NOTES

ONE: The Beginning and the End

Some speculate that he was gay: This question is raised in the essay “The Final Problem: Borromini’s Failed Publication Project and His Suicide,” by Martin Raspe, in Annali di Architettura: Rivista del Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio (Vicenza, Italy, 2001), p. 134.
The place where Borromini was buried: For more details about San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, see Howard Hibbard, Carlo Maderno and Roman Architecture 1580–1630 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971). A briefer chronology of San Giovanni can be found in Chris Nyborg, Churches of Rome (2000), which is available online at http://www.roma.katolsk.no.

“so large a church along so terrifying a river”: Joseph Connors, “Poussin detrattore di Borromini,” in Atti del Convegno Internazionale su Borromini, proceedings of conference held at the Bibliotheca Hertziana and Palazzo Barberini in January 2000. This quote is taken from the online version of the essay, which is available at http://www.colum bia.edu/~jc65/cvlinks/poussin.html.

“his opinion without esteem”: See Filippo Baldinucci, The Life of Bernini, trans. Catherine Enggass (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966), p. 34.

The style of Cavaliere Borromini: See Rudolf Wittkower, Gothic vs. Classic: Architectural Projects in Seventeenth-Century Italy (New York: George Braziller, 1974), pp. 88–89.
“discussed Borromini, a man of extravagant ideas”: See Paul Fréart de Chantelou, Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France, trans. Margery Corbett (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985), p. 326.
“feverish melancholia”: See Joseph Connors, “Francesco Borromini: La vita 1599–1667,” in Richard Bösel and Christoph Frommel, eds., Borromini e l’universo barocco (Milan, 1999), which accompanied an exhibition held at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome. The material quoted here is from the online version of the essay, which is available at http://www.columbia.edu/~jc65/cvlinks/vita.html.
“had another attack, even more violent”: See Anthony Blunt, Borromini (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979), p. 208.

“His nephew [and heir, Bernardo]”: Ibid.

“Signor Cavaliere, you ought”: Ibid., pp. 208–9. This quote and the several that follow are taken from Borromini’s account, dictated to a notary, as he lay dying from his injury on August 2, 1667.

TWO: Talent and Ambition

“For a while a poet”: See Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture (New York: Penguin Books, 1977). Pevsner is referring specifically to artistic trends during the Victorian era, but this is a predicament that has afflicted architects since ancient times.

“Not even the ancients”: Avery, Bernini: Genius of the Baroque, p. 265.
“he devoured marble”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 13. Domenico Bernini writes something similar in his biography of his father; see The Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in George C. Bauer, ed., Bernini in Perspective (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1976), p. 27.

“aspro di natura”: This phrase, which is included in, and first popularized by, Domenico Bernini’s biography, is often quoted when describing Bernini. This reference comes from Robert Wallace and the editors of Time-Life Books, The World of Bernini: 1598–1680 (Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1970), p. 13.

He was the eldest son: Although Bernini’s family was not from Florence proper and Bernini was born in Naples and grew up in Rome, he was still called “the Florentine,” and there were Romans who referred to him, according to Tod Marder in his book Bernini and the Art of Architecture (New York: Abbeville Press, 1998, p. 12), as a forestiero, an out-of-towner. Marder also notes that “a later, hostile critic who happened to be a partisan of Borromini described Bernini as ‘Florentine or Neapolitan depending on his fancy’” (p. 14).

“by divine plan”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 8.

For a decade the church: For more information about the construction of the Pauline Chapel, see Torgil Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1982), pp. 151–55.

“the hand of the young Gianlorenzo”: In Bernini: Genius of the Baroque (London: Thames & Hudson, 1997), his monograph on Bernini’s career as a sculptor, Charles Avery posits this in a note (p. 16), though his actual text is more speculative: “Could the young Gianlorenzo possibly have lent his juvenile talent to some of these putti, or is this spectacularly enhanced level of quality simply Pietro at his very best?”
“at the age of eight”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Be rnini, p. 24, and Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 8.

“Bernini’s early portraits”: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 14.
Late one night in 1608: For a brief biography of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, see Robert Wallace, The World of Bernini (Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1970), pp. 14–15.

“carried himself with such”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, pp. 25–26. This anecdote is told in a slightly different version in Chantelou, Diary, p. 102.

