Sta Maria Novella in Florence

Recently I came upon a video about the great Dominican church of Sta Maria Novella in Florence. It can be seen at Santa Maria Novella - Florence - Churches and Museums - Virtual Walk 

The Wikipedia account of the church is detailed and can be seen at Santa Maria Novella

Despite its Renaissance facade the building is late medieval Florentine gothic. Inside it is  decorated with many works by major artists of the early generations of later fourteenth and fifteenth century Florence. 

It was at this time that Sta Maria Novella was of great importance not just as the Dominican church in so important a centre as Florence, but as the administrative centre of the Catholic Church. From 1418-20 the newly elected Pope Martin V resided in a hastily constructed palace attached the north east of the church. This was a lengthy pause on his journey to Rome. This Papal building now serves as the provincial police academy. 

One of the people who either lived with the Pope or must have frequented the palace was Richard Fleming, who had been appointed as a Chamberlain to the new Pope immediately upon his election in 1417 at Constance. It was doubtless here that in 1420 Pope Martin “with wonderful piety”, as Fleming was to recall it later when he wrote his own epitaph, consecrated as a bishop on his appointment to the diocese of Lincoln. 

Amongst the paintings in the church is the famous fresco by Andrea di Bonaiuto da Firenze which is sometimes termed The Triumph of the Church but is more accurately The Allegory of the Active and Triumpthant Church and o the Dominican Order. This was painted in 1365-7. It must have been seen by Richard Fleming when he was in residence at Sta Maria Novella.

In addition to the figures mentioned in the main Wikipedia article it includes in the foreground a young man wearing the Garter of a Knight of the Order, and thought to be the earliest representation of the insignia. Given the date of the work the most likely candidate must be Lionel of Antwerp, first Duke of Clarence, who married a Visconti and died soon after in Italy in 1368.

Regular readers of this blog will recognise that part of the painting forms the masthead at the beginning.

Image:  Wikipedia

Episcopal consecration by the Pope

Whilst preparing my post last Saturday on Pope Pius X I found this photograph in the Wikipedia biography of the Pope.

Pope Pius X consecrates Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, the future Pope Benedict XV, as a Bishop in the Vatican in 1907.

Quite apart from its intrinsic interest this photograph took my eye as Richard Fleming was also consecrated as a bishop by the then Pope, Martin V, in 1420 when the curia was in Florence. The consecration probably took place somewhere in the Dominican house of Sta Maria Novella. Such consecrations did not always take place in a church or chapel - I have seen at least one reference to a room in the Vatican palace being fitted up as a temporary chapel for such a consecration in the early sixteenth century. Following the consecration Fleming can be seen to have received various papal grants on behalf of his family and friends.

In the verses he wrote for his tomb he specifically referred to having been consecrated by the Pope himself and the wonderful piety the Holy Father had displayed.

Although the setting and vestments would have been somewhat different - fashions do, after all, change - photographs such as this are a reminder of the continuity of liturgical tradition and practice, and help one to envisage Fleming's consecration.