La Mostra 1300
Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee of 1300
The measures contained in the Bull – a source of canon law in matters of penitence and indulgence – became part of the corpus of rules of the Catholic Church and were included in the "Extravagantes communes" of the Corpus iuris canonici (L. V, tit. 9, De poenitentiis et remissionibus). The published Bull was annotated by French Cardinal Jean Lemoine, whose commentary clarifies construction of the document and fully explains the thinking of Boniface VIII on the matter.
Boniface VIII, Antiquorum habet fida relatio (22 February 1300), in: Corpus iuris canonici. Extravagantes communes,V.IX.1, Lyon 1559
Cola di Rienzo's embassy to Clement VI at Avignon
In 1342 Cola di Rienzo, not yet a tribune of Rome (1347), was included in an embassy of Romans to Pope Clement VI at Avignon. Amongst other things, the ambassadors begged the Pope to visit Rome and announce a Jubilee, inorder to to bring the City out of its decline . The Pope declined to go to Rome but did announce a Jubilee, which was celebrated in 1350
Vita di Cola di Rienzo, in: Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Antiquitates italicae medii aevi sive dissertationes..., vol. III (Historiae romanae fragmenta ab anno Christi MCCCXXVII usque ad MCCCLIV neapolitana sive romana dialecto scripta auctore anonymo...), Milano 1740
Portrait and Coat of Arms of Boniface VIII
The portrait and arms of Boniface VIII are drawn from the most important edition of the Lives of Roman Popes by Spanish Dominican friar Alfonso Chacón, published in Rome in four in-folio volumes in 1677. This was an illustrated edition, enhanced with several copper-plate engravings. Chacón was a historian, philologist and scholar who was called to Rome by Pius V in October 1566, as a penitentiary in St Peter's basilica. His unfinished work was completed by Francisco Morales Cabrera with the lives of the popes from Alexander VI to Clement VII and eventually published in 1601. A major success, the Lives was reprinted several times, with the addition of biographies of later popes, compiled by Andrea Vittorelli, Ferdinando Ughelli, Girolamo Aleandro, Luke Wadding, Cesare Becilli. A revision was published by Augustino Oldoini in 1677, with a supplement on Pope Clement IX. Two more volumes were finally published in 1751 by Mario Guarnacci, including all popes up to Clement XII.
Alfonso Chacón, Vitae, et res gestae pontificum Romanorum et s.r.e. cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae vsque ad Clementem IX P.O. M. ..., vol. II, Roma 1677
Boniface VIII in the Lateran fresco
The fragment in the Lateran Basilica was part of a bigger fresco cycle formerly in the Loggia delle benedizioni. Interpretation of the fresco is controversial. Recent diagnostic analyses seem to confirm the old interpretation that Boniface VIII is portrayed while announcing the Jubilee of 1300. The attribution to Giotto is unconfirmed
Enciclopedia dell'arte medievale,by Istituto dell'Enciclopedia italiana, vol. VI (Erfurt-Giustiniano), Roma 1995
Boniface VIII - engraved reproduction of the fragment from the Lateran fresco
The engraving reproduces the fragment of the Lateran fresco portraiying Boniface VIII. Chacón reported the fresco was by Giotto
Effigies Bonifacij Papae VIII à Giotto expressa in antiqua Lateranensis Basilicae porticu, atque inde secto pariete in eiusdem Templi claustrum translata, in: Alfonso Chacón, Vitae, et res gestae pontificum Romanorum et s.r.e. cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae usque ad Clementem IX..., vol. II, Roma 1677
Rites of opening and closing of the Holy door of St. Paul's for the Jubilee of 1675
Claude Boizot, Ad astra reclusa ostendit per mella viam, in: Casimir Freschot, Series eorum quae in aperitione et obseratione portae sanctae Basilicae divi Pauli ab... Francisco cardinali Barberino... ritu sacro peracta sunt anno iubilaei M.DC.LXXV..., Roma 1676
The Bull of the first Jubilee, carved in marble
The text of the Bull Antiquorum Habet was carved on marble, arguably by the clerics at St Peter's at the time of Boniface VIII. The slab is to be found on the façade of St Peter's Basilica, top left of the Holy Door
L'apparato decorativo nell'atrio della Basilica, in: Hugo Brandenburg, Antonella Ballardini, Christof Thoenes, San Pietro: storia di un monumento, Città del Vaticano, 2015
The Bull of the first Jubilee, carved in marble