“spent three continuous years”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 9.
“the delineation of noble figures”: See Howard Hibbard, Bernini (New York: Penguin Books, 1965), p. 25.
“Watch out”: This famous anecdote is retold frequently, including by Maurizio Fagiolo and Angela Cipriani in their book Bernini (Rome: Scala, 1981), p. 9, and by Charles Scribner III in Gianlorenzo Bernini (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991), p. 9.

“expressed both admiration and disparagement”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 10.

“savage spite”: Scribner, Gianlorenzo Bernini, p. 64.
“Change and destroy”: Ibid.
According to Ovid’s version: Guide to the Borghese Gallery, the museum’s official guidebook edited by Kristina Herrmann Fiore, has an informative essay on this piece (Rome: Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali, Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici di Roma, 1997), p. 37.

“of having been modeled”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 210.
“only the eye”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 13.
“metamorphosis of the block of marble”: Avery, Bernini, pp. 63–65.

“The figure of a lovely naked girl”: Chantelou, Diary, p. 30.
“Quisquis amans sequitur”: This translation, one of many published over the years, is from Avery, Bernini, p. 55.
The story has circulated: See Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 13, and Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 211.

“had Bernini not made one mistake”: Norton’s hypothesis comes from “An Estimate of Bernini,” an essay in Bernini and Other Studies in the History of Art (New York: Macmillan, 1914), p. 17. While this suggestion has been either dismissed or ignored by other Bernini experts, the sculpture certainly appeared to be backward to me when I saw David for the first time (and it was months before I came across this essay). If it’s true that Barberini held a mirror for Bernini to sculpt the face of David, perhaps this could also explain why he’s holding the sling backward.

“the jagged and illogical boundary”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini,” p. 7.

“maestra di tutte le cose”: Ibid.
“structures that are durable”: Ibid.

Before he became an architect: Ibid.
“was already so enamored”: See Paolo Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini:
Architecture as Language, trans. Barbara Luigia la Penta (New York: George Braziller, 1968), p. 27.

Borromini began his career: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.” Connors’s descriptions of Borromini’s youth, family, and early days in Rome throughout the essay are insightful.

THREE: The Perpetual and the Beautiful

St. Peter’s is a church of superlatives: The details of St. Peter’s can be found in the English versions of Guide to the Vatican Museums and City, published by the Vatican through its Pontifical Monuments, Museums and Galleries Administration (Città del Vaticano: Gestione Vendita Pubblicazioni Musei Vaticani, 1986), pp. 171–81; and Sonia Gallico, Vatican (Rome: Edizioni Musei Vaticani Ars Italia Editrice, 1999), pp. 17–22.

Soon after Peter’s burial: For background on the early years of St. Peter’s, see Laure Raffaëlli-Fournel, ed., The Knopf Guide: Rome, trans. Louis Marcelin-Rice and Kate Newton (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), pp. 209–15; Riccardo Cigola, Geography: Cities: Rome (1999–2004), which is available online at http://www.italycyber guide.com/Geography/cities/rome2000/D1.html; and Jonathan Boardman, Rome: A Cultural and Literary Companion (New York: Interlink Books, 2001), pp. 47–48.

“with St. Peter’s preserving”: Boardman, Rome, pp. 45–46.

By the middle of the fifteenth century: Ibid., p. 46.

Though the dome was considered finished: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 131.

“He made it very different”: Giorgio Vasari is quoted in David Watkin,
A History of Western Architecture (London: Thames and Hudson, 1986), p. 197.

New burial places: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, ol. 1, p. 126.

The church needed a nave: Ibid., p. 127.
“according to ecclesiastical rule”: See Paolo Portoghesi, Roma Barocca: The History of an Architectonic Culture, trans. Barbara Luigia la Penta (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1970), p. 59.
The pope and the Congregazione: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 127, and Hibbard, Carlo Maderno, p. 66.
“One sees that in the present building”: Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 59.

A number of architects were called upon: Ibid., p. 58, and Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 128.

At one point, 866 laborers: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 128.
“have risen as a single mass”: Le Corbusier’s comments are quoted in Christian Norberg-Schulz, Baroque Architecture (Milan: Electa; New York: Rizzoli, 1979), pp. 64–68.

After a brief two-year reign: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 215. Magnuson’s description of the conclave that elected Urban VIII makes it sound particularly grueling. It appears to have been a contest of physical as well as political survival, with the French and Spanish factions vying for ascendancy, a secret ballot used for the first time, and cardinals battling malaria and other illnesses during the Roman summer.

