Rainaldi , Carlo
Italian architect (Rome 1611 - 1691). He was formed in the school of his father Girolamo, also an architect in Rome, and on the examples of Roman architecture. His personality can be seen already in his first known work, the Dome of Montecomprati (1633) and of what can be seen of him in S. Agnese in Agone (Rome), initiated by his father and himself (1652) but continued by Borromini after only one year's work. In Rome he carried out a series of architectonical and urbanization works of great importance: he arranged the two churches in Piazza del Popolo, he built S, Maria Maggiore's apse, completed the façades of S. Andrea della Valle and S. Maria in Via, he renewed the inside of the basilica of Ss. Apostoli, he built Palazzo Salviati in the Corso and worked in Palazzo Borghese. Yet his masterpiece remains the church of S. Maria in Campitelli, in which he worked from 1660 onwards, and in which the insistent use, both on the inside and on the outside, of columns separated from the wall, and the mass play, obtain powerful light and shade effects. Although he wasn't a first rank personality, Rainaldi was able to interpret in an effective way the spirit of the Roman Baroque.

Rainaldi , Girolamo
Italian architect (Rome 1570 - 1655). He was an architect's son, named Adriano (died in Rome in 1597), born in Norcia, that had developed a modest activity in Rome as an architect and a painter. His teacher Domenico Fontana obtained an assignment for him from Sisto V to raise a church in Montalto (1589), the pope's native town. The many commissions that were assigned to him demonstrate how his colleagues at the time considered him to have a great professional experience; however we must notice that the buildings designed by him, and often completed by others or profoundly transformed in time, reveal limited fantasy and a somewhat plain adhesion to the style of the Lombard architects at work in Rome at the time. Among his best-known works let's rememeber the façade of the churches of Gesù e Maria (Rome), of S. Gregorio (Monte Porzio Catone), S. Lucia (Bologna), the projects for the Ducal Palace in Modena and for Palazzo del Giardino in Parma, etc. However, Rainaldi, gave his best in the Casa professa dei Gesuiti and in Palazzo Pamphili in Piazza Navona (1640) in Rome (iter 6) ; next to this last building, he, along with his son Carlo, begun the construction of the church of S. Agnese, setting the plant and on the inside building up to the capital's height; the work was then completed by Borromini.