In this page:
 The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
 Today's view
 Seminario Romano and S. Macuto
 Monastero Dominicano della Minerva
 Palazzo Serlupi Crescenzi
 Warning Inscriptions

The Plate (No. 165)

In this etching Giuseppe Vasi gave rather more relevance to Dominican Monastero della Minerva than to Seminario Romano which belonged to the Jesuits and which was almost an appendage to their nearby Collegio Romano; he probably did so also because the street where Seminario Romano is located is very narrow and it does not allow a proper view of the building. Jesuits and Dominicans belonged to orders having great influence on the decisions of the popes; they apparently cooperated, but they also competed for expanding their power; in 1759 when Vasi published this etching the Jesuits had a major role in the education of new priests, but Seminario Romano was closed in 1772 and the order was suppressed in the following year by Pope Clement XIV.
The view is taken from the green dot in the 1748 map below. In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Buildings opposite S. Ignazio; 2) S. Macuto; 3) Seminario Romano; 4) Dominican Monastery adjoining S. Maria sopra Minerva. The small map shows also: 5) Palazzo Serlupi. 1) is shown in another page. The dotted line in the small map delineates the border between Rione Colonna (upper part) and Rione Pigna (lower part).

Today

The section of the Dominican Monastery shown in the plate was confiscated after the 1870 annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy; it has been slightly modified to adapt it to the various state bodies to which it was assigned; the other buildings shown in the plate have not been modified and the street leading to Piazza della Rotonda is as narrow as it was at Vasi's time.

Seminario Romano

(left) Palazzo del Seminario Romano; (centre) coat of arms of Pope Leo XII; (right) S. Macuto
The institution of a seminary for the education of priests was promoted by Pope Pius IV and by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, his nephew; the institution was housed in several buildings until in 1607 it was moved to an existing palace belonging to the Gabrielli family; the location was very convenient because students attended lessons at Collegio Romano. In 1824 Pope Leo XII assigned the building to the reconstituted Jesuit Order to which it still belongs; it is now known as Casa di S. Roberto Bellarmino, a Jesuit cardinal who played a major role in the trial of Giordano Bruno, a Dominican monk.
Macuto is the Italian name for St. Malo, a VIth century saint from Wales who founded a monastic settlement on the northern coast of Brittany which eventually became the town of Saint-Malo. In 1539 the small medieval church dedicated to St. Malo was assigned to the brotherhood of the inhabitants of Bergamo, a town in northern Italy; it was then dedicated to Bartholomew and Alexander, the patron saints of Bergamo; the church was rebuilt in the second half of the XVIth century (you may wish to see it in a 1588 Guide to Rome); in 1726 the brotherhood was assigned another church in Piazza Colonna and the original dedication was restored by the Jesuits who used the building as the oratory for the nearby seminary; the façade of the church is embellished with small obelisks in memory of the obelisks found in this area, where Iseo Campense, a Temple to Isis, the Egyptian goddess, was located.

Monastero Dominicano

(left) A section of Monastero Domenicano della Minerva; (right) coat of arms of Pope Urban VIII and the Sun of the Barberini

This section of the Dominican monastery is now known as Palazzo S. Macuto and it houses offices of the Italian Camera dei Deputati, the Lower House of the Italian Parliament; it was built in 1641 by Paolo Maruscelli at the expense of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, Protector of the Dominican Order.

Palazzo Serlupi Crescenzi

(left) Palazzo Serlupi Crescenzi; (right-above) cornice; (right-below) detail of the portal

The palace was built in 1585 by Giacomo Della Porta for Ottaviano di Francesco Crescenzi. In 1641 it was inherited by Francesco Serlupi who added to his surname that of the Crescenzi: the palace is thus called Serlupi Crescenzi.

Madonnelle (sacred images): (left) near Palazzo Serlupi with inset showing the heraldic symbols of the Serlupi (left) and of the Crescenzi (right); (centre) in Via delle Paste; (right) in Via degli Orfani

The palace is decorated with the crescent moon of the Crescenzi while later additions (such as the richly decorated sacred image shown above and in the image used as background for this page) show also the heraldic symbol of the Serlupi (who had a palace in Piazza di S. Maria in Campitelli).

Warning Inscriptions

(above) Inscription at Palazzo Serlupi (1745); (below-left) inscription in Piazza Crescenzi (1717); (below-right) inscription near Via del Pellegrino (1733)

Palazzo Serlupi has an inscription forbidding "il mondezzaro" (the accumulation of garbage) below the windows of the building. The papal government was worried about the appearance and the cleanliness of the streets of Rome and several regulations were issued in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries; they established responsibilities, fines and corporal punishment.
Most of the inscriptions were placed during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XIV (1740-58): this pope was known for walking incognito outside the papal palaces to get firsthand knowledge of what was going on in town; his repeated attempts to improve the cleanliness of the streets, show that he was not happy with what he saw.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:

(in Day 1) Chiesa di S. Macuto A sinistra della divisata chiesa, è quella di s. Macuto, già posseduta da' Bergamaschi, la quale fu molto celebre, non tanto per la sua antichità, quanto per gli obelischi egizj, che furono presso di essa. In oggi è unita al Seminario Romano L'an. 1565. fu eretto il Seminario da Pio IV. e fu il primo, che fosse fondato secondo l’intenzione del Concilio di Trento. Si dice Romano, perchè questo è quello, che spetta al Clero di Roma, e vi si ricevono de' convittori nobili, e civili di qualunque nazione, che vogliono imparare le lettere, e le scienze umane, e divine. (in Day 4) Seminario Romano Fu questo eretto l'anno 1560. da Pio IV., e fu il primo, che fosse fondato secondo il Concilio di Trento, per istituirvi la gioventù Romana, che volesse eleggere lo stato ecclesiastico. Fu dato in cura a padri Gesuiti, colla facoltà di educare anche in esso cento convittori nobili, e di qualunque nazione. Dopo essere stato in vari luoghi di Roma, fu per ultimo quivi stabilito con architettura dell'Ammannato, e li fu unita la piccola chiesa di san Macuto, celebre per l'obelisco, che stava eretto nella piazzetta, ed ora sta in mezzo alla fontana nella piazza della Rotonda, ed altri a giacere ne' suoi contorni, creduti del tempio di Iside. Corrisponde quivi il convento de' frati Domenicani.

Next plate in Book 9: Seminario di S. Pietro in Vaticano
Next step in Day 1 itinerary: Chiesa di S. Marcello
Next step in Day 4 itinerary: Piazza della Rotonda
Next step in your tour of Rione Pigna: Sant'Ignazio
Next step in your tour of Rione Colonna: San Silvestro in Capite