The Holy Sepulchre

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[read in Italian]

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem – together with the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem – is the most profusely described architectural ensemble by Bernardino Amico (1609, plate 11). In the 1609 edition ten plans and elevations are dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre, Calvary and its several chapels (1609, plates 10-20). Since the 1620 edition has two more engravings, the Church illustrations become 12 (1620, plates 22-33) and it becomes clear how Bernardino was aware of the scarce number of available accurate representations and of the public usage of his own work. In this regard, the scroll on plate 33 of the 1620 edition offers a curious lead on the ideal reader imagined by Amico: «Plan and Elevation of the Most Holy Sepulchre in profile so that each one may use his own scale and make it of that material which pleases him without too much labour» (1620, plate 33 and Plans, p. 111). The friar probably refers to those artisans who crafted reproductions of the most famous Christian sanctuaries, or even to architects intentioned to rebuild the Aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre in full scale in Europe.

Amico’s addressing artisans-readers increases sharply in the section of the volume containing the plates of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (1609, plates 19 and 20). This is a sample also showing the author’s pride for the accuracy of his drawings: «There follows the design of the plan of the most Holy Sepulchre […]. Now it is shown more in detail and in a large scale in order that it may be the better and the more minutely measured according to its scale; and also that the relief in perspective may have its own proportionate plan: hence those who delight to handle the compass will not find the least point of difference or error between one and the other» (1620, fol. Ee1r and Plans, p. 106).

At the era of Amico, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, founded by Constantine after the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.), had already been destroyed and rebuilt. The central part and the south façade were entirely reconstructed in Romanesque style by the Crusaders. In 1555, a few decades before Fra Bernardino landed in the Holy Land, there had been another restoration at the behest of the Custos, the Franciscan Boniface of Ragusa. Other restorations followed in the 19th century. The first one started after the 1808 fire which caused the collapse of the Dome of the Anastasis and the second one, still in progress, started in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century due to the damages caused by the 1927 earthquake. That is why Amico’s drawings are extremely precious today (1609, plate 10). The great detail and precision of plans and elevations allow historians and archaeologists to reconstruct – even virtually, thanks to new digital instruments – the stratigraphy of the architectural ensemble of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Besides technical features, the friar refers also to the places considered theatre of the divine manifestation. It is a real “archaeology of the sacred”, where measuring means reviving the mystery of the Incarnation. This can be read in passages like the following, where the author guides his readers through the interpretation of the plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre: «The letter M represents the places where Christ Our Lord appeared to Magdalen in the guise of a gardener, and Magdalen stood in that towards the Holy Sepulchre […]. The letter N is the Chapel of the Apparition of Christ to the Blessed Virgin […]. The circle seen here marks the place where the glorious Virgin stood when Our Lord appeared to her after His resurrection, and opinion has it that He appeared here before any other place» (1620, fol. V2v and Plans, p. 91). Though the comment to the engravings is often limited to a long list of data and measures, sometimes there are also folkloric notes, especially when Amico hints at the skirmishes between friars and locals: «What the rest of the numbers stand for is marked on the plate […], and all the rest of the staircase upon which dwell the Moslems and their wives and children, by whom we are much annoyed, who often fire stones, and throw rubbish on the stairs: and then shouting, making a most terrible noise, they call one of the Fathers living there to return them a rope which they drop, and with the opportunity they drop all kinds of dirt on their heads. Hence great patience is necessary. Such nuisances never cease although the Fathers give them often bread, vinegar, oil and many other things, of which although they ask for them, they have no need, but because they rejoice in depriving the Fathers of them, and if they refuse them, stones rain down and they multiply injuries and damages» (1620, fol. X1v and Plans, p. 93).

The accuracy of the plates of the Trattato has already been highlighted several times: through the graphic gesture, Amico “takes a picture” of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at a precise historical moment, providing detailed – and otherwise unknown! – information about its state at that time. Occasionally even textual descriptions can be a precious and rich source of information, like in this digression about the Dome of the Anastasis (1609, plate 12): «The Dome […] is covered with planks and beams and plated with lead, which has been and is badly damaged at the hands of the Moslems who live there and who go every now and then and take away a piece. Consequently the dome is all rotten from the rain, and every day bits of wood fall down, and so the mosaics and the pictures are ruined: and if God does not intervene it is to be feared that one day it may collapse all together, and also the Holy Sepulchre, and all that is of beauty and interest» (1620, plate Z1r and Plans, p. 96).

Although Bernardino Amico was undoubtedly the first to reproduce the holy places according to exact measurements, the friar was still a man of his time – therefore not exempt from a certain late Renaissance aesthetic taste –, so he sometimes gave in to the temptation of embellishing the buildings he drew by “correcting” their irregularities (1609, plate 37): «The socles [of the aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre] are different in height and are rough, and likewise the columns are different in thickness and make, being round with 8 corners and crooked, and in fine they are, in my opinion, the remnants of other buildings. But I have made them equal, partly through negligence, partly to beautify the design. However, I wished to point this out, in order that the truth be known» (1620, fol. Ff1r and Plans, p. 108). This last statement proves that, beyond some choices of aesthetic standardization, Amico mainly wants to stay true to what he can see and measure.