Abstract
Abstract This article analyses Francesco Giammaria’s Capitolium Novum, a Latin poem describing a tour of the historic center of Rome in 1933, in its historical, architectural, and intellectual contexts. It offers a detailed analysis of three key sections of the poem, which deal with the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Ara dei caduti fascisti respectively. The authors show how Giammaria’s poem responds to urbanistic interventions in the city center during the ventennio, and specifically to the Fascist ‘recoding’ of the city as the ‘Third Rome’, with a narrative emphasizing the historically layered nature of Rome. Giammaria offers his own interpretation of the respective importance and interrelation of the city’s historic layers: the rhetoric of his poem is aimed at superimposing Catholic Rome over pagan Rome, and at framing all historical layers of the city, including the Fascist one, as part of its Christian mission and destiny. Thus, Capitolium novum resonates with efforts of intellectuals gathered around Carlo Galassi Paluzzi’s Istituto di Studi Romani, who aimed to promote a cultural reconciliation between Fascism and Catholicism.
Highlights
We argue that Francesco Giammaria’s Capitolium Novum,[1] a
Latin text describing a tour of the historic center of Rome in 1933, can offer significant insights into visions of the city of Rome and the meaning of romanità during the ventennio fascista
The text was aimed at a small audience with particular and highly intellectual interests, it represents a sophisticated and independently minded response to recent Fascist urbanistic interventions in the center of Rome
Summary
Saw a diverse production of original Latin literature with Fascist themes, ranging from lyric odes in praise of Mussolini to prose orations extolling the new regime, from epics on Italy’s martial exploits in Africa to Latin inscriptions on monuments old and new. It encouraged the use of the ancient language both inside and outside Italy To this effect, it organized a range of activities, including competitions in Latin composition and the compilation of specialized lexica designed to turn Latin into an up-to-date international academic language.[13] Latin was constructed as a modern language, capable of expressing the newest ideas and the most recent developments, Latin writers of this period such as Giammaria often directly adopted phrases and expressions of ancient Latin authors in their works. It organized a range of activities, including competitions in Latin composition and the compilation of specialized lexica designed to turn Latin into an up-to-date international academic language.[13] Latin was constructed as a modern language, capable of expressing the newest ideas and the most recent developments, Latin writers of this period such as Giammaria often directly adopted phrases and expressions of ancient Latin authors in their works They did so at least partly for compositional or stylistic convenience. Catholicism, and Italian Fascism, and perfectly suited to conveying his layered vision of Rome, to which we will turn
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