Reclaiming the Roman Capitol: Santa Maria in Aracoeli from the Altar of Augustus to the Franciscans, c. 500-1450

Introduction



From Isis to Mary: The Arx and its surroundings from Antiquity to the Middle Ages



1 Before the Franciscans: The previous churches on the site



- Cunctarum prima quae fuit orbe sita: Literary, documentary, and epigraphic evidence from the earliest times to the thirteenth century



- From S. Maria in Capitolio to S. Maria in Aracoeli: the title



- Archaeological evidence from the earliest times to the thirteenth century

- The previous churches and their relationship with the Franciscan building



- Early medieval church furniture



- The obelisk



- The cloisters



- Conclusion



2 The Franciscan 'appropriation' of the Arx



- Franciscan foundations in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe



- The Franciscans in Rome and their new headquarters



- The ara coeli



- The monument and its 'meaning'



- The ara coeli 'confessio': Art for the Benedictines or the Franciscans?



- New and old cults before the construction of the new church



3 The New Franciscan Church: Between tradition and innovation



- An architectural analysis of the medieval building



- Nave and aisles



- Transept



- Chapel L9



- Original main chapel



- Facade



- The decoration of the apse and the Franciscan promotion of the legend of Augustus from Rome to Finland



- Marble workshop: Window tracery



- Transmission and reception of formal ideas: Artistic exchanges between Rome and England in the thirteenth century



- The magister principalis and the builders



- The deployment of Spolia and Franciscan ideas



- New and old cults in the new Franciscan church: paths for faithful and pilgrims



4 The 'extended' space of the Franciscan church: S. Maria in Aracoeli as a lived social and political place



- The 'extended' space of the church exterior

- The original side-entrance and the guardianship of the minors



- Preaching, politics, and religious tribunals



- The 'extended' space of the church interior

- Inner appearance and family chapels



- Burying in the Franciscan church



- Between 'public' and 'private' in the Rome of the popular regime: Francesco Felici's icon tabernacle and family chapel (1372)



- Beyond Rome: the Legend of Augustus and the Aracoeli icon in Fourteenth- and early Fifteenth-century Siena



Conclusions



Appendix: chart of intercolumniations