Ninth article in the Raphael series, devoted to a text rather than a painting. If you need formal Italian for study or work, book a private online lesson or join the course waiting list at my-italian-teacher.ch.
The document at a glance
- Authors: Raphael and Baldassare Castiglione
- Addressee: Pope Leo X (Giovanni de’ Medici)
- Date: 1519 (according to Francesco Paolo Di Teodoro, between September and November)
- Main witness: Castiglione’s draft, State Archives of Mantua (Castiglioni archive)
- First publication: 1733, among Castiglione’s letters
- Purpose: introduction to a plan of ancient Rome, never completed because of Raphael’s death
The painter who wanted to save Rome
In the Renaissance the monuments of ancient Rome were not considered untouchable. Marble from the ruins was dismantled, reused in new building sites or even burnt in kilns to make lime. Against this destruction a respected voice was raised in 1519: Raphael’s Letter to Leo X, written together with the humanist Baldassare Castiglione, author of The Book of the Courtier.
Art historians consider it one of the founding texts of the culture of heritage protection. The Italian Ministry of Culture, presenting the document shown at the 2020 exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale, recalls that scholars attribute to it a founding role for the protection of cultural heritage in Italy. To understand it, we need to start from the work Raphael was doing in Rome in those years. The Italian workshop at the end is about the formal register: the phrases we still use today when writing to an office or an institution.
1. The context: Raphael as architect and “prefect of marbles”
After Bramante’s death in 1514, Raphael became head of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the works for the new basilica. On 27 August 1515 Leo X appointed him by papal brief praefectus marmorum et lapidum omnium, “prefect of all marbles and stones”. The task was twofold: to find building material for the new basilica in and around Rome and, at the same time, to make sure that valuable ancient inscriptions and fragments were not lost.
To carry out this work Raphael studied the ruins methodically, measuring and drawing them, and had Vitruvius’ treatise translated by the humanist Marco Fabio Calvo (we discussed this in the article on the Fire in the Borgo). The Letter grew out of this practical experience.
2. The history of the text
The Letter has reached us as a draft, kept among Baldassare Castiglione’s personal papers and now in the State Archives of Mantua. For this reason, from the second half of the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century, it was considered a work by Castiglione alone and in 1733 it was published in his correspondence.
At the end of the eighteenth century the scholar Daniele Francesconi, in a Congettura of 1799, argued that the text, written in the first person by an architect who measured ruins, could only be by Raphael. Today scholars speak of a work written by four hands: the project, the technical expertise and the voice are Raphael’s; the literary form and the care for style are largely Castiglione’s, since the painter did not know the ancient languages well.
3. What the Letter says
The denunciation
The text opens with praise of the greatness of ancient Rome and goes on to a bitter denunciation: many buildings that had survived the barbarian invasions had been destroyed in recent times, even with the permission of the popes. In a famous phrase, the Letter states that the whole of new Rome is “fabricata di calce e marmi antichi”, built of lime and ancient marbles. The pope is asked to take care that the little that remains of ancient Rome is not destroyed any further.
A history of styles
To recognise the buildings, Raphael distinguishes different phases of architecture: that of the ancient Romans, considered the model; that of the centuries of decline; the “manner” of the time of the Goths, judged graceless; and finally modern architecture, which returns to the study of antiquity, like Bramante’s. It is one of the first periodisations of the history of architecture and prepares the historical vision that Vasari would develop in his Lives.
The method: plan, elevation and section
The most innovative part of the Letter is technical. Raphael explains how he intends to survey the ancient buildings: measure them with suitable instruments, including the compass to orient them, and represent them in three ways:
| Mode | What it represents |
|---|---|
| Plan | The shape of the building seen from above, at ground level |
| Elevation | The outer wall seen from the front, with its real measurements |
| Section | The interior of the building as if cut vertically |
Raphael excludes perspective from this kind of drawing, because it distorts measurements and does not allow exact dimensions to be derived. Measured surveys with orthogonal projections would become the basis of modern architectural and archaeological drawing. Rather than “inventing” orthogonal projection, the Letter offers one of the first systematic theoretical formulations of it for surveying ancient monuments.
