The Discalced Carmelite Architectural Canon of the Seventeenth Century in Asia

Abstract

This article examines the architectural practices of the Italian Discalced Carmelites during the seventeenth century, focusing on their missions in Persia and India. Drawing on visual and textual sources from the Archivio Generale Ordine dei Carmelitani Scalzi in Rome and regional archives, it investigates how the Order aimed to codify its building activity through the Constitutiones and the Ordinatio de Constructione Ecclesiarum et Conventuum of 1614. These normative texts prescribed dimensions, modules, and typologies to ensure that convents and churches reflected Teresian ideals of austerity and could be replicated across diverse geographies. Case studies of Isfahan, Thatta, and Goa reveal both the persistence of these norms and their adaptation to local materials, topographies, and cultural contexts. The analysis highlights a productive tension between prescription and practice, of which Goa’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel became the most representative and mature manifestation in Asia. The study argues that the Discalced Carmelite architectural canon is best understood not as a fixed stylistic repertoire but as a dynamic grammar of building, simultaneously embodying spiritual values, institutional identity, and adaptability. The analyses are based on the retracing of the original document found at the AGOCD archive.