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SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA'S TOMB AND ITS PLACE IN SANTA MARIA SOPRA MINERVA, ROME: NARRATION, TRANSLATION AND VENERATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

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Abstract

By examining the historical narratives of Saint Catherine of Siena's death and burial this paper sheds new light on the liturgical layout of the Dominican church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome c. 1380. Since then Saint Catherine's remains have been translated five times, and at each translation, the form and decoration of her sepulchre has changed, showing how different aspects of her life were commemorated at each renewal of her tomb. These transformations are examined in the light of what survives today and of other literary documentation. Particular attention is given to the way Catherine was represented before and after her canonization in 1461. This explains why a relief attributed to Donatello that has been associated with her tomb may date c. 1430, while a figure of the saint by an artist close to Isaia of Pisa was made c. 1466. The paper also examines the consequences of placing the tomb under the altar of the Capranica chapel in 1579, and of moving the monument under the high altar of the church in 1855, when Santa Maria sopra Minerva was restored according to neo-Gothic principles. Each phase of her tomb shows how Catherine has been venerated from 1380 until the present.

Il saggio fa nuova luce sulla disposizione ai fini liturgici della chiesa domenicana di Santa Maria sopra Minerva a Roma attorno al 1380 attraverso l'esame delle narrazioni storiche della morte e della sepoltura di Santa Caterina da Siena. Da quel momento i resti di Santa Caterina sono stati traslati cinque volte e a ogni traslazione la forma e la decorazione del sepolcro è cambiata: diversi aspetti della sua vita vennero infatti commemorati in occasione di ciascun rinnovamento della tomba. Queste trasformazioni sono esaminate nel saggio alla luce di ciò che sopravvive oggi e della documentazione letteraria. Particolare attenzione viene data al modo in cui Caterina è stata rappresentata prima e dopo la sua canonizzazione nel 1461. Questo modus operandi spiega perché un rilievo attribuito a Donatello, che è stato associato alla tomba della Santa, possa essere datato attorno al 1430, mentre una sua figura, opera di un artista vicino a Isaia da Pisa, fu realizzata attorno al 1466. Lo studio esamina anche le conseguenze della scelta di collocare la tomba sotto l'altare della Cappella Capranica nel 1579 e di avere poi spostato il monumento sotto l'altare maggiore della chiesa nel 1855, quando Santa Maria sopra Minerva fu restaurata secondo i dettami dello stile neo-gotico. Le diverse fasi della tomba mostrano come Caterina sia stata venerata dal 1380 sino ai giorni nostri.

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Copyright © British School at Rome 2015 

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References

1 I thank Dr Joyce Martin for inviting me to give a preliminary version of this paper at the Ateneo in Manila. For Catherine's biography, see Raymond of Capua, Legenda Maior, edited by G. Henschenius and D. Papebrochius (eds), in I. Bollandus, G. Henschenius and D. Papebrochius, Acta Sanctorum [hereafter AA SS], 69 vols (Antwerp, 1643–1940), aprilis III (Antwerp, 1675), 851–978, especially pp. 936–54; in English: Raymond of Capua, The Life of St. Catherine of Siena, translated by G. Lamb (Charlotte, 2011). See also, Thomas Antonii de Senis (‘Caffarini’), Legenda Minor, edited by E. Franceschini (Milan, 1942) and Thomas Antonii de Senis, Libellus de Supplemento, edited by G. Cavallini and I. Foroloso (Rome, 1974). There are numerous modern biographies of Catherine, beginning with A.T. Drane, The History of Saint Catherine of Siena and her Companions (London, 1880).

2 For the distinction between ‘blessed’ and ‘saint’ in the Late Middle Ages, see A. Vauchez, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages, translated by J. Birrell (Cambridge, 2005), 85–103; for the early cult of Saint Catherine, J.F. Hamburger and G. Signori (eds), Catherine of Siena: the Creation of a Cult (Turnhout, 2013); and for later veneration, G. Parsons, The Cult of Saint Catherine of Siena: a Study in Civil Religion (Aldershot, 2008).

3 The standard work on Saint Catherine's sepulchre is L. Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro di S. Caterina da Siena nella basilica di S. Maria sopra Minerva’, in L. Bianchi and D. Giunta, Iconografia di S. Caterina da Siena, 1. L'immagine (Rome 1988), 15–62. See also, D. Norman, ‘The Chapel of Saint Catherine in San Domenico: a study of cultural relations between Renaissance Siena and Rome’, in M. Ascheri, G. Mazzoni and F. Nevola (eds), L'ultimo secolo della Repubblica di Siena: arti, cultura e società (Atti del convegno internazionale, Siena 28–30 settembre 2003 — 16–18 settembre 2004) (Siena, 2008), 405–19.

4 For medieval Dominican tertiaries, see G.G. Mersseman, Dossier de l'ordre de la penitence au XIIIe siècle (Freiburg, 1961); G.G. Mersseman with G.G. Pacini, Ordo Fraternitatis: confraternite e pietà dei laici nel medioevo, 3 vols (Rome, 1977); Lehmijoki-Gardner, M., ‘Writing religious rules as an interactive process: Dominican penitent women and the making of their Regula ’, Speculum 79 (2004), 640–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; M. Lehmijoki-Gardner (ed.), Dominican Penitent Women (Mahwah (NJ), 2005); and M. Lehmijoki-Gardner, ‘Le penitenti domenicane tra Duecento e Trecento’, in G. Zarri and G. Festa (eds), Il velo, la penna e la parola — le Domenicane: storia, istituzione e scritture (Biblioteca di memorie domenicane 1) (Florence, 2009), 113–23.