4. An interrupted project, a lasting legacy
The Letter was meant to accompany a large plan of ancient Rome, with reconstructions of the main monuments. The project stopped with Raphael’s sudden death on 6 April 1520. His ideas, however, survived: according to the press kit of the exhibition “La lezione di Raffaello. Le antichità romane” (2020), the method of the “three modes” was carried forward by sixteenth-century antiquarians and architects such as Pirro Ligorio.
In the nineteenth century the Letter enjoyed a new fortune and became a reference text for the heritage policies of European states. Today it is often presented as an ideal antecedent of Article 9 of the Italian Constitution, according to which the Republic protects the landscape and the historical and artistic heritage of the Nation. This is a cultural continuity, not a legal one: in 1519 there was no public protection system as we understand it today. Many scholars nonetheless like to call Raphael “the first superintendent in history”.
5. Why read it today
Raphael’s Letter to Leo X is about responsibility towards the past, a theme that has lost none of its urgency. It shows Raphael as an architect and scholar who measured the ruins instead of just painting them. For students of the history of Italian it is also a fine example of early sixteenth-century argumentative prose, and it brings together art, archaeology, law and cultural policy.
6. Italian language workshop (C1-C2): the formal register
Glossary
- Minuta (draft): the first version of a document, later copied out fair.
- Breve (brief): a papal document in simple form.
- Rilievo (survey): measuring and drawing an existing building.
- Tutela (protection): the legal and physical protection of an asset.
- Soprintendenza: in Italy, the state office responsible for protecting heritage.
Phrases for formal correspondence
- Opening: Alla cortese attenzione di… / Gentile Dottoressa, Egregio Direttore…
- Introduction: Con la presente desidero segnalare… / Mi permetto di sottoporre alla Sua attenzione…
- Reason: In considerazione del fatto che… / Considerato che…
- Request: Si chiede pertanto di… / Le sarei grato se volesse… (conditional + imperfect subjunctive)
- Closing: In attesa di un cortese riscontro, porgo distinti saluti.
Note: in formal letters the courtesy pronoun is often capitalised (Lei, Sua, La). The 1519 Letter instead uses the form reserved for the pope, Vostra Santità (“Your Holiness”), with the verb in the third person.
Exercise
Rewrite this informal Italian message in a formal register.
«Ciao, ho visto che la vecchia fontana del paese sta cadendo a pezzi. Potete venire a controllare? È importante per tutti. Fatemi sapere, grazie!»
Suggested answer: «Alla cortese attenzione dell’Ufficio tecnico comunale. Con la presente desidero segnalare il grave stato di degrado della fontana storica del paese. Considerato il suo valore per la comunità, si chiede cortesemente di predisporre un sopralluogo. In attesa di un gentile riscontro, porgo distinti saluti.»
Writing task
Write a formal letter in Italian (150-180 words) to a museum or cultural institution proposing a heritage protection initiative. This is the type of text required in the CILS and CELI writing papers at C1-C2 level.
A legacy to protect
For Raphael antiquity was a model of beauty, but also a heritage to be measured, studied and defended. Reading the Letter to Leo X today shows where the very idea of heritage protection comes from, and it is an excellent model of formal Italian. If you want to practise formal writing, book a one-to-one online lesson at my-italian-teacher.ch. The courses are in preparation and the waiting list is open; on the blog you will find the free A1 grammar course.
Recommended reading and resources
- Francesco Paolo Di Teodoro, Raffaello, Baldassar Castiglione e la Lettera a Leone X, Bologna, 2nd edition 2003. View on Amazon
- Valerio Terraroli (ed.), Raffaello. Lettera a papa Leone X, Skira, 2020. View on Amazon
- Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, in a good English translation. View on Amazon
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Sources
- State Archives of Mantua, Letter of Baldassarre Castiglione to Pope Leo X, in collaboration with Raphael [1519] (draft, attribution, dating)
- Italian Ministry of Culture, documents from the Italian State Archives in the Raphael exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale
- Finestre sull’Arte, Raphael was the first superintendent in history. The letter to Leo X (appointment of 27 August 1515)
- Electa, press kit “La lezione di Raffaello. Le antichità romane” (plan, elevation and section; nineteenth-century reception; Pirro Ligorio)
- University of Trieste, teaching sheet on the Memoria a Leone X (publication dates 1733 and 1840; structure of the text)
