is a bull against the bandits that plagued Rome (often living outside of Rome and protected by nobles on their country estates). The bull threatens punishments, not only to the bandits themselves, but also to those who protect them. It confirms the bulls of predecessors on this matter and confirms that those convicted under them are still convicted.
24. Bando & Reforma sopra la immoderate spese et pompa del vestire (Rome, 1566). In Archivio Storico Capitolino (ASC), Romum collocazione Vico 146.
This is a detailed sumptuary law that regulates the dress of people (particularly women) on the street. It provides a detailed picture of the aspect of material culture that has to do with clothing. It also provides insight into the ways in which people were classified on the streets of Rome, and the efforts to control people on the streets.
25. Luca Peto, De restitutione ductus Aquae Virginis (Rome: Bartolomeo Tosius, 1570).
This is a small tract by the Roman patrician, jurist, and hardworking magistrate Luca Peto (1512-1581). It describes the search for the channel of the Acqua Vergine and its successful repair (completed in 1570) from its source at the Salone Springs near Tivoli into Rome. This infrastructure project provided abundant fresh water to the center of Rome. This tract has already been translated by Chiara Bariviera and Pamela O. Long, An English Translation of Luca Peto, Jurisconsul, De restitutione Ductus aquae Virginis (Rome Bartholomaeus Tosius, 1570) [On the Restoration of the Conduit of the Acqua Vergine] Waters of Rome 11 (May 2020). http://waters.iath.virginia.edu/Journal11BarivieraLong.pdf. We will review and revise the translation and include it in the final volume.
26. Papal bull by Pius V, Reductio ad terminos (April 10, 1571).
This bull describes the many conflicts and angry lawsuits brought about by the previous popes’ bulls that allow neighbors to appropriate the property of neighbors. It rescinds these previous bulls.
27. Papal bull by Gregory XIII (r. 1572-1585), Quae publice utilia (October 1, 1574).
This bull reversed Pius V’s reversal of the policy that allowed appropriation of the property of neighbors for purposes of enhancing the beauty of the city. This policy gives the camerlengo of the Camera Apostolica and the masters of the streets full authority to authorize and force the sale of property both for the widening and straightening of streets and for the construction and expansion of private houses and palaces.
28. Statuta almae urbis Romae . . . (Rome: In Aedibus Populi Romani, 1580).
This is the long-awaited revised law code for the city of Rome, accomplished by Luca Peto (see n. 25). We would translate only those clauses relevant to urban infrastructure and its administration, such as those that concerned street cleaning and paving and the masters of the streets. The law made street paving mandatory. Throwing of refuse onto the streets was prohibited. Workers who paved the street must not work at night; must not mix old, worn-out stones with new ones; must use well-fired bricks, excellent lime, and well-mixed sand for mortar. The masters must in no way allow manure and sewage to be thrown into the street. Fires burning malodorous matter was prohibited, especially in the summer. The masters of the streets and the submasters were prohibited from receiving gifts from the masons and bricklayers who paved the streets (seemingly prohibiting bribes for approval of shoddy work).
29. ASV Misc. Arm. tomo 60, fol. 206r.
This is an edict against dueling.
30. Carlo Fea, Storia I: Delle acque antiche sorgenti in Roma perdute, e modo di ristabilirle; II: Dei condotti antico-moderni delle acque, Vergine, Felice, e Paola e loro autori. Roma: Stamperia della Reverenda Camera Apostolica, 1832, II, 316-317 (No. LVIII)
This is a document (the original of which we have not been able to locate), in which pope Gregory XIII gives contracts to three Roman citizens to build an aqueduct (a line which would become the Acqua Felice). The proposition failed, but it is an interesting early attempt at privatization.
31. Carlo Fea, Storia I: Delle acque antiche sorgenti in Roma perdute, e modo di ristabilirle; II: Dei condotti antico-moderni delle acque, Vergine, Felice, e Paola e loro autori. Roma: Stamperia della Reverenda Camera Apostolica, 1832, II, 98 (XX).
This is the original edict of Sixtus V to begin work on the aqueduct that would become the Acqua Felice.
32. Carlo Fea, Storia I: Delle acque antiche sorgenti in Roma perdute, e modo di ristabilirle; II: Dei condotti antico-moderni delle acque, Vergine, Felice, e Paola e loro autori. Roma: Stamperia della Reverenda Camera Apostolica, 1832, II, 99-100(XXI).
In this document the Colonna family gives rights to water on their property to the papacy for use in the Acqua Felice.
33. Archivio di Stato di Roma, Presidenza degli acquedotti urbani, b. 82, 83, and 84.
These are account books for the building of the Acqua Felice. We will summarize them and translate only a section.
34. Archivio Storico Capitolino, C. C. Cred. IV, tom. 95, cat. 339, fold. 198r-268r
These are contracts giving water rights and privileges for building fountains fed by the newly completed Acqua Felice (1587). We will summarize these and translate only a selection.
35. Guidobaldo Foglietta, Discorso sopra mattonato o selicato di Roma [Discourse on Brick or Stone Paving in Rome], Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Gesuitico 713/6. Published as Guido Baldo Foglietta, “Discorso del mattonato o selicato di Roma,” ed. U. Balzani, ASRSP 1 (1877): 371-76.
This is a fascinating tract by a little-known inventor from the Marches. It focuses on the paving of streets, first describing the superior (but expensive) way that the ancient Romans paved their streets. For modern times, the tract says, particular attention should be paid to the wear of carriage wheels on the street surface (carriages were the rage in the Rome of his day). Foglietta provides suggestions for redesigning such carriage wheels to ameliorate the damage to streets. He includes a long discussion about what materials would be best for street paving, including paving stones (sampietrini) and bricks. He details the way masons should work (and contrasts this with the sloppy way they usually do work). He pays tribute to Pope Sixtus V (r. 1585-1590), showing that the (undated) tract was written during these years.
36. Pope Sixtus V (r. 1585-1590). Papal Bull: Ut primum potestas (December 1, 1585).
A papal bull that made the Borgo (the area around St. Peter’s and the Vatican) into the fourteenth rione or district of Rome.
37. Pope Sixtus V Edict: [original edict, March 7, 1587]: “Smi. D. N. Sixti Pape Quinti electo magistratus offici quattuordecem Magistrorum Viarum Urbis” from MS 47.3.9 in the Biblioteca Giovardiana of Veroli. Published by Camillo Scaccia Scarafoni, “L’antico statuto dei ‘magistri stratarum’ e altri documenti relativi a quella magistratura,” ASRSP 50: (1927): 303-6. Also found in Archivio di Stato di Roma (ASR), Bandi, Collezione I, b. 6, no 10: Electio magistratus officii quatuordecim magistrorum viarum urbis (Rome: Haeredes Antonii Bladij, 1588).
This edict abolishes the two masters of the streets and creates instead 14 new masters, one for each rione or district of Rome. Probably this was Sixtus’s attempt to get better control of this office – the two masters were powerful local patriciates who undoubtedly exercised more autonomy than Sixtus liked. This ultimately didn’t work. A few years after Sixtus’s death, the two masters of the streets were again reinstated.
38. Sixtus V. Papal Bull: Quamvis infirma et varia (May 11, 1587).
This bull establishes a hospital for the poor in the center of Rome (by Ponte Sisto on the left bank of the Tiber), the Ospedale dei Mendicanti. This bull gives a wonderfully vivid description of the beggars and vagrants of Rome who “fill with groans and shouting, not only public places and the entryways of private houses, but also places of worship,” The bull gives detailed instruction concerning their inspection, and if they were suitable, admission to the hospital. (If not admitted, they would presumably be expelled from the city.)
39. Sixtus V. Papal Bull: Decet Romanum Pontificem (September 13, 1587).
This bull encourages building construction on Sixtus’s new streets by providing special dispensations for those who live and work there. They could not have their properties confiscated unless they committed treason. If someone lived in a building on these new streets for two years, he could be made a Roman citizen (if he were not already). Artisans setting up shops on the new streets would have none of the usual taxes imposed by the guilds and would be excused from guard duty during plagues and wars.
40. Riforma del vestire delle doti et d’altre spese (Rome: Heredi d’Antonio Blado, 1587). Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, 68. 13 Busta C.3B1
This is a sumptuary law regulating the dress of people on the street and limiting the amount of dowries, a continuation and elaboration of no. 24 under Pius V.
41. Papal bull by Sixtus V, Immensa aeterni Dei (January 22, 1588).
This bull created fifteen permanent cardinalate congregations (committees), including the Congregation for Streets, Bridges, and Waters (Congregatio decimatertia pro viis, pontibus, et aquis curandis). This made the congregations, which previously had been created as temporary expedients (although often quite long standing) into permanent governmental bodies, each headed by one or more cardinals, an organizational structure which remains to this day.