“It is your great fortune”: Baldinucci, The Life of Bernini, p. 15.
“Whoever becomes pope will find”: Scribner, Gianlorenzo Bernini, p. 15. Here
Domenico Bernini is quoted.
Bernini was allowed unlimited access: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 19, and Hibbard, Bernini, p. 68.
“informed Bernini that it was his wish”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 15.

“Pope Paul objected”: Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 59.
62 “he would have to resign himself”: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 31.

FOUR: A Collaboration in Bronze

“what appears to the viewer”: See Avery, Bernini, p. 95; a slightly different translation is available in Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 16.
“turned something provisory”: See Victor-L. Tapié, The Age of Grandeur: Baroque Art and Architecture (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1957; New York:
Frederick A. Praeger, 1961), p. 46.
“There are days when the vast nave”: See Henry James, Henry James on Italy (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1988), p. 101.
“huge uncouth structure”: Scribner, Gianlorenzo Bernini, p. 17.

to found a società di arte: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”

Though the exact design of the new ciborium: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 29.

“a wooden armature”: See W. Chandler Kirwin, Powers Matchless: The Pontificate of Urban VIII, the Baldachin, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (New York: Peter Lang, 1997), p. 15.
“It happened one day”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, pp. 10–11.

“the four columns”: Kirwin, Powers Matchless, p. 94. Kirwin is quoting minutes of the meeting of the Congregazione.

“From the day of Urban’s election ceremony”: Ibid., p. 79.
“a wise conjunction”: Ibid., p. 28. He is quoting Count Virgilio Malvezzi from Pietro Redondi’s Galileo Heretic.
“wanted not only to emulate them”: Ibid., p. 86.

“the four columns made to hold up the baldachin”: Ibid., p. 95.
“Maderno no doubt”: Ibid., p. 33.

“a proclamation in which it is made”: Ibid., p. 96.

“in its size, proportion”: Ibid., p. 95.

A contemporary guidebook to Rome: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 47.
his first major religious statue: Scribner, Gianlorenzo Bernini, p. 16.

“to cover the high altar”: Kirwin, Powers Matchless, p. 106.

“touched neither the columns”: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 31.

Within less than eighteen months: Kirwin, Powers Matchless, p. 106.

“are not supported by columns”: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 32, is quoting Hibbard, Carlo Maderno, p. 128.
“if the Baldachin tells us anything”: Kirwin, Powers Matchless, p. 106.

By the next spring: Ibid., p. 130.
carved by Borromini and Agostino Radi: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 261.

cast in massive sections: Ibid., p. 250.
“one of the largest items in the accounts”: Ibid., p. 261.
the recently installed bronze ribs: Ibid., p. 260; Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 37.

a task that Borromini was in charge of: Connors, “Virtuoso Architecture in Cassiano’s Rome.”
“operated at the beginning”: Kirwin, Powers Matchless, p. 128. He is quoting Oskar Pollak, a historian who wrote a survey of the art world during Urban’s papacy.

“had no intention of promoting”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”
Bernini replaced the large statue: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 34.

strengthened by a metal bar: Avery, Bernini, p. 99.
much like the finished Baldacchino: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 30. “contributed decisively”: Ibid.

“the figures dart”: Norberg-Schulz, Baroque Architecture, p. 147, is quoting Argan.

“the entire fabric was the work of his mind”: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 61. He is referring to Patricia Waddy on Taddeo Barberini.
“was in great part the design of Borromini”: Joseph Connors, “Virgilio Spada’s Defence of Borromini,” Burlington Magazine 131 (1989), pp. 75–90. I am quoting from the online version of this essay which is available at http://www.columbia.edu/~jc65/cvlinks/virgilio.html.
the oval staircase in the south wing: Blunt, Borromini, p. 24.

“in later years [Borromini] used to say”: Connors, “Virgilio Spada’s Defence of Borromini.”
“Knowing what Borromini had accomplished”: Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 165.

“Urban…appointed him”: Ibid., p. 166.

“Lo procurò suo adherente”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”
“the exceptional talent of his assistant”: Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 166.
“like the dragon”: Avery, Bernini, p. 274, is quoting Passeri.
“To Francesco Castelli”: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 31.

