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The Santo Spirito Choir and the Presence of the Friars

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The Santo Spirito Choir and the Presence of the Friars chapter 2 The Santo Spirito Choir and the Presence of the Friars 1 Building the New Church Despite the commune’s commitment to funding a new church for the Augustinian Hermits following the victory at Governolo, nothing came of this first effort until 1428, when, according to Antonio Manetti, the strongly voiced appeal of one of the convent’s friars Francesco Mellini impressed the neighborhood elite. Mellini shrewdly suggested to his audience that the ap- pearance of their church spoke of their own status and of that of their neigh- borhood. He pointed out: … that as it was the principal church of the most important quarter of the city in which there were many prominent citizens (since Florence flourished during that period), it was time to consider renewing it in con- formity with what was appropriate to the quarter and to the generosity of their hearts. Afterward they concluded that the honor that it would confer on the preacher would be no less for them than for the whole city.1 Manetti’s account sheds light on the pivotal role of the neighborhood oligar- chy. From the inception of the project, the crucial participants appear to have been the Corbinelli, Capponi, and Frescobaldi. These three prominent fami- lies, who had founded altars in the old church and would own multiple chapels in the new, were included among the five important local families appointed to the first opera for the new church.2 Despite the involvement of the neighborhood elite, the Santo Spirito chapter, like those of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce before it, depended largely on the commune for the construction of its new church.3 The disbursement 1 Manetti, The Life of Brunelleschi, 123. Codice Magliabecchiano, Bibliotteca Nazionale di Firenze (BNCF) Mag. I., II, 11, 3 25, cited in Botto, “L’edificazione,” I, 481. 2 Manetti, The Life of Brunelleschi, cited in Botto, “L’edificazione,” I 481. Saalman, Filippo Brunelleschi: The Buildings, 343. 3 Quinterio, “Un tempio,” 306. “Because it was a very magnificent building that would be too expensive for the Monastery to maintain, the Republic kept control of it, and allowed the Order the use of it.” asf, crs 122, 90, fol. 442r, cited in Newbigin, Feste d’Oltrarno, I, 160; Burke, Changing Patrons, 63, 64, 68; Salman, Filippo Brunelleschi, 342. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004419896_004 52 chapter 2 by the commune of tax appropriations for the project was initiated in 1439.4 Although Brunelleschi produced a model before 1435, construction appears to have begun only in 1444. The collection of funds and the work proceeded slowly until the fire of 1471, when the pace of construction increased. Although the flooring was not complete, offices were being held in the church by 1481, and a sermon was preached under the new dome on April 20, 1482.5 One factor that emerges from the documentation associated with the church’s construc- tion is the determination of the convent’s chapter to see the project through.6 In 1434, when electing the members of the new church opera in a factionalized city, the friars made sure to hedge their bets and to include partisans from both sides.7 In 1436 and 1438, they cooperated with the Sei di Mercanzia, the office that administered the relevant tax levies, to the point of allowing that body to assume their own function of electing the opera.8 Less than a decade after the church’s completion Lorenzo de Medici made his presence felt in the new church in an effort to draw the convent—and the neighborhood to which it gave its name—securely into his orbit.9 In 1489, he commissioned its new sacristy and entrusted the construction to Giuliano da Sangallo, his favorite architect. Giuliano’s octagonal design for the sacristy re- calls that of the Baptistery, an ancient structure symbolic of the city and its past.10 Arguably, the metaphorical insertion of the Baptistery into the Santo Spirito complex endeavors to affirm the inclusion of the convent and by ex- tension that of the quartiere within a Florentine Medicean domain. In 1490, Lorenzo became a member of Santo Spirito’s opera, followed by his son Piero after his death in 1492. Initiated at a time of relative political stability and economic expansion in Florence, Santo Spirito’s ambitious construction spanned five to six decades. The completed building reflected the clarity and singularity of its archi- tect’s vision, the pride of its neighborhood elite, and the stature of the city’s Augustinian convent. Over the next two decades the friars carved out their 4 Codice Magliabecchiano, Bibliotteca Nazionale di Firenze, Mag. I., II, 11, 3 25, cited in Botto, “L’edificazione,” I, 481; Saalman, Filippo Brunelleschi: The Buildings, 347. 5 asf, crs, 122, 280, quoted in Botto, “L’edificazione,” I, 510, n. 3; Battisti, Filippo Brunelleschi, 197; Luca Landucci, Diario Fiorentino (Florence: Del Badia, 1883), 41, cited in Alberto Busignani and Raffaello Bencini, Le chiese di Firenze: Quartiere di Santo Spirito (Florence: Sansoni, 1974), 48. Quinterio, “Il cantiere della chiesa, il vestibolo e la sagrestia,” in La Chiesa e il Convento, ed. Luchinato\i; see also Ruggiero, “Santo Spirito in Florence.” 6 Burke, Changing Patrons, 72. 7 Saalman, Filippo Brunelleschi, 343; Burke, Changing Patrons, 67. 8 Saalman, Filippo Brunelleschi, 347. 9 Burke, Changing Patrons, 68. 10 Quinterio, “Il cantiere della chiesa,” 125..
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