The Landscape of Laundry in Late Cinquecento Rome Author(s): KATHERINE W. RINNE Source: Studies in the Decorative Arts, Vol. 9, No. 1 (FALL-WINTER 2001-2002), pp. 34-60 Published by: University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Bard Graduate Center Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40662798 Accessed: 31-12-2015 16:03 UTC

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Althoughwater is a sine qua non forall human life,archaeological, historical,and literaryrecords concerning its management,particularly regardingdomestic practices such as cooking,gardening, and laundryare scant.Since womentypically performed these essential everyday tasks, lack of knowledgeof the activitieslimits understanding of theirlives. Water was needed forall such choresand was typicallycollected at fountains,springs, wells, or streams.Unlike most domestic labor, which was conductedinside the home,laundering was a publicactivity, often performedoutside at a fountainor alonga riverbank.Inside the home a womanhad morecommand over the conditions under which she worked than she did outside,where piazzas, streets, and streamswere usually undercivil supervision. Hence, the public places where women collected water,or did theirlaundry, had the potentialto becomeflash points for physicaland emotionaltensions between women, and the civil author- itieswho soughtto controlpublic activities. An investigationof these interactionsprovides insight into hitherto neglected aspects of women's lives in late cinquecentoRome. Justas growingknowledge of Imperial Roman bathingpractices reveals much about the social and cultural institutionsthat shaped the publiclives of ancientRomans, particularly men,an increasedawareness of practices associated with washing linens and clothingin the cinquecentocan reveala greatdeal aboutthe daily lives of women,who held the primaryresponsibility for doing the laundry.The officialchoice of locations for public laundry activities, the physicalcharacter of the siteswithin the topographyof the cityas a whole,and the policiesdeveloped by communitiesand governmentsto overseethose sites and activitiescommunicate much about the statusof womenwho worked at thesetasks and aboutthe official attitudes toward the use of publicstreets and piazzasfor domestic tasks. Controland distributionof water is crucialto the smoothfunction- ingof any city. Thus it is remarkable,considering the extent and fameof Romanaqueducts and watersystems, that the recordfor domestic water use in ancientRome is so slim.As Dora Crouch,one ofthe few scholars to tacklethe subjectof waterdistribution, points out in WaterManage- mentin AncientGreek Cities (1993), verylittle is knownabout domestic

KatherineW. Rinne is Associate Fellow, Institutefor Advanced Technologyin the Humanities,University of Virginia.

34 Studiesin theDecorative Arts/F all-Winter 2001-2002

This content downloaded from 142.150.190.39 on Thu, 31 Dec 2015 16:03:45 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Laundryin Late CinquecentoRome 35 wateruse in the Greekworld, even forsites that are well documented, such as Athensand Morgantina,Sicily. Paolo Squatriti,in Waterand Societyin EarlyMedieval Italy, A.D. 400-1000 (1998), justifiablycom- plainsthat the documentationto supportan understandingof domestic waterutilization during the medievalperiod is meagerat best,and that evidencefor the washingof clothesis almostnonexistent. Nor is the situationmuch improved for the Renaissance.Only forthe late Renais- sanceand Baroqueperiods is enoughknown to allowsome inferences to be drawnabout the role that the public water supply played in the daily life of the city,including laundry practices. The documentsconsist primarilyof paymentrecords to the architectsand sculptorsof the variouslaundry fountains, and papal edictswarning of the punishments awaitingthose who daredto washdirty linens in the othercivic foun- tains,which were intended to ornamentthe publicstreets and piazzas, such as the PiazzaNavona. Fromthe late sixteenththrough the nine- teenthcenturies, prints, drawings, frescoes, and finallyphotographs pro- vide a wealthof visualdetail about the physicalsettings of the public fountains,including laundry basins and the people usingthem.1 Many laundrybasins remainedfunctional until the end of the nineteenth century.Although there are workingnineteenth- and earlytwentieth- centurylaundry fountains still operatingin small towns throughout Italy,2there are no survivingexamples in Rome itself. In Romeduring the Renaissance and Baroqueperiods, the provision ofpublic laundry facilities, superficially a mundane concern, bristled with political and social implications.Here a landscape for laundrywas purposelycreated in whichwomen conducted a seeminglyprivate do- mesticactivity - the washingof dirtylinens - in the publicrealm. The siting,physical configuration, and administrationof thesefacilities had a seriousimpact on the livesof the people who used them- housewives and theirdaughters as well as professionallaundresses, some of whom wereformer prostitutes.3 The juxtapositionof virtuousand "compro- mised"women, working side by side, created an unusualsocial tension in thepublic piazzas, both among the women themselves and betweenthem and the men who observedthem. As a result,laundry activities were strictlyregulated by both papal and communalpolicy, and womenwere harshlypunished for operating outside the established physical and social parameters.An examinationof threelate cinquecentopublic laundry fountainsas reflectionsof churchand communitypolicy is particularly revealing. The three new public laundrysites in question opened within twenty-fiveyears of one anotherin Rome.In 1563 Pope Pius IV opened the Fontedi San Giorgio,a laundryin the Velabrodistrict, which was