In his description of the façade of St Peter's Basilica, Carlo Fea mentions the marble slab with the text of the Bull of indiction of the Jubilee of 1300
Carlo Fea, Nuova descrizione di Roma antica e moderna e de' suoi contorni, sue rarità specialmente dopo le nuove scoperte cogli scavi. Arricchita delle vedute più interessanti, compilata per uso de' colti viaggiatori..., vol. I, Roma 1820
The Bull of the first Jubilee carved in marble
Giuseppe Beltrami, La Bolla del primo Giubileo scolpito [sic] nel marmo, "Roma. Rivista di studi e di vita romana", a. III (1925), p. 181
Entry: "Iubileus annus" from Dictionarium iuris, by Albericus de Rosate
Albericus de Rosate was a jurist, born in Bergamo in the late 13th century and died in 1360. His legal dictionary is the first reference work in the legal sector, although scientific rigour is sometimes replaced by autobiographical comments. In the entry ""Iubileus annus", the jubilee year, Albericus first mentions the biblical background of the jubilee and the bulls of indiction of 1350 and 1300 and then goes on to tell us about his own participation in Clement VI's jubilee, with his wife and their three children
Iubileus annus, in: Alberico da Rosate, Dictionarium iuris tam civilis, quam canonici..., Venezia 1581
St Peter's Basilica was one of the two basilicas pigrims were required to visit in the Jubilee of 1300
To obtain the indulgence, pilgrims were required to visit the tombs of the Apostles in St Peter's and St Paul's Basilicas for thirty continuing days if they were from Rome and for fifteen continuing days if they were from elsewhere
Girolamo Franzini, Templum divi Petri, in: Le cose maravigliose dell’alma città di Roma..., Roma 1595
St Paul's Outside the Walls was one of the two basilicas pigrims were required to visit in the Jubilee of 1300
To obtain the indulgence, pilgrims were required to visit the tombs of the Apostles in St Peter's and St Paul's Basilicas for thirty continuing days if they were from Rome and for fifteen continuing days if they were from elsewhere
Girolamo Franzini, Templum divi Pauli, in: Le cose maravigliose dell’alma città di Roma..., Roma 1595
Iacopo Stefaneschi, De centesimo seu iubileo anno
The work of Cardinal Iacopo Stefaneschi, who was closely involved in the Jubilee of 1300, is one of the main sources to gather information on that holy year, of which he left an "official" report
Iacopo Stefaneschi, De centesimo seu iubileo anno. La storia del primo giubileo (1300), edited by Claudio Leonardi, Paul Gerhard Schmidt, translation and notes by Antonio Placanica, Firenze 2001
The Jubilee Basilicas: Saint Mary Major, St Peter's in the Vatican
Saint Peter's has been a Jubilee Basilica since 1300, Saint Mary Major became one in 1373, for the Jubilee of 1390
Giacomo Brogi (phot.), Le basiliche del giubileo, in: L'illustrazione italiana, a. XXVI, n. 52, 24 December 1899
Jubilee Basilicas: St John Lateran and St Paul's outside-the-Walls
St Paul's has been a Jubilee Basilica since 1300, St John's since 1343, for the Jubilee of 1350
Giacomo Brogi (phot.), Le basiliche del giubileo, in: L'illustrazione italiana, a. XXVI, n. 52, 24 December 1899
Dante's Inferno, 18th canto
Dante compared the two lines of sinners walking in opposite directions in the first chasm of his Inferno to the pilgrims crossing the Tiber at Ponte Sant’Angelo. This passage, testifying the separation of apparently heavy pedestrian traffic on the bridge into two separate lanes, was interpreted as a personal memory of the poet, thus corroborating the hypothesis that he was personally in Rome in 1300
Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri col comento di Giovanni Maria Cornoldi, Torino 1887
Chronicle, by Giovanni Villani
Giovanni Villani (1276-1348), from Florence, was one of the main Italian chroniclers of his time. His Chronicle is a universal history centred on the city of Florence. Largely based on his personal experience, the work is full of details on economic and social apects which were often neglected by contemporary chroniclers. He admitted that he was prompted to write his Chronicle by the great historians of Ancient Rome, while he was in Rome as a pilgrim during the Jubilee of 1300. Villani gave a short but lively account of the Jubilee ("for I was there and I saw it"), especially the huge inflow of pilgrims
Giovanni Villani, Cronica di Giovanni Villani a miglior lezione ridotta coll'aiuto de' testi a penna, vol. III, Firenze 1823