Ponte - Monumento a Terenzio Mamiani della Rovere 1644

The Monument to

Terenzio Mamiani della Rovere Terenzio, Count Mamiani della Rovere (19 September 179921 May 1885) was an Italian writer, academic, diplomat and politician, and was committed to the cause of the unification of Italy under the Sardinian monarchy. He was one of the leading figure ...

is a memorial statue to an 18th-century patriot and statesman, located alongside the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II at a small piazza along Via degli Acciaioli. Mamiani (1799–1885) was in life a liberal Catholic, and posthumously acknowledged as having been a free-mason: his service as both minister in the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

and under the Kingdom of Sardinia, later Senator in the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

bridged contentious or warring factions. The City Council of Rome approved the construction of the statue, at a cost of 10,000 lire, on 25 May 1885, four days after his death. In 1889, it was decided to place the statue in the Piazza Sforza Cesarini, some four blocks southeast of the present position, alongside the Corso. The design of a monument by Mauro Benini was chosen by a committee led by the sculptor and council-member

Ettore Ferrari Ettore Ferrari (Rome, 25 March 1845 – Rome, 19 August 1929) was an Italian sculptor. Biography Born in Rome to an artistic family (his father was also a painter), Ferrari was one of the members of the artistic rebirth in the secular state bo ...

. The ultimate cost was over 20,000 lire and paid out in various installments: *3000 lire paid for the initial design paid to Benini *4000 lire paid for a clay-plaster model *5000 lire paid for completion of the statue *7000 lire paid for the completion of the monument in situ *1000 lire for complete assembly The statue was inaugurated on 2 March 1893, in a ceremony attended by Terenzio's widow, Angela Mamiani della Rovere. During his life, Terenzio had published a work examining and praising of

Nicola Spedalieri Nicola Spedalieri (né Spitaleri, born at Bronte, Catania, Sicily, 6 December 1740; died at Rome, 26 November 1795) was an Italian priest, theologian, and philosopher. Life He studied and was ordained a priest in the seminary of Monreale, then ...

's opus ''Il Diritti dell'Uomo''. Thus perhaps it is ironic that by 1927, another council in Rome decided to move Spedalieri's statue and

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...

from a busy street-piazza lot between the Palazzo Vidoni and

Sant'Andrea della Valle Sant'Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, at the intersection of Corso Vittori ...

, and place it in Piazza Sforza Cesarini, dislocating Terenzio to his present spot along Via degli Acciaioli. The statue in Carrara marble depicts the elder gaunt Terenzio, seated but alert and leaning forward, with a quill pen in his right hand, and a book in his left hand.Roma Segreta
entry on monument.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mamiani Monuments and memorials in Rome 1893 sculptures Outdoor sculptures in Rome