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suppliedby a naturalspring near the Tiber River.The secondlaundry fountain,the Lavatoio della Piazzadel Popolo,was supplied by the newly restoredaqueduct, the Acqua Vergine.Sponsored by the civil adminis- tration,the Communeof Rome,the fountainwas builtin 1581 to the west of the Piazza del Popolo. The third,the Lavatoio Felice, was completedin 1588 by Pope SixtusV and was suppliedby the Acqua Felice, whichhe had inauguratedthe yearbefore. The aqueductand laundrywere named for the papal patron - FelixPeretti. The laundrywas locatedon top of the Quirinalhill. All threelaundries were placed in peripheralareas at the edgeof or beyondthe abitato, the inhabitedarea ofthe city, rather than within the main residentialareas convenient to the womenwho woulduse them. Whereasthe sitingof the firstfountain, the Fontedi San Giorgio,was determinedby the locationof the existingspring, the locationsof the otherlaundries were not similarlyrestricted by water source. The Acqua Vergineserved most of the low-lyingCampo Marzio,while the Acqua Felicesupplied the Quirinal, Esquiline, and Capitolinehills as wellas the Suburra,the southern end ofthe Campo Marzionot served by the Acqua Vergine,and the Velabro district.What were the politicsand urban policiesmotivating the choice ofthese sites? Were theyviable locations forpublic laundries?

The WaterSupply in Rome In orderto understandfresh-water distribution policy in cinquecento Rome,it is importantto understandwho controlledthe water,what it wasused for, where the majority of the population was located in relation to the watersources, how the waterwas physicallymoved around the city,and finally,how muchwater was availablefor public consumption. As mentionedearlier, there is an abundanceof literatureabout the ancientRoman and Baroque aqueductsand fountains,and yet little knowledgeof waterdistribution for either period. Additionally, there is littleunderstanding of waterdistribution for the nearlyone thousand yearsthat separatethese periods, when freshwater resources were se- verelylimited. Romanfountains were famed throughout antiquity for their quantity and beautyas well as the abundanceand salubrityof theirwaters. Between312 B.C. and 226 A.D. elevenaqueducts were built to servea staggeringnumber of fountains.4In 97 A.D, SextusJulius Frontinus, administratorof the waterboard underEmperor Nerva, reported630 publicfountains in the city.The RegionaryCatalogue, an inventoryof publicworks probably dating from the timeof Constant ine, listed 1,352