42. Giovanni Francesco Bordini, De rebus praeclare gestis a Sixto V Pon. Max (Rome: J. Tornerius, 1588).
This is a small book of poems and fifteen engraved illustrations praising the works of Pope Sixtus V. Francesco Bordini (ca. 1536-1609) was an ordained priest and a Roman-born follower of the founder of the Oratorians, Filippo Neri. The book is a fascinating record of the projection of an ideal city. Some of its statements and illustrations are controversial, concerning whether for example, the streets illustrated (some of which do not exist) were actually planned, or someone’s ideal.
43. Bando contro quelli che menano Bufale sciolte per Roma (Rome: Haeredi di Antonio Blado, 1588. ASR Misc. Arm IV, tom. 58, fol. 3.
This is an edict by Sixtus V forbidding the herding of oxen through the city.
44. Edict . . . contra Caprarios et alios damnum dantes cum capris et alias animalibus in vineis . . etc. In ASR Misc. Arm. IV, tom. 58, fol. 153.
This is an edict against goatherds letting their goats run around Rome ruining vineyards, etc.
45. Camillo Fanucci, Trattato di tutte l’opere pie dell’alma citta di Roma (Rome: Lepido Facii and Stefano Paolini ad instanza di Bastiano de’ Franceschi Senese, 1601)
This is a lengthy treatise of which we will translate only a part. It includes a vivid description of Sixtus V’s attempt to put the beggars of Rome into a hospital. It describes the crowds of beggars in the city in his time and the ultimate failure of the hospital established by Sixtus in which by 1601, very few beggars actually lived.
46. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV). Urb. Lat. 1075, 1: 187v, Feb. 3, 1607;, 1:284v, May 1607; 1: 296v-297r, May 12, 1607; 1: 348v, June 2, 1607; 2: 457r and 481v, July 28, 1607; 2: 470r-470v, August 1, 1607; 2: 504v, August 4, 1607; and 2: 484v, August 8, 1607.
These are documents related to the planning for what would become the new Acqua Paola, completed under pope Paul V in 1612. They concern site visits to the springs and estimates concerning the height that the water might reach.
47. Archivio di Stato di Roma (ASR), Bandi, Camerlengo, vol. 366, 18 gennaio 1608.
This is a broadly based edict against throwing filth and garbage into the street.
48. Archivio di Stato di Roma (ASR), Bandi, Presidenza delle Strade, vol. 446, July 15, 1609. “Concernente il nettare e tenere pulite le strade di Roma.”
This is an edict concerning cleaning the streets of Rome.
49. Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome. 18/4: 258, “Editto dell’Acqua Paola,” August 31, 1609; 18/4: 338 “Editto sopra l’Acqua Paola,” September 3, 1611; 18/4: 375, “Editto dell’Acqua Paola,” 1612.
These are edicts organizing the work of the Acqua Paola and hiring the people to oversee it.
50. Edict prohibiting naked swimming in the Tiber River. (1612).
This is an edict that prohibits naked swimming in the Tiber.
51. Archivio di Stato di Roma, PAU, 738: 1. Misura e stima, October 13, 1608-May 3, 1612.
This is a large document that is an account of the workers and architects of the Acqua Paola and the work completed along each stretch. We will be summarizing this document and translating a selection of pages.
52. Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome. “Editto sopra li appalti de lavori da farsi per la condotta dell’Acqua di Bracciano à Roma, February 15, 1608; “editto Dovendosi per la fabbrica dell’Acquedotto . . .,” March 16, 1608.
These edicts describe the sections of the work and provide for dormitories for the workers along the line of the Acqua Paola construction.
53. Archivio di Stato di Roma, Camerale I, Fabbriche (1609-1614), 1537: 29v, May 31, 1614; 297r, July 22, 1614; 1615-1620, 1544:7r, March 28, 1615; 14r, June 25, 1615.
These are instructions for building new fountains and new pipelines and conduits that would be fed by water from the newly completed Acqua Paola.
54. Archivio di Stato di Roma, Bandi, Presidenza delle Strade, 40. 446, July 29, 1624 and August 9, 1624.
These are contracts and specifications of duties for workers to clean the streets.
