Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's [BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover)

by R. A. Scotti (Author) "Wrapped in a lavender cloak the color of dusk, riding headlong against a sharp north wind, Michelangelo Buonarroti made his escape..." (more)
Key Phrases: papal altar, construction yard, grand enterprise, Papal States, Agostino Chigi, Pope Julius (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this absorbing story of the construction of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome—the grandest architectural undertaking of the High Renaissance—Scotti (Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938) shows how the construction fed the ambitions of 30 popes, including the indomitable Julius II, who laid the first stone in 1506; Leo X, the Medici pope whose extravagant spending fueled the resentment toward the papacy that culminated in the Protestant Reformation; Clement VII, on whose watch Rome was sacked by Emperor Charles V; and Sixtus V, who restored the ravaged city and pushed, against all odds, to have the great dome completed during his lifetime. In 1506, the great architect Donato Bramante envisioned a gigantic central crossing topped by a dome of such daring design that many believed it could not be built. Throughout the 100 years of construction, numerous architects, most of them consumed with pride, lofty ambition and professional jealousy, followed. Among them were Raphael, who died at age 37; Michelangelo, who accepted the job reluctantly at the age of 71; and Giacomo della Porta, who, in 1590, succeeded in raising the grand cupola. All are brought to life in this fascinating tale of genius, power and money. B&w photos not seen by PW. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Just half a millennium ago, Pope Julius II laid the cornerstone for a new basilica of St. Peter. This event not only set to work an extraordinary group of architects and artists but it also led directly to revolution in Western civilization. The pope's need to finance the ambitious project ignited northern Europe's Reformation. In this engaging if uncritical history, Scotti is much less interested in the larger effect of the church's construction than in how successive artists shaped and reshaped the building, how new popes confronted the legacies of their predecessors and left their own imprints on the basilica. Bramante, Michelangelo, and Bernini had major control over one or another aspect of the vast, century-long project, and the building well illustrates the passage from a pure Renaissance aesthetic to the florid, excessive decorative impulses of the baroque. Scotti's recounting of the popular reaction to the destruction of the ancient Constantinian basilica that antedated the present building offers insight into the clash between ancient tradition and contemporary artistic expression. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (June 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670037761
• ASIN: B000OFOIWW
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #465,205 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 152 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars APPALLINGLY bad, inaccurate history, July 15, 2006

By	A. McDonald (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's (Hardcover)

On a positive note, this book on the building of St Peters does have some strengths. Scotti describes the dynamics between the patrons (the powerful dynastic families of popes and cardinals sponsoring Roman cultural projects) and the artists - and these are vivid personalities all. She breezily recreates scenes involving popes and painters, such as this typical passage describing the artist Perugino meeting the adult Raphael, formerly his pupil:

"Perugino, eyes moistened, rushed forward and embranced Raphael
like a son. It was an emotional moment for the old painter.
He pinched the boy's cheeks affectionately, marveling at how he had grown."

Although Scotti doesn't seem too bothered to examine original sources to create these scenes (the bibliography is entirely second source material), no matter, they are fun, lightly paced, and charming if this sort of pop historical creativity appeals to you.

Unfortunately Scotti's creative energy also involves fundamental fictions about her subject matter. There are the annoying, small errors like misnaming buildings in the Forum. These are forgivable -- what tourist hasn't got these confused? But then there are howlers that demonstrate she's unfamiliar with the building she's writing about: for instance, she incorrectly asserts that St Peters was built with cast structural concrete. In order to "cast the concrete vaults for the Basilica," as Scotti puts it, Bramante (the 16th century architect building St Peters) would have had to... invent concrete. Concrete as a technology was developed by the ancient Romans, but knowledge of its process vanished with the collapse of their building culture. So Scotti states that Bramante had studied the Romans and rediscovered their methods of using concrete. It's sad that a quick google search could have helped her straighten this out - concrete was rediscovered in the 19th century, not 16th. St. Peters was built with mortared masonry, and contains no concrete nor any cast material approximating it. If she didn't know the basics of how St Peters was technically constructed - and remember this is a book about the construction of a building -- it might have served Scotti better to have skipped all of this, rather than making it up.

