Concerted Efforts: The Quarter of the Barberini Casa Grande in Seventeenth-Century Rome

In this article, I analyze the development of a central sector of seventeenth-century Rome during the Barberini papacy. The Barberini transformed the area surrounding their Casa Grande, directing the development of three public institutions-the Monte di Pietà, the Trinità dei Pellegrini, and the Ospizio dei Mendicanti. A comparison is drawn with the earlier urban projects of the Farnese for the surroundings of their palace to emphasize the role of patrician clans in building the Baroque city. The development of the area is traced through the concessions in papal licenses granted to the institutions, and a reconstruction of their architectural and urban implementation. The episode is paradigmatic of the rising scale of urban interventions by patrician families in the mid-seventeenth century. Finally, the urban history of the Casa Grande quarter identifies the novel attempt of ruling elites to subdivide the city into socially homogenous neighborhoods.