Mapping the early modern city

² For the role of the Architect of the Senate, see Meli, F., ‘Degli Architetti del Senato di Palermo nei secoli XVII e XVIII’, Archivio Storico per la Sicilia, V (1939), 305ff. For Paolo Amato, see Amato, P., La Nuova Pratica di Prospettiva (Palermo, 1714); Mongitore, A., Memorie dei Pittori, Scultori, Architetti, Artefici in Cera Siciliani, ed. Natoli, E. (Palermo, 1977), 25 and 120; Gangi, G., Il Barocco nella Sicilia Occidentale (Rome, n.d.), 27–8; Garstang, D., Giacomo Serpotta and the Stuccatori of Palermo (London, 1984), 53–7. The only monograph on the subject is lively, but lacking in rigour: Tricoli, M.C. Ruggieri, Paolo Amato: La Corona e il Serpente (Palermo, 1986).

³ I know of no examples outside Palermo of a map being used in a festival.

⁴ There is now a very considerable literature investigating the nature of urban interventions at all levels from macro to micro in seventeenth-century cities. Richard Krautheimer was a pioneer in this field and his brilliant example has been followed by a generation of able urban and architectural historians. See, in particular, Krautheimer, R., The Rome of Alexander VII 1655–1667 (Princeton, 1985); Pollak, M., Turin, 1564–1680 (Chicago and London, 1991); Ballon, H., The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism (New York, 1991). An outstanding example of a dose investigation of urban rivalries at a local level is Connors, J., ‘Alliance and enmity in Roman baroque urbanism’, Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, XXV (1989), 207–94; John Pinto provides a model analysis of one specific urban area over many centuries in Pinto, J., The Trevi Fountain (New Haven and London, 1986).

⁵ Giedion, S., Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition (Cambridge, 1967), 82–7.

⁶ Ballon, , Paris of Henri IV. Similarly, in her riveting study of Turin, Martha Pollak is much quicker to treat as propagandistic engraved images of Torinese streets than the many maps of that same dty. Pollak, , Turin, 1564–1680.

⁷ See especially Wood, D., The Power of Maps (New York, 1992); Blakemore, M. and Harley, J.B., ‘Concepts in the history of cartography: a review and perspective’, Cartographica, 17, 4 (Winter 1980); Pinto, J., ‘Origins and development of the ichnographic city plan’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (1976), 35–50; Schulz, J., ‘Jacopo de' Barberi';s view of Venice: map making, city views, and moralized geography before the year 1500’, Art Bulletin, 60 (1978), 425–74.

⁸ For maps represented in paintings, see Alpers, S., The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century (Harmondsworth, 1983), 119–68 and Welu, J., ‘Vermeer: his cartographic sources’, Art Bulletin, 57 (1975), 529–47. For the conservative formal approach to the study of maps, see for example, Ehrensvärd, U., ‘Color in cartography: a historical survey’, in Woodward, D. (ed.), Art and Cartography: Six Historical Essays (Chicago and London, 1987), 123–47; Welu, J.A., ‘The sources and development of cartographic ornamentation in the Netherlands‘, in ibid., 147–73; Woodward, D., ‘The manuscript, engraved, and typographic traditions of map lettering’, in ibid., 174–212.

⁹ Borsi, S., Roma di Urbano VIII: La Pinta di Giovanni Maggi, 1625 (Rome, 1990).

¹⁰ Krautheimer, , Rome of Alexander VII, 142–4.

¹¹ Ibid., 142 and 146–7.

¹² The aim here is to shed light on the main apparato, which so strikingly incorporates the map of Palermo, rather than to seek to explore all the arcane imagery and references of the other apparati used in the festival. The other apparati are therefore discussed only in so far as they illuminate the principal altar decoration.

¹³ I am, of course, aware that identities are plural and contingent, but understand this image to be an attempt by particular elites of the city, the Senate and the cathedral clergy to create a specific identity to be embraced by leading citizens.

