ENGLISH VERSION Carlo Fontana. 'Il Tempio Vaticano 1694': a review by Marco Carminati

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION

Carlo Fontana

Il Tempio Vaticano 1694 [The Vatican Temple 1694]

Edited by Gabriella Curcio 

Electa, Milano, 2003

Rome S. Peter's Basilica

[1] We display below the text of the review, which appeared at the signature of Marco Carminati in the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Sunday 14th December 2005 (the original article is retained within the volume).

DOMENICA – Scaffalart

The First Modern Edition of the «Tempio Vaticano» Edited by the Architect Carlo Fontana

San Pietro a poco prezzo

The Famous Treatise of 1694 (with beautiful Plates) showing the History and technical Aspects of the Basilica, and even the Costs of its creation

by Marco Carminati

Rome - S, Peter's Square and Bernini's colonnades

Luther was not tender with the Popes. He imputed them many and seriously abominable actions and accused them - among other things - to have spent outrageous sums to build the Basilica of St. Peter. On this subject, however, it seems that Brother Martin talked a little nonsense, because we know that he published exorbitant figures without being able to make the slightest audit. We cannot, however, blame him on it, because even the Popes, apparently, had never been able to establish exactly how much the new basilica had cost.

At the end of the seventeenth century it was decided to tackle once and for all the "thorny" issue. To do the calculations, Carlo Fontana, a celebrity of the time, was chosen, the most accredited professional in the city, "the Supreme Architect of the Vatican Temple, of the Supreme Pontiff, of the Apostolic Chamber and other Royal Characters with many sovereigns , and so on… »

Fontana applied himself with zeal to the accounting combat and eventually came out as the winner: he managed to prove, cards in hand, that the calculations of Luther were absolutely wrong. The Vatican basilica had cost much less than they the Reformer had pretended. The refutation of the Lutheran thesis yielded to Fontana a nice noble upgrade: from "Cavalier of Christ," which he already was, the "aequus Carolus" [the wise Carlo] was awarded the title of count, conferred by the King of Poland, Augustus III of Saxony. It was the year 1697.

Carlo Fontana. Il Tempio Vaticano (1694).
External view of North side of S. Peter

Behind this bagatelle lies a story of greater importance. Why was just Carlo Fontana given the burden of making the accounts in the pocket of the Fabbrica di San Pietro? Simply because Fontana was then the greatest living expert on the Basilica, three years before having given to the press a colossal work dedicated to the Tempio Vaticano e la sua origine, con gli edifici più cospicui antichi e moderni fatti dentro e fuori di esso [The Vatican temple and its origin, with its most conspicuous buildings, ancient and modern, built inside and outside of it]. This sort of historical and architectural summa, built in folio, bilingual (Italian and Latin) and illustrated with seventy-nine beautiful engravings from drawings by Alessandro Specchi, was printed in 1694 by the Roman printer Giovanni Francesco Buagni. It arose one of the most spectacular books of Italian art history and at the same time one of the most sensational editorial disasters, as the volumes, sumptuously bound, cost a real fortune, ergo buyers were reduced to a very small number indeed.

At any rate, Carlo Fontana erected his paper monument for two reasons: first, to celebrate "the biggest factory of Christianity" and urging "the Princes and great Lords to imitate so glorious companies"; and second, to provide the most accurate and complete available technical documentation on the Basilica, so that it could be used even by those who had not been able to study the building from the truth.

Carlo Fontana. Il Tempio Vaticano (1694)
Longitudinal section of the old Basilica

Fontana divided the material into seven books. In the first he described the Roman buildings that were located where the church would be built; in the second he illustrated the previous Constantine basilica; in the third he illustrated with great accuracy the prodigious endeavour of his alleged relative, the architect Domenico Fontana, who in 1586 had managed to raise the heavy obelisk in front of the basilica. He dedicated the fourth book to the square and Bernini’s arcades (Carlo Fontana had been a pupil of Bernini), and the fifth one to the Basilica and its history. In the sixth book he faced a bit peculiar topic: the "comparison" between what it cost to build the temple of Solomon and the Vatican. And he dedicated even the last book to fancy "comparison cases” between St. Peter and other temples, like for instance the Pantheon, the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, up to Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.

Made famous by the beautiful plates reproduced several times, but certainly not very accessible to the reading as never reissued since 1694, the Tempio Vaticano was finally made available in a modern edition edited by Giovanna Curcio. The volume was incorporated only in the Italian version [note of the editor: excluding the Latin text], but contains all the seventy-nine accompanying tables, reproduced and folded like the original ones. Of course, the ancient text is preceded by many introductory essays that explain and update the broad subject. We must congratulate the publisher Electa. Publishing again an ancient editorial "fiasco", now in a much cheaper version (here we do not reach 100 euros), Electa has provided the contemporary reader with a book of exceptional quality and usefulness. The one by Fontana is not only a historical overview on the Vatican basilica, but a superb treatise on architecture, with notions of aesthetics, statics, valuation, measurement systems, design and project. Having it in the hands is a joy for the eye and intellect. And then, finally, one can rush to check how much the basilica cost, "the price of the entire Temple, and of what you see of this presently, ascends to the sum of forty million eight hundred thousand four hundred ninety and eight shields of Roman currency." Mutatis mutandis, less than a box would cost today.