Review: Oplontis: Villa A (“of Poppaea”) at Torre Annunziata, Italy, vol. 1, The Ancient Setting and Modern Rediscovery, edited by John R. Clarke and Nayla K. Muntasser

Abstract

John R. Clarke and Nayla K. Muntasser, eds. Oplontis: Villa A (“of Poppaea”) at Torre Annunziata, Italy, vol. 1, The Ancient Setting and Modern Rediscovery New York: American Council of Learned Societies, 2014, 1,250 paras. + appendix, notes, bibliography, color and b/w illus. This open access publication is found at ACLS Humanities E-Book (http://www.humanitiesebook.org). HEB No. HEB90048, ISBN 9781597409322 This is the first of three volumes to be produced by the Oplontis Project (http://www.oplontisproject.org), which documents the famous Villa A at Torre Annunziata and its gardens together with the Oplontine built and geological environment. Volume 2 will incorporate the wall paintings, molded stuccoes, pavements, and sculptures of Villa A as well as social themes (slaves, graffiti) and other topics; volume 3 will present the villa's architecture of more than ninety rooms as well as the Oplontis Project's excavations and materials from 2006 to the present. The lesser-known Villa B, a mixed-use commercial, warehouse, and residential building nearby, will also be presented. John R. Clarke and Nayla K. Muntasser prove to be adroit editors; their structuring of the multidisciplinary project gives both detailed views and a “big picture” of the material, enabling readers to apprehend the architectural, artistic, cultural, social, and technical history of the villa in its entirety rather than only its isolated beauties. Happily, the American Council of Learned Societies has provided the publication with a venue in its Humanities E-Book series. The e-book is the natural form for the Oplontis Project, and the way for its digital publication was paved long ago. When Jeffrey M. Hurwit's 2004 The Acropolis in the Age of Pericles was published with a CD-ROM of extended illustrations tucked into its back cover, it was a revelation: the expansion of the visual material enhanced readers' ability to participate in the author's text.1 The same, multiplied by many factors, can be said of this Oplontis volume. Its audiences get supple and immediate text/image coordination, quick access to scholarly apparatus (notes, bibliography), and easy navigation. As the project is a joint venture of the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei and the Department of Art and Art History at the …