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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2013
1 The display in the cloister of rejects from the basilica was rearranged in 1939 and again in 1970: Josi, E., Il chiostro lateranense. Cenno storico e illustrazione (Vatican City 1970), 5–6Google Scholar; Schiavo, A., Restauri e nuove opere nella zona extraterritoriale Lateranense (1961–1968) (Vatican City 1968), 85Google Scholar.
2 The present level of the pavement in the hall and cloister will henceforward be used as point of reference: = 0 m.
3 The plain roundel capital 2 is closely paralleled in a few capitals in the northern colonnade of the early twelfth-century atrium of S. Clemente, although here the ribbed leaves on the bolsters are missing. The dating of these capitals is uncertain; cf. Voss, I. M., Die Benediktinerabtei S. Andrea in Flumine bei Ponzano Romano (Bonn 1985), 178–9Google Scholar: ‘lassen sich nicht datieren’; Lloyd, J. Barclay, ‘The Building History of the Medieval Church of S. Clemente in Rome’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians XLV (1986), 197–223, esp. 216Google Scholar: ‘made in the Middle Ages’. Cf. Herrmann, J., The Ionic Capitals in Late Antique Rome (Rome 1988), 58Google Scholar.
4 Capital 4 might be compared to the remarkable ancient capital of the older church of S. Paolo, drawn by Coner and reproduced by Ashby, T., ‘Sixteenth-Century Drawings of Roman Buildings attributed to Andreas Coner’, Papers of the British School at Rome II (1904), 71Google Scholar, cat. nr. 148d. Cf. Herrmann, , Ionic Capital, 15, 39–40, 45Google Scholar. Three capitals of a similar type where employed in the narthex in front of the Lateran Basilica, erected in the late twelfth century. On these and other examples of the type see now: Herklotz, I., ‘Der mittelalterliche Fassadenportikus der Lateranbasilika und seine Mosaiken. Kunst und Propaganda am Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts’, Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte XXV (1989), 25–95, esp. 42–4Google Scholar.
5 Lloyd, J. E. Barclay, ‘Masonry Techniques in Medieval Rome, c. 1080 – c. 1300’, Papers of the British School at Rome LIII (1985), 225–77, esp. 232–8Google Scholar.
6 Ibidem, 241–2.
7 The door appears in the accurate plans made by Borromini and his workshop as a basis for the remodelling of the basilica (1644–51), reproduced e.g. by Krautheimer, R., Corbett, S. and Frazer, A., Corpus Basilicarum Christianarum Romae V (Vatican City 1977), 51–3, figs. 58 and 60Google Scholar.
8 The niche was published for the first time by Armellini, M., ‘Scoperta d'una pittura nel Laterano’, Roma. Antologia illustrata II (18–10–1874, nr. 51), 403Google Scholar: ‘… disfacendosi un solaio dietro la sinistra parte della cappella Colonna, apparve in un intercapedine tra quello e la volta sottoposta una parete coperta d'affreschi in istato d'ottima conservazione … Nella stessa parete ove si è trovato il predetto affresco è incavato nel muro una nicchietta semicircolare …’. Cf. de Fleury, G. Rohault, Le Latran au moyen âge (Paris 1877)Google Scholar: Atlas, Pl. XXIV.
9 The bronze doors are precisely dated by their inscription to 1196: Lauer, Ph., Le Palais de Latran. Étude historique et archéologique (Paris 1911), 186Google Scholar. The marble plaque above records that they were originally in the palace, but before the demolition in 1589 were replaced at the instigation of Cardinal Giacomo Savelli. They were incorporated at that time in the doorway emerging from the south aisle of the basilica into the cloister, where they were seen before Borromini's rebuilding: ‘Relazione dello stato nel quale si trovava la Basilica Lateranense quando Papa Innocenzo X s'accinse a rinovarla’, ed. Lauer, , Palais, 592Google Scholar. In Borromini's campaign they were transferred to the cloister itself, where Antonio Bruzio (c. 1655–75) saw them: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 11873, fol. 389r–v.
