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: Palio
Site: Piazza del Campo
Location: Siena
Architect: Unknown
Year of Completion: c. 1200
Analysis: Alexa Adams
The Palio is an annual horse race that occurs twice a year in Siena’s city center, the Piazza del Campo. The city was once divided into seventeen different city districts, known as contrade, in the medieval ages. Rivalries between neighboring districts grew and the competitive spirit has since remained today. The Palio participants consist of ten out of the seventeen contrade, who each select one horse and one jockey adorned in their contrade colors and costumes for the event. The rituals leading up to the race occur days in advance and include: trial runs, a mass for the jockeys, the blessing of the horses, and a parade of trumpeters, flag wavers, and spectators dressed in medieval costume. A special lottery device is used to determine the order of the horses at the start. The race itself initiates when the tenth horse runs into the mossa and the mechanised rope drops in front. The race consists of 3 laps around the piazza and typically lasts no longer then 90 seconds. The jockeys are allowed to form alliances and be violent with one another. The of the irregular shape of the piazza makes the course dangerous itself, and it is not uncommon for a jockey to be thrown off his horse, and for a horse to win wihout its jockey.
The shape of the piazza and its sloped topography makes it not only unusual for a horse race, but very irregular in comparison to the formal composition of traditional Italian piazza’s. While one may assume the spatial configuration was the result of the site context, its design is all intentional and relates to the Palazzo Pubblico, which houses the Republic of Siena’s government. The surrounding builds were then oriented around the shape of the piazza to create an enclosed and defined public space, that allows for gatherings of spectacle, like the Palio, to occur.
Unlike some of the other rituals we studied, the rituals of the Palio conform to the piazza’s architecture rather than the architecture conforming to the ritual. There are openings into the piazza that radiate from its central axis towards all directions of the city. These openings guide the parade like processions that start at the different churches of each contrada and then proceed into the center of the piazza, where the Palazzo Publico sits and the race begins. The race course itself adapts to the orientation of the piazza, and is marked by specially imported dirt and fencing that define the course, and leaves a void in the center for spectators to stand and watch the race.
