St Charles Borromeo and Church Architecture

Over at In Illo Tempore, a helpful question was raised regarding a comment I made about confessionals in my post The Poor Clares at Krakow. I mentioned the "immediate post-Tridentine reform" relating to Church architecture. As In Illo Tempore points out, the decrees of the Council of Trent contain little that directly concerns Church architecture.

The driving force of the reform of Church architecture was St Charles Borromeo. He participated in the Council of Trent and his life was largely devoted to the faithful implementation of the Council in his own diocese of Milan. He wrote a work called Instructiones Fabricae Et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae which was intended to apply the teaching of the council of Trent to Church architecture:
... this only has been our principle, that we have shown that the norm and form of building, ornamentation and ecclesiastical furnishing are precise and in agreement with the thinking of the Fathers
Borromeo was also the principal author of the directives in the Roman Missal on "The Church and its furnishings" and the "Instructions for Consecrating a Church" in the Roman Pontifical. Hence, his influence extended worldwide and continued until publication of the new Missale Romanum in 1969.

Perhaps the most disruptive innovation has been the removal of the Blessed Sacrament from the centre of many parish Churches. Borromeo stipulated that the tabernacle should be on the High Altar of the Church in a parish Church, and on the altar of a Blessed Sacrament chapel in the case of a Cathedral. In recently constructed or "re-ordered" Churches, absurdly, the Blessed Sacrament is often not even in the centre of the Blessed Sacrament chapel.

If you would like to read a summary of the Instructiones, there is a good article by Matthew E. Gallegos in the journal Sacred Architecture: Charles Borromeo and Catholic tradition regarding the design of Catholic Churches.

I would very much like to read the text itself. Searching Abebooks, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a copy for sale. I am hoping that I will be able to find one lurking somewhere in the dark recesses of the library at Wonersh.

It would also be interesting to see Evelyn C. Voelker's PhD thesis which was a translation of the Instructiones with commentary and analysis. In an email to the Lion and the Cardinal blog (which seems to be down at the moment), Dr Voelker was awaiting a publisher to take up the thesis.

Another good place for articles about Church architecture is Michael Rose's dellachiesa. (You have to pay $20 to read all the articles but I thought "Heck! it's still Christmas time, Finigan, you skinflint!") Rose is the author of "Ugly as Sin" and "In Tiers of Glory: The Organic Development of Catholic Church Architecture Through the Ages." Annoyingly, this is not listed on Amazon UK.

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