¹⁴ A good general account of urbanism in baroque Palermo is Guidoni, E., ‘L'arte di costruire una capitale. Istituzioni e progetti a Palermo nel Cinquecento’, in Fossati, P. (ed.), Storia dell'arte italiana (Turin, 1983), 265–97.

¹⁵ Jennifer Montagu has drawn attention to the difficulties of interpreting seventeenth-century festival descriptions. She provides a striking example of the discrepancies between seventeenth-century accounts of processions in her discussion of the possesso of Innocent X of 1644. Montagu points out how the engravings published in two contemporary accounts show triumphal arches which are completely different from each other and do not correspond either to the written descriptions, or to the image that can be derived from the payments. Montagu, J., Roman Baroque Sculpture (London, 1989), 183, 187.

¹⁶ That we cannot assume homogeneity of response is obvious, but it is hard to say much more than that in this instance. For interesting discussions of crowd reponses and behaviours in very different circumstances, see Thompson, E.P., ‘The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century’, Past and Present, 50 (1971), 76–136 and Davis, N., ‘The rites of violence: religious riot in sixteenth-century France’, Past and Present, 59 (1973), 51–91.

¹⁷ For Barberi's map, see Schulz, , ‘Jacopo de Barberi's view of Venice’, 425–74.

¹⁸ Time Vindicated, a masque written for performance at court in the Banqueting House on Twelfth Night 1623, boasted a set representing the exterior of the same Banqueting House. Orgel, S. and Strong, R., Inigo Jones: The Theatre of the Stuart Court (London and Los Angeles, 1973), vol. I, 348 and fig. 122,356–7. Similiarly, a design for Cupid's Palace for an unknown masque of c. 1619–23 bears close visual similarities to examples of Inigo Jones' built architecture, the Prince's Lodgings at Newmarket. Ibid., vol. I, 329 and fig. 41.

¹⁹ Weil, M., ‘Love, monsters, movement and machines: the marvelous in theaters, festivals and gardens’, in Kenseth, K. (ed.), The Age of the Marvelous (Chicago, 1991), 163.

²⁰ Virgins and saints are, of course, associated with Italian urban iconography from at least the fourteenth century. These particular examples have been selected because they include unusually detailed representations of the city as well as of the saints and Madonna. For Ludovico Carracci's Bargellini Madonna, see Emiliani, A. (ed.), Ludovico Carracci (Bologna, 1993), 48. For Annibale Carracci's painting of the Madonna over Bologna, see Byam Shaw, J., Paintings by Old Masters at Christ Church Oxford (London, 1967), 102.

²¹ For the visit of Charles V to Sicily in 1535, see Fagiolo, M. and Madonna, M., Il Teatro del Sole: La rifondazione di Palermo nel Cinquecento e l'idea della città barocca (Rome, 1981), 11–24. For Porta Nuova and Porta Felice in Palermo see Palermo, G., Guida Istruttiva per Palermo e i suoi Dintorni (Palermo, 1858), 75 and 379; Bellafiore, G., La Maniera italiana in Sicilia (Palermo, 1963), 20–1, 63–8; La Barbera Bellia, S., La Scultura della Maniera in Sicilia (Palermo, 1984), 104–8; Giuffrè, M., Miti e Realtà dell'Urbanistica Siciliana (Palermo, 1969), 30; Boscarino, S., Sicilia Barocca: Architettura e Città 1610–1760 (Palermo, 1986), 25, 109, 201.

²² For the Arab city and the Cassero, see De Seta, C. and Di Mauro, L., Palermo (Bari, 1988), 19–22. For the via Maqueda and via Toledo, see ibid., 75–6. For brief accounts of these urban interventions, see Guidoni, , ‘L'arte di costruire’, 265–97 and Hills, H., ‘Piazza Vigliena’, International Dictionary of Architecture (Chicago, 1994), 598–9.

²³ See Di Matteo, S., Iconografia storica della provincia di Palermo (Palermo, 1992), 80–1, 93; and De Seta, and Di Mauro, , Palermo, 20–4, 61–4.

²⁴ Ibid., 127.

