Viterbo: Profile of a Thirteenth-Century Papal Palace (review)

Short Notices 293 woman's reUgious experience unacceptable to the male leaders of aU Christian denominations. Part 3, 'Women and radical reUgion in the English Revolution', and Part 4, 'Restoration to toleration 1660-1720', bring to a conclusion this satisfying survey. Crawford has produced an exceUent introduction to a complex and difficult subject; effectively reviewed present scholarship, and made a significant contribution to scholarship, particularly in examining the gendered nature of beliefs and institutions, and h o w this impacted upon w o m e n in the early modern period. Carole M. Cusack School of Studies in Religion University of Sydney Radke, Gary M., Viterbo: Profile of a Thirteenth-Century Papal Palac Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996; cloth; pp. xx, 354; 188 b / w Ulustrations, 2 maps; R.R.P. AUS$135.00. Viterbo strove to be one of the independent towns within the Papal States, and was therefore integraUy involved with aU the vicissitudes between the Emperors and the Popes that so bedevUled the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It wooed both sides in the unsuccessful hope of permanent gain. One way the townsfolk did this was to buUd two palaces for visiting emperors and a very large one for the pope. They even hoped to lure the pope away from R o m e to then town—to the Viterbo's lasting benefit. The brutaUty and immodest ambition of the Viterbese was horrendously Ulustrated in 1172 when they utterly destroyed the entire town of Ferento for double dealing. They added its heraldic palm tree to their coat of arms so that 'the palm, usuaUy a symbol of paradise, became a grim warning to outsiders that Viterbo would not allow its interests to be compromised by untrustworthy aUies, and that her territorial ambitions were to be taken seriously'. In the next century, as the military scene forced the popes to spend more time away from Rome, Viterbo was only one of half a 294 Short Notices dozen smaU communes vying to build better palaces to attract the roaming pontif and his curia. Though disappointed in their ambitions, the palace of the popes is a most interesting, if relatively modest, building. It was built from the 1250s onwards on land once occupied by the palaces of those Ghibellines in the town w h o had supported Frederick II. The victorious Guelphs leveUed them to the ground and probably reused the materials to enlarge the older bishop's palace into one for the popes. One story w e U illustrates the irrascible and domineering attitude of the populace. In 1270 a group of townsmen, seeking a quick papal election, locked the cardinals into the palace and then—outrageous panache—removed the roof to hurry things along! Understandably the new pope, Gregory X, declined to stay in the town and it declined thereafter. In a somewhat austere building by northern French standards, the builders in the mid-1260s began to incorporate 'the innovative detaling that had been developed in the He de France'. True as this m a y be, it just shows h o w steadfast the Italians were in not accepting French ideas, for the bar tracery that Radke refers to had been invented over 60 years before. M a n y of the popes during these years were French, and yet, their not asking for any of the exquisite and deUcate motifs that enriched the churches and palaces of their o w n homes raises serious questions about the source and transmission of architectural ideas. Considering that the same pope, Clement IV, completed the construction of both Saint-Urbain at Troyes (the tightest, most weightless, building in France) and his o w n tomb in Viterbo (a typically Italianate mosaic-encrusted massif) shows h o w little aesthetic control or interest these great spiritual magnates possessed. John James Lawsons Long Alley Hartley Vale N S W 2790 ...