5 F. Thomas Luongo, The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena (Ithaca/London, 2006).

6 The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena, translated by S. Noffke, second edition, 4 vols (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 202, 203, 329, 355) (Tempe (AZ), 2000, 2001, 2007, 2009); Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, translated by S. Noffke (New York, 1980), and The Prayers of Catherine of Siena, second edition, translated by S. Noffke (San José, 2001). See also J. Tylus, ‘Mystical literacy: writing and religious women in medieval Italy’, in C. Muessig, G. Ferzoco and B. Kienzle (eds), A Companion to Catherine of Siena (Leiden, 2011), 155–83, esp. pp. 156–60.

7 G. Palmiero and G. Villetti, Storia edilizia di S. Maria sopra Minerva in Roma, 1272–1870 (Rome, 1989), 228–31.

8 G. Monti, ‘Restauro dei monumenti cateriniani nella basilica di S. Maria sopra Minerva’, and S. Nerger, ‘Il restauro della tomba di Santa Caterina nella basilica di S. Maria sopra Minerva a Roma’, in M.G. Bianco (ed.), La Roma di Santa Caterina da Siena (Rome, 2001), 395–8, and 399–410, respectively.

9 For the architecture of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, see Matthiae, G., ‘Gli aspetti diversi di S. Maria sopra Minerva’, Palladio n.s. 4 (1954), 1926 Google Scholar; U. Kleefisch, Die Römische Dominikanerkirche S. Maria sopra Minerva von 1280 bis 1453. Ein Baumonographische Untersuchung (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität zu Bonn, 1986); Palmiero and Villetti, Storia edilizia (above, n. 7); U. Kleefisch-Jobst, Die Römische Dominikanerkirche Santa Maria sopra Minerva: ein Beitrag zur Architektur der Bettelorden in Mittelitalien (Münster, 1991); and G. Villetti and G. Palmiero, Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Roma: notizie dal cantiere (Rome, 1994). For Santa Sabina, see Barclay Lloyd, J., ‘Medieval Dominican architecture at Santa Sabina in Rome, c. 1219–c. 1320’, Papers of the British School at Rome 72 (2004), 231–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 A. Brandi, Cronica, Archivum Generale Ordinis Praedicatorum, AGOP XIV, liber C, p.te I, fols 3–4.

11 Recorded in the Catalogue of Turin, c. 1320, Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino, MS lat. A 381, fols 1–16, published in R. Valentini and G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico della città di Roma, III (Rome, 1946), 205–318, esp. p. 299.

12 P.T. Masetti, Memorie istoriche della chiesa di S. Maria sopra Minerva e dei suoi moderni restauri … aggiuntevi alcune notizie sul corpo di S. Caterina da Siena e sulle varie sue traslationi (Rome, 1855), 9; V. Marchese, Memorie dei più insigne pittori, scultori, architetti domenicani, 2 vols, fourth edition (Bologna, 1878–9), I, 72–5. This theory is no longer accepted; see Matthiae, ‘Gli aspetti diversi’ (above, n. 9), 24–5; and Kleefisch, S. Maria sopra Minerva … ein Baumonographische Untersuchung (above, n. 9), 93.

13 He previously had participated in the restoration of San Domenico, Bologna, and Imola cathedral; Palmiero and Villetti, Storia edilizia (above, n. 7), 192. Contemporary Roman architects, like Virginio Vespignani (1808–82) who restored many churches, tended to follow the original style of each building, while sumptuously embellishing the interior; see C. Barucci, Virginio Vespignani, architetto tra Stato Pontificio e Regno d'Italia (Rome, 2006), esp. pp. 17–31, 133–95.

14 Masetti, Memorie (above, n. 12), 24–5.

15 Masetti, Memorie (above, n. 12), 25–6; see also Matthiae, ‘Gli aspetti diversi’ (above, n. 9), 19–26; Palmiero and Villetti, Storia edilizia (above, n. 7), 195–7.

16 Masetti, Memorie (above, n. 12), 67–72.

17 Raymond, Life (III, 1) (above, n. 1), 273–353.

18 ‘Caffarini’, Legenda Minor (above, n. 1), iii–vii; and F. Grottanelli (ed.), Leggenda minore (Bologna, 1868).

19 ‘Caffarini’, Libellus de Supplemento (above, n. 1).

20 M.H. Laurent (ed.), Il Processo Castellano (Fontes Vitae S. Catharinae Senensis Historici 9) (Milan, 1942).

21 Raymond, Life (III, 1) (above, n. 1), 276–7.

22 Raymond, Life (III, 2) (above, n. 1), 287–91; reference to this as martyrdom at p. 290.

23 Raymond, Life (III, 2) (above, n. 1), 291. The house is believed to have been at today's Piazza Santa Chiara 14; see G. Cavallini and D. Giunta, Luoghi cateriniani di Roma (Rome, 2000).

24 Barduccio's letter is published in Latin in AA SS, aprilis III (above, n. 1), 959–61, and is used as a source by Drane, History (above, n. 1), 568.

