Calafati, Marco
L' architettura del santuario e del palazzo apostolico di Loreto da Paolo II a Paolo III
Located on the eastern border of the Papal States near Ancona, the Sanctuary of Loreto cannot compete in size and decoration with Florence Cathedral or St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, but it reflects, more clearly than any other monumental church building of the period, eighty years of development in Renaissance architecture.
The construction of the sanctuary and surrounding buildings is owed to Pope Paul II Barbo, who, after a miraculous recovery, promised Our Lady that he would build her a magnificent shrine. From the beginning of construction in 1468 and throughout the following pontificates until Paul III, eminent architects, sculptors and painters such as Francesco dal Borgo, Giuliano da Maiano, Baccio Pontelli, Donato Bramante, Andrea Sansovino, and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger were involved in the execution of this work, which was never completely finished.
Based on decades of study, Christoph Luitpold Frommel has comprehensively presented the history of this monument for the first time in this monograph, which was funded by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Loreto and published in Italian in 2018. The volume, which also includes extensive source indexes compiled by Marco Calafati, is now published online on ART-Books.