10 See below note 13.
11 An account of the restoration of the Lateran complex is given by Schiavo, Restauri. Regarding the cloister and the ancient Canons' convent see esp. 72–9, 82–5 and photographs.
12 There may be slight differences between the masonry technique of wall B in and outside the present hall, probably due to the long period of construction of the cloister. The modulus of the brickwork over the western perimeter wall outside the hall is usually close to 29–30 cm., which is remarkably high for the thirteenth century. The undulatory coursing is most obvious in the first bay (i.e. in the present hall): this characteristic coursing had been typical of the Carolingian period, but appeared also in the twelfth century, e.g. in the blocking walls of a few nave windows of SS. Giovanni e Paolo: Avagnina, M. E., Garibaldi, V. and Salterni, C., ‘Le strutture murarie degli edifici religiosi di Roma nel XII secolo’, Rivista dell'Istituto Nazionale d'Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte N.S. XIII–XXIV (1976–1977), 172–255, esp. 212–16 and fig. 36Google Scholar.
13 The repairing and remodelling of the convent are attested by a bull of Eugene IV, dated January 1, 1446, in which he offers the rebuilt convent buildings to the newly reformed chapter: ‘Monasterium insuper, et claustrum, quod apud dictam ecclesiam pro tantae rei institutione, et Salvatoris honore, ac nostra salute, magnis expensis, oneribus, et amplissimis structuris a fundamentis aedificari fecimus, et jam fere multa operositate consumatum est, cum eorum usibus deputamus, concedimus, et dictae Basilicae bona praefata, praesentia, et futura dictae Congregationis Canonicis in perpetuum concedimus, et donamus…’ in Bullarium Lateranense (Rome 1727), 168Google Scholar. Cf. Widloecher, D. N., La congregazione dei canonici regolari lateranensi. Periodo di formazione (1402–1483) (Gubbio 1929), 89Google Scholar, cf. 106–8. The present hall as a (covered?) room probably originates in this campaign. The doorway in wall B towards the cloister has the same type of relieving arch as the windows in the southern wall of the sacristies. The architrave of the small doorway in wall C bears the inscription Compvtisteria: the doorway apparently led into the administration rooms of the chapter, demolished at a later date. About the present sagrestia vecchia, see below note 28. The sagrestia dei canonici belongs to the same complex and displays the same exterior masonry. This room served as a refectory in the Canons' convent of Eugene IV. Clement VIII (1592–1605) converted it into a sacristy: ‘Sacristia vero constituatur in ea aedificii veteris parte ubi olim erat Refectorium Canonicorum Regulariorum, cuius fornix picturis decoretur…’ in Acta Visitationis 1592, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Arm. VII vol. 3, fol. 13v.
14 Armellini was the first to report the find: ‘Scoperta’, 403; see further de Fleury, Rohault, Latran, 369–70, 458–60Google Scholar: Atlas, Pl. III nr. 18, Pl. XXIV.
15 The much damaged mural has been associated with the S. Clemente Master, working about 1100: Ladner, G., ‘Die Italienische Malerei im 11. Jahrhundert’, Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien—Neue Folge V (1931), 81Google Scholar, dates it about 1090 or somewhat later; cf. Garrison, E. B., Studies in the History of Medieval Italian Painting II (Florence 1955–1956), 174Google Scholar.
16 The fresco, attached to canvas, was temporarily stored in the tesoro of the basilica. It is unknown to me where it is now.
17 Armellini and Rohault de Fleury, as note 14; Rohault de Fleury, Latran: Atlas, Pl. IV (with highly speculative details).