Still, even this pales to the inaccuracy of the larger point of the book, the "Scandal" in the subtitle. Scotti attempts to link the construction of the St Peters, in particular its exorbitant expense, with the Reformation itself. In her argument, the Popes were so corrupt, so decayed in moral sensibility, that they constructed St Peters regardless of the burden it would bear on their finances, and the basilica's expense caused outrage throughout the Christian world -- leading to a the Reformation and Protestant split from the Church. She varies her positions on this influence, and obviously recognizes that there were more factors to the Reformation than this building. But in many cases her claim that the building program of St Peters caused the Reformation is clearly stated: had the handling of the basilica's construction been more carefully managed, less divisive, then the Protestant church may not have even happened: "the demands for reform might have been heeded, the rift healed, and the grand enterprise of the century progressed without corrupt indulgences, confused plans, or extravagant expense."

Anyone considering themselves Catholic or Protestant would be offended by the childish reduction of the split between their faith as due to the mere expense of a building -- as if the Popes had listened better to their accountants then the Reformation would never have occurred. Nothing could be further from the case. The Protestant and Catholic Church split on theological issues. The issues that drove Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin to separate from the Catholic church were issues of faith, they were issues of sacrament, of justification to God, of the role of church hierarchy, and of differing views on the nature of salvation itself. To reduce the Reformation as causally due to the extravagant cost of a building is fundamentally misunderstand it, and is fundamentally bad history.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Point Counterpoint, July 18, 2006

By	History Lover (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's (Hardcover)

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Basilica, (see my review) I can't let A. McDonald's remarks pass unanswered. As Basilica explains, St. Peter's was constructed with concrete masonry, the same method that ancient Roman architects used to build their monumental edifices. McDonald may be thinking of Portland concrete which dates to the 18th c.
As to the question of the Reformation, A. McDonald seems to have completely missed the nuances in Scotti's writing. The author never says that the excessive cost of building St. Peter's caused the Reformation. Rather, she sees it as the straw that broke the camel's back, prompting Martin Luther to post his theses. In fact, Scotti makes the further point that Luther's theses did not cause the Reformation so much as start the conversation and that the causes of the Reformation were as much political as theological. The historical "what if" that Basilica asks is a fascinating question to think about: What if there had been no excessive Basilica costs and no outrageous clerical behavior in Rome to raise the dander of the young monk?
An equally intriguing question to ponder after reading Basilica: From the perspective of 500 years, was St. Peter's worth the incalculable cost?

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mixed Bag, July 27, 2006

By	Michael Cain (Honolulu, HI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Basilica: The Splendor and the Scandal: Building St. Peter's (Hardcover)

I've been waiting for a popular history dealing with the Renaissance, Reformation, Catholic Reformation, etc. And at first glance this book is it. It's an easy and absorbing read, and endlessly fascinating.

And yet ... this story crumbles under closer inspection. Two examples, among many:

"By the end of Leo's disastrous, eight-year pontificate, all the main players in the first building phase of St. Peter's were dead: Guiliano della Rovere, Donato Bramante, Guiliano da Sangallo, Fra Giovanni Giocondo, Raphael Sanzio, and Agostino Chigi."

Aye. Guiliane della Rovere was Julius II. Of course he was dead at the end of his successor's reign. Scotti covers Bramante, Raphael, and Chigi in decent detail. But da Sangallo is only mentioneed a few times, and Fra Giocondo is only introduced once. It was a shock to realize they were 'major players.' And others, notably Michelangelo, were very much alive.

It seems minor, but over and over Scotti introduces secondary characters as if we know them already when, in fact, she has never mentioneed them before.

Other passages just confused me. The Sack of Rome is particularly confusing - I had to put the book down and look it up on Wikipedia to know what she was talking about.

I can still recommend the book as an excellent read ... but it should have been a classic, and could have been with a touch better editing.