²⁵ This was not the case in published verbal descriptions of the city. As early as 1609 a pamphlet was published describing the cross and the square at its intersection. Maringo, G.B., Fama del'Ottangolo palermitano. Piazza Vigliena e Theatro del Sole (Palermo, 1609).

²⁶ Di Matteo, , Iconografica storica, 96.

²⁷ The work of which this map formed a part has not been identified. See Di Matteo, , Iconografica storica, 119, and De Seta, and Di Mauro, , Palermo, 94.

²⁸ I am indebted to Valerie Fraser for this perceptive observation. The model city with a grid system was imposed by the Spanish authorities in the early years of conquest in the New World and was codified in a law introduced by Philip II in 1573. Benevolo, L., The History of the City (London, 1980), 624–9.

²⁹ For the Spanishness of the Viceroys and of their court, including in language and dress, see Di Blasi, G.E., Storia Cronologica dei Vicerè Luogotenenti e Presidenti del Regno di Sicilia (Palermo, 1871), 95–256 and Fardella, E., Il Cerimoniale dei signori viceré (1584–1668) (Palermo, 1976), 258–62. For the Spanishness of seventeenth-century Palermitan elite culture, see Hills, H., ‘Spanish influence on seventeenth-century Sicilian architecture: the chapel of the crucifix in Monreale Cathedral’, Ricerche di Storia dell'Arte (forthcoming).

³⁰ In effect, Crown control of the Sicilian episcopate was complete, due to the absolute authority of the judge of the Monarchia and his court. Sicilian bishoprics were little more than prizes for the Spanish Crown to distribute to its faithful servants. The presence of the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily further subordinated the Church to the Spanish Crown. Wright, A.D., ‘Relations between church and state: Catholic developments in Spanish-ruled Italy of the Counter-Reformation’, History of European Ideas, 9 (1988), 386, 388. On the Apostolic Legateship, see Scaduto, F., Stato e Chiesa nelle Due Sicilie (Palermo, 1969), vol. 1, 160–3 and Catalano, G., Studi sulla legazia apostolica di Sicilia (Reggio Calabria, 1973).

³¹ See note 21 above.

³² Del Giudice, , Palermo Magnifico, 87.

³³ Ibid., 93.

³⁴ For Charles V's device, see Rosenthal, E., ‘Plus ultra, non plus ultra, and the columnar device of Charles V’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 34 (1971), 204–28 and Rosenthal, E., ‘The invention of the columnar device of Emperor Charles V at the Court of Burgundy in Flanders in 1516’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 36 (1973), 198–230. For the ways in which Charles V's empire succeeded in translating the phantom of the ‘espérance impériale’ to the national monarchies, see the arresting discussion by Yates, F., Astraea: The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century (Harmondsworth, 1977), 1–28.

³⁵ For Montorsoli's Neptune Fountain see Bellia, La Barbera, Scultura della Maniera, 59 and Natoli, E., ‘La Scultura a Messina nel secolo XVI’, Quaderno dell'Istituto di Storia Arte Medioevale e Moderna, 5–6 (1981–1982), 35. For the monument to Charles V in Piazza Bologni, Palermo, by Scipione Li Volsi, Giacomo Cirasoli, Luigi Geraci and Giovanni Travaglia, see Palermo, , Guida Istruttiva, 477–8. For the social and political significance of Piazza Bologni, see Guidoni, , ‘L'arte di costruire’, 283.

³⁶ They perhaps additionally underscore Sicily's claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem (a claim that was invigorated in Sicily at this time), since the Salamonic columns refer to the Temple of Jerusalem. For the links between spiral columns and Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, see Ward-Perkins, J.B., ‘The shrine of St Peter's and its twelve spiral columns’, Journal of Roman Studies, 42 (1952), 24 and Ramirez, J.A., ‘Guarini, Fray J. Ricci and the complete Salamonic Order’, Art History, 4 (1981), 24. For Sicily‘s claim to the Kingdom of Jersualem, see Mongitore, A., Discorso Istorico sull'Antico Titolo di Regno Concesso all‘Isola di Sicilia (Palermo, 1735). A full discussion of this issue is given in Hills, H., ‘Marmi Mischi in Palermo’ (unpublished University of London Ph.D. thesis, 1992), 120–36.