18 Krautheimer, et al. Corpus V, 30–2Google Scholar.
19 A twelfth-century example of columns engaged to the end piers is furnished by the narthex of SS. Giovanni e Paolo.
20 In attempting a mere schematic hypothesis one might consider the wide intercolumniation l*–2 (15 palmi) as the central bay of the colonnade. Consequently an even number of smaller intercolumniations (10½ palmi) must be restored to the right and the left. This number would be two at least, but theoretically five lateral intercolumniations on both sides are possible: the distance of 11.60 m. between column 1 * and the southwestern corner of the Constantinian aisle transept allows for a reconstruction of 5 intercolumniations of 10½ palmi; the maximal length of the colonnade would amount to 120 palmi. The ratio 15:10½ in the width of the intercolumniations might not be mere coincidence, but might express the classical proportional formula 10:7 or √2:1. It is a known fact, however, that architecture cannot always be explained according to a canon of symmetrical design.
21 Hoffman, V., ‘Die Fassade von San Giovanni in Laterano 313/14–1649’, Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte XVII (1978), 1–46Google Scholar, passim; Claussen, P. C., Magistri doctissimi Romani. Die römischen Marmorkünstler des Mittelalters (Wiesbaden 1987), 22–6Google Scholar; and recently: Herklotz, ‘Fassadenportikus’ (see above, note 4).
22 Rohault, , Latran, 297Google Scholar. The portico was restored in 1929–30: Giovannoni, G., ‘Restauri nell'Ospedale di San Giovanni in Roma’, Bollettino d'Arte, Serie IIX (1931), 481–90Google Scholar. For the dating: ibidem, 487–8.
23 Cf. Krautheimer, R., Rome. Profile of a City, 312–1308 (Princeton 1980), 294–5Google Scholar.
24 A survey of the sources regarding the formation of the Lateran chapter is given by Kehr, P., ‘Römische Analekten I: Die falschen Papsturkunden des Laterans’, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken XIV (1911), 1–37Google Scholar. On the history of the earlier monasteries: Ferrari, G., Early Roman Monasteries (Vatican City 1957), 161–2, 248–53, 295–6, 315–18Google Scholar.
25 ‘Descriptio Lateranensis Ecclesiae’, in: Valentini, R. and Zucchetti, G., eds., Codice topografico della Città di Roma III (Rome 1946), 347Google Scholar (henceforward DLE). Version of the late eleventh century: ‘… est in eadem parte [ = dextro latere] infra ecclesiam’; version of the twelfth century: ‘… est in dextro latere basilicae’. For a further analysis of this text in view of the interior arrangement of the Lateran Basilica: de Blaauw, S., Cultus et decor. Liturgie en architectuur in laatantiek en middeleeuws Rome: Basilica Salvatoris, Sanctae Mariae, Sancti Petri (Delft 1987), 122–7Google Scholar (Italian edition forthcoming). Whereas the Descriptio reflects the close relationship between the chapel and the interior of the basilica, another twelfth-century text suggests that the chapel was at the same time recognisable as an independent building, ‘iuxta maiorem basilicam’: Bernhardi cardinalis et Lateranensis Ecclesiae prioris, Ordo Officiorum Ecclesiae Lateranensis, Fischer, L. ed. (Munich and Freising 1916), 136 (henceforward OOL)Google Scholar.
26 Panvinio, , De sacrosancta Basilica, Baptisterio et Patriarchio Lateranense, ed. Lauer, , Palais, 438Google Scholar: ‘sacrarium novum ab Eugenio Papa IV duabus cameris distinctum, in quo olim fuit Oratorium Sanctae Mariae Virginis et Sancti Pancratii de quo saepe in antiquis annalibus mentio est’. For the two vaults see below note 28.
27 For the arguments for dating the Lateran ambulatory earlier than the accepted date of c. 1300: De Blaauw, , Cultus et decor, 107–8, 126, 148Google Scholar.