25 Barduccio's letter, in Drane, History (above, n. 1), 568.

26 Raymond, Life (III, 4) (above, n. 1), 307.

27 Raymond, Life (III, 1) (above, n. 1), 281–6.

28 Raymond, Life (III, 4) (above, n. 1), 308.

29 Raymond, Life (III, 4) (above, n. 1), 309–14, esp. pp. 310–11.

30 Raymond, Life (III, 4) (above, n. 1), 314.

31 Raymond, Life (III, 4) (above, n. 1), 304.

32 Laurent (ed.) Processo Castellano (above, n. 20), 261.

33 Raymond, Life (III, 4) (above, n. 1), 315.

34 Raymond, Life (III, 4) (above, n. 1), 315.

35 Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 10), fols 30–1; Palmiero and Villetti, Storia edilizia (above, n. 7), 171–4.

36 Palmieri and Villetti, Storia edilizia (above, n. 7), 171–4, suggested a date in the second half of the fourteenth century. For the patronage, see Il Campione, o sia generale descrizione di tutte le scritture spettanti al Venerabile Convento dell'Annunziata o sopra Minerva di Roma (compiled by R. Quadri), 3 vols, Archivio di Santa Maria sopra Minerva MS III, 1758, I, 165; and Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 10), fols 30–1, 43.

37 Campione (above, n. 36), I, 162; Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 10), fols 43–4.

38 Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 10), fols 43–4; and Anonymous, Beneficij segnalati fatti a questa nostra chiesa di S.a M.a sopra Minerva dal sommo pontefice regnante Benedetto XIII, AGOP XIV, liber C, p.te I, fols 85–7. See also Palmiero and Villetti, Storia edilizia (above, n. 7), 172–3.

39 Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 10), fol. 29: ‘era anticamente il Coro in mezzo della Chiesa cinto da fuori da alcuni altari ne quali si celebrava’. See also Palmiero and Villetti, Storia edilizia (above, n. 7), 143–4.

40 ‘… lasciare la Chiesa con li pilastri libera, al populo che verrà passeggiare per epsa …’, from a ‘Relazione tecnica’ added to a letter from Cardinal Nicola Ridolfi, dated 15 July 1539, published in Pecchiai, P., ‘I lavori fatti nella chiesa della Minerva per collocarvi le sepulture di Leone X e Clemente VII’, Archivi d'Italia e Rassegna Internazionale degli Archivi, ser. II, 17 (1950), 199208 Google Scholar, esp. pp. 206–7.

41 For Dominican legislation about this, see Mersseman, G.G., ‘L'architecture dominicaine au XIIIe siècle’, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 16 (1964), 136–90Google Scholar, and Sundt, R., ‘ Mediocres domos et humiles habeant fratres nostri. Dominican legislation on architecture and architectural decoration in the thirteenth century’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 46 (1987), 394407 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also J. Cannon, Religious Poverty, Visual Riches: Art in the Dominican Churches of Central Italy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries (New Haven/London, 2013), esp. 7–9, 29–45, 109–16; Hall, M.B., ‘The ‘Ponte’ at S. Maria Novella: the problem of the rood screen in Italy’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 37 (1974), 157–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hall, M.B., ‘The tramezzo in S. Croce, Florence, reconstructed’, Art Bulletin 56 (1974), 325–41Google Scholar; M.B. Hall, ‘The Italian rood screen: some implications for liturgy and function’, in S. Bertelli and G. Ramakus (eds), Essays Presented to Myron P. Gilmore, 2 vols (Florence, 1978), II, 213–18; M.B. Hall, ‘The ‘tramezzo’ in the Italian Renaissance’, in S.E.J. Gerstel (ed.), The Thresholds of the Sacred: Architectural, Art Historical, Liturgical, and Theological Perspectives on Religious Screens, East and West (Washington (DC), 2006), 214–32; M. Bacci, Lo spazio dell'anima: vita di una chiesa medievale (Rome, 2005), 79–85; D. Cooper, ‘Access all areas? Spatial divides in the mendicant churches of late medieval Tuscany’, in F. Andrews (ed.), Ritual and Space in the Middle Ages: Proceedings of the 2009 Harlaxton Symposium (Harlaxton Medieval Studies XXI) (Donington, 2011), 90–107.

42 Barclay Lloyd, ‘Medieval Dominican architecture at Santa Sabina’ (above, n. 9), 251–9.

43 Raymond, Life (III, 5) (above, n. 1), 316–25; ‘Caffarini’, Libellus de Supplemento (above, n. 1), 319; and M. Hohlstein, ‘‘Sacra Lipsana’: the relics of Catherine of Siena in the context of propagation, piety, and community’, in Hamburger and Signori (eds), Catherine of Siena: the Creation of a Cult (above, n. 2), 47–67.

44 Raymond, Life (III, 5) (above, n. 1), 317; ‘Caffarini’, Libellus de Supplemento (above, n. 1), 319.

45 Cannon, Religious Poverty, Visual Riches (above, n. 41), 47, 249; Cooper, ‘Access all areas?’ (above, n. 41), 96–7; C. Bruzelius, Preaching, Building, and Burying: Friars in the Medieval City (New Haven/London, 2014), 97.

