The Project of Nicholas V for Rebuilding the Borgo Leonino in Rome

* This study was read in a preliminary form as a paper at the Autumn session of the Seminar of Art History of the University of Uppsala. I wish to express my gratitude to my teacher Professor Gregor Paulsson (University of Uppsala) for having given me every assistance in these studies, and to Licentiate Jan-Olof Tjäder (University of Uppsala) and Dom Anselm Strittmatter O.S.B. (Rome) for their valuable help with the interpretation of Giannozzo Manetti's Latin text; to Mr. Francis C. Rosett for having kindly revised the English form of this article; to Professor Axel Boëthius (University of Göteborg) and Licentiate Rudolf Zeitler (University of Uppsala), both of whom have read my manuscript, for their kind and encouraging interest and valuable advice; and to Mrs. Sonna Rosén who has drawn the diagram. I also wish to thank the Swedish Institute in Rome which has given me the requisite setting for writing this article.

Abstract

IN HIS biography of Nicholas V (1447–1455), Giannozzo Manetti describes at length the vast building activity of the Pope, aimed at improving and embellishing the City of Rome.¹ During his Pontificate Nicholas V took steps not only to improve the sanitary conditions of Rome—thus continuing the work of his immediate predecessors—but also to devise plans for a more dignified, modern, and beautiful residential city, befitting its position as the seat of the successor to the Apostle.