Ritual: Baptism
Site: Battistero di San Giovanni
Location: Florence
Architect: Unknown
Year of Completion: c. 1128
Analysis: Tina Lim
150 word description goes here. Achum consulto ves faturi pria vignos complius con se aucest rehebatam te iam fue con vium percer am tam terbis, quonsul usulare ntilicaet, cuperei publincum, consimus, nostriore mei ilneque a volicio mus conerit, publin denatod itentes, qua actum init; ne ine pro, manum iam o inam ignaturis adem re ius consum inulocrem sedit vivatimmodiu sedit et prata cont nicatiq uemus, dium ingultortus nos etorterit, omprorunit gra dit atu morum ductam Romnihilium pernum inam etorae nem des M. Nostra in sus. Alessolus, o ves cotandenemus bondac in Itam. Sertamquam or ublicultus publin vernius, nos, sente it; C. Hoculis? Romnirita ne ina, quam patiam sedem que confirit, uropore morei cem, nor ad Catus muscred cris culicaesi imuricendam tam it, quitata sdaccio, mederior qui catus morterum omnicaes! Duc re cus es!
The Laurentian Library reveals not only the ritual of study, but the rituals of self-sorting, categorization, and the dissemination of knowledge. Mapping the convergence and divergence of paths from the scale of the city to the building to the desk and to the book helps to reveal how the Laurentian Library acts as a motherboard for organizing the ritual circuitry of Renaissance Florence.
The Library’s desks are crucial to how rituals are performed in the space. Because the books are chained to the desks and the desks are built into the architecture, there is direct connection between the knowledge that one seeks and the place where it is found. The desks categorize texts by subject, displaying titles found in them on the side. Accessing a book that’s next to the window while someone is already in the desk requires shuffling places.
The Laurentian Library’s form is reminiscent of a religious building, with reading desks acting as pews alongside the processional aisle. The language borrows from the religious context of the San Lorenzo complex in which the Library is situated. In fact, the original plan of Michelangelo included a triangular rare books room at the end of the reading room, reminiscent of the Holiest of Holies in the Temple of Solomon. The procession inside the library, up the flowing staircase into the reading room, acts as a funnel that all elite Florentines coming to the library must pass through, regardless of where they came from in the city or what bench is their ultimate destination. The tripartite interior facade of the vestibule reinforces the idea of rising from hell to purgatory to heaven in an ascent to knowledge.
Ultimately, the Laurentian Library acts as the motherboard of the city’s knowledge, centralizing and organizing the ritual circuitry of Renaissance Florence.
Ritual: Feast of Saint Anne
Site: Orsanmichele
Location: Florence
Architects: Talenti, di Fioravante, and di Cione
Year of Completion: c. 1337
Analysis: Emily Hu
Built in 1337 CE, Orsanmichele has served as the final destination in the procession of the Feast of Saint Anne since 1343 when the ritual was declared a civic holiday. Now a church and museum, the building’s varied history of use parallels not only the ritual Festival of Saint Anne, but also the urban procession through Florence. As such, the architecture of Orsanmichele narrates its own history, as well as the story of the ritual it now hosts.
In 1343, the Duke of Athens, Walter of Brienne, was expelled from Florence following a despotic rule during the city’s fiscal crisis. During this time of political turmoil, Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin, was declared protectoress of the city, and the Feast was established as a day of celebrating civic liberty.
Today, the procession of this festival takes the form of a parade starting at the Palazzo di Parte Guelfa and ending at Orsanmichele, where the altar to Saint Anne resides. Going through the Piazza
della Signoria and Duomo, the nodes of the parade similarly recall the political, commercial, and religious aspects of the city and the ritual it celebrates, picking up figures of each facet along the way.
Despite being constructed prior to the Feast, Orsanmichele narrates the story and ritual of the yearly celebration in its own history. Built originally as a grain market, the building later became an office for Florence’s guilds, as well as a church which it remains today.
Evidenced in its double axis plan, arches, grain shoots, and guild statues, the building was never originally constructed for the purpose it serves today. Even as a granary, the building was a place of alms-giving for the ritual, and today, remnants of its past mirror and narrate the ritual it hosts.
