W5-8: Sant'Ivo della Sapienza

W5-8: SANT' IVO ALLA SAPIENZA

Photo 1: The turret of Sant'Ivo

Photo 2: The motto of the university (photo Wikipedia): “Initium sapientiae, timor Domini” or “The beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord”

With a bull issued on April 20, 1303, Pope Boniface VIII commissioned the establishment of a university. This made La Sapienza one of the oldest universities in the world and it ranks first in Europe in terms of the number of students.

In architectural terms, La Sapienza is associated with Sant’Ivo, a design by Borromini, and perhaps one of the most fascinating buildings in and far beyond Rome. The way the architect plays with space and geometric figures had no equal until then, and even in the future, people were more inclined to copy.

How Borromini manages to evoke a sense of grandeur in a limited space continues to amaze. We will soon arrive at Sant’Agnese in Piazza Navona (W5-9) and San Carlo (W7-8) near the Quattro Fontane where he applied the same techniques.

The playful turret of Sant’Ivo is also astonishing, to the extent that Borromini had to provide a 15-year guarantee to the clients that it was sufficiently stable. He derived the spiral shape from the view of a bee's stinger as a tribute to Pope Urban VIII Barberini. The Barberini coat of arms features 3 bees… He placed a similarly whimsical turret on the basilica of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte.

Today the university is no longer under the authority of the pope, but the name has remained. The motto is, by the way, above the altar of Sant'Ivo: “Initium sapientiae, timor Domini” or “The beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord”: La Sapienza.

Marc Vandenbon