³⁷ See Koenigsberger, H.G., The Government of Sicily under Philip II of Spain (London, 1951); Koenigsberger, H.G., The Practice of Empire (London, 1980); , J. and Schneider, P., Culture and Political Economy in Western Sicily (New York, 1976); for a more general discussion, see Wallerstein, I., The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1974).

³⁸ The weaknesses of the Spanish administration throughout the seventeenth century are brilliantly described and analysed by John Elliott. Elliott, J.H., The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline (Yale, 1986), especially 600–13.

³⁹ Mack Smith, D., A History of Sicily (London, 1968), 152.

⁴⁰ Di-Blasi, G.E., Storia Cronologica dei Vicerè Luogotenenti e Presidenti del Regno di Sicilia (Palermo, 1871), 109–15, 139–11, 189–222; Smith, Mack, History of Sicily, 152; ‘La protesta dei Messinesi al viceré Giovanni Cardona conte di Prades nel parlamento di Catania del 27 settembre 1478 translata per lohan Falcone’, in Sciascia, L. (ed.), Delle cose di Sicilia: Testi inediti o rari (Palermo, 1980), 395–408.

⁴¹ Quoted by Smith, Mack, History of Sicily, 153.

⁴² ‘questo è il governo della città proprio in cui ha minima parte né s'ingerisce il re, né i suoi ministri, ma lasciasi a Palermo una certa di Repubblica’: Bisaccioni, Maiolino, Historia delle guerre civili di questi ultimi tempi (Bologna, 1653), 361. Quoted by Benigno, F., ‘La Questione della Capitale: Lotta politica e rappresentanza degli interessi nella Sicilia del Seicento’, Società e Storia, 47 (1990), 40. See also Romano, A., ‘Fra assolutismo regio ed autnomie locali. Note sulle consuetudini delle città di Siclia’, Cultura ed Istutuzioni nella Sicilia Medievale e Moderna (Messina, 1992), 9–49, 230–6. But for an example of the Spanish Crown's willingness to deprive Sicily in favour of other parts of its empire, see Sella, D., Crisis and Continuity: The Economy of Spanish Lombardy in the Seventeenth Century (London, 1979), 66.

⁴³ Smith, Mack, History of Sicily, 153.

⁴⁴ The degree to which the principal cities of Sicily were physically separate from each other in this period should not be underestimated. Palermo was frequently inaccessible by road from other parts of Sicily, and even by boat it was sometimes two or three days from Messina. Smith, Mack, History of Sicily, 72, 222. One has only to reflect that the main autostrada linking Palermo and Catania was not built until 1950 to appreciate how long the tendency against centralization has persisted in Sicily.

⁴⁵ Messina assumed a sort of religious leadership after the discovery of the bones of St Placido in 1589: Benigno, , ‘La questione della capitale’, 44. For the Messinese celebrations of this occasion, see Alberti, D.S., Dell'Istoria della Compagnia di Gesù – La Sicilia (Palermo, 1702), 702–3. For the struggles amongst the religious orders who feared marginalization along with the city where their power was based, see Fazello, T., Le Due Deche dell'Historie di Sicilia (Venice, 1623 and Palermo, 1628) and Maurolico, F., Sicanicarum rerum compendo (Messina, 1562), 58–62.

⁴⁶ For a broad discussion of these reasons, see Villari, R., ‘La Spagna, l'Italia e l'assolutismo’, Studi Storici – Istituto Gramsci, 4 (1977), 4–22 and Benigno, F., ‘Messina e il Duca d'Osuna: un conflitto politico nella Sicilia del Seicento’, in Il Governo della Città: Patriziati e politica nella Sicilia moderna (Catania, 1989), 173–207.