It was the seventeenth-century version: Connors refers here to an account in Giovanni Battista Passeri’s biography of Borromini, published in 1772.
“abandoned every [sculptural] impresa”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.” Connors quotes from Jacob Hess, ed., Die Künstlerbiographien von Giovanni Battista Passeri, Römische Forschungen der Bibliotheca Hertziana XI (1934; repr., Worms am Rhine, 1995), p. 361.
“Despite the fact that”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”

FIVE: The Circle and the Triangle

“He saw the Majesty of God”: Joseph Connors, “Un Teorema Sacro: San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane,” in Manuela Kahn-Rossi and Marco Franciolli, eds., Il giovane Borromini: dagli esordi a San Carlino (Lugano: Museo Cantonale d’Arte, September–November 1999), pp. 459–95. The material here is quoted from the online version of this essay, which is available at http://www.columbia.edu/~jc65/cvlinks/teorema.htm.
Anthony Blunt notes that the cardinal: Blunt, Borromini, p. 53.

When rumors circulated: This and the following details concerning Fra Juan de la Anunciación come from Connors, “Francesco Borromini.” “as rich as Solomon’s temple”: Ibid.

“the corner is the enemy”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 290.
At the flat center: Blunt, Borromini, p. 55.

“among all the figures in architecture”: Addison is quoted in Charles
Saumarez Smith, The Building of Castle Howard (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), p. 45.
Standing to the right of the church: Blunt, Borromini, p. 55.

“in one the bulge comes at the top”: Ibid., p. 57.
“flickering movement”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 291.

He is said to have explained later: Ibid.
Borromini began work on San Carlo: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 41.
by June 1636: Ibid., and Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 291.

“Borromini was the first architect”: Blunt, Borromini, p. 70.

“subtly aristocratic”: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 61.
“completely out of character”: Blunt, Borromini, p. 108.

“the altar fits the transept”: Ibid., p. 108.
he died suddenly in 1643: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”

“judged by all to be of an art so rare”: Portoghesi, Rome Barocca, p. 169.
“those of different countries”: Ibid.
“is continually harassed”: Ibid.
“worked on his buildings”: Ibid., p. 169.

“beautiful little church”: Connors, “Un Teorema Sacro.”
“well founded on the antique”: Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 169.
“set apart by instinct”: Sacheverell Sitwell, Baroque and Rococo (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1967), pp. 96–97.

“a milestone in the history of sculpture”: Hibbard, Bernini, p. 89.
“was almost completed when a mishap occurred”: The details of this anecdote come from Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, pp. 11–12.

“If of an evening”: Fagiolo and Cipriani, Bernini, p. 14.

SIX: “Ignorant Persons and Copyists”

“spread among all classes of society”: Blunt, Borromini, p. 85.
In 1575 Pope Gregory XIII gave Neri: Ibid., p. 86.
But by then they had also outgrown: Joseph Connors, in his introduction to Francesco Borromini, Opus architectonicum (Milan: Il Polifilo, Trattati di architectura, 1998). The material quoted here is from the online version of this essay, which is available at http://www.columbia.edu/~jc65/opus/opus.int.htm.

“where religious gatherings”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 300.

“throughout Rome”: Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 170.

Maruscelli was simply trying to conceal: Blunt, Borromini, p. 86.
“had diverse designs drawn up”: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 49.

“In this situation”: Ibid.
“The Prior said”: Ibid., p. 50.

“Partly through his brilliance”: Connors, introduction to Opus architectonicum.
Even though Borromini’s initial duties: Connors, “Virgilio Spada’s Defence of Borromini.”
“With [Maruscelli’s] advice”: Connors, introduction to Opus architectonicum.

“Maruscelli’s oratory”: Ibid.

“a prismatic hall”: Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 170.

“smoothing the transition”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 303.

“One thinks that with a bit of perspective”: Connors, Opus architectonicum. The new Oratory was completed by 1640: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 301.
“insisted on approving”: Ibid., p. 303.

which the order found insulting: Connors, “Virgilio Spada’s Defence of Borromini.”
“I beg whoever should read these sayings”: Ibid.
“in place of Borromini”: Ibid.
“Ingannare la vista”: Joseph Connors, “Virtuoso Architecture in Cassiano’s Rome,” in Cassiano Dal Pozzo’s Paper Museum, vol. 2, ed.
Jennifer Montagu (London: Quaderni Puteani 3, 1992), pp. 23–40.
that it be as unadorned as possible: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 303.

“How wonderful it would be”: Blunt, Borromini, p. 92.
“In giving form to said façade”: Connors, introdution to Opus architectonicum.
“the springiness of a sheet of metal”: Blunt, Borromini, p. 93.

“one of Borromini’s most remarkable façades”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of
Bernini, vol. 1, p. 303.