46 Raymond, Life (III, 5) (above, n. 1), 319–22.

47 Centi, T.M., ‘Il culto di S. Caterina da Siena prima della canonizzazione’, S. Caterina da Siena 16 (3) (1965), 1722 Google Scholar, esp. p. 21; Raymond, Life (III, 5) (above, n. 1), 322–3; and Giunta, D., ‘La prima processione con la reliquia della testa di S. Caterina: tradizione, storia, iconografia’, Quaderni del Centro Nazionale di Studi Cateriniani 1 (1986), 119–38Google Scholar.

48 Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 20.

49 Laurent (ed.), Processo Castellano (above, n. 20), 261. See also J.J. Berthier, L’église de la Minerve à Rome (Rome, 1910), 411.

50 Stefano de' Maconi, Letter XXI, in Grottanelli (ed.), Leggenda minore (above, n. 18), 298–301, esp. p. 300.

51 Laurent (ed.), Processo Castellano (above, n. 20), 301.

52 Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 21.

53 ‘Caffarini’, Libellus de Supplemento (above, n. 1), 365.

54 ‘Caffarini, Legenda Minor, III, 5 (above, n. 1), 174.

55 A.A. Tantucci, De Translatione Corporis et Delatione Senis Sacri Capitis Seraphicae Virginis Catharinae Senensis … (Rome, 1742), 8; Masetti, Memorie (above, n. 12), 56; Berthier, L’église (above, n. 49), 411; and I. Taurisano, S. Maria sopra Minerva e le reliquie di S. Caterina da Siena (Rome, 1955–6), 50.

56 F. Schwarz, Il bel cimiterio: Santa Maria Novella in Florence, 1279–1348. Grabmäler: Architektur und Gesellschaft (Berlin/Munich, 2009); Cannon, Religious Poverty, Visual Riches (above, n. 41), 233–44 (for Santa Caterina of Pisa), 319–23 (for Santa Maria Novella); C. Bruzelius, ‘The dead come to town: preaching, burying and building in the Mendicant Orders’, in A. Gajewski and Z. Opacic (eds), The Year 1300 and the Creation of a New European Architecture (Turnhout, 2007), 203–24; and Bruzelius, Preaching, Building, and Burying (above, n. 45), 150–66.

57 ‘Il primo chiostro ch'è contiguo alla chiesa basso oscuro è noto che cingeva il Cimiterio con alcuni moriccioli attorno e con alcune colonnette di sopra accoppiato a due a due …’, Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 10), fol. 40; see also L. de Gregori, ‘Il chiostro della Minerva e le ‘Meditationes’ del Card. Turrecremata’, in Le onoranze a S. Caterina da Siena nella R. Biblioteca Casanatense (Rome, 1940), 29–54, esp. p. 42.

58 ‘Caffarini’, Libellus de Supplemento (above, n. 1), 381.

59 Centi, ‘Il culto’ (above, n. 47), 20.

60 Centi, ‘Il culto’ (above, n. 47), 20, 22.

61 Laurent (ed.), Processo Castellano (above, n. 20), 301.

62 Raymond, Life (III, 5) (above, n. 1), 322.

63 A.G. Palagi, ‘La sacra testa di S. Caterina da Siena e le sue urne’, Rassegna Cateriniana (1931), 1–11, esp. p. 7.

64 Giunta, ‘La prima processione con la reliquia della testa’ (above, n. 47), 119–38, esp. p. 135. Tantucci erroneously claimed that Catherine was first translated in 1385, Tantucci, De Translatione (above, n. 55), 20; followed by Berthier, L’église (above, n. 49), 411; but Masetti, Memorie (above, n. 12), 58, gave the date1384 or 1385.

65 ‘Caffarini’, Libellus de Supplemento (above, n. 1), 381.

66 Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 21–3.

67 ‘HIC HUMILIS DIGNA PRUDENS CATHARINA BENIGNA,

PAUSAT, QUAE MUNDI ZELUM GESSIT MORIBUNDI.

SUB LAPA MATRE, DOMINICO POSTEA PATRE,

FLORUIT HAEC MUNDA VIRGO SENIS ORIUNDA.’

L. Bianchi, ‘Appendice epigrafica’, in Bianchi and Giunta, Iconografia (above, n. 3), 55.

68 Berthier, L’église (above, n. 49), 412; Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 22–3.

69 It is now located in a niche near the chapel incorporating parts of the room where Saint Catherine died, which Cardinal Antonio Barberini built near the sacristy of the Minerva in 1637. See Taurisano, S. Maria sopra Minerva (above, n. 55), 53–4.

70 J. Gardner, The Tomb and the Tiara: Curial Tomb Sculpture in Rome and Avignon in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1992), 24–31.

71 For example, Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 18–23.

72 Tantucci, De Translatione (above, n. 55), 7–8.

73 Masetti, Memorie (above, n. 12), 61–4.

74 ‘Caffarini’, Libellus de Supplemento (above, n. 1), 381.

75 The story is in Raymond, Life (III, 5) (above, n. 1), 104–6.

76 For Maconi's comment, ‘… prout actus iste figuratus est Romae iuxta sepulcrum eius’, Laurent (ed.), Processo Castellano (above, n. 20), 270–1; cf. Caffarini's, ‘Iste actus est figuratus Rome iuxta sepulcrum eius’, ‘Caffarini’, Legenda Minor (above, n. 1), 45.

