[Paper:] Heraldic Self-Representation in Aristocratic Residences in Rome and Lazio (1500-1630) (Andreas Rehberg)

Sant’Angelo Romano (ca. 25 km von Rom in der Region Latium gelegen), Castello Orsini-Cesi, Empfangsraum, mit Ausmalung von vor 1630.

From a note of Marcantonio Altieri, a significant representative of the upper classes of Rome around 1500, we know that the roman nobility in its palaces exposed the “antique insegne” of the relatives and family friends. Although, according to Altieri, this custom was already 200 years old, only few of these heraldic programs survived. These frescoes and ceilings originate entirely from the 16th and 17th centuries. The lecture would like to present some examples of such rooms situated in Rome and in the Latium countryside and work out the differences with the forms of representation of the Pope and of the roman barons. An exceptional case is the decoration of the reception room in the castle of S. Angelo Romano, which goes back to an order of Federico Cesi (1585-1630). The well-known founder of the “Accademia dei Lincei” and friend of Galileo Galilei ideated here a heraldic genealogical table which documented his origins from the noblest families of Rome and Florence. In this gallery the portraits are replaced by coat of arms. The branches and leaves of the tree are these of the cornel, the heraldic sign of the Cesi family.

Andreas Rehberg, born in 1965 in Fulda (Germany), he studied medieval history, modern history and political sciences in Munich and Rome (La Sapienza), 1984-1994. His PhD thesis about the networks of the Colonna family („Kirche und Macht im römischen Trecento“) has been published in 1999. Since 1995 Rehberg is fellow of the German Historical Institute at Rome. His main interests are focused on the social and religious history of Rome, the hospital order of S. Spirito in Sassia,  the role of ultramontani monks in  the Roman monasteries, the Universtity of Rome (Studium Urbis) and Roman heraldry.

The paper will be given at the international workshop: Heraldry in Medieval and Early Modern State-Rooms: Towards a Typology of Heraldic Programmes in Spaces of Self-Representation – Münster, Germany, 16-18 March 2016