28 A few considerations concerning the present sagrestia vecchia are necessary in this context. The sacristy is subdivided into three bays. The northern one is an addition originating from the building of the new chancel in 1884. The two other bays already existed in the sixteenth century, witness Panvinio, ed. Lauer, , Palais, 438Google Scholar: ‘sacrarium… duabus cameris distinctum’ (cf. Borromini's plans). This situation was most probably the result of the renewal by order of Eugene IV, but it may have been determined by the mediaeval layout of the site. If the portico extended further than column 4, and thus intersected the space of the later sacristy, only the northern half of the central bay would be the mediaeval core of the room.
29 Franceso del Sodo, Compendio delle Chiese, volume ‘La chiesa di San Giovan Laterano’ (1575), Lateran Archives A 22, fol. 7 (cf. Vat. lat. 11911): ‘Per andar verso la sacristia v' è una bella cappella fatta a modo di chiesa con un bel'altare di S. Giovanni Battista nel quale li canonici cantano li diurni officii nel tempo dell'inverno, ivi già era la sagrestia fatta da papa Eugenio 4° (nel qual luogo nel giorno del epifania v' è indulgentia plenaria), qual sagrestia è stata trasportata nel'oratorio, qual si chiamava di S. Maria Vergine e S. Pancratio, nel qual luogo vi stavano di molte reliquie oggi vi si conservano molti paramenti…’ Both oratories in the area of the later Colonna Chapel are visible in the so-called Archive plan from c. 1555, reproduced by Krautheimer, et al. Corpus V, 48Google Scholar. The chapels included the space previously occupied by the portico, the altars standing against the blocking walls of the colonnade. The eastern oratory with two altars was probably the chapel of SS. Philip and James. One altar was dedicated to both apostles, and was known as the altare mortuorum: Tabula Magna (1518), ed. Lauer, , Palais, 297Google Scholar (in contrast to Panvinio, ed. Lauer, , Palais, 439Google Scholar). It had for a long time been in the patronage of the Colonna family. The other altar is referred to as S. Costanza, in the patronage of the Muti, by Ugonio, P., Historia delle stationi di Roma (Rome 1588), 42vGoogle Scholar The western chapel, adjoining the present sagrestia vecchia, must have been the chapel of St John the Baptist, mentioned by Del Sodo, in use both as the winter choir of the canons and apparently as a sacristy in his time. The chapel is also referred to in a document of 1584, copied in Vat. lat. 8035 II, fol. 162v–163r: ‘… ad Altare Sancti Johannis Baptiste in eadem Ecclesia prope Sacellum eiusdem Ecclesie in quo tempore hiemali divina recitantur officia…’ One wonders whether this room is meant in the report of the visitation in 1592, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Arm. VII vol. 3, fol. 13: ‘Locus post Tribunam maiorem, qui nunc pro sacristia inservit ad pristinum Ecclesiae usum in apertum et liberum aditum reducator’ (cf. note 13).
30 Garrison, E., ‘Three Manuscripts for Lucchese Canons of S. Frediano in Rome’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes XXXVIII (1975), 1–52, esp. 4–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
31 OOL, 90: ‘fratres per claustrum processionem faciunt’; OOL, 80: ‘usque ad ostium ecclesiae’.
33 Ibidem, 120: ‘mansionarius aquam a cisterna claustri adducit eamque in pilo marmoreo mittit’. The marble pilum that stands in the centre of the courtyard at present may well date back as early as the ninth century: Corpus della scultura altomedievale VII, iii (Spoleto 1974), 125–8Google Scholar. It may therefore be the one referred to by Bernard.
34 OOL, 64. On the papal sacristy or chapel of St Thomas: OOL, 60 and DLE, 350.
35 OOL, 80: ‘usque … ad ostium ecclesie veniatur. Ubi oratio ea die non dicitur nec statio habetur.’ OOL, 121: ‘… in vetus capitulum reversi fuerint, in quo statio debeat fieri … qua finita ingreditur ecclesiam’.
