Francesco Borromini, Opus architectonicum. Edited by Joseph Connors (with a review by Marco Carminati)

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
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Francesco Borromini
Opus architectonicum

Edited by Joseph Connors

Milan, Il Polifilo, 1998

Rome, Facade of the Oratorio of Saint Phillip Neri by Francesco Borromini
Source: Wikimedia Commons

[1] Text of the strip:

"Francesco Borromini (1599-1667) created a new architectural style, drawing inspiration from Michelangelo and classical antiquity, but also from nature and mathematics. In 1637, he began works on his first major order, the Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri. His patron, Virgilio Spada, a priest of the Oratory Order who would become the main administrator of the projects for construction of buildings under Popes Innocent X and Alexander VII, composed a text (Piena relatione – A Complete Report) that describes in detail the Oratory and the House and illustrates both the creative process of the architect, and his role as patron in the project. Spada collected 37 drawings to illustrate the Report, but the work was not published during the life of Borromini.

Rome, Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri, The turret with a clock
Source: Wikimedia Commons

In his old age, Borromini launched a new attempt to publish his work and his ideas, undertaken with the French printer Domenico Barrière and the polygraph Fioravante Martinelli. The words and images created by these men would have made possible to disseminate Borromini’s inventions with a wider audience, but the endeavour did not materialize due to the architect's suicide in 1667.

At the end of the seventeenth century, commercially driven publishers, working together with talented young engravers like Giovanni Battista Falda and Lievin Cruyl, tried to find the designs of Borromini and publish his work. But the one who operated more tenaciously to uncover the secrets of the architect was an otherwise unknown Roman resident of the beginning of the eighteenth century, Sebastiano Giannini, who in 1725 published a much altered version of A Complete Report by Spada on the Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri, which has become known under the Latin title Opus architectonicum (Architectonic Oeuvre).

This edition is the full transcript of the manuscript (A Complete Report) of the Opus architectonicum, accompanied by the original drawings. The introduction, which traces the history of the engravings illustrating the different works by Borromini, includes the first publications and the largest publishing plans of his later years, and is illustrated with many rare or unique engravings from collections in London, Paris, Rome and New York."

The facade of the Oratoy engraved in 1720
Source: Wikimedia Commons

[2] The text of the review on the work, at the signature of Marco Carminati, appeared on Sunday's edition of the Italian daily Il Sole 24 Ore on August 29, 1999 (the article is from the Multimedia Library of Il Sole 24 Ore - CD Rom Sunday Edition 1983-2003 Twenty years of ideas).

SOLE 24ORE - SUNDAY

The Oeuvre vs. the vulgar detractors

by Marco Carminati

Rome, Church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza by Francesco Borromini
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Francesco Borromini died in Rome on the morning of August 2, 1667 in dramatic circumstances. For days, he was in a pitiful state. He was afflicted by a kind of "severe melancholy" with assaults of anxiety "that had changing symptoms like oppression in the chest, asthmatics signs, and uninterrupted frenzy". As for remedies, doctors and priests found no better treatment than to segregate him home and impose him a sleep therapy, tasking an energetic servant to be always with him. Feeling trapped, Borromini decided to kill himself. He waited for the distraction of the servant who had felt asleep, leaving his sword unattended. Borromini grabbed the weapon and dropped over it. He survived other twenty-four hours, lucid. Just enough time to repent and sign the minutes with the story of his suicide.

Rome, Interior view of the dome of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza
Source: Wikimedia Commons

It is the common conviction of the researchers that one of the motives that pushed the sixty-eight Borromini to take the fateful decision was the dramatic strain to resist dripping criticism. The buildings of San Carlino, St. Philipp Neri, Propaganda Fide, Sant'Ivo and San Giovanni Laterano had brought the architect to the fore in Rome, but the complexity of the buildings, the unprecedented novelty of their designs and the explosive freedom of forms, together with admirers had procured a discreet army of detractors. The most benevolent ones termed his work "extraordinary" even though "artificial et capricious". Others did not hide the embarrassment before his "vague and bizarre thoughts" (Passeri). Bellori even did not hesitate to call him "gothic" (then it was an insult) and to define him an "ignorant corrupting architecture, the shame of our century." Bernini, more mellifluous, merely emphasized the "chimeric" feature of his work.

Borromini was boiling in front of so many prejudices and so vulgar conformism. He used to say "who is behind the others will never surpass them" claiming the primacy of the creative minds on the poor ones. But only in his old age he decided to fight back. He had to voice his ideas and build a public image describing his buildings, supporting his arguments with engravings. Not being a great writer, he thought of getting help from two friends, the polygraph Fioravante Martinelli and the printer Francesco Domenico Barrière. To start the work, Borromini could count on some already existing handwritten reports, especially on the Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri and San Carlino.

Rome, Facade of the Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (San Carlino) by Francesco Borromini
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Rome, Cloister of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The trio Borromini Martinelli Barrière initially seemed to work well: they produced beautiful engravings taken from drawings and plans of the master, and Martinelli wrote a rich monograph on the masterpiece of Borromini, the church of S. Ivo alla Sapienza. However, precisely because of the suicide of the architect, the largest publishing endeavour vanished and many manuscript writings remained in the dust.

One of these pamphlets has been devoted again attention recently. This is the Piena Relatione della Fabbrica (Complete Report of the Fabric) of the Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri. In the text, Borromini is the narrator, but the author of this very detailed and so "complete" monograph on the headquarters of the Order of St. Filippo Neri certainly was Virgilio Spada, Prior of the Order, a great friend and admirer of Borromini and therefore a faithful interpret of his ideas. This report (written by four hands between 1647 and 1650 and accompanied by numerous drawings) was printed only in 1720-25 by Sebastiano Giannini, who published two elegant volumes on Sant'Ivo and the Oratory of Saint Phillip Neri. Giannini titled the tomes simply Opera; to give them an international prominence, he translated them into Latin under the title Opus architectonicum (Architectonic Oeuvre). Needless to say, these volumes are impossible to find today and it was therefore particularly welcome that the Polifilo Publishers had the idea of ​​publishing them to commemorate the fourth centenary of the birth, releasing the Piena Relatione della Fabbrica according to the manuscript by Spada, but putting the Latin title preferred by Giannini.

Edited by Joseph Connors - author of a long introduction on the history of publishing of all the theoretical work of Borromini - the new edition allows us to easily grasp the complex historical events and the chronology of the edification of buildings located in the heart of Rome. The monk order of the Philippines (from Philip Neri) was very young. The church of Santa Maria della Vallicella had been built only at the end of '500, and with the new century, the time had come to build the headquarters. Plans had already been laid down by the architect Maruscelli, but Borromini genially intervened around 1637 to modify some large components (the facade of the oratory, the oval refectory etc.) with the pomp of his explosive sulphur talent. A grey convent building became therefore one of the most articulate, imaginative and functional buildings of the Baroque age: somebody, like Virgilio Spada, understood it immediately and hurried to write it. Other denigrated him, eventually being buried by their own laughter.

[5] It should be noted that in this library we hold two other editions of the Opus architectonicum: one published by Paolo Portoghesi (released by the Edizioni dell’Elefante) in 1964 and a second one, edited by Maurizio De Benedictis and published by De Rubeis (1993).