The Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome has served as a significant political space, particularly during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. In the 1530s, Pope Paul III commissioned Michelangelo to renovate the site in an effort to gain papal power. Although multiple scholars have analyzed the papal patronization of Michelangelo, they reflect mainly on spaces that are inherently sacred, such as the Sistine Chapel or St. Peter's. A great deal less can be found on Michelangelo's architectural commission of the Campidoglio, a space which at first was pagan in Imperial Rome and later used civically by the Roman people. Not even the artist's contemporary biographer Condivi deigns to mention the project in his Life of Michelangelo. Nevertheless, Michelangelo was Pope Paul III's key component in constituting the space as part of the Church's authority. Beyond turning the space into Christian territory, Paul III also wanted to glorify his own family name, the Farnese, specifically over the Medici. Therefore, Michelangelo's architectural inventiveness, represented by his Colossal Order, was used in the renovations of the Campidoglio by Paul III to spread papal authority over an ancient Roman civic space as well as raise the status of the Farnese name.