77 Grottanelli (ed.), Leggenda minore (above, n. 18), 203, n. 33, ‘In questo punto il Codice ha la seguente postilla marginale: ‘Questo atto è dipénto a Roma assai adornatamente’’. See also Drane, History (above, n. 1), 70 and n. 1.

78 Barclay Lloyd, J., ‘Paintings for Dominican nuns: a new look at the images of saints, scenes from the New Testament and Apocrypha, and episodes from the life of Saint Catherine of Siena in the medieval apse of San Sisto Vecchio in Rome’, Papers of the British School at Rome 80 (2012), 189232 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. pp. 203, 223–30, figs 12 and 13.

79 Fra Bartolomeo of Ferrara stated, ‘Item dico quod numquam vidi dictam virginem depictam cum diademate rotundo circa caput, sicut de sanctis canonizatis generaliter et semper fieri consuevit sed semper vidi eandem depictam cum diademate radioso circa caput, prout consuetum est fieri erga tales personas que beate communi nomine appellantur …’, a statement that Caffarini confirmed, Laurent (ed.), Processo Castellano (above, n. 20), 8, 28. For other Dominican tertiaries, who were ‘beate’ and depicted with radiating diadems, see Freuler, G., ‘Andrea di Bartolo, Fra Tommaso d'Antonio Caffarini, and Sienese Dominicans in Venice’, Art Bulletin 69 (1987), 570–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; G. Kaftal, Saint Catherine of Siena in Tuscan Painting (Oxford, 1949), 9; and Moerer, E.A., ‘The visual hagiography of a stigmatic saint: drawings of Catherine of Siena in the ‘Libellus de Supplemento’’, Gesta 44 (2) (2005), 89102 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. p. 98 and figs 6, 7, 8. Vauchez has said that the Dominicans began to show ‘beati’ in this manner in 1352 at San Nicolò in Treviso; Vauchez, Sainthood (above, n. 2), 87.

80 Bianchi and Giunta, Iconografia (above, n. 3), 155–8, no. 1; P. Bacci, La cappella delle Suore della Penitenza detta la ‘Cappella delle Volte’ in San Domenico di Siena. Ricerche sulle sue fasi costruttive (Siena, 1942–4).

81 Laurent (ed.), Processo Castellano (above, n. 20), 365.

82 G. Gentilini, ‘La Madonna di Santa Caterina. Il contributo di Donatello al sepolcro cateriniano della Minerva’, in C. Strinati (ed.), Siena e Roma: Raffaello, Caravaggio e i protagonisti di un legame antico (Siena, 2005), 472–93.

83 S. Antonino Pierozzi, Storia breve di S. Caterina da Siena, translated by Tito Sante Centi (Siena, 2002). For the original Latin text, Tertia pars Historiarum Domini Antonini Archipraesulis Florentii (Lyon, 1543), (no pagination) Capitulum XIV.

84 ‘… in eadem ecclesia ad locum eminentiorem in capella iuxta maiorem capellam existente collocatum in sepulchro marmoreo …’, Tertia pars Historiarum (above, n. 83), Titulus XXIII, Capitulum XIIII, XIX. See also Antonino Pierozzi, Storia breve (above, n. 83), 121–2; R. Morçay, Saint Antonin, fondateur du couvent de Saint-Marc, Archevêque de Florence, 1389–1459 (Tours/Paris, 1914), 53–4; and J.B. Walker, The ‘Chronicles’ of Saint Antoninus: a Study in Historiography (Washington (DC), 1933), 7, 18, 23–4.

85 Compare the Testament of Cardinal Matteo Orsini op (died 1340), who stated that he wished to be buried in the ‘convent’ at the Minerva in the chapel of Saint Catherine (of Alexandria), which he had built (in the church), ‘in conventu sancte Mariae super Minervam … in capella beatae Catherine quam ibidem feci fieri’, Forte, S., ‘Il cardinale Matteo Orsini op e il suo testamento’, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 37 (1967), 181262 Google Scholar, esp. p. 230.

86 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 399–410. For tombs with effigies, see Gardner, The Tomb and the Tiara (above, n. 70), 36–7.

87 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 405–6.

88 Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 25.

89 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 406.

90 For the custom of having an effigy's feet pointing towards the altar, see C.M. Richardson, Reclaiming Rome: Cardinals in the Fifteenth Century (London/Boston, 2009), 379–80; and J. Gardner, ‘Arnolfo di Cambio: from Rome to Florence’, in D. Freedman, J. Gardner and M. Haines (eds), Arnolfo's Moment: Acts of an International Conference (Florence, 2009), 141–57, esp. p. 147.

91 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 406.

92 Santa Maria sopra Minerva is renowned today for works by Florentine artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, such as Filippino Lippi's frescoes (1488–93) in the Carafa chapel and Michelangelo's statue of the risen Christ (1519–21).

93 Berthier, L’église (above, n. 49), 412. Brandi had made the same comparison, but not the attribution, Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 10), fol. 33.