“a great inclination to pleasure”: Scribner, Gianlorenzo Bernini, p. 82.
his brother’s soprastante: See Sarah McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers:
Architecture and Politics at the Vatican (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 2002), p. 62.

“rich pension that went with it”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 11.
“was then inflamed with desire”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 29.
“To succeed with a portrait”: Fagiolo and Cipriani, Bernini, p. 14.

“fieramente inamorato”: Scribner, Gianlorenzo Bernini, p. 82. Pietro had bought next to the church: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 21.
“accompanied him amorously”: Avery, Bernini, p. 274.

“notorious for his ruthless ambition”: Ibid.
There, he carried out his master’s orders: Ibid.

“with kicking at the door”: Ibid., p. 275.
“mitigate the penalties”: Ibid.
“The Pope, apprised of the deed”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 29.

He cut her out of a joint portrait: Avery, Bernini, p. 275.
This “strange illness”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 30.
“desired to make [Bernini]”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 20.
On May 15, 1639: For more details on Bernini’s marriage, see Marder,
Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 21, and Hibbard, Bernini, pp. 114–15.
“faultlessly docile”: Avery, Bernini, p. 275.

“harmony is the most beautiful thing in the world”: Fagiolo and Cipriani,
Bernini, p. 32. The complete quote is “Harmony is the most beautiful thing in the world, and grandeur does not depend on the amount of money invested but on the grandeur of the architect’s style and the nobility of his idea.”

SEVEN: An Ox and a Deer

The beginning of Bernini’s problems: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers, p. 50.

one at each end of the façade: Ibid., p. 14.
the façade would appear larger: Ibid., p. 19.
“that were dangerously destabilizing”: Ibid., p. 22.
“The ground was so sandy”: Ibid., p. 23.

He even had a foundation: Ibid., p. 24.
“where a torrent of water”: Ibid., p. 28.

“Bernini’s competence”: Ibid., p. 44.
“[I]t is believed…that Bernini will retreat”: Ibid.
“Bernini not only made the design”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 30.

“it was the Pope’s custom”: Ibid.
“Borromini, who knew Maderno’s façade”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”
“The prudent artist”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 30.

“formed of two orders of columns and pilasters”: Ibid., p. 31.
“no less than twenty-four columns”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 271.
“only if his brother approved”: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers, p. 61.

“cloath’d with white marble”: Avery, Bernini, pp. 104–5.
“festoons and dolphins”: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 73.

Marc Antonio Valena recorded: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers, p. 63.
Urban ordered it torn down: Ibid., p. 175.
“grows in such a manner”: Ibid., p. 69; and Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 73. This and the following quotes in the paragraph are from this source. McPhee uses the term “intervene” in Bernini and the Bell Towers, p. 69.
“The Cavaliere Bernini”: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers, p. 75.

“the upper part of the campanile”: Avery, Bernini, p. 105.
Another Englishman: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers, p. 81.

Bernini wrote to the powerful cardinal Jules Mazarin: Avery, Bernini, p. 234.

almost immediately after Innocent was elected: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers, p. 311, n. 42.
“fissures”—in the façade: Ibid., p. 95.
multitudes who collect in St. Peter’s Square: Ibid.; and Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 30.

“Bernini suggested that soundings be made”: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell
Towers, p. 91. “straight back to through the mass of Maderno’s foundation”: Ibid., p. 99.

“The ruin of the campanile”: Ibid., pp. 101–2.
“The prudent architect”: Ibid., p. 103.

including both Bernini and Borromini: Ibid., p. 104.
“When an ox and a deer run”: Ibid., p. 111.

it would take either a fool or a zealot: Ibid., p. 114.
158 the tower would devastate it: Ibid., p. 117.
Domenico Bernini, as expected: Ibid., p. 96.
“quickly took up arms”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 31.
“People whom Pope Innocent X trusted”: Ibid., pp. 31–32.

“If it were me”: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers, p. 317, n. 118.
“to do him the favor of intervening”: Ibid., p. 119.
“told him that Borromini”: Ibid., p. 120.
“the pope did not wish to abandon the tower project”: Ibid.

Four months later: Ibid., p. 137.
His proposed towers were lighter: Ibid., p. 136.

“situate in falso”: Ibid., p. 141.
“but then thought better of it”: Ibid., p. 146.
“given the right not to approve”: Ibid., p. 139.
Longhi also wanted the foundations reinforced: Ibid., p. 142.

