MEO PATACCA'S SETTING

In Meo Patacca, Rome's role goes well beyond that of a simple background or a passive setting. The city interacts with the plot, with the personages, as in the passage where Tolla gets lost in the crowd caused by the castle's fireworks display, or in the passage where the ghetto is placed under siege. Although the houses of Meo, Nuccia, Calfurnia, Marco Pepe, etc. only existed in the author's imagination, several sites where action takes place are specifically involved; Berneri does not only mention them, he describes them, almost as if they too were taking part to the story.
The aim of this page is to briefly review these sites, also to compare their present look with the one they had in the 17th century, which in some cases was quite different.



CAMPO VACCINO

Meo's speech to the braves (Canto I),
Meo's duel with Marco Pepe (Canto IV),
the public presentation of Meo's troops (Canto VI)

What Berneri describes as an uninhabited place, off the beaten track, where the braves challenged themselves with terrible stone-fights, was but the present archaeological site of the Roman Forum. The ups and downs of this area, from pre-Roman times to nowadays, give reason for its different looks in time. the Roman Forum, as it appears today At first, a simple valley, where the people who lived on the top of the nearby hills gathered every eight days to sell and buy goods, away (foras in Latin) from the territories of their respective tribes; then the elegant downtown of the republican and imperial city, where the main temples stood; then an abandoned area, and then, as of the 15th century, the site of the cattle-market (whence the name Vaccino); finally, but only since the mid 1800s, the most renowned among the archaeological sites of modern Rome, to which the old name "Forum" was given back. Due to this spot's original importance, it could have not been located elsewhere but in a crucial position, between the Capitolium hill and the Colosseum's imposing mass, and between the Palatine Hill and the Esquiline Hill (by whose base was the ill-famed Suburra district, ancient Rome's Bronx). Since the beginning of the Middle Ages (5th-6th centuries) this area appeared more and more neglected, with its several building more and more damaged. Having been Christianized, now Rome's main religion no longer needed temples built in the old fashion, and there was no reason for caring about the ancient pagan ones. Actually, precious building materials were taken from the Forum, for the making (elsewhere) of houses, churches, and other public buildings. This was a die-hard attitude, as the famous "big fountain" on the Janiculum Hill, at the beginning of the 17th century was still built by using marble mainly taken from the Forum of Nerva. Time, carelessness and the barbarians did the rest, and in a relatively short time the only thing left of the Forum was its wide space, covered with ruins that could not be reused. As earth, rubble and trash kept piling up, in Meo Patacca's days, i.e. one thousand years later, its look had turned into that of a field, a large "hole" in the middle of a fully rebuilt and urbanized Rome, where broken columns and other fragments belonging to temples kept sticking out of the ground. The area had been adorned by a double row of trees, as described by Berneri's verses; this matches perfectly what can be seen in the map of Rome by Antonio Tempesta (1676). Campo Vaccino, in A.Tempesta's map; note the double row of trees Campo Vaccino, in an engraving by G.B.Piranesi: by the end of the 18th century, only a few scattered trees were left Despite the popes' interest for antiquity had already been awakened since the Renaissance, and despite some considerable finds had already been made in this area (such as the famous reclining statue known as Marforio), a real excavation was not carried out before the 19th century, very gradually at first, then systematically only after 1870, i.e. after the city had passed from the hands of the pope to those of the king of Italy. Unfortunately, what archaeologists found, and what we still see today, are mainly ruins.

IL CAMPIDOGLIO

the tournament organized and won by Meo (Canto XI)


The Capitolium Hill has already been dealt with by the page about the 50 cent coins, that depict it, also providing a better selection of images.
The top of the hill represented one of the first settlements of the future city, and by its base, during the republican age, ran the Servian Wall, along which, more or less where is now piazza Venezia, was the gate Porta Fontinalis, now no longer standing, as well as most of this early set of walls. In particular, the Capitolium was the site of the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, the wholiest place in imperial Rome. This height overlooked the Forum below, and from the same Forum the priests reached the temple. In fact, unlike nowadays, its northern side, which looked towards the Campus Martis, was a steep slope, not easy to climb.

the Senators' Palace on the Capitolium (arrow), detail from the map by P. del Massaio, 1472

As the adjacent Forum, or Campo Vaccino, the Capitolium knew its darkest age during the second half of the first millennium. After the destruction of the main temples, whose traces have substantially disappeared, here the sheep grazed (monte Caprino, "sheep hill") up to the 12th century. Then, over the remains of the ancient Tabularium (archive), the great Senators' Palace was built, and the site gained again its social importance; here Rome's administrators, the Senators, held their meetings.

But besides the palace, the hill was still a simple slope, and after the pedlars who sold food here during a sort of fair, periodically held, the hill was nicknamed faba tosta (i.e. roasted broad bean). Paul III (1534-49) had the idea of finally arranging the top of the Capitolium, and charged with this duty Michelangelo, who enlarged the preexisting building (further alterations were carried out by G. Della Porta e G.Rainaldi) and added two buildings on the sides of the square, Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, the latter built over half century later.

