ABSTRACT
Barbarossa put an end to the in ternal menace to Rome caused by the region alist repub licans, adhering to Charlemagne’s pledge to secure the Rome of the popes from any threat. By 1155, Rome began to feel secure enough to pursue its rebuilding and reclaim its place as the unique uni ver sal center of the world. As we have mentioned already, Pope Leo III – one might say in ‘friendly com peti tion’ with Charlemagne’s building program but also with Con stantinople’s superior architectural and urban achievements – began a major construction cam paign during his papacy. Now the time had arrived for adding new types of buildings appropriate for the Church’s growing opera tions by offering functionality, comfort, and a commanding image to represent its global power. By the beginning of the thir teenth century, a new architecture had emerged which aimed at providing for these new needs while maintain ing the idea of renovatio and uni ver sality, so essential for the legitimacy of the globalization cam paign of the Church. Soon after his appointment, in 1198, Pope Nicholas III started modi fying the interior of a palace that had previously belonged to Pope Innocent III, extending it and adding to it outside spaces. The architecture employed by Nicholas – who was of Roman origin, born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini – was classical Roman; that is, it expressed the claims of the Church to uni ver sality as a global institution. However, the plan of the building, opening onto the landscape and integrating the interior with the outdoor space, was ‘regional’. Its scheme drew from local precedents designed to facilitate the enjoyment of the Mediterranean climate of Rome. The pro ject included a small enclosed garden to function as a ‘secret’ outdoor counterpart of the rooms of the building (giardino segreto). Further open areas were provided: a larger protected garden that contained spe cially chosen trees and animals. Nicholas did not invent the idea of these small and large gardens. As David Coffin remarked,1 there was already a local tradition of such ‘outdoor rooms’ in ‘princely Palaces’. On the other hand, there was also a strong link between these modern Roman gardens and the ancient Roman classical tradition of the villa urbana. In contrast to the villa rustica, the rural villa, which was a farm estate, a villa urbana combined the character of an urban structure with that of the coun try. During Roman times,
when this new building complex fusing building and garden was invented, it was aimed at emperors, a power ful elite, and the very rich, and was intended to enable, in a location not far from the urban center and in close contact with nature, enjoyment combined with business and administrative functions. At the time of Nicholas III, Romans knew about the villas of anti quity from texts, the most im port ant being the letters by Pliny the Younger, lawyer, writer, villa lover. He owned only three, while his uncle Pliny the Elder owned seven. The letters contained detailed descriptions of his Villa Tusci in Tuscany and the Laurentium, on the coast near Rome. Among the many pro jects that drew from his texts was Villa Madama on Monte Mario, designed by Raphael.2