“most proportionate to the whole”: Ibid., p. 162; see also fig. 128 on p. 153.
“It seemed a good idea”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 33.
“A campanile that has recently been constructed”: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell
Towers, p. 165.

some evidence suggests that Bernini’s investments: Marder, Bernini and the Art of
Architecture, p. 78.
“for the claims of damages”: Ibid., p. 169.
“enemies of Bernini”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 34.
“knew how to use such opportunities”: Ibid.
“It was the opinion of many”: Ibid.
“since from the unexpected novelty”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 33.

“came forward as Bernini’s most dangerous critic”: Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600–1750, vol. 2, The High Baroque (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), p. 39.
his agent Francesco Mantovani: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers, pp. 167–68.

EIGHT: Ecstasy and Wisdom

“When a man loses”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 34.

“Even the great have been touched”: McPhee, Bernini and the Bell Towers, pp. 169–70.
“tacit approval”: Ibid.

“It is a miracle”: Ibid., p. 170.
Several of them, including Cardinal Antonio Barberini: Avery, Bernini, p. 236.
But a year later: Ibid.

“a hoary old man”: Ibid., p. 234.
Bernini completed only the figure of Truth: Scribner, Gianlorenzo Bernini, p. 86. “the rotten old tub”: Avery, Bernini, p. 182.

“Whether dissuaded from the work”: Scribner, Gianlorenzo Bernini, p. 86, quotes Domenico Bernini.
“the most beautiful virtue”: Avery, Bernini, p. 234.
He was appointed secretary to the papal legate: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 1. Magnuson spells Mazarin’s name “Mazzarino.”

Rather than sculpting from life: Avery, Bernini, p. 233.
Mazarin quietly agreed: Ibid.

“The figure of Time”: Ibid., p. 234; Fagiolo and Cipriani, Bernini, p. 17.
“if Bernini were to decide”: Avery, Bernini, p. 235.

“I saw beside me”: Ibid., p. 76.

the first time since the Baldacchino: Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 94.
“it is the gentlemen carved out of white marble”: Avery, Bernini, p. 148.

“In the opinion of all”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 34.
“In that group the Cavalier has surpassed himself”: Ibid.
“This is the least bad work”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 80.
“So fair a swoon”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 35.

“If this is Divine Love”: From John Varriano, Italian Baroque and Rococo Architecture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 175.
one of the two public posts: Blunt, Borromini, p. 111. “Cavalier Bernini has made known”: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 149.
work at the site had been halted: Blunt, Borromini, p. 111.

“because of the liveliness of his talent”: Connors, introduction to Opus architectonicum.
the dome was covered with lead: Blunt, Borromini, p. 111.

“Never perhaps did the Baroque ideal”: Ibid., p. 114.
consecrated by Cardinal Antonio Barberini: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 205.
It is both the symbol of Charity and Prudence: Portoghesi, Roma Barocca, p. 173.
Monsignor Carlo Cartari seconds this conclusion: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 158.
“must also have had in mind”: Blunt, Borromini, p. 116.

Borromini considered placing a semicircle: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of
Bernini, vol. 2, p. 205.

tempietto, as it was then called: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 149.

“the twisting spire”: Sitwell, Baroque and Rococo, p. 98.
“a brilliant and free interpretation”: See Livia Velani, Rome: Where to Find Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Bernini, Borromini (Florence: Scala, 2000), p. 120.
“mounted on a pedestal”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”

NINE: A Pope’s Renovations

Built on the spot: Avery, Bernini, p. 95.
Lago di Piazza Navona: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 288.

This determined, formidable woman: Ibid., p. 4.
she was known for being di nauseante ingordigia: Ibid., p. 6.
“latter-day Agrippina”: Ibid., p. 7.

taken from St. Peter’s: See Caroline Vincenti Montanaro and Andrea Fasolo, Palazzi and Villas of Rome (Venice: Arsenale Editrice, 2001), p. 132.
called in Borromini: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 53. Borromini designed several versions: Blunt, Borromini, p. 173.
“a long court with apsed ends”: Ibid.

Innocent let him design: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 54.

“quelling the tumult”: From Rudolf Preimesberger, “Images of the
Papacy Before and After 1648” (Forschungsstelle/Research Center “Westfälischer Friede,” 2000–2003), p. 8, http://www.lwl.org/west faelischer-friede/wfe-t/wfe-txt2-67.htm (accessed August 2004).
“a study in practical mathematics”: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 179.

“closed in his favor”: Ibid., p. 159.