⁴⁷ For discussions of the Sicilian economy in this period, see Aymard, M., ‘From feudalism to capitalism in Italy’, Review, 6 (1982), 131–208; Aymard, M., ‘Bilancio d'una lunga crisi finanziaria’, Rivista Storica Italiana, 84 (1972), 988ff.; Schneider, J. and Schneider, P., Culture and Political Economy in Western Sicily (New York and London, 1976), 27–32; Aymard, M., ‘Il commercio dei grani nella Sicilia del '500’, Archivio stoico per la Sicilia orientale, LXXII (1976), 7–40; Spagnoletti, A., ‘Colloquio internazionale su “Potere e élites” nella Spagna e nella'Italia spagnola nei secoli XV–XVII’, Società e Storia, 17 (1982), 17, 735–6; Davies, T., ‘Changes in the; structure of the wheat trade in seventeenth-century Sicily and the building of new villages’, Journal of European Economic History, 12 (1983) 371–405; Burke, P., ‘Southern Italy in the 1590s: hard times or crisis?’, in Clark, P. (ed.), The European Crisis of the 1590s: Essays in Comparative History (London, 1985), 177, 184–5; Davies, T., ‘Village-building in Sicily: an aristocratic remedy for the crisis of the 1590s’, in Clark, European Crisis of the 1590s, especially 191ff.; Cipolla, C.M., ‘The decline of Italy: the case of a fully matured economy’, Eonomic History Review, ser. 2,5 (1952), 178–85; for the longer-term structural causes of economic problems in Sicily, see Epstein, S.R., An Island for Itself: Economic Development and Social Change in Late Medieval Sicily (Cambridge, 1992).

⁴⁸ Judges of the Gran Corte, for instance, represented distinctly Palermo, Messina, Catania and the rest of the Kingdom. Benigno, , ‘La questione della capitale’, 42–3. For other Messinese privileges during the seventeenth century, see ibid., 44.

⁴⁹ Ibid., 34.

⁵⁰ Smith, Mack, History of Sicily, 204.

⁵¹ Benigno, , ‘La questione della capitale’, 59–60.

⁵² Alberi, E. (ed.), Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato, s.II, vol. V (Florence, 1853), 476.

⁵³ The more democratic nature of Messinese government was probably never as attractive to the Spanish monarchy as its more subservient ‘spagnola’ Palermitan counterpart. Messinese defence of their economic interests rarely found favour with the Spanish, especially after the dash with Osuna over the tax on silk in 1612. But the most salient difference in their administrations concerned jurisdiction. In Palermo juridical appointments were left to the Viceroy, while in Messina they were elected. For this and other civic differences which contributed to the independence of Messina from the Spanish Crown, see Benigno, , ‘La questione della capitale’, 32–8.

³⁴ See Benigno, F., All'ombra del Re: Ministri e lotta politica nella Spagna del Seicento (Venice, 1992), 118–45,139ff. For the reign of Philip III in allowing factions and favourites greater sway both in the metropolis and in the colony, see Williams, P., ‘EI reinado de Felipe III’, in Historia general de España y America: La crisis de la hegemonia española. Siglo XVII, vol. 8 (Madrid, 1986), 419–43.

⁵⁵ Aymard, , ‘Il commercio dei grani’, 26; Benigno, , ‘La questione della capitale’, 44–5.

⁵⁶ Smith, Mack, History of Sicily, 204. The fact that the Viceroy settled in Palermo was of key importance in determining Palermitan advantage. For example, wheat prices were ratified by the Viceroy, see Aymard, , ‘Il commercio dei grani’, 24.

⁵⁷ The Messinese rebellion differed markedly in character from the revolt in Palermo in 1647. In Messina the rebellion was organized not by the desperately poor facing famine, as had been the case in Palermo, but by the rich trying to defend their privileges from Spanish rule, from Palermo and from threat to the monopoly on silk exports. Pocili, A., Delle Rivolutioni della Città di Palermo avvenute l';anno 1647 (Verona, 1648); Laloy, F., La révolte de Messine (Paris, 1929–1931); Petrocchi, M., La rivoluzione cittadina messinese del 1674 (Florence, 1954); Giarrizzo, G., ‘La Sicilia dal Cinquencento all'Unità d'Italia’, in Galasso, G. (ed.), Storia d'Italia: La Sicilia dal Vespro all'Unità d'Italia, vol. XVI (Turin, 1989) 332–42.

