Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

Links to this page can be found in Book 5, Day 7, View D8 and Rione Regola.

The page covers:
The plate by Giuseppe Vasi
Today's view (SS. Vincenzo e Anastasio)
Contrada dei Vaccinari (S. Bartolomeo dei Vaccinari)
Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia

The Plate (No. 90)

Floods and lack of maintenance caused the banks of the River Tiber to have an irregular height; in the XVIIIth century a mound of sand on the left bank of the river had risen much higher than the level of the streets behind it, as this 1754 etching by Giuseppe Vasi shows.
Because the river bank had a rather forlorn aspect Vasi showed in the foreground a number of boats including one under full sail (it is shown in the image used as background for this page). Rome had two river harbours: Porto di Ripetta which was situated upstream of the site shown in this plate and Porto di Ripa Grande downstream of it and maybe the boat was carrying goods to the latter.
The view is taken from the green dot in the small 1748 map here below. In the description below the plate Vasi made reference to: 1) Part of Collegio Ecclesiastico; 2) Dome of S. Carlo ai Catinari; 3) SS. Vincenzo e Anastasio; 4) Contrada (street) de' Vaccinari (tanners). 1) and 2) are shown in detail in other pages. The small map shows also 5) S. Bartolomeo dei Vaccinari.

Today

The view in February 2009 from Ponte Giuseppe Garibaldi. It shows the initial section of Via Arenula which leads to Teatro Argentina

Only the dome of S. Carlo ai Catinari in the background tells us that we are looking at the same site shown in the etching. The view by Vasi is a rare document of an entirely lost part of Rome which did not attract the attention of other painters and printmakers.

Map from "Forma Urbis Romae" by Rodolfo Lanciani (1893); the map shows in black the neighbourhood at the time of ancient Rome, in red as it was before 1870 and in blue the changes introduced after that year. In particular the thick blue line indicates the high wall built to prevent floods in the late 1880s. 1) SS. Vincenzo e Anastasio; 2) S. Bartolomeo dei Vaccinari; 3) Ponte Giuseppe Garibaldi

In 1885-1886 the whole area shown in the etching was redesigned and almost all the buildings near the river bank were demolished, similar to what occurred in the adjoining Jewish Ghetto. The small church of SS. Vincenzo e Anastasio belonged to the guild of the cooks; it was very old, but it had been rebuilt in 1640. It was a parish church until 1824. The last records about the church indicate that it was void of interest:
This small church is situate on a piazza of the same name, on the left bank of the Tiber, between the Cenci and Spada palaces and had been a parish-church; but is now in the hands of the Guild of cooks, who obtained possession of it in 1513. The Annunciation, on its great altar, is by an unknown hand.
Rev. Jeremiah Donovan - Rome, ancient and modern: and its environs - 1844

Centrale Montemartini: altar found in 1887 near S. Bartolomeo dei Vaccinari; it can be seen in the map (ARA)

"Vicus Aesculeti" is a Roman street which is known only from the occurrence of the name in the inscription on an altar dedicated by the "magistri vici Aescleti" to the Lares, which was found in the via Arenula about 100 metres north of the Tiber. Fragments of pavement have been found in the Via di S. Bartolommeo, and the "vicus" may have run in that direction.
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Samuel Ball Platner. Thomas Ashby. London - 1929.
The vici magistri were magistrates in charge of local religious ceremonies in the fourteen regiones into which Emperor Augustus divided Rome. In the altar four magistri are portrayed while performing a suovetaurilia, the sacrifice of a sow, a ram and a bull (the ram is perhaps already on the altar). A tibicine plays a double-flute; he belonged to a guild of musicians in charge of playing at public services and solemn funerals.

Contrada dei Vaccinari

(left/centre) Street bearing the name of the lost church of S. Bartolomeo dei Vaccinari; (right) portal of an old building which shows the new level of the street

The workshops of the tanners were located near the river bank; in 1570 the guild of the tanners was assigned an old church (S. Stefano de Arenula); the new owners dedicated it to St. Bartholomew, their patron saint; later on the church was entirely rebuilt (see a directory of Roman churches belonging to a guild).
Over the altar of the little tribune is the flaying of S. Bartolomew, who is represented, in the lateral painting to the left as refusing to worship idols; and in that to the right as suffering martyrdom by decapitation. Donovan
The level of the ground was significantly raised in the 1880s and the church was pulled down; its main altar was shipped to Assab in Eritrea, then an Italian possession, to decorate a new church, but the 1929 detailed guide to Eritrea by Touring Club Italiano does not mention it.

Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia

Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia

Many old houses were pulled down in 1914 to make room for a large building by Pio Piacentini which was completed in 1929. Piacentini designed a Late Renaissance palace which is very different from Palazzo delle Esposizioni, one of his previous works; the comparison between the two buildings shows Piacentini's move towards a more restrained design.
Marcello Piacentini, son of Pio, played a major role in the design of E.U.R., a modern quarter of Rome with some innovative buildings.

Next plate in Book V: Veduta della Rinella.
Next step in Day 7 itinerary: S. Maria in Monticelli.
Next step in your tour of Rione Regola: S. Maria in Monticelli.

Excerpts from Giuseppe Vasi 1761 Itinerary related to this page:

Chiesa de' ss. Vincenzo ed Anastasio Perchè quivi il fiume si slarga più che in ogni altra parte, si fermano sull'una e l'altra sponda le sue arene, donde la contrada, si disse da prima in arenula, ed ora corrottamente la dicono alla renella. Grandi erano anticamente le delizie su questa spiaggia, e sempre si confermano da' maravigliosi marmi, che ogni tanto si scoprono. La chiesa di questi due Santi trovandosi per la vecchiezza in pericolo di rovinare fu conceduta alla confraternita de' cuochi, e pasticcieri, i quali hanno rinnovata la chiesa, e vi mantengono la parrocchia. Indi tornando sulla strada, che dicesi de' vaccinari, evvi a destra la piccola chiesa di s. Bartolommeo de' Vaccinari, eretta sopra un'altra dedicata a s. Stefano, detta in silice.