The official seat of the pope: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 34.

a deeply coffered wooden ceiling: Ibid., p. 35.

the pope appointed Spada: Ibid.; see also Blunt, Borromini, p. 134.

In a letter dated March 16, 1647: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 39.
“gave great satisfaction to the Pope”: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, pp. 159–61.
before he was given the post: Blunt, Borromini, p. 134.

twelve rectangular statuary niches, called tabernacles: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 37.

laurels and palm fronds: Blunt, Borromini, p. 142.
he would not allow them to proceed with the vaulting: Ibid., p. 141; see also Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 159.

“the teachings of Baronius”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”
windows between the aisles: Blunt, Borromini, p. 141.

“look in personally to see”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 39.

the body was discovered elsewhere: Connors, “Francesco Borromini”; and Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 182.
“He was remanded to temporary banishment”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”

Innocent awarded Borromini a knighthood: Ibid.

TEN: Water and Disappointment

he placed a rectangular stone trough: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 80.

rediscovered lying in several salvageable pieces: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 36; Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 35; Blunt, Borromini, p. 133; and Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 80.
Innocent inspected the obelisk: Avery, Bernini, p. 194.
“an apotheosis of water”: Hibbard, Bernini, p. 110.
“He lifts his hollow shell”: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 90.

“Every artist worth the name”: Hibbard, Bernini, p. 120.
“features an allegorical figure”: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 95.

“Attributing the aversion of the Pope”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 35.
“knowledge of the tenacious”: Ibid.
“Making up in ingenuity”: Ibid.
“could not deny to so praiseworthy”: Ibid.

“received it with…much pleasure”: Ibid.
“would at least demand”: Ibid., p. 36.
“deliberately placed the model”: Ibid.
“Upon seeing such a noble creation”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 36.
“This design cannot be by any other”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 36.
“with a thousand signs of esteem”: Baldinucci, The Life of Bernini, p. 36.

“Borromini stormed through”: Connors, “Virgilio Spada’s Defence of Borromini.”

“allowed work to continue”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”
“Borromini called a general walkout”: Ibid.

Work on the fountain began soon after: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 81.

a sum so high: Ibid., p. 83.
“Noi volemo altro”: This famous couplet has been translated over the years in numerous ways; this version is my translation. It may be others’ as well.
using Bernini’s successful and long-established practice: Ibid., p. 87; see also Hibbard, Bernini, p. 121.
an impressive achievement: Hibbard, Bernini, p. 121.

“is almost as dirty as West Smithfield”: This quote appears in John Varriano,
A Literary Companion to Rome (New York: St. Martin’s, 1991), p. 166.
Innocent was inordinately pleased: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, pp. 38–39.

He received 3,000 scudi: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 87.

To counter such criticism: Ibid., p. 88. Magnuson recounts a story Domenico included in his biography of his father.
“O come mi vergogno”: Ibid.

“the saddest in the whole of Borromini’s career”: Blunt, Borromini, p. 156.

the princess of Romano: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 56.

at the suggestion of Virgilio Spada: Ibid., p. 60.
“a certain staircase”: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 168.

“absurd and unjustifiable”: Ibid.

“Even though the pope was fed up with him”: Connors, “Virgilio Spada’s Defence of Borromini.”

A set of low, curved steps: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 61; and Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 168.
“generous enough to make his façade”: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 168.
Borromini insisted that only the best brick would do: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 62.
“a collapse”: Ibid., p. 61.

“The senile decay”: Ibid., p. 118.
capricci inutili: Ibid., p. 208.

“She still continued to hover”: Ibid., p. 119.

ELEVEN: Affection and Caprices

the squadrone volante: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 124.

Only Chigi cast his vote for another cardinal: Ibid.
“the defender of the papal dignity”: See Richard Krautheimer, The Rome of Alexander VII: 1655–1667 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985), p. 157.
“Architecture…on a large scale”: Ibid., p. 14.

“like a child”: Ibid., p. 10.
he wore a hair shirt: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 126.
“The sun had not yet set”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 36.
“encouraged Bernini to embark upon great things”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 42.

“a monthly provision”: Ibid., p. 43.
“the sequence of envy”: See Francesca Bottari, “Francesco Borromini,” in Francesco Borromini and Rome, ed. Francesca Bottari (Rome: Artemide Edizioni, 1999), p. 26.

But it wasn’t all conflict: Connors, “ Virgilio Spada’s Defence of Borromini.” “When I returned”: Ibid.

“the result of uneven settling”: Ibid.
before Innocent X allowed construction: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 50; see also Connors, “Francesco Borromini.” “I the undersigned”: Ibid.

to commemorate the university’s official opening: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of
Bernini, vol. 2, p. 206.
“by the top of his head”: Hibbard, Bernini, p. 187; and Scribner, Gianlorenzo Bernini, p. 96.

Rainaldi proposed four different shapes: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 164.

“covered loggias”: See Timothy K. Kitao, Circle and Oval in the Square of Saint Peter’s (New York: New York University Press, 1974), p. 7.
“Bernini’s trapezoidal piazza”: Ibid., p. 8. “it seems likely that the pope”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 169.

“immediately…saw thedrawbacks”: Kitao, Circle and Oval, p. 10.
the pope proposed an oval piazza: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 165.

“a forest of gigantic stone trunks”: Varriano, A Literary Companion to Rome, p. 220.
“The image of the piazza”: Hibbard, Bernini, p. 155.
“architecture consisted in proportions”: Chantelou, Diary of the Cavaliere Bernini’s Visit to France, p. 48.
“where all small and shabby things”: Ibid.
“with its clusters”: Ibid.

“with the exacting preparations”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 169.
By the next summer: Ibid., p. 171.

Urban VIII founded the Collegium Urbanum: Blunt, Borromini, p. 183.
“Very likely it was at this time”: Portoghesi, The Rome of Borromini, p. 281.

essentially complete by 1662: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 206.

TWELVE: Training the Eye to See

a brilliant piece of theater: Sitwell, Baroque and Rococo, p. 51.

“Son, I feel a special satisfaction”: Hibbard, Bernini, p. 148.
every Friday for four decades: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 340.

“a large and sumptuous church”: Ibid., p. 197.
growing number of courtiers: Krautheimer, The Rome of Alexander VII, p. 59.
to finance the interior decoration: Marder, Bernini and the Art of Architecture, p. 196.

“making it less visible”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 2, p. 197.
“rings of water”: Sitwell, Baroque and Rococo, p. 52.

describes the stairs as “rickety”: Hibbard, Bernini, p. 163.

“was the most daring operation”: Fagiolo and Cipriani, Bernini, p. 32.

THIRTEEN: No Greater Favor, No Sadder End

Alexander met with Borromini: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”

“could only be satisfied”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 45.
“I have a great desire”: Ibid., p. 47.

“[I] entreat you then”: Ibid.
“as though he were a traveling elephant”: Chantelou, Diary, p. 24.

“a man of medium height”: Ibid., pp. 14–15.
“a big little thing”: Ibid., p. xxii.
“a little cap had been placed on a very large head”: Ibid., p. 33.
“Paris seemed nothing but a mass of chimneys”: Ibid., p. 98.
“art should be disguised”: Ibid., p. 99.
“Let no one speak to me”: Andrew Zega and Bernd H. Dams, Palaces of the
Sun King: Versailles, Trianon, Marly: The Cheteau of Louis XIV (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2002), p. 41.
the madrigal that Abbé Buti wrote: Ibid, p. 39.

“The Cavaliere never went into detail”: See Cecil Gould, Bernini in France (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), p. 13.
“in admiration and loudly exclaimed”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 53.
“gently parted the locks of hair”: Ibid.

“My king will last longer”: Hibbard, Bernini, p. 177.
“I must return to Rome”: Fagiolo and Cipriani, Bernini, p. 30; and Chantelou, Diary, p. 75.
Though the foundation stone: Chantelou, Diary, p. 306.

“in return for a generous recompense”: Connors, “Francesco Borromini.”

“a slow fever”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 39.
“It is only right”: Ibid., p. 40.

“Father, I must render account to a Lord”: Baldinucci, The Life of Bernini, p. 70.
“It astonished everyone”: Bernini, Life of the Cavalier Gian Lorenzo Bernini, p. 40.
“so numerous…that it was necessary to postpone”: Baldinucci, Life of Bernini, p. 71.
“to a lucky star”: Fagiolo and Cipriani, Bernini, p. 38.

FOURTEEN: A Legacy in Stone

“You are made for Rome”: Avery, Bernini, p. 273.
“He is by nature of such a temperament”: Connors, “Virgilio Spada’s Defence of Borromini.”
“He [Bernini] could not bear to be laughed at”: Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, vol. 1, p. 250.
“It’s got all the moves in it that I’ve made”: These comments by Gehry are from a transcript of a 60 Minutes II piece about him that aired originally on January 23, 2002.