⁵⁸ Romano, , Cultura ed Istituzioni, 153–75.

⁵⁹ Pocili, , Delle Rmolutioni, 17–18, 85–93.

⁶⁰ There were no corresponding celebrations emphasizing the benificence of Spanish rule in Messina.

⁶¹ The eagle was a symbol of Palermo. Mungitore, A., ‘Diario Palermitano’, in Di Marzo, Diari della città di Palermo, vol. 7, 174. For a full discussion of this symbolism see Fagiolo and Madonna, , Il Teatro del Sole, 20–21 and Strada, F., Le Glorie dell'Aquila Trionfante (Palermo, 1682), 1–11.

⁶² In Del Giudice's words: ‘che tutte sono le più speciali Provincie, e Città, o difese da' morbi aggressori, o presidiate co' Palladij di qualche reliquia, o ossequiose all'impareggiabile gloria, e che tutte stimano lor pregio accompagnare anco cattive del proprio affetto il Trionfo della Palermitana Eroina’: Del Giudice, Palermo Magnifico, 34.

⁶³ See Galasso, G. and Russo, C., Per la Storia Sociale e Religiosa del Mezzogiorno d'Italia (Naples, 1980), and Gajano, S.B. and Sebastiani, L. (eds), Culto dei Santi, istituzioni e classi sociali in età preindustriale (Rome, 1984).

⁶⁴ Valentini, C., ‘Due Episodi di Peste in Sicilia (1526–1624)’, Archivio Storico Siciliano, ser. IV, X (1984), 5–32.

⁶⁵ It was always vigorously supported by the Jesuits, who involved themselves prominently in the annual festino, maintaining a significant presence in the processions, and tirelessly producing elaborate apparati which promoted the Society. For an early description of the Jesuits' involvement in the festino of 1625, see Paruta, O., Relations delle feste fatte in Palermo nel MDCXXV per lo trionfo delle Gloriose Reliquie di S. Rosalia Vergine Palermitana (Palermo, 1651). For a discussion of the development and growth of the cult of St Rosalia, see Petrarca, V., Di Santa Rosalia Vergine Palermitana (Palermo, 1988).

⁶⁶ Giudice, Del, Palermo Magnifico, 44.

⁶⁷ Since nothing has survived of this macchina and no other descriptions of this fireworks display has survived, I am forced to rely on Del Giudice's account. As Montagu has noted, ‘[n]othing is harder to understand than the description of seventeenth-century fireworks’: Montagu, , Roman Baroque Sculpture, 187.

⁶⁸ Giudice, Del, Palermo Magnifico, 46.

⁶⁹ Ibid., 49.

⁷⁰ For a discussion of Troy as a potent topos in art, see McKendrick, S., ‘The Great History of Troy: a reassessment of the development of a secular theme in late medieval art’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 54 (1991), 43–82. Further research is needed into the significance of Troy in medieval and post-medieval representations of cities.

⁷¹ Del Giudice lists the monarchs as Count Roger, King Roger, William the Good, Frederick II, Peter of Aragon, Ferdinand, Philip I, Charles V, Philip II, Philip III, Philip IV, Charles II: Giudice, Del, Palermo Magnifico, 121. G.C. Argan describes these figures as the ‘Mothers’ and ‘Fathers’ of Sicily: Argan, G.C., ‘Premessa’, in Fagiolo and Madonna, Teatro del Sole, 7.

⁷² Giudice, Del, Palermo Magnifico, 97.

⁷³ Given the tremendous local and popular enthusiasm for St Rosalia, it was prudent for the Spanish Crown not only to seek to identify its fortunes with this saint, but also to ensure that it controlled how she was used.

⁷⁴ There have been few attempts to interpret seventeenth-century Italian processions, but for a useful discussion of the functions of processions in Counter-Reformation Milan, see Dallaj, A., ‘Le processioni a Milano nella Controriforma’, Studi Storici, 23 (1982), 167–83.