36 Ibidem, 46.
37 For a short interval during the long ceremonies of the Easter vigil, the Pope retired in the vestry, adjacent to the cloister: OOL, 64. The Ordo of Cencius (late twelfth century) locates this interval ‘ad altare ante ecclesiam sancti Pancratii’, Fabre, P. and Duchesne, L. eds., Le Liber Censuum de l'église romaine, (Paris 1910–1952, 2 vols.) I, 297Google Scholar. This must imply that chapel, vestry and claustrum were situated close to each other.
38 van Dijk, S. J. P. and Walker, J. Hazelden, eds., The Ordinal of the Papal Court from Innocent III to Boniface VIII and Related Documents (Fribourg 1975), 235Google Scholar. A version of the text prior to Innocent III gives ‘sacrarium’ instead of ‘capella sancti Pancratii’ etc. The more recent version appears in the pontifical of Innocent III, from which we have to conclude that the wording ‘iuxta claustrum canonicorum’ refers to a situation still prior to the construction of the new cloister. The texts also reveal that the functions of sacristy and chapel were already in a process of assimilation long before the rearrangements by order of Eugene IV.
39 Meyvaert, P., ‘The Medieval Monastic Claustrum’, Gesta XII (1972), 52–9Google Scholar.
40 For the building history of the cloister with its sources: Claussen, , Magistri, 126–32Google Scholar.
41 Voss, , S. Andrea, 182 n. 2Google Scholar, characterises the capitals of the Vassalletto cloister as representing the last phase of the mediaeval Ionic capital in Rome, only slightly later than the capitals in the nave of S. Lorenzo f.l.m. (1216–27).
42 For the craftsmanship and the professional status of these artists see Claussen Magistri, passim.
43 Transcriptions of the deeds by Galletti in Vat. lat. 8034, fol. 125v and 118v. In 1227 the procedure is recorded as having taken place in the adjacent chapel of St Pancras: ‘Actum infra ecclesiam Sancti Pangratii Lateranensis’, ibidem, fol. 86r.
44 For a discussion of the problems regarding the dating of the transept and a proposal of dating it in the thirties of the twelfth century: De Blaauw, , Cultur et decor, 108–11, 112–14, 126–7Google Scholar.
45 Frazer, A., ‘Modes of European Courtyard Design Before the Medieval Cloister’, Gesta XII (1973), 1–12, esp. 2–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar, defines the mediaeval cloister as ‘a strip of arcuated windows set within a wall’, with a ‘parapet at the ground line’ and ‘a conspicuous amount of solid masonry between the arches and the eaves of the roof, contrary to the classical peristyle court (and the early Christian and mediaeval atrium): ‘a square or rectangular space surrounded by a succession of colonnades’, with free movement from court to corridors. Horn, W., ‘On the Origins of the Mediaeval Cloister’, Gesta XII (1973), 12–52Google Scholar, assigns ‘the invention of the cloister’ (p. 40) to the Carolingian world in the eighth century: esp. 42ff. However, nobody knows whether the cloisters of Lorsch and Sankt Gallen already had parapets. Remarkably enough, in the fifteenth century the parapet disappears from Roman cloister architecture; for various examples see Lotz, W., ‘Bramante and the Quattrocento Cloister’, Gesta XII (1973), 111–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
46 E.g. the upper part of the clerestory wall (modulus close to 30 cm. and falsa cortina pointing only occasionally between the voussoirs) and the boiler room. Detailed description: Lloyd, J. Barclay, ‘The Architecture of the Medieval Church and Conventual Buildings of S. Clemente in Rome, ca. 1080 – ca. 1300’ (London 1980, dissertation), Tabl e II (to be published shortly)Google Scholar.
47 Lloyd, , ‘Building History’, 216Google Scholar. Claussen, , Magistri, 16Google Scholar, calls the use of antique spoils, in contrast to the production of new capitals of classical inspiration, ‘ein Kennzeichen der römischen Renovatio der ersten Hälfte des 12. Jahrhunderts, in der man antike Grösse vor allem dadurch wiederherzustellen versuchte, dass man Antike substantiell als Spolie einsetzte’.
