Observant Churches in North-West Italy in the Fifteenth Century: Architectural Models and Liturgical Themes

In the fifteenth century, north-western Italy witnessed a proliferation of settlements of Observant friars following the spread of mendicant friars in previous centuries. It was a vast and significant phenomenon, inspired by the renewed ‘Franciscan’ ideals that stemmed from the original ethical and social vision of this community. Western Italy has been overlooked by systematic research into the settlements of Observants. There is still a lack of exhaustive research by architectural historians that could reconstruct the circumstances of such settlements, detail their construction systems, and retrace the architectural choices they made. With regard to these aspects, the area that corresponds to the Observant province of Milan has been studied in greater depth compared to the southern province of Genoa which was the location of a considerable number of new settlements in the fifteenth century.