94 See M. Breccia Fratadocchi, S. Agostino in Roma: arte, storia, documenti (Rome, 1979), 62–5; M. Gill, ‘‘Remember me at the altar of the Lord’: Saint Monica's gift to Rome’, in J.C. Schnaubelt and F. van Fleteren (eds), Augustine in Iconography, History and Legend (Collectanea Augustiniana IV) (Villanova (PA), 1999), 549–76; Holgate, I., ‘The cult of Saint Monica in quattrocento Italy: her place in Augustinian iconography, devotion, and legend’, Papers of the British School at Rome 71 (2003), 181206 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; M. Chiabò, M. Gargano and R. Ronzani (eds), Santa Monica nell'Urbe, dalla tarda antichità al rinascimento. Storia, agiografia, arte (Atti del convegno Ostia Antica–Roma, 29–30 settembre 2010) (Rome, 2011).

95 For works now accepted as by Isaia di Pisa, see Caglioti, F., ‘Su Isaia da Pisa. Due ‘Angeli reggicandelabro’ in Santa Sabina all'Aventino e l'altare eucaristico del Cardinale d'Estouteville per S. Maria Maggiore’, Prospettiva 89–92 (1998), 125–60Google Scholar.

96 Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 25–30.

97 Gentilini, ‘La Madonna di Santa Caterina’ (above, n. 82).

98 U. Pfisterer, Donatello und die Entdeckung der Stile 1430–1445 (Munich, 2002), 489, n. 3.

99 ‘Tornai a rivedere … quelle figure di bassorilievo di Donatello; e con esse trovai che la figura di mezzo è s. Caterina da Siena, che sta devote inginocchione con le mani giunte. Dalla banda destra di lei la Madonna, che con una mano tiene alzata una corona per metterle in testa, e con l'altra mano un'altra corona tiene sopra il petto. Dalla sinistra N. S. Gesù Cristo, il quale le porge la palma della mano destra aperta, e con la sinistra tien pure una corona sopra ‘l petto; e intorno a queste tre figure sono circa 18 Cherubini.’ Letter from Dovizio to Valori, Rome, 28 April 1592, in G. Bottari, Raccolta di lettere sulla pittura, scultura ed architettura (1754–1773), edited by G. Ticozzi, 8 vols (Milan, 1822–5), II, 41–4, n. III, quoted by Gentilini, ‘La Madonna di Santa Caterina’ (above, n. 82), 487.

100 Calculated by taking 22.34 cm for 1 palmo. My dimensions are a little smaller than those given by Gentilini.

101 Hall, E. and Uhr, H., ‘ Aureola super Auream: crowns and related symbols of special distinction for saints in late Gothic and Renaissance iconography’, Art Bulletin 67 (1985), 567603 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hall, E. and Uhr, H., ‘ Aureola and Fructus: distinctions of beatitude in scholastic thought and the meaning of some crowns in early Flemish painting’, Art Bulletin 60 (1978), 249–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

102 Thomas Aquinas, Commentum in quattuor libros Sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi, 2 vols (Parma, 1858), II, 1,233–44, said that every human being has to contend with the flesh, the world and the devil, and some saints do this in an exemplary manner, hence deserving the ‘aureolae’ given to virgins, martyrs and doctors.

103 Raymond, Life (III, 4) (above, n. 1), 309–14, esp. pp. 310–11, and above, p. 118.

104 Laurent (ed.), Processo Castellano (above, n. 20), 8, 28. See above, p. 126.

105 Donati, L., ‘Santa Caterina da Siena nelle stampe del'400. Appunti iconografici’, Studi Cateriniani 1 (1924), 127 Google Scholar; Hall and Uhr, ‘Aureola super Auream’ (above, n. 101), 578–83; Bianchi and Giunta, Iconografia (above, n. 3), 172, 175, 176, 225, 232, cat. nos. 20, 23, 25, 101, 111.

106 Raymond, Life (III, 2) (above, n. 1), 290, and see above, p. 118 n. 22.

107 See discussion of this above, p. 126.

108 Antonino Pierozzi, Storia breve (above, n. 83), 31.

109 ‘Virginitas doctrina fides sanctissima vita

aureolam capiti dant caterina tuo

Alma precor Christum dominum dignare rogate

Abstersis culpis me quoque sanctificet

Ve misèr adiuro per Christi sanguinis undas

Protegere ut servum me Caterina velis.’

The text was recorded by Alonso Chacón op (c. 1530–99), ‘Inscriptiones et epitaphia’, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana [hereafter BAV], Chigi I. V. 167, fol. 168r, who said it was on a plaque in the chapel. The last inscriptions in his manuscript are dated 1576, on fols 106r and 116r, so he probably saw this one before the chapel was transformed in 1579. See also, Bianchi, ‘Appendice epigraphica’, in Bianchi and Giunta, Iconografia (above, n. 3), 56.

110 It is not in its original position.

111 Quoted by Gentilini, ‘La Madonna di Santa Caterina’ (above, n. 82), 487.

112 Norman, ‘The chapel of Saint Catherine’ (above, n. 3), 413–19; Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 32–7.

113 The Commentaries of Pius II, translated by F.A. Gragg, with historical introduction and notes by L.C. Gabel (Smith College Studies in History XXII, nos. 1–2), 2 vols (Northampton (MA), 1937, 1951) I, 375, Book V; Richardson, Reclaiming Rome (above, n. 90), 59.

114 Bernetti, G., ‘S. Caterina negli scritti di Pio II’, Caterina da Siena 18 (1) (1967), 1620 Google Scholar. For the bull, A. Brémond (ed.), Bullarium Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum, 8 vols (Rome, 1729–40), III, 409–14; for the oration, J.D. Mansi, Pii II olim Aeneas Sylvii Piccolominei Senensis Orationes …, 2 vols (Lucca, 1755–7), II, 137–44. The hymns were inserted in the Dominican Breviary.

115 Bullarium OP (above, n. 114), 140–3; Mansi, Pii II (above, n. 114), 411–12.

116 Commentaries of Pius II (above, n. 113), II, 673, Book X.

117 Palmiero and Villetti, Storia edilizia (above, n. 7), 163, n. 111; Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 35–6.

118 Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 10), fol. 33. When saints are canonized, they are said to be raised to the altar. In Rome, since the time of Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303) some tombs had been positioned above an altar; see Gardner, The Tomb and the Tiara (above, n. 70), 57–9; J. Gardner, The Roman Crucible: the Artistic Patronage of the Papacy 1198–1304 (Munich, 2013), 128–30.

119 Bullarium OP (above, n. 114), 412.

120 Norman, ‘The Chapel of Saint Catherine’ (above, n. 3), 413–14.

121 ‘SANCTA CATERINA / VIRGO DE SENIS / ORDINIS SANCTI / DOMINICI DE / PENITENTIA’.

122 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 403.

123 On the contrary, Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 34, claimed that it was chosen hurriedly from among works available in a Roman marble workshop. Nerger found it was made all in one piece; Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 403.

124 Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 10), fol. 36.

125 Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 34; see also Bella, C. La, ‘Scultori nella Roma di Pio II (1458–64). Considerazioni su Isaia da Pisa, Mino da Fiesole e Paolo Romano’, Studi Romani 43 (1–2) (1995), 2643 Google Scholar.

126 For example on the fourth-century sarcophagus of a child in the Archaeological Museum at Istanbul, illustrated in J. Kollwitz, Oströmische Plastik der Theodosianischen Zeit (Berlin, 1941), pl. 45.1 and 2.

127 V. Pace, Arte a Roma nel medioevo: committenza, ideologia e cultura figurative in monumenti e libri (Naples, 2000), 132, 347–97; Gardner, The Roman Crucible (above, n. 118), 140–3, fig. 18.

128 Zuraw, S.E., ‘The public commemorative monument: Mino da Fiesole's tombs in the Florentine Badia’, Art Bulletin 80 (1998), 452–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. p. 455.

129 Zuraw, ‘The public commemorative monument’ (above, n. 128), fig. 3; also illustrated in A. Petrucci, Writing the Dead: Death and Writing Strategies in the Western Tradition (Stanford, 1998), 72–3, fig. 32.

130 Petrucci, Writing the Dead (above, n. 129), fig. 33.

131 Zuraw, ‘The public commemorative monument’ (above, n. 128), 452–77, esp. pp. 462–70, fig. 2.

132 Zuraw, ‘The public commemorative monument’ (above, n. 128), 452–77, esp. pp. 462–70.

133 R. Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti (Princeton, 1982), 138–9; see also p. 343, no. 23, where ancient and medieval examples of this motif are listed.

134 P.P. Bober and R. Rubinstein, with contributions by S. Woodford, Renaissance Artists and Antique Sculpture: a Handbook of Sources, second edition (London, 2010), 140–1, no. 96.

135 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 404–5.

136 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 405.

137 For the Marsuppini tomb, see Zuraw, ‘The public commemorative monument’ (above, n. 128), fig. 4; for the monument in San Lorenzo in Damaso, see A. Poós, San Lorenzo in Damaso (Rome, 2013), 35; C.L. Frommel, ‘Jacobo Gallo als Förderer der Künste …’, in H. Froning, T. Hölsscher and H. Mielsch (eds), Kotinos (Mainz, 1992), 450–60, esp. pp. 458–60.

138 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 404.

139 Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 34.

140 Sarcophagus of Flavia Sextiliane, ad 120–50, Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano (delle Terme di Diocleziano), inv. 128578.

141 Sarcophagus of Ulpia Domnina, end of second–early third centuries ad, Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano (delle Terme di Diocleziano), inv. 125891.

142 Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 40, fig. 23. Augusta Theodosia Drane used a similar image of the sarcophagus and effigy in her book (Drane, History (above, n. 1), 569).

143 In the church of San Lorenzo in Damaso, the sepulchral monument of Giuliano Galli has two sphinxes with wings similar to those pictured by Banzo; see Poós, San Lorenzo in Damaso (above, n. 137), 35.

144 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 404.

145 ‘… Angeli che stanno in atto di tener lumi, alti due palmi e mezzo’, letter from Dovizio quoted in Gentilini, ‘La Madonna di Santa Caterina’ (above, n. 82), 487; see also Caglioti, ‘Su Isaia da Pisa’ (above, n. 95).

146 Bianchi and Giunta, Iconografia (above, n. 3), no. 208, p. 294; Norman, ‘The Chapel of Saint Catherine’ (above, n. 3), 405–9.

147 ‘BE(n)ZI S(an)C(t)A.TUI. NICOLAI. SUSCIPE. CURAM.O K(a)TERINA.’

148 See above, p. 127; Gentilini, ‘La Madonna di Santa Caterina’ (above, n. 82), 487.

149 ‘Vi sono poi a parte tre quadretti, con figure quasi di tutto rilievo, nell'un de' quali è pur s. Caterina da Siena, nell'altro s. Domenico, e nel terzo s. Michele Archangelo, alti circa due palmi e mezzo … tutti di mano di Donatello …’, letter from Dovisio, quoted by Gentilini, ‘La Madonna di Santa Caterina’ (above, n. 82), 487.

