DOI issue:
Appendix
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70293#0095
APPENDIX IV.
THE GIOSTRA OF 1565.
The tournament of 1565, held in the Cortile di Belvedere (the lower
of the two courts shown in Coner 25) under Pius IV in honour of the
wedding of Annibale Altemps and Ortensia Borromea, was an affair of
great magnificence, and its memory has been perpetuated by three engrav-
ings which form part of the Speculum Urbis Romae published by Antonio
Lafreri and his successors. Two views appear as Nos. 353, 354 of the
collection which was formerly in Mr. Quaritch's possession, and is the most
complete known (see Bernard Quaritch's Rough List. No. 135, pp. I 19 sqq).
No. 353 is an oblong view looking towards the Teatro di Belvedere, with
the unfinished dome of St. Peter's on the right,1 while No. 354 is an
upright view in the opposite direction, towards the Giardino della Pigna:
so that Mr. Quaritch's description of the latter as 'a copy of the same
plate, a little smaller,' is hardly accurate.2
No. 355 is a plan of the Teatro itself, and as the descriptive text
which occurs on it, though it has been already quoted in part by Michaelis
(Jahrbuch des Instituts, 1890, p. 12, n. 23, cf. p. 41, n. 153),3 may be of interest
in regard to the history of this part of the Vatican, I give it in full :—
'Fu dalla fe(lice) me(moria) di Giulio 2° fatto un Corridore per 1'uso
di andare dal sacro Palazzo apostollico, al luogo detto Beluedere, lungo
canne 150 e piu, et seruiua a dui giardini che haueua ordinati a piedi di
esso inMui piani, 1'uno sopra stante all' altro, e questo per opera di m.4
Bramante Architetto, dei primi dopo li antichi. Minacciando poi rouina
detto edifitio, et mancandogli alcune cose fu dalle bon(e) me(morie) di
Clemente 7° et Paulo 3° sotto la cura di m. Baldassare peruzzo, et dalla fe:
1 It is reproduced by Letarouilly, Le Vatican, vol. i. Cour du Belvedere pl. 7, and by
Ferri in Rassegna d'Arte, 1904, 94, Fig. L. Clementi, Il Carnevale Romano (Rome 1900) 232,
240, gives poor reproductions of both 353 and 354.
2 A comparison with these views will show, I think, that a small view of the two courts in the
Uffizi (No. 1713) which is doubtfully attributed to Bramante by Ferri, Indice, p. 183 cannot belong
to a period earlier than 1565. It has indeed the diagonal lines across the lower court which
appear in the plans of the tournament.
3 Michaelis (loc. cit. n. 154) does not seem to realize the identity of the view he describes
(No. 353) with that reproduced by Letarouilly.
4 Messer.
THE GIOSTRA OF 1565.
The tournament of 1565, held in the Cortile di Belvedere (the lower
of the two courts shown in Coner 25) under Pius IV in honour of the
wedding of Annibale Altemps and Ortensia Borromea, was an affair of
great magnificence, and its memory has been perpetuated by three engrav-
ings which form part of the Speculum Urbis Romae published by Antonio
Lafreri and his successors. Two views appear as Nos. 353, 354 of the
collection which was formerly in Mr. Quaritch's possession, and is the most
complete known (see Bernard Quaritch's Rough List. No. 135, pp. I 19 sqq).
No. 353 is an oblong view looking towards the Teatro di Belvedere, with
the unfinished dome of St. Peter's on the right,1 while No. 354 is an
upright view in the opposite direction, towards the Giardino della Pigna:
so that Mr. Quaritch's description of the latter as 'a copy of the same
plate, a little smaller,' is hardly accurate.2
No. 355 is a plan of the Teatro itself, and as the descriptive text
which occurs on it, though it has been already quoted in part by Michaelis
(Jahrbuch des Instituts, 1890, p. 12, n. 23, cf. p. 41, n. 153),3 may be of interest
in regard to the history of this part of the Vatican, I give it in full :—
'Fu dalla fe(lice) me(moria) di Giulio 2° fatto un Corridore per 1'uso
di andare dal sacro Palazzo apostollico, al luogo detto Beluedere, lungo
canne 150 e piu, et seruiua a dui giardini che haueua ordinati a piedi di
esso inMui piani, 1'uno sopra stante all' altro, e questo per opera di m.4
Bramante Architetto, dei primi dopo li antichi. Minacciando poi rouina
detto edifitio, et mancandogli alcune cose fu dalle bon(e) me(morie) di
Clemente 7° et Paulo 3° sotto la cura di m. Baldassare peruzzo, et dalla fe:
1 It is reproduced by Letarouilly, Le Vatican, vol. i. Cour du Belvedere pl. 7, and by
Ferri in Rassegna d'Arte, 1904, 94, Fig. L. Clementi, Il Carnevale Romano (Rome 1900) 232,
240, gives poor reproductions of both 353 and 354.
2 A comparison with these views will show, I think, that a small view of the two courts in the
Uffizi (No. 1713) which is doubtfully attributed to Bramante by Ferri, Indice, p. 183 cannot belong
to a period earlier than 1565. It has indeed the diagonal lines across the lower court which
appear in the plans of the tournament.
3 Michaelis (loc. cit. n. 154) does not seem to realize the identity of the view he describes
(No. 353) with that reproduced by Letarouilly.
4 Messer.