THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY HIGHWAY TO THE HEART: ORDERING BEAUTY & ORGANIZING ROME-BOUND PILGRIMS ON SIENA’S VIA FRANCIGENA ISABEL R. B. BRADY SPRING 2020 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in History, Art History, and Medieval Studies with interdisciplinary honors in History, Art History, and Medieval Studies Reviewed and approved* by the following: Benjamin Hudson Professor of History and Medieval Studies Thesis Supervisor Amara Solari Associate Professor of Art History and Anthropology Honors Adviser Cathleen Cahill Associate Professor of History Honors Adviser Heather McCune Bruhn Associate Teaching Professor of Art History Reader *Electronic approvals are on file. i ABSTRACT The medieval Italian city-state of Siena’s fortunes rested almost exclusively on the pilgrimage route the Via Francigena, the main thoroughfare from Northern Europe to Rome, which travelled straight through the city. Siena’s portion of the Via Francigena, locally called the Strada Romana, formed the heart of the city’s international political, economic, and social functions. However, the city continually negotiated the fundamentally messy nature of the pilgrimage business with the medieval conception of beauty requiring order, the result is Siena presented a beautiful urban landscape to its international visitors. Siena’s unique urban architecture and plan for the Strada Romana demonstrate its embrace of the pilgrimage business as an essential aspect of its urbanity. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... v Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 The Via Francigena’s History & Pressures of the Pilgrimage Business ..... 11 Chapter 3 Ordering the Disorderly: The Pilgrimage Business Complex ..................... 19 3.1 The Journey ................................................................................................................ 22 3.2 Branch Shrines ........................................................................................................... 27 3.3 Accommodation & Ancillary Services ...................................................................... 29 Chapter 4 Siena’s Own: Separating the Strada Romana from Outside Influence ....... 40 4.1 Beautifying the City: Ornata della Città.................................................................... 42 4.2 Interior Building Campaigns ...................................................................................... 47 4.3 The Urban Geography of Power ................................................................................ 54 Chapter 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 61 Appendix A Recorded Alberghi Within the City of Siena 1318-1474 ........................ 64 Table 1: Terzo di Camollia .............................................................................................. 64 Table 2: Terzo di Città ..................................................................................................... 67 Table 3: Terzo di San Martino ......................................................................................... 68 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 70 ACADEMIC VITA ...................................................................................................... 74 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1, Anonymous, Biccherna 23, Oil on Wooden Panel, 1422, Museo delle Biccherne, Archivio di Stato di Siena. Dama dal Manto Trapunto d’Oro (Lady of the Golden Embroidered Mantle). ...................................................................................................... 1 Figure 1-2: Map of Siena, highlighting the Via Francigena (locally called the Strada Romana) and the Croce del Travaglio. “Siena Tourist Map,” Mappery, July 9, 2008. .......................... 9 Figure 2-1: Map showing pilgrimage routes to Rome through Siena, documented in itineraries between 900 and the early 1400s. From Nevola, Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City, 93. ..................................................................................................................................... 13 Figure 2-2: Pilgrimage badge from Rome showing Peter and Paul. Pilgrim Badge, Late Medieval, Rome. Photograph. London, n.d. British Museum. .......................................................... 16 Figure 3-1: Map of gates and walls of Siena by 1480. Nevola, Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City, 14. ....................................................................................................... 32 Figure 3-2: Map of the terzi of Siena. Heywood, William, Palio and Ponte: an account of the sports of Central Italy from the age of Dante to the XXth Century. London (Metheun), 1904.34 Figure 3-3: Cini, Giovanni di Lorenzo, Biccherna 49, La Vittoria di Porta Camollia a Siena nel 1526, Archivio di Stato di Siena, Museo delle Biccherne. Prato di Camollia is illustrated in the left-hand side. ............................................................................................................. 35 Figure 3-4: The remodeled Palazzo Tolomei. From Grossman, “A Case of Double Identity: The Public and Private Faces of the Palazzo Tolomei in Siena,” 52. Labels by author. ......... 36 Figure 3-5: Map of the location of castellare within Siena, identified by family each castellare belonged to. From Nevola, Constructing the Renaissance City, 159. .............................. 37 Figure 4-1: Map of the interventions of Maestri sopra all'ornato between 1431-1480. From Nevola, Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City, 101. ................................................. 44 Figure 4-2: Picture of the façade of Palazzo di San Galgano, tightly inline with the rest of the Strada Romana's curvature. From Nevola, Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City, 135. 45 Figure 4-3: Illustration of Eurialus and Lucrezia, from the 1864 publication of Storia di Due Amanti (Milan), Courting in the streets of Siena. From Nevola, Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City, 41. ....................................................................................................... 47 Figure 4-4: Drawing of Palazzetto di S. Marta, attributed to Vincenzo Ferrati. From Nevola, Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City, 38. ................................................................ 50 Figure 4-5: Map of the lodgings of Pope Pius and the Papal Court in Siena, 1460. Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City, 66. ........................................................................... 57 iv Figure 5-1: Pinturicchio, Frederick III and Eleanor of Portugal Meet Outside Porta Camollia, from the cycle in Libreria Piccolomini. From Nevola, Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City, 160. .......................................................................................................................... 61 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The range and number of Italian sumptuary concerns. From Killerby, Sumptuary Law in Italy, 1200-1500, 38. ........................................................................................................ 5 Table 2: Restored property in Siena, 1460, for the Papal Court. Nevola, Ritual Geography: Housing the Papal Court of Pius II Piccolomini in Siena (1459-1460), 206................... 58 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have many people to thank for guiding and encouraging me on my journey to write this thesis. First and foremost, a great thanks to the Archivio di Stato di Siena and the Museo delle Biccherne for allowing me to research in their archives and Dr. Giovanni Mazzini, for assisting me in Italy. Pennsylvania State University, the Schreyer Honors College, and the Pattee and Paterno Library have been of invaluable help. I must equally thank my thesis supervisors, Dr. Benjamin Hudson and Dr. Amara Solari, for their instruction and patience with me. Thank you to Dr. Cathleen Cahill, Dr. Heather McCune Bruhn, and Dr. Heather Hoge for their help. Thank you to Alex, Cecilia, and Peter for walking part of the Via Francigena with me; thanks to Eva and Lauryn for your encouragement all across Italy; and thank you to Kandice for your late-night help. Most importantly, thank you to my mom, dad, and brother for much more than I can say. It took three years, but I did it! Thanks for sticking with me. vii viii 1 Chapter 1 Introduction Figure 1-1, Anonymous, Biccherna 23, Oil on Wooden Panel, 1422, Museo delle Biccherne, Archivio di Stato di Siena. Dama dal Manto Trapunto d’Oro (Lady of the Golden Embroidered Mantle). 2 “I will outshine you,” the lady seems to vow in the biccherna cover featured above, chin jutting out challengingly as her gaze locks on the radiant sun. The lady is draped in a golden mantle with detailed embroidery, the white lining of her dagged sleeves falling in perfectly orchestrated waves from her clasped hands. The visual contrast between the pure white and the carefully detailed black-on-gold embroidery frames the vivid turquoise of her dress. The dress does not pleat