Libre delle case...

This particular blog post focuses on a particular aspect of Rome and Roman buildings: Archival books documenting information on structure and the structures' history.

Roman institutions since the mid sixteenth century have kept inventories of buildings produced by the pious institutions of Rome including hospitals, and convents, which are based on initial plans, and later elevations to the structures. These inventories are referred to as the libre delle case. The introduction of these plans document a fundamental change in how the city of Rome was understood - it was thus far seen more as a continuous spatial field. 

At a time when real estate market was booming, these documents were very informative and gave a sense of the function of the building and even those who rented the buildings. These inscriptions along with the plans made the book like a mini archive. Later in the eighteenth-century, the book, also known as the house book of the Annunziata achieved an even greater appreciation because the "visual" plans allowed for easier categorization of structures in Rome. 

A particularly interesting Roman building is the Villa Valmarana at Lisiera, [Fig. 1]. This particular image is found in the text On Architecture (1570). It included relevant information including dimensions of the building on a separate page, and the actual building plan. 

The appearance of the house plans was very beneficial especially with Rome's growing real estate market. With the increase in population from around 40,000 in 1513 to 122,000 in 1655, and the fact that most people lived in rented accommodations, the house books transformed the way property was being leased because at that time. 

In conclusion, these house books were not only informative in terms of the buildings' aspects, they were also considered real estate catalogues. They give a description of the physical forms of the buildings, rental history, and payment of rent. This greater detail reflects the importance of the houses and it is also part of a general systematization of the administration of the institutions.

Bibliography

Friedman, David. “Visual Documents, Property Archives, and the Map of the City of Rome: 1563-1712.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 71, no. 3 (September 2012): 268-269.