Statute frontispiece of 1676 (Lazio)

Archconfraternity of S. Maria dell'Orto

Erected as a Confraternity by Pope Alexander VI in 1492, it was elevated to an Archconfraternity by Pope Sixtus V with Short of March 20, 1588. On the occasion of the Jubilee of 1825, Pope Leo XII decorated the Sodality with the title of Venerable and the faculty to include it in his own denomination. The Archconfraternity - still today the oldest in Rome for Marian inspiration - was made up of members of about 20 different professional "universities" (ie corporations) among which the most eminent were those of the Pizzicaroli (sellers of cured meats and cheeses), Ortolani , Fruttaroli and Pollaroli (chicken sellers). Apart from a complex hierarchical system and devotional duties, the Sodality has been governed for centuries by a Private Congregation (board of directors) made up of six Guardians, one of whom is a "primus inter pares" with the functions of Camerlengo. There is no news of Statutes in print until 1676, the year in which the first example of this kind appears. The title page shown here (14 x 22 cm) dates back to that year and was conceived and drawn in black and white by the most illustrious Roman engraver of the seventeenth century, namely Giovan Battista Falda, but the coloring that appears here was done by hand. Other substantially similar Statutes followed, the last of which dates back to 1842, which remained in force until 1987 when it was replaced by a new document in harmony with the Code of Canon Law reformed in 1983. Today the Sodality is governed by the Camerlengo and six Guardians. , no longer any connection with the professional universities which, moreover, were abolished by Pope Pius VII in 1802.