Reminders of Papal Rome

Today's photos:

1. San Pietro in Vaticano. St. Peter's Basilica is NOT the official church of the pope . . . even though he lives right next door to it!

2. The exterior of the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, the cathedral of the diocese of Rome.

3. A portrait of Nicholas V (1447-1455) who began the tradition of the procession from the Vatican to San Giovanni in Laterano.

4. One of the hundreds of Madonnelle (shrines to Mary) attached to the walls of buildings in all parts of the city. This one, from the early 19^th century, is at the corner of Via dell'Umiltà and Via dell'Archetto, near the Trevi Fountain.

5. This eighteenth-century plaque on the wall of a building in Trastevere is another tangible reminder of Papal Rome.

Two Reminders of Papal Rome

Scholars usually divide the history of the Eternal City into four eras as follows:

Ancient Rome  (753 B.C. - 476 A.D.)

Medieval Rome  (477 - 1446)

Papal Rome  (1447 - 1869)

Italian Rome  (1870 - present)

Each of these four periods has its own rich and interesting history.  From time to time in our "Sights" we will make a brief mention of some facts, traditions, legends and curiosities from each of these four eras.  We begin today with two interesting items which date back to Papal Rome.

The Pope Takes Possession of his Church

The title above might well have been a newspaper headline from March 19, 1447. Change the date and the same headline can be used in our own times shortly after the election of a new pope.

A curiosity

The church which the pope "takes possession of" is the cathedral of Rome.  It is a common and understandable mistake of many people that the cathedral of Rome   is the basilica of San Pietro in Vaticano (St. Peter's Basilica).  The fact is that the most fundamental of the many titles of a pope is that he is the Vescovo di Roma (Bishop of Rome).  Every diocese in the world has only one cathedral which serves as the seat of the bishop of the diocese.  The cathedral of the Rome diocese is the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano, so this is the church which the pope "takes possession of" at the beginning of his pontificate.

The "taking possession" of his church is always one of the first official activities of a newly elected pope after his consecration; it is his first official move outside the confines of Vatican City where he lives.  The tradition of a solemn papal procession from the Vatican to San Giovanni in Laterano was begun by Nicholas V (1447-1455) who was elected on March 6, 1447.  He was consecrated two weeks later on the morning of March 19, and  In the afternoon of that same day he traveled in procession to San Giovanni in Laterano to "take possession" of his church in a solemn ceremony.  Over 550 years later this tradition continues although, unfortunately, the solemn, colorful procession in which the pope travels in a horse-drawn carriage or on horseback, has become a procession of black limousines headed by one small, white popemobile!

Reminders of Papal Rome from centuries past

As you walk the streets of Italian Rome today you should always keep an eye out for interesting items which are attached to the walls of buildings in various places, and which bring us back in time to Papal Rome.  One example would be the  Madonnelle, shrines to the Virgin Mary, which are found along many streets and in many piazzas of the City.  Some of them date back as far as the fifteenth century. Many were destroyed by the occupying troops of Napoleon, but about 600 of them survive today. (For more about the Madonnelle, see Rome: Sights and Insights, Chapter 29, Uniquely Roman). 

Another interesting item left over from Papal Rome are notices in the form of stone plaques concerning various regulations and laws for the citizens. Most of them deal with the problem of litter. Approximately sixty-seven of these plaques survive today, exactly where they were originally posted, all of them dated between 1646 and 1790.  They publicize the fines, but also the possibility of corporal punishment (flogging) for transgressors.  We can legitimately wonder how effective the notices were considering the fact that the majority of the population at that time was illiterate!  Here is one plaque I noticed on a tiny street in Trastevere, Vicolo della Luce.  It looks like some grand papal document, but its subject matter is the illegal dumping of garbage!

D . ORDINE  DI  MONS  ILLMO  E  RMO

PRESIDENTE  DELLE  STRADE

SI  PROIBISCE  IL  GETTARE  PORTARE

E  MANDARE  IN  TUTTO  QUESTO 

VICOLO  LE  IMMONDEZZE

O FORMARVI  MONDEZZARO  SOTTO

PENA  DI  SCUDI  DIECI  ED  ALTRE

CORPORALI  AD  ARBITRIO  COME

DALL  EDITTO  IN  DATA  LI  XXX

DECEMBRE  MDCCLXIII

By order of the most illustrious and most reverend Monsignor President of the Streets, it is forbidden to throw, to bring and to send garbage onto this street, or to build here rubbish dumps, under penalty of ten scudi and other arbitrtary corporal punishments as per the edict dated the thirtieth of December, 1763.

Despite its inelegant and crude subject matter, I like the grandeur and permanence of the notice carved in stone.  In Italian we would say Piu permanente di così . . . !    "You can't get any more permanent than that"!  And it is much more elegant, I would think, than our prosaic NO DUMPING ALLOWED!