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: Adoption
Site: Ospedale degli Innocenti
Location: Florence
Architect: Brunelleschi
Year of Completion: 1427
Analysis: Jerry Jiuye Yan
Ospedale degli Innocenti is often considered as the first Renaissance building. It was built in the early 15th century as the first hospital dedicated to provide care to the abandoned newborns in Florence, which has received more than 375,000 orphans throughout its history. Florentine with the last name Innocenti is believed to have an ancestor coming from this institution.
The west facade of the building sets up the sequence from the streets to the foundling wheel through a series of loggie that maintained 1:1:1 ratio. The foundling wheel was established in the 16th century to replace the pre-existing crib “presepe” to accommodate the increasing of foundlings. The wheel allows babies to be dropped off at a protected space while keeping the parents’ anonymity. The additional gratings only allow newborns to be passed through the portal. The foundling wheel became a popular device for abandoning babies in Italy, and was adapted by other foundling hospitals.
The hospital contains two cloisters, for separated cares of each gender. The different shape of the two cloisters symbolized the diverged learning paths and the different expectation for the boys and the girls.
Emerged from the time when the poor is in desperate need of support, Ospedale degli Innocenti provides an alternative life path for the abandoned. It is located on Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, paralleling to the axis that connects the piazza and the duomo. While all newborns were expected to be baptized at the Baptistery of Saint John before they can attend a mass, the Ospedale degli Innocenti ensured the orphans of Florence were given another chance to re-enter the society through their care and education.
The establishment of the hospital reduced the death rate of abandoned children and ultimately ensured the balance in the Florentine society
