The Urban Development of Rome in the Age of Alexander VII

This study considers the urban development of Rome in the mid- seventeenth century as conceived and guided by the Chigi pope, Alexander VII. Focusing on discrete zones within the city, including the Quirinal, the Piazza del Popolo, Piazza S. Marco, the Corso, and the Vatican, Dorothy Metzger Habel suggests that Alexander VII masterminded a new conceptualization of the city, which was grounded in the architectural formulae of late antique Roman Asia. Using these principles, Habel argues, architects and builders were sensitized to the physical characteristics of particular sites and drew relationships between buildings within the urban fabric. These planning methods contributed formally and iconographically to the architectural future of Rome. Including an in-depth analysis of all available evidence - archival sources, working and presentational drawings, and the physical fabric of key monuments and their situation within the topography of Rome - Habel’s book offers a new and innovative model for histories of urban architecture and planning.

• Identifies the urban and architectural builders of seventeenth-century Rome, including major patrons and architects • Includes close readings of Rome’s physical fabric - the topographical relationships between individual buildings and between zones of the city • Offers a methodologically innovative fusion of information gleaned from both published and unpublished sources

Introduction; 1. Palazzo del Quirinale: ‘In Stato di Regia Magnificenza’; 2. Piazza del Popolo and the Genesis of Alexander VII’s Program for Via del Corso; 3. Piazza S. Marco: ‘Al Capo del Corso’; 4. Via del Corso and the Search for a Chigi Family Palace; 6. Via del Corso: ‘Viam Latam Feriatae Urbis Hippodromum’; 6. Piazza S. Pietro: ‘Una Macchina Cosi Grande’; 7. Roma Alessandrina.

\'… offers a penetrating look into the mechanisms of seventeenth-century patronage and project management.\' Oxford Art Journal

\'The often engrossing details of Habel\'s narrative turn on the scrutiny of workaday drawings that were not produced to captivate the eye, yet nonetheless arrest one\'s attention.\' Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians