In Meo Patacca, Rome's role goes well beyond that of a simple background or a passive setting. The city interacts with the plot, with the personages, as in the passage where Tolla gets lost in the crowd caused by the castle's fireworks display, or in the passage where the ghetto is placed under siege. Although the houses of Meo, Nuccia, Calfurnia, Marco Pepe, etc. only existed in the author's imagination, several sites where action takes place are specifically involved; Berneri does not only mention them, he describes them, almost as if they too were taking part to the story.
The aim of this page is to briefly review these sites, also to compare their present look with the one they had in the 17th century, which in some cases was quite different.



CAMPO VACCINO

Meo's speech to the braves (Canto I),
Meo's duel with Marco Pepe (Canto IV),
the public presentation of Meo's troops (Canto VI)

the Roman Forum, as it appears today What Berneri describes as an uninhabited place, off the beaten track, where the braves challenged themselves with terrible stone-fights, was but the present archaeological site of the Roman Forum. The ups and downs of this area, from pre-Roman times to nowadays, give reason for its different looks in time. At first, a simple valley, where the people who lived on the top of the nearby hills gathered every eight days to sell and buy goods, away (foras in Latin) from the territories of their respective tribes; then the elegant downtown of the republican and imperial city, where the main temples stood; then an abandoned area, and then, as of the 15th century, the site of the cattle-market (whence the name Vaccino); finally, but only since the mid 1800s, the most renowned among the archaeological sites of modern Rome, to which the old name "Forum" was given back. Due to this spot's original importance, it could have not been located elsewhere but in a crucial position, between the Capitolium hill and the Colosseum's imposing mass, and between the Palatine Hill and the Esquiline Hill (by whose base was the ill-famed Suburra district, ancient Rome's Bronx). Since the beginning of the Middle Ages (5th-6th centuries) this area appeared more and more neglected, with its several building more and more damaged. Having been Christianized, now Rome's main religion no longer needed temples built in the old fashion, and there was no reason for caring about the ancient pagan ones. Actually, precious building materials were taken from the Forum, for the making (elsewhere) of houses, churches, and other public buildings. This was a die-hard attitude, as the famous "big fountain" on the Janiculum Hill, at the beginning of the 17th century was still built by using marble mainly taken from the Forum of Nerva. Time, carelessness and the barbarians did the rest, and in a relatively short time the only thing left of the Forum was its wide space, covered with ruins that could not be reused. As earth, rubble and trash kept piling up, in Meo Patacca's days, i.e. one thousand years later, its look had turned into that of a field, a large "hole" in the middle of a fully rebuilt and urbanized Rome, where broken columns and other fragments belonging to temples kept sticking out of the ground. The area had been adorned by a double row of trees, as described by Berneri's verses; this matches perfectly what can be seen in the map of Rome by Antonio Tempesta (1676). Campo Vaccino, in A.Tempesta's map; note the double row of trees Campo Vaccino, in an engraving by G.B.Piranesi: by the end of the 18th century, only a few scattered trees were left Despite the popes' interest for antiquity had already been awakened since the Renaissance, and despite some considerable finds had already been made in this area (such as the famous reclining statue known as Marforio), a real excavation was not carried out before the 19th century, very gradually at first, then systematically only after 1870, i.e. after the city had passed from the hands of the pope to those of the king of Italy. Unfortunately, what archaeologists found, and what we still see today, are mainly ruins.

THE CAPITOLIUM HILL

the tournament organized and won by Meo (Canto XI)


The Capitolium Hill has already been dealt with by the page about the 50 cent coins, that depict it, also providing a better selection of images.

the Senators' Palace on the Capitolium (arrow), detail from the map by P. del Massaio, 1472

The top of the hill represented one of the first settlements of the future city, and by its base, during the republican age, ran the Servian Wall, along which, more or less where is now piazza Venezia, was the gate Porta Fontinalis, now no longer standing, as well as most of this early set of walls. In particular, the Capitolium was the site of the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, the wholiest place in imperial Rome. This height overlooked the Forum below, and from the same Forum the priests reached the temple. In fact, unlike nowadays, its northern side, which looked towards the Campus Martius, was a steep slope, not easy to climb. As the adjacent Forum, or Campo Vaccino, the Capitolium knew its darkest age during the second half of the first millennium. After the destruction of the main temples, whose traces have substantially disappeared, here the sheep grazed (monte Caprino, "sheep hill") up to the 12th century.

Then, over the remains of the ancient Tabularium (archive), the great Senators' Palace was built, and the site gained again its social importance; here Rome's administrators, the Senators, held their meetings. But besides the palace, the hill was still a simple slope, and after the pedlars who sold food here during a sort of fair, periodically held, the hill was nicknamed faba tosta (i.e. roasted broad bean). Paul III (1534-49) had the idea of finally arranging the top of the Capitolium, and charged with this duty Michelangelo, who enlarged the preexisting building (further alterations were carried out by G. Della Porta e G.Rainaldi) and added two buildings on the sides of the square, Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, the latter built over half century later.

Capitolium Square, detail from A.Tempesta's map

So, ever since, this has been the look of the famous square, that Berneri mentions, as well: three large buildings, whose lightings shine from the sides of the square up to its end (the Senators' Palace), and in the center the famous statue of Marcus Aurelius, that Paul III had moved from the Lateran; Michelangelo, yet opposing the idea of transferring the statue, drew its high base, the one over which Nuccia climbs - taking the risk of breaking her neck - to watch Meo's feats.



THE CORSO AND ROME'S CARNIVAL

the celebrations organized by Meo (Canto VII)

The Candle Race along the Corso (detail), I.Caffi, c.1850

What Berneri describes as an occasional event, held for special reasons, is very similar to the standard celebrations organized during Carnival, which took place in via del Corso and its surroundings (see Curious and Unusual - 10), whom the author was certainly inspired by in describing the joyful frolic for Vienna. The lightings were a constant element of this important roman 8-day festival, which ended with a parade known as the candle race. The scarce visual sources of this happening, such as the painting by Ippolito Caffi shown on the left, give us a rather faithful impression of what Rome's streets may have looked like during the celebrations organized by Meo.

PIAZZA NAVONA

Meo's complaint against the slanderers (Canto III),
Meo's street performance of the siege of Buda (Canto XII)


This square, held as the most beautiful in Rome by many, is also described in The Rioni section (see R.VI Parione district), and in Legendary Rome page 2, about the two famous Baroque architects Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini. For the history of the fountains, instead, see Fountains, part III page 3.
The long and oval square stretches over the site where the Circus of Domitian once stood, and its shape faithfully reflects that of the ancient arena. The name of the square too comes from the games once held in the ancient stadium: the Ludi Agonales.

In fact, this site was officially known in the past as Platea Agonalis, or Campo in Agone; such names were still in use in the 17th century, although in the common language it was already called piazza Navona. This word is actually a corruption of the original Agone into Navone ("large ship", maybe due to the shape of the place), which then turned into Navona. the Pamphilj coat of arms, on both sides of the fountain (move the cursor over the picture for the verses)

the lion coming out of the den (move the cursor over the picture for the relevant verses) When Berneri wrote Meo Patacca, the final arrangement of piazza Navona had already been completed about forty years earlier, but its charm still kept fascinating romans and foreigners alike, almost as if its fountains had been unveiled the day before.

Therefore, we should not be surprised that Berneri dedicated twenty-one octaves of Canto III to the description of the square, and fourteen of these to the Fountain of the Rivers alone. Instead, not a word was spent for the church of St.Agnes. This clearly shows how while Bernini's works were particularly successful among all social classes, Borromini, yet being a talented architect, was indeed given less consideration than his rival.

Berneri gives us a very brilliant description in verse of the many details of the Fountain of the Rivers (a few examples are shown in this page), and this suggests how once the fountains, but also the statues and anything that represented figurative art, was looked at by the common people in a very actual way, a sort of virtual reality, almost as nowadays a videogame or a computer simulation would be judged: this explains how the same people, whose large majority was illiterate, played such an important role in ordaining the success or the failure of an artist, according to whether his new works (a statue, a building, a fountain etc.), were liked or disliked by the public.

the fish that swallows the water (move the cursor over the picture for the verses)

piazza Navona in G.B. Nolli's map (1748); a circle marks the site of the mock siege, and a dot indicates Pasquino's corner	Finally, in the last Canto, the mock siege of Buda performed by Meo is set in a place just off piazza Navona. The description provided by Berneri is once again so precise (Slightly further, there is a space / Where vicolo della Cuccagna ends) that it is possible to identify the location with no doubt: today the place has the same look it had in those days.	the place at the end of vicolo della Cuccagna: this junction is still basically the same as it was in the late 1600s, when Berneri described it in his poem

THE 'GIRANDOLA' AT CASTEL SANT'ANGELO

the fireworks display from the Castle (Canto VIII)

	Castel Sant'Angelo's girandola, painting by Joseph Wright (1779)	The Girandola was a very popular roman tradition, unfortunately discontinued. It consisted of a display of several kinds of fireworks, from the simple mortaletti, described in detail by Berneri, to the more complicated ones, that burst into streams of coloured lights. The celebration apparently dates back to the 16th century - it is said that Michelangelo invented it! - lasting up to the second half of the 1800s. It was held on particular holidays, from the terraces of Castel Sant'Angelo, so that as many spectators as possible could enjoy the show. The coloured lights that rose from the Castle and reflected in the Tiber's water must have really left the spectators in awe.

	Several authors left a description of the Girandola, either in verses or as drawings, paintings and engravings by different artists of different ages (H. van Cleef in the 1500s; F. Piranesi, F. Panini and J. Wright in the 1700s; F.T. Aerni in the 1800s). The most crucial moment of the display, as mentioned in Canto VIII, at the end of the show, was the actual girandola, i.e. the simultaneous firing of a great number of flares, a technique that apparently had been improved by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and whose glow ignited Rome's sky as during daylight, although it lasted but a few seconds: Son cose belle sì, ma a parlà schietto, Il finir troppo presto è il lor difetto. They are indeed nice things but, to be frank, Their only weak point is to last so little. (Canto VIII, 73)	Castel Sant'Angelo's girandola, Francesco Piranesi (1783)

THE GHETTO

the siege of the ghetto (Canto XII)

The ghetto, or "the Jews' enclosure", as it was called in the days of Paul IV, who in 1555 decreed it, is fully dealt with in Curious and Unusual - page 6, where details and pictures may be found. In Meo Patacca we read that the ghetto's gates, originally three, had become four, plus a further small one: since the district had become very overcrowded, with several thousands living there, the pope had to order a slight enlargement of the enclosure's boundary. More than the place itself, for which Berneri spends but a few words (It's a rather miserable enclosure of streets, / As it is shady, and rather saddening.), the author mentions the roman Jews' language.

the fish-market by the Porch of Ottavia, seen in the backround, stood by one of the ghetto's gates (from an 18th century engraving by G.Vasi)

piazza Giudia, outside the Ghetto (engraving by G.Vasi): note one of the gates, and the pole used for punishing who broke the rules

The Jewish-roman dialect, full of words and expressions derived from the Jewish language, represented a somewhat parallel dialect to Rome's actual one, certainly spoken by a minority, but with the same linguistic importance. Unfortunately it has now become completely extinct, but this dialect too had a good poet of its own, Crescenzo Del Monte (1868-1935). Also Giggi Zanazzo, one of the first authors to show a deep interest in Rome's dialect, did not overlook the Jewish-roman one, still spoken by the turn of the 20th century; his work Popular Roman Traditions (1907) contains a list of such words and expressions, a few of which are shown in the following table.

JEWISH-ROMAN ENGLISH Alèffe; Bèdene; Ghìmene; Àrbano; Camìcia; ...-vaghézzi     One; Two; Three; Four; Five; ...and a half Baruccabbà Welcome Bacurri; Iacodimmi; Sciabadai Jews Cacàmme High Rabbi; Wise man Cascèrro Nice; Pure Chénne Yes Chiùsi Christians (= not circumcised) Mònna Madam Picciurèllo Penis Scioscianìmme Breasts

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