ABSTRACT
This book examines the interrelationships between architecture, urban design and ceremony in Rome during the pontificate of Julius II (1503–13). It considers how these initiatives, which included proposals for new ceremonial streets, bridges, public squares and buildings, were motivated by a desire to remap – and at the same time transform – the topography of the ancient and medieval city. I argue that these ambitious initiatives formed part of a more general vision, promulgated by humanists and artists in the papal court, that promoted the idea of early sixteenth-century Rome as both the altera Ierusalem and the renewed imperial city. Drawing upon the history of the physical terrain of ancient Rome and the biblical narratives of the Holy Land, this collective vision was underpinned by a shared belief in the imminence of a Golden Age under Julius II, when the iniquities and sins of past ages would be swept aside by the creation of a new papal empire of faith.
