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: Scoppia del Carro
Site: Piazza del Duomo
Location: Florence
Architect: N/A
Year of Completion: N/A
Analysis: Kayla Clark
Scoppio del Carro is meant to commemorate Pazzino de’ Pazzi for being the first of all the crusaders to put his foot on the walls of Jerusalem during the First Crusades. Pazzi was gifted with the 3 flint fragments of the Holy Sepulcher for his service. Upon his return, he paraded throughout the city of Florence distributing the “Holy Fire” from the flints among the Florentine Homes. Scoppio del Carro occurs every Easter Sunday and is now a parade through Florence of a cart pulled by oxen and people dressed in 15th Century Florentine costume, ending in front of the Cathedral at the beginning of Easter Mass with a fiery explosion.
This ritual and the story behind it is not rooted in facts and is most likely fabricated by the Pazzi family, so they would appear more powerful in comparison to the Medici family. Scoppio del Carro has lost its original intent of remembering the ending of First Crusades and of Pazzino de’ Pazzi heroic actions and is now more of an easter spectacle and tourist attraction.
On the morning of Easter Sunday, the procession of the cart and Florentine characters starts at the Porta al Prato, which is the gate Pazzino returned to the city through after the Crusades. It follows Via il Prato, then Borgo Ognissanti, and stops in Piazza Carlo Goldoni. It then continues on Via della Vigna Nuova and Via degli Strozzi before entering and stopping in Piazza della Repubblica.Meanwhile, the second procession of city officials, clerics, and pazzi family members leaves from Piazza della Signoria and goes to the Church of S.S. Apostoli to collect the 3 flints of the Holy Sepulcher. Then to Piazza della Repubblica to meet with the first procession. Together they process down Via Roma and enter Piazza del Duomo.
The west doors of the Duomo are left open and a wire connects the colombina at the altar to the carro or cart. The clergy of the cathedral and the archbishop process down the nave singing and cross the square into the baptistry. The clergy returns with a priest in the back holding a lighted candle, lit by the flints from the Holy Sepulcher, and they process back to the altar to begin high mass. When they sing Gloria the archbishop blesses the Easter candle and lights the colombina which “flies” down the wire and lights the carro to set off the fireworks
