medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Tuesday, May 9, 2006, at 4:27 am, John Briggs wrote:
> 6. May: John before the Latin Gate.
The legend that the apostle John had been boiled in oil at Rome under
Domitian and had emerged unscathed is at least as old as the end of the
second century, as it occurs at Tertullian, _De praescriptione_ 36.3.
Neither that passage nor the one of very similar import at Jerome,
_Adversus Jovinianum_ 1.26, specifies a particular locale in or near the
Eternal City. A connection with the Porta Latina on the south side of
the city is first recorded in the Gregorian Sacramentary (not attested
before ca. 786, when Hadrian I sent a copy to Charlemagne), which lists
for 6. May a _natale Sancti Johannis ante Portam Latinam_. There was at
that time already one church in the immediate vicinity dedicated to a
saint John: the late fifth- or early sixth-century basilican church of
St. John the Baptist that the _Liber pontificalis_ says was rebuilt by
Hadrian I ands that in the Einsiedeln Itinerary of ca. 800 is listed
simply (as it has been ever since) as the church of Saint John at the
Porta Latina. And there may have been another: the presumed late
antique circular forerunner of today's oratory of San Giovanni in Oleo,
though a predecessor on that site is not mentioned until ca. 1300. In
Ado's Martyrology (late ninth-century) John's feast on 6. May at the
Porta Latina is for the first time connected explicitly with his having
been being boiled in oil before that gate.
The church of San Giovanni a Porta Latina was rebuilt by Celestine III
in 1191, the first year of his papacy. A renovation in 1940-41 returned
it to an approximation of its twelfth-century self, though its interior
frescoes are no longer vibrant. The church is now undergoing
restoration yet again. Two English-language accounts are here:
http://www.pnac.org/station_churches/church_days/wk5sat.htm
http://roma.katolsk.no/giovanniportalatina.htm
and an Italian-language one is here:
http://www.romasegreta.it/celio/s.giovanniaportalatina.htm
Exterior views:
http://tinyurl.com/mp8x3
http://www.sangiovanniaportalatina.com/Hist_Bell-Tower_Exterior_Eng.htm
Much of the rear of the building formed part of the late antique
basilica. For details, see R[ichard] Krautheimer, "An Oriental Basilica
in Rome: S. Giovanni a Porta Latina", _American Journal of Archaeology_
40, no. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1936), 485-495.
Columns of the portico:
http://www.romaspqr.it/ROMA/Foto/s_giovanni_a_porta_latina3.htm
The well in the forecourt:
http://www.romaspqr.it/ROMA/Foto/s_giovanni_a_porta_latina1.htm
http://www2.siba.fi/~kkoskim/rooma/kuvat/170_021c.jpg
Interior views:
http://www.sangiovanniaportalatina.com/Basil_1a.jpg
http://www.promessisposi.com/esecuz/chiese.idc?m_codice=23
http://www.romaspqr.it/ROMA/Foto/s_giovanni_a_porta_latina2.htm
http://www.romaspqr.it/ROMA/Foto/s_giovanni_a_porta_latina5.htm
Key to the frescoes:
http://www.medioevo.roma.it/saggi/chiese/giovannilatina3.htm
Views of the early modern oratory of San Giovanni in Oleo (on the
reputed site of J.'s torment) and of the Porta Latina will be found in
the upper portion of this page:
http://www.romacivica.net/tarcaf/storarc/lat_i.htm
And here's Filippino Lippi's depiction of the torment itself, with
Domitian at left directing the action:
http://www.artonline.it/opera.asp?IDOpera=1428
http://www.artonline.it/Img/museum/Filippino/supplizio_g.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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