48 Cf. the Lateran portico also with the house portico in Via Capo di Ferri 31 (lavishly decorated with newly made sculpture); Claussen, , Magistri, 139 note 759Google Scholar, associates it with the narthex of S. Lorenzo f.l.m. (1216–27).
49 Garrison, , Studies, 174Google Scholar.
50 Kehr, ‘Analekten’, passim, with ample reference to the sources. On the early instigations for reform of the Lateran chapter, under Alexander II (1061–73) see Schmidt, T., ‘Die Kanonikerreform in Rom und Papst Alexander II’, Studi Gregoriani IX (1972), 201–22Google Scholar.
51 The history and backgrounds of the reforms regarding the communal life of the clergy are amply dealt within: La vita comune del clero nei secoli XI and XII. Atti della settimana di studio: Mendola-Settembre 1959 (Milan 1962)Google Scholar.
52 Some remarks need to be made in this context of the inscription of Pope Alexander II and Abbot Dominicus in the Lateran chiostro (eastern corridor, nr. 27), dated 1072: hoc fvit inceptvm renovari tempore templvm vrbis alexandri …/… abbas dominicvs meritis et nomine dignvs istam domvm qvidem cepit complevit… In contrast to the generally accepted opinion, which I followed in an earlier phase (De Blaauw, , Cultur et decor, 100, 103, 129Google Scholar), I think that this text cannot refer to the Lateran and consequently cannot furnish any clue regarding the dating of the portico. The literature on the Lateran mentions the inscription only from the nineteenth century onwards: Forcella, V., Iscrizioni delle chiese e d'altri edificii di Roma dal secolo XI fino ai giorni nostri (Rome 1864–1884), VIII (1876), 10 nr. 25Google Scholar; de Fleury, Rohault, Latran, 112–14Google Scholar. In older descriptions it is (remarkably missing), in Panvinio's work as well as in that of Antonio Bruzio, indefatigable collector of inscriptions: Vat. lat. 11873. On the other hand: the same inscription, in a similar authentic engraving and only with minimal variants, appears in the former monastic church of S. Biagio della Pagnotta (Via Giulia): Forcella, , Iscrizioni IX, 403 nr. 818Google Scholar. Representation of both tablets: Silvagni, A., Monumenta epigrafica Christiana saeculo XIII antiquiora I (Vatican City 1943), Tav. XX nr. 1 and 2Google Scholar. There is a number of reasons to associate the inscription definitely with S. Biagio (the present existence of an authentic duplicate in the Lateran remains unexplained for the time being). (1) Blaise takes the first place in the list of relics on the inscription: he is the patron saint of the abbey church, but plays no special role in the cult of the Lateran: Jounel, P., Le Culte des saints dans les basiliques du Latran et du Vatican au douzième siècle (Rome 1977), 223Google Scholar. (2) An abbas as head of the Lateran chapter around 1072 is unknown; there is only a reference to an archipresbyter; see Schmidt, , ‘Kanonikerreform’, 208, 217–18Google Scholar. (3) Dominicus abbas is, however, mentioned in other inscriptions of S. Biagio, among which one in the pavement, noticed by Petrus Sabinus by 1500 ‘in circulo pavimenti’: dominicvs abbas hoc pavimentvm fieri ivssit (kind communication of P. C. Claussen): de Rossi, G. B., Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae (Rome 1857–1888), II 1 (1888), 445Google Scholar.
53 Toubert, H., ‘Rome et le Mont-Cassin. Nouvelles remarques sur les fresques de l'église inférieure de Saint-Clément de Rome’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers XXX (1976), 1–33, esp. 30–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lloyd, , ‘Architecture of S. Clemente’, 239–42Google Scholar.