Of the Vatican Obelisk and the Buildings of Our Lord

So it is that, both through so many buildings and also through the paternal care and singular providence with which this Supreme Pontiff maintains both the City of Rome and the entire Ecclesiastical State—abundant in provisions, free from assassins and disturbers of the public peace—we may reasonably affirm that, just as Pope Sixtus IV of holy memory obtained the name of Romulus for having improved and increased this City with various edifices, so too does our Lord SIXTUS V, with so many feats of architecture, with such peace and tranquility in the State of the Church, with having gathered such public treasures, and with the justice he administers, merit the title not only of Augustus, but by common consent also merits being called Father of the Country.

NARRATION OF THE METHOD USED

IN TRANSPORTING THE

VATICAN OBELISK.

A woodcut depicts a decorative capital 'C', featuring a classical figure in profile within a square frame decorated with foliage.

With this purpose therefore (as was said above) of making a base for the Cross—the greatest and most excellent that has ever been made for it—and in order to remove the memory of ancient superstition and to adorn the square and the new, stupendous building of Saint Peter, our Lord ordered on the 24th of August 1585 a Congregation of Prelates and highly intelligent gentlemen. He gave them the task of determining with all caution the site where the Spire original: "Guglia" should be replanted in the Piazza of Saint Peter. But what mattered most, they were to conclude on the method that should be followed in carrying out the transportation of this great stone with the greatest possible security, also accepting the craftsman whom they judged to be most apt, both in intelligence and in experience in such affairs, to bring the work to the desired end. Truly, the performance of such an enterprise was commonly deemed by all to be most difficult, both because of the immeasurable weight and the size of the stone's body, and because of the concern for breaking it during the movements that had to be made with it. It was esteemed beyond measure as a very rare jewel, the only one left intact among so many ruins of Roman magnificence. It was also difficult because of the struggle encountered in other times by the first Engineers and Architects of Christendom. This thing had frightened the spirit of many past Pontiffs, who would have desired to move the same stone, adding a thousand doubts because of the impediments that lay in the way, it not yet being known or discovered who had written or left a record of the method held by the ancients (as I said above) where one could derive a certain rule that would not have opposition; the difficulties were increased by the dangers that fortune is wont to bring suddenly in such cases, beyond all thought.

The Head of the aforementioned congregation was the late Signor Pier Donato Cardinal Cesis, in whose house they all gathered. The second was the late Signor Filippo Cardinal Guastavillano, then Chamberlain of the Holy Church. The third was the Illustrious and Most Reverend Signor Ferdinando Cardinal de’ Medici, presently Grand Duke of Tuscany. The fourth was the Illustrious and Most Reverend Signor Francesco Cardinal Sforza.

The following Illustrious Prelates also participated.