Getting Paid: Borromini, Billing Disputes, and Building Delays at Rome’s Sapienza Palace

In 1652, the ironsmith Bernardo Pacciani forged a cross and set it high above Borromini’s famous spiral on the church of S. Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome. Although Bernardo seems to have done a good job, he claimed that the architect Francesco Borromini, for spiteful reasons, had delayed the settlement of his bill, which was only resolved twelve years later following a bruising legal battle. But is it fair to accept Bernardo as a downtrodden worker and Borromini as an overly demanding boss? The University of Rome’s administrative difficulties plagued the two protagonists. Bernardo’s original bill was revised and resubmitted four times, while his assessed price varied from below 350 scudi to over 1,200. Borromini, who had to review and approve every bill for the Sapienza’s governing board of trustees, was hampered in his turn by lost contracts, inaccurate receipts, and irregular financial transactions. However, unusually voluminous archival records show that Bernardo’s level of animosity and his level of difficulty in being paid were more extreme than those suffered by most other workers of similar stature. Bernardo’s problems ultimately reveal less about Borromini’s abilities and general temperament than they do about the specifics of this one case and the convoluted, ineffective administation of building projects at the Sapienza.