The Santacroce Houses along the Via in Publicolis in Rome : Law, Place and Residential Architecture in the Early Modern Period

Abstract

This contribution explores the place-making mechanisms at work in the law system of early modern Italy, and their relation to the design of urban residential architecture. Particular attention is directed at punishments of exclusion, whereby an individual or family was physically displaced from the civitas and their property was sequestered, confiscated or destroyed. As argued here, the effectiveness of these punishments depended on and further strengthened the close relation between a given family and its place of residence. The place-making mechanisms of law are explored through the specific case of the Santacroce family, whose urban property was confiscated and destroyed following their conflict with the Della Valle in fifteenth-century Rome. By reconstructing the design of the Santacroce residences, before and after their sentenced destruction, this study demonstrates how the choice of site, typology and ornamentation in urban residential architecture acquire new meaning when viewed against legal practices of exclusion.

Belonging to the Individual or the Collective? The Urban Residence as a Public/Private Building in Renaissance Italy (1300-1500)

“…46 In Rome, the Santacroce family, owning numerous properties in the narrow Via in Publicolis, acquired additional plots located along the more frequented Via Mercatoria over the years (Figures 2 and 3). 47 By the end of the fifteenth century, the family was able to build an urban residence along the street whose prominent corner tower attracted the attention of pilgrims and merchants on this busy commercial route. In other cities too, many urban residences are located along the city's main roads, leading from the gates to the centre.…”