Capitolium Square, detail from A.Tempesta's map

So, ever since, this has been the look of the famous square, that Berneri mentions, as well: three large buildings, whose lightings shine from the sides of the square up to its end (the Senators' Palace), and in the center the famous statue of Marcus Aurelius, that Paul III had moved from the Lateran; Michelangelo, yet opposing the idea of transferring the statue, drew its high base, the one over which Nuccia climbs - taking the risk of breaking her neck - to watch Meo's feats.



THE CORSO AND ROME'S CARNIVAL

the celebrations organized by Meo (Canto VII)

The Candle Race along the Corso (detail), I.Caffi, c.1850

What Berneri describes as an occasional event, held for special reasons, is very similar to the standard celebrations organized during Carnival, which took place in via del Corso and its surroundings (see Curious and Unusual - 10), whom the author was certainly inspired by in describing the joyful frolic for Vienna. The lightings were a constant element of this important roman 8-day festival, which ended with a parade known as the candle race. The scarce visual sources of this happening, such as the painting by Ippolito Caffi shown on the left, give us a rather faithful impression of what Rome's streets may have looked like during the celebrations organized by Meo.

PIAZZA NAVONA

Meo's complaint against the slanderers (Canto III),
Meo's street performance of the siege of Buda (Canto XII)


This square, that many choose as the most beautiful in Rome, has already been dealt with in the section about the rioni, the old districts (see R.VI Parione), and also in the page about the rivalry between Rome's two main Baroque architects (see Legendary Rome, Bernini vs. Borromini); further pictures of the square may be found in the aforesaid pages.
Born over the remains of the Circus of Domitian, whose shape it faithfully reflects, the square was named after the games held in the ancient structure, the Ludi Agonales.

The official names Platea Agonalis, or Campo in Agone, or Foro Agonale, or the like, were still alive in the 17th century, although in the common language the popular name Navona, sprung from the corruption of "in Agone", was already used. the Pamphilj crest (move the cursor over the picture for the verses)

the lion coming out of the den (move the cursor over the picture for the relevant verses) When Berneri wrote Meo Patacca, the arrangement of piazza Navona had been finished some forty years earlier, but its charm undoubtly fascinated romans and foreigners alike, as if it had been opened the day before.

Therefore, we should not be surprised that Berneri dedicated no less than twenty-one octaves of Canto III to the description of the square and, among these, fourteen to the Fountain of the Rivers alone. Instead, for the church of St.Agnes not a word was spent. This makes us think that, while Bernini had a great success among the common people with his work, Borromini, yet having built a very beautiful church, must have been terribly envious!

Berneri gives a very brilliant description in verse of the many details of the Fountain of the Rivers (a few examples are shown), and this suggests how once the fountains, but also the statues and anything that represented figurative art, was looked at by the common people in a very actual way, a sort of virtual reality, almost as nowadays a videogame or a computer simulation would be judged: this explains how the same people, whose large majority was illiterate, played such an important role in ordaining the success or the failure of an artist, according to whether his new works (a statue, a building, etc.), were liked or disliked by the commoners.

the fish that swallows the water (move the cursor over the picture for the verses)

piazza Navona and its surroundings in G.B. Nolli's map (1748); a circle marks the site of the mock siege, while a dot indicates Pasquino's corner		Finally, in the last Canto, the mock siege of Buda performed by Meo is set in a place just off piazza Navona. The description provided by Berneri is once again so precise (Slightly further, there is a space / Where vicolo della Cuccagna ends), that it is possible to identify it with no doubt; the comparison of old maps of Rome shows that the topography of this block alone has remained practically the same as the one that inspired Berneri.		present look of the place at the end of vicolo della Cuccagna

THE GIRANDOLA AT CASTEL SANT'ANGELO

the fireworks display from the Castle (Canto VIII)

	Castel Sant'Angelo's girandola, painting by Joseph Wright (1779)	The Girandola was a very popular roman tradition, unfortunately discontinued. It consisted of a display of several kinds of fireworks, from the simple mortaletti, described in detail by Berneri, to the more complicated ones, that burst into streams of coloured lights. The celebration apparently dates back to the 16th century - it is said that Michelangelo invented it! - lasting up to the second half of the 1800s. It was held on particular holidays, from the terraces of Castel Sant'Angelo, so that as many spectators as possible could enjoy the show. The coloured lights that rose from the Castle and reflected in the Tiber's water must have really left the spectators in awe.

	Several authors left a description of the Girandola, either in verses or as drawings, paintings and engravings by different artists of different ages (H. van Cleef in the 1500s; F. Piranesi, F. Panini and J. Wright in the 1700s; F.T. Aerni in the 1800s). The most crucial moment of the display, as mentioned in Canto VIII, at the end of the show, was the actual girandola, i.e. the simultaneous firing of a great number of flares, a technique that apparently had been improved by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and whose glow ignited Rome's sky as during daylight, although it lasted but a few seconds: Son cose belle sì, ma a parlà schietto, Il finir troppo presto è il lor difetto. They are indeed nice things but, to be frank, To last so little is their only weak point.    (Canto VIII, 73)	Castel Sant'Angelo's girandola, Francesco Piranesi (1783)