163.

Collegio Romano, e Chiesa di S. Ignazio

The church of S. Ignazio is dedicated to the founder of the Society of Jesus, the major counter-Reformation order usually referred to as the Jesuits, or the "shock troops of the Pope" in the fight against the Protestant Reformation. Orazio Grassi, a Jesuit mathematician, designed the church in the 1620's. Together with the adjacent building (1), it completed the extensive block of the Collegio Romano, Plate 162. In the distance is the Oratorio della Caravita (2) which Vasi indicates as dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, but Nolli refers to as S. Maria della Pietà. Although appearing recessed from the face of the church in the print, its facade is actually on the same line as that of S. Ignazio. Vasi sets it back from that line, perhaps to show the presence of a street separating the two blocks. On the left we see two wings of Raguzzini's early 18th century Piazza S. Ignazio (3) which reshaped the space in front of the church as a scenographic display of curvilinear residential buildings acting as a spatial foil to the great facade. The contiguous view of the Seminario Romano, Plate 165, shows another aspect of Raguzzini's complex immediately to the east.