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- Title
Saving the Soul of Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici: Function and Design in the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo.
- Authors
DAVIES, PAUL
- Abstract
Using Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici's mausoleum in San Lorenzo in Florence as a case study, this article asks why high-ranking members of Florentine society increasingly opted for burial in a sacristy in the years after c. 1350. Countering the argument that the attraction for patrons was primarily one of size, it argues that sacristies were seen as ideal burial places in which to convey the souls of the departed through purgatory, since they were both repositories for collections of saints' relics that might intercede on the deceased's behalf and the busiest spaces in a church, where priests would have had innumerable opportunities to offer prayers for them. In discussing this choice, the article considers Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici's anxiety for the health of his soul and why he took the highly unconventional step of establishing two chapels in San Lorenzo to care for it; and it goes on to consider how the design of the so-called Old Sacristy was conceived to assist. In doing so, it offers a range of new documentary evidence regarding the early usage of the space, and it concludes with observations about the strategies employed by patrons in the siting of their tombs so as to maximise the care for their souls.
- Subjects
ITALY; DE Medici, Giovanni di Bicci; SACRISTIES; SOUL &; Christianity; MAUSOLEUMS; CHAPELS
- Publication
Architectural History, 2019, Vol 62, p1
- ISSN
0066-622X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/arh.2019.1