150 Gentilini, ‘La Madonna di Santa Caterina’ (above, n. 82), 476–7.

151 Gentilini, ‘La Madonna di Santa Caterina’ (above, n. 82), figs 3, 4, 5.

152 An inscription below the relief mentions the ‘Domus Sodalitatis S. Catherina (sic)’, but this is not part of the original relief. It may represent the location of the relief after it left the chapel and before it arrived in the Palazzo Odescalchi.

153 BAV, Chigi G III 81, fols 1r–8vo: Cappellae Sanctae Catharinae Senensi in Ecclesia Sanctae Mariae super Minervam de Urbe an Angelo Cardinale Capranica erecta, et dicata Anno Domini MCCCCLVI nunc vero Sanctae Mariae Virginis de Rosario nuncupata Alexandro PP. VII; Bianchi, ‘Il sepolcro’ (above, n. 3), 37–9; Strinati, C., ‘Espressione figurative e committenza confraternale nella cappella Capranica alla Minerva (1573)’, Ricerche per la Storia di Roma 5 (1984), 395428 Google Scholar.

154 BAV, Chigi G III 81, fol. 8r. For the restructuring of the chapel, see Bilancia, F., ‘Annibale Lippi, architetto della Cappella del SS. Rosario di S. Maria sopra Minerva’, Palladio 20.39 (2007), 101–10Google Scholar.

155 Brandi, Cronica (above, n. 8), fols 34–5. The banner was painted in 1449 in tempera on silk. Today it is attributed to a follower of Beato Angelico, possibly Benozzo Gozzoli. After 1700 it was stuck on a wooden panel, and now it is located in the northeastern chapel of the transept. The disposition with the painting of the Madonna and Child above and Saint Catherine below the altar corresponds to a hierarchy of images, based on different types of worship and veneration: while worship (latria) is due to God alone, saints are deserving of veneration (dulia), and among them the greatest veneration (hyperdulia) is reserved for the Mother of God.

156 Heideman, J., ‘Saint Catherine of Siena's life and thought: a fresco-cycle by Giovanni De' Vecchi in the Rosary Chapel of S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome’, Arte Cristiana 735 (1989), vol. 77, 451–64Google Scholar; and J. Heideman, ‘Giovanni De’ Vecchi's fresco-cycle and its commissioners in the Rosary Chapel in S. Maria sopra Minerva’, in P. van Kessel (ed.), The Power of Imagery: Essays on Rome, Italy and Imagination (Sant'Oreste/Rome, 1993), 149–62; Tosini, P., ‘New documents for the chronology and patronage of the cappella del Rosario in S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome’, Burlington Magazine 152.1289 (2010), 517–22Google Scholar.

157 Norman, ‘The chapel of Saint Catherine in San Domenico’ (above, n. 3), especially pp. 405–10.

158 BAV, Chigi G III 81, fols 10r–16v; S. Pagano, ‘Una controversia cinquecentesca sulla cappella di S. Caterina in S. Maria sopra Minerva (1573)’, in Hagiologia: studi per Réginald Grégoire (Bibliotheca Montisfani 31), 2 vols (Fabriano, 2012), II, 1,245–58. It is not clear whether the ‘statue’ of Saint Catherine was her effigy or the standing figure in the niche.

159 BAV, Chigi G III 81, fol. 1v; see also Taurisano, S. Maria sopra Minerva (above, n. 55), 51.

160 Nerger, ‘Il restauro’ (above, n. 8), 404, and see above, p. 138.

161 Kaftal, Saint Catherine of Siena (above, n. 79), 8.

162 Masetti, Memorie (above, n. 12), 68–9.

163 Berthier, L’église (above, n. 49), 413, gave the full inscription on the parchment.

164 Parsons, The Cult (above, n. 2), 42.

165 Parsons, The Cult (above, n. 2), 43–74.

166 Parsons, G., ‘A neglected sculpture: the monument to Catherine of Siena at Castel Sant'Angelo’, Papers of the British School at Rome 76 (2008), 257–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

167 Paul VI, Apostolic Letter, ‘Mirabilis in Ecclesia Deus’, 4 October 1970.

168 John Paul II, Apostolic Letter issued Motu Proprio, 1 December 1999; the other five are Saints Benedict, Cyril, Methodius, Bridget of Sweden and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein).

169 S. Lamia, ‘The cross and the crown, the tomb and the shrine: decoration and accommodation for England's premier saints’, in S. Lamia and E. Valdez del Álamo (eds), Decorations for the Holy Dead: Visual Embellishments on Tombs and Shrines of Saints (Turnhout, 2002), 39–56. See also La estoire de seint Aedward le rei (Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.3.59, fols 29v, 30r, 33r, 36r) and P. Binski and P. Zutshi, with the collaboration of S. Panayotova, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: a Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library (Cambridge, 2011); and www.lib.com.ac.uk/MS-EE-00003-00059/1 (last consulted 19.10.2013). For the veneration of Saint Alban, see Dublin, Trinity College MS E.I.40, especially fol. 61r where a figure is kneeling under the saint's tomb.