The CORTILE OF THE
- PALAZZO PERETTI IN ROME
BY
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HAROLD DONALDSON EBERLEIN
Drawings by R_M Kennedy, Fellow in Architecture American Academy in Rome
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lL once so happened that the Holy Father—which one it matters not, and the writer does not remember— Was giving audience to three foreign clerics. Of the first his Holiness en- quired, “How long have you been in Rome?’ To which the priest replied, “Six days.” “Ah, you have seen Rome,” said the Pope. Next, of the second ecclesiastic he “And how long have you been in Rome?” “Six weeks,” response. “Then you are seec-
ing Rome,’ was the Pope’s comment. Finally, of the third he asked the same question as of the two preceding. “Six replied the monsignor to whom “You will Holy
asked,
came the
years,” the query was addressed. never see Rome,” rejoined the lather.
Whether apocryphal or not, this anec- dote emphasizes tersely the impossibility of ever fully knowing Rome. Any ob- servant person who has lived there, even for a very short time, is aware of the utter futility of expecting to know, or see, or understand all that Rome con- tains. The Eternal City is an inex- haustible treasure house full of varied riches, for the examination of which the span of no single life could ever suffice. Even the prying, grubbing, industrious, tabulating Mr. Baedeker has _ barely scratched the surface of Rome’s pos- sibilities.
The most that one not living for a long period in Rome can hope to do, apart from gaining a reasonable acquaintance with the greater monuments, is to dis- cover for himself some of the lesser treasures that have been shouldered aside by the multitude of more imposing
works, and well nigh forgotten or com- pletely ignored because of their com- parative obscurity, although in other places less richly endowed with master- pieces of all the arts their worth would be loudly acclaimed.
One of these many unsung bits of “un- known Rome” is the cortile of the Palazzo Peretti, an old house, numbered 7 in the Via Parione, and not far from the church of Santa Maria della Pace. Letarouilly knew the house to some ex- tent, for he has given the doorway, the vestibule, and the decorations in the vaulting of the vestibule—decorations that have been attributed by some to Baldassare Peruzzi, by others to Gio- vanni da Udine. But he has not given nor mentioned the cortile, which is at the first floor level and not on the ground floor as is the usual custom, very pos- sibly because he did not know of its ex- istence, for it is so well concealed from view that no one would be likely to sus- pect its presence unless well acquainted with the penetralia of the palazzo. The only access is from the rear of the first floor apartments, and one could go casu- ally in and out of those apartments a hundred times without being aware of the cortile.
Letarouilly speaks highly of the house, so far as he knows it, and vouchsafes this much information—that it is often called the house of Sixtus V, and adds that the legend beneath an old view of the house states that it was for some time occupied by Sixtus V while he was still Cardinal Peretti. Now what we know further is this, that the archivio notarile of the Apostolic Chamber con-
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