This content downloaded from 142.150.190.39 on Thu, 31 Dec 2015 16:03:45 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Laundryin Late CinquecentoRome 37 publicfountains-5 Allowing for the likelyexaggeration of the Regionary numbers,even halfthat figure would be impressive.With the transferof the capital of the Roman Empireto Constantinoplein 330 A.D., however,the vastsums of moneynecessary to maintainthe networkof aqueductsand fountainswere no longeravailable. Gradually the system deterioratedand mostof the public fountains ceased to function.In 537 A.D., the majorityof the aqueductswere sabotaged by invadingGoth forces,thus cutting off water to both publicand privatefountains and almostcompletely depriving the hills of Rome of theirwater supply. Althoughseveral aqueducts were restoredalmost immediately, many people moveddown to the low-lying Campus Martius (later called the Campo Marzio) to be close to the river,or theyabandoned the city altogether.Thus the hillswere nearly emptied of population. For the next millenniumthe Tiber River was the primarywater sourcefor industrial and domesticneeds. There werea fewexceptions. Individuals,families, or organizations such as monasticcommunities with somewealth might own or drilla newwell for their private use. A small numberof natural springs, such as theFons Juturna in theRoman Forum, continuedto flowat leastuntil the Norman Sack of 1084,when much of thecity was reportedly buried under five to tenmeters of rubble.6 In 1122 Pope CallistoII diverteda smallbrook known as the Acqua Marranaso thatit enteredthe cityfrom the east,through the PortaMetronia, and then flowedthrough the valleyof the Circus Maximusto the Tiber River.7Although intended to providewater for the animalsand lands ownedby the church of San Giovanniin Lateranoand locatedalong the route,the Acqua Marranawas crossedby public bridgesand flowed partiallythrough public land: it couldconceivably have been accessedby the Roman populace.Although a fewof the aqueductswere restored intermittently,only a handfulof the hundredsof fountainsthey once servedwere operable between the sixth and fifteenthcenturies. A statute publishedin 1452by the Maestri delle Strade, the civil administration in chargeof the maintenanceof public streets, mentions their mandate to carefor the public fountains, but it appearsthat there were only a fewfor themto maintain(Fig. I).8 Only a fewpiazzas had workingfountains, where women collected freshwater that they carried home fordrinking, cooking, laundry, and bathing.The Acqua Virgo,an aqueductbuilt by Agrippa in 19 B.C., was only 19.04 kilometersin lengthand ran entirelyunderground until it reachedthe city.Consequently it was the easiestaqueduct to maintain, and in factit was restoredperiodically during the medievaland Renais- sance periods.Extensive and well-documentedrestorations were spon- soredby Pope HadrianI in the 770s and by Pope NicholasV in 1453.9

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FIGURE 1 At aboutthe same timethat Nicholas restoredthe Acqua Virgo,then Publicfountains documented in Rome by knownas the Acqua Vergine,he also built a new publicfountain at 1570. © KatherineW. Rinne,2000. Santa Maria Maddelenanear the Pantheon10and commissionedLeon BattistaAlberti to remodelthe Fontanadi Trevi.11Both fountains drew waterfrom the Acqua Vergine.The Acqua Traiana,which entered the cityfrom west of the Tiber River, was builtby Trajan in 109 A.D. It was restoredby HadrianI in the eighthcentury and laterby Popes Gregory IV (827-844) and NicholasI (858-867) in orderto insurea continuous supplyof waterto millson the Janiculumhill, to the Vatican,and to publicfountains located in thePiazza di San Pietro.12The Acqua Traina was probablynot functioningduring the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.Rather, the handful of public fountains associated with the Vaticanand St. Peter'swere probably supplied from nearby springs.13 In

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frontof the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere,there was also a FIGURE 2 fountain,perhaps supplied by one of the numeroussprings on the east The eighteennew fountainsproposed for Rome in 1570. © KatherineW. slopeof the Janiculum hill14 This fountain,which appears in a 1471 map Rinne, 2000. ofRome by Pietro del Massaio,15was restoredby Nicolas V forthe 1450 HolyYear and againby Pope AlexanderVI in 1500-If a womandid not live nearone ofthese public fountains, or ifthere was no well or cistern waterwithin her livingcompound, she collectedTiber River water herself,or boughtit fromthe acquaeroli(water sellers) who sold it from barrelscarried from door to dooron donkeys. The firstcomprehensive overhaul and amplificationof the public fountainsystem since antiquity(as opposed to the constructionor restorationof a singlefountain) was initiatedby Pope PiusV in 1566 in responseto a typhoidepidemic, which killed thousands of people in the denselypopulated Campo Marzio.16Like Nicholas,he too sponsoreda

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restorationof the Acqua Vergine,but he wentmuch further to increase waterdistribution, developing a seriesof new publicfountains. On July 31, 1567, Pius establishedthe Congregazionecardinalizia super viis pontibus fontibus,the "Congregationof cardinals in chargeof streets, bridges, and fountains,"to overseethe publicand privatedistribution of water.17 On September18, 1568, he named Giacomo della Porta,who was the architectfor the city of Rome at thetime, as thetechnical advisor for the restorationof the Acqua Vergineand to supervisethe design, placement, and constructionof new fountainsand theirconduits.18 In 1570 the Congregazioneproposed a plan foreighteen new publicfountains, all of whichwere intendedfor the majorpiazzas and streetsof the Campo Marzio(Fig. 2).19The firstof thesenew fountainswas designedin 1572 and completedin 1575 forthe Piazza del Popolo (Fig. 3). It was soon followedby othersin the PiazzaColonna, Piazzadel Pantheon,and the PiazzaNavona. By 1594 the Acqua Verginesupplied at least thirtypublic foun^ tains- fromthe Piazza del Popolo to the Ponte Sant' Angelo and the Campo dei Fiori.A second aqueduct,the Acqua Felice, was commis- sionedby Pope SixtusV and completedin 1587,and by 1594 it supplied an additionaltwenty-three public fountains.These too were widely dispersed- fromthe piazza in frontof the Villa Medici, to the Moses Fountainon the top of the Quirinalhill, to the PiazzaMontanara next to theTeatro Marcello. By 1600 therewere at leastsixty public fountains withinthe walls of Rome. Most were eithersmall drinkingfountains

FIGURE 3 Giacomodella Porta,Fontana della Piazza del Popolo,designed 1572, completed 1575. FromGianbattista Falda, Le fontane di Roma(Rome, 1675). Photo:Fiske KimballLibrary, University of Virginia.

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attachedto streetwalls of palaces,or purelydecorative fountains that FIGURE 4 Documented fountainsin use in wereusually placed in the centerof importantpiazzas and intendedto public intramuralRome by 1600, including ornamentthe city,but animaltroughs and laundryfountains were built animaltroughs, drinking, and laundry at several locationsas well. the focus of Gradually water-gathering fountains,categorized by primaryuse. activitiesshifted away fromthe Tiber River into the neighborhood © KatherineW. Rinne,2000. piazzas(Fig. 4).

LaundrySites in Pre-BaroqueRome As withother domestic activities between the sixthand sixteenth centuries,little reliable documentation has come to lightconcerning laundry.What is knownindicates that there were physical limits to the availabilityof water, and therewere moral problems faced by the women who of necessitywere forced to wash clothesin public.According to

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PatriciaWaddy, noble womenand theirattendants in the earlyseven- teenthcentury had privatelaundries, which were usually built in palace basements.20Before then most palaces did not have pipedwater, and it is unclearwhere these householdswashed theirclothes and linens. Servantsmight have usedwell water or gonedown to the river.Perhaps laundrywas transportedto a countryvilla estatewith piped water, and thenreturned to theurban palace in wagons.21For ordinary women, the TiberRiver was probablythe majorpublic wash site between the sack of 537 A.D. and thelate cinquecento when new public laundries were built. Womenknelt on flatstones at thewater's edge and scrubbedthe laundry withsmaller stones, or stoodand stampedon the clotheswith their bare feet(Fig. 5). Forthe "annual wash," which was the spring cleaning, when all winterclothes were washed, cauldrons were set up, and clotheswere boiledand soakedovernight in a causticsoda or ash solution,and then washedat the river'sedge. Since wet laundryis extremelyheavy, there was probablya dryingarea on the nearbybank.

FIGURE 5 CarletonH. Graves,Wash-Day in Italy, photo© 1900. CourtesyLibrary of Congress.

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