Eternal City Research Articles

The breakdown of Galileo's Roman network: Crisis and community, ca. 1633.

Rome has long been central to the story of Galileo's life and scientific work. Through an analysis of the metadata of Galileo's surviving letters, combined with a close reading of the letters themselves, we discuss how Galileo used correspondence to build a Roman network. Galileo initially assembled this network around the members of the Lincean Academy, a few carefully nurtured relationships with important ecclesiastics, and the expertise of well positioned Tuscan diplomats in the Eternal City. However, an analysis of Galileo's correspondence in the aftermath of the trial of 1633 provides us with a unique opportunity to interrogate how his altered circumstances transformed his social relations. Forced to confront the limitations on his activities imposed by Catholic censure and house arrest, Galileo experienced the effects of these restrictions in his relationships with others and especially in his plans for publication. In the years following 1633, Galileo turned his epistolary attention north to the Veneto and to Paris in order to publish his Two New Sciences. While Galileo's Lincean network and papal contacts in Rome were defunct after 1633, we see how Rome remained important to him as the site of a number of Roman disciples who would continue his intellectual project long after his own death.

Between Rome and the Sea: Ancient and Recent Gateways to the Eternal City

While traveling through the flat expanse stretching over its southwestern area, it is possible to see the unusual image of Rome as a city that overlooks the sea. In this area, rich of landfalls, many buildings act as gateways, some of which of international relevance, such as the “Leonardo da Vinci” intercontinental airport. Others accesses are only imagined by architects, from Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Laurentinum – his reconstruction of Plinius’s Villa – to Adalberto Libera’s projects both for the seafront of Castel Fusano and for the Gateway to Sea. Over all, the ancient seaport of Rome is a potential engine of development and at the same time a symbol of historical memory. A perfect geometrical shape, the hexagonal port’s basin seems to imitate the planimetric shape of Rome’s historical centre that, through a translation of meaning, is cast toward the sea, in a sense prefiguring its destiny.

The 8th European Conference on Mineralogy and Spectroscopy

Mineral spectroscopy is nowadays a current component of most Earth Sciences research projects where it is applied to fundamental scientific questions, cutting-edge technology and societal questioning. The 8th European Conference on Mineralogy and Spectroscopy (ECMS 2015, http://www.ecms2015.eu/) was held in Rome, Italy, from September 9 to 11, 2015, sponsored by the Italian Society of Mineralogy and Petrology, Sapienza University of Rome and the Italian National Research Council. After the first edition held in Rome in 1988, this was a welcome back to the Eternal City. The conference brought together 120 participants from 19 countries across Europe, America, Asia and Australia, and offered an opportunity for students and young researchers to interact with established, well-known scientists. …

Pasolini and the women of Accattone: challenging eternal ragazzi in the Eternal City

This essay analyses Accattone (1961), the first film of Italian director, poet, and novelist Pier Paolo Pasolini. Specifically, we ground our reading of Accattone in a nuanced, culture-specific understanding of fluid gender relations in the culture of post-war Roman slums. We argue that, to date, the significance of the female characters in Accattone has been underappreciated. Our essay attempts to fill that gap in the literature by examining the central roles women play in Pasolini’s first film. Indeed, the female characters create and delimit the world in which Accattone, the main male character, lives. Central to their importance to the plot is the gender fluidity and performativity of the women, as well as Accattone. We contend that the female characters perform complex identities that fuse motherhood, prostitution, and womanhood. We demonstrate how their identities necessarily contain a strongly historicized and cultured motherly element, which facilitates the poverty-stricken borgate and enables continuity of life in the Eternal City.

RÓMAI TOPONIMÁK A MAGYAR NYELVŰ ÚTIKÖNYVEKBEN

A külföldi desztinációkat bemutató útikönyveink nélkülözhetetlen elemei az