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The Building

  History       Restorations    

JOHANNES BURCKARDT'S HOUSE

Johannes Burckardt was born in Nieder-Haslach, a village near Strasbourg, between 1445 and 1450. The old Latin name of his Alsatian native town was Argentoratum, from which Burckardt took the attribute of argentinensis (or argentinus) he added to his signature.
Burckardt’s fame mainly derives from his Liber Notarum, the journal that he kept between December 1483 and April 1506; he started writing it just before his official appointment as Master of Cerimonies of the Pope. Five Popes alternate in St. Peter’s seat along the twenty-three years of Burckardt’s charge: Sixtus IV, Innocentius VIII, Alexander VI, Pius III and Iulius II.

In 1491, Johannes Burckardt took on lease some land, very close to the via papalis, from the monks of Farfa. The land included a number of buildings and a medieval tower.
These buildings, like many others in this area of the city, had been built upon the ruins of Pompey’s theatre, the first masonry one in ancient Rome. Because of this characteristic, its cavea’s shape can still been seen in the medieval buildings arching among via dei Satiri, piazza del Pallaro and piazza del Biscione; as a matter of fact, in the Middle Ages the fundaments of Pompey’s theatre were used as bases for the rising civilian dwellings.
A large garden surrounded by a four-sided portico layed before Pompey’s theatre, being separated from it by another portico, the so-called "one-hundred columned" (hecatostylum). Via del Sudario would be the remain of a street connecting the North side of the four-sided portico to the hecatostylum.

Burckardt’s land bordered on the dwelling of cardinal Cesarini, who owned many other estates in that area: a vast area in St. Eustace’s neighbourhood, the sector currently included among Campo de’ Fiori, via dei Giubbonari, via Arenula, via di Torre Argentina and Corso Vittorio Emanule II, except for a few religious buildings, like - in the very via del Sudario - the two churches of St. Julian the Flemish and the church of the Shroud.
Burckardt built up his mansion on this estate, presumibly rising a tenement ex-novo and including the already existing tower in it.

The towered main building hosted Burckardt’s apartments. The street façade of this tenement was rearranged during the restauration in 1931, while the courtyard façade is closer to its original appearance: it bears a three-arch loggia leaning to the tower, which cannot be seen any longer but in the small cambered windows. A Renaissance style edifice, probably some years posterior to Burckardt’s death, connects the main building to the other one; its most peculiar feature is the nice decoration, which is scratched in a fake diamond’s point graffito technique. It was a typical decoration of early 16th Century in Rome. The building might have been an open gallery that borne an upper passage.
The other building was a service one: there were the kitchens, the stables and the servants’ lodgings. This building caused a long and violent quarrel between Burckardt and the powerful cardinal Cesarini, who claimed that the building was laying on his estate. The quarrel only stopped by intervention of Pope Alexander VI; the archbishop of Ragusa helped the Pope sentence wisely: Burckardt’s house was not to be demolished - as Cesarini had been asking for after the completion of the building - but was to be inherited by the noble Roman family when Burckardt would die.

The change of property after Burckardt's death obliterated the memory of the ancient owner for centuries, though the tower was still known as Torre Argentina, from the Burckardt's attribute, argentinus. During the long-lasting oblivion, the owner of the building was erroneously identified as cardinal Francesco Argentino, because of his name.
From 1506 to the 1820s, the cadastral certificate of the Papal State testyfied that the mansion and other related buildings were owned by the Cesarinis. In 1730 the Cesarinis started building the Teatro Argentina: a great deal of the service building was literally cut off to house the stage, while the tower and other adjacent premises were used as service rooms for the theatre and the joining building was changed into the actors’ dressrooms.
In the 19th Century, the new owners - the Cartoni family - first cut off the top of the tower, then built up a fourth floor on the courtyard side of the building, so making the medieval monument totally disappear. After some other change of property between Cartoni and Torlonia - who had bought the theatre and owned it for a while - in 1869 the Teatro Argentina was bought by the Municipality of Rome, except for the "Cartoni building", the former Burcardo’s house. In 1882 the Municipality of Rome also bought the house, perhaps with the aim of enlarging the theatre. Archeological and architectural discoveries emerged during the restoration of the theatre, from the Roman ruins of the Pompey’s theatre to the remains of the medieval monastery, and arised a new interest for this neglected area.

In 1908, Domenico Gnoli found out three stone coats of arms appearing under some layers of plaster. They portrayed a star-surmounted griffin rampant, which did not match the coats of arms of cardinal Francesco Argentino. On the contrary, they perfectly matched the known signet of bishop Burckardt, episcopus argentinus. Maybe Gnoli’s enthusiasm in identifying the real owner of the building made him go too far when he said that tje building was "a German wedge in the Renaissance Rome". Actually, a later analysis proved this house to be built in a 15th Century typical style: in Rome, during an age of population increase, this type of attached house with two walls touching the adjoining buildings was very common. Besides, by that time, among most great works of Middle Renaissance had not yet been finished, and hardly influenced the so-called "minor architecture" - that is the residential buildings for the middle class. However, "Germanic" features can be undeniably found in a few details, like the star vault in the entrance, the basket corbels carved on "peperino" stone, the round arch cambered and jutting cordoned doors in the lobby.

In 1923 they tried a first restoration on the care of the Office for Antiquity and Fine Arts. During this first work, they re-opened the portico at the second floor, two three-light windows at the first floor and the original stairs were brought back into use.
In 1929 Burckardt’s mansion was given in perpetual use to the Society of Authors, on condition that the Society would care the restoration and that the building would house a Theatre Library and Museum in it. The restoration - under the direction of architect Petrignani - ended in 1931.

  History       Restorations    

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Latest update: 07/06/2007