Martino Longhi the Younger and the Façade of San Giovanni Calibita in Rome

* This study is based largely on research for a dissertation on Martino Longhi the Younger which I am currently preparing for the University of Michigan. For making such research possible, I should like to express my gratitude to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, which granted me a fellowship to the Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome. I am also very grateful to Dr. Wolfgang Lotz, Dr. Hellmut Hager, Dr. Winfried Ranke, and Dr. Hedwig Herzmansky for their assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.

Abstract

On May 3, 1644, a meeting was held of the capitolo conventuale of the order of the Fatebenefratelli at San Giovanni Calibita. Among other subjects discussed, it is recorded in the acts of the meeting that the fathers considered “se si dovesse eseguire il disegno della facciata della nostra chiesa fatto dal Sig. Martin Longo con l'elemosina che ha promesso il Sig. Durante Ferrati; communemente hanno risposto esser cosa buona, e che avendo l'elemosina subito si dasse principio.”¹ Thus it is apparent that the Roman architect Martino Longhi the Younger prior to this time had received a commission and designed a project for the façade of this small church on the Isola Tiberina.² Unhappily the project was never executed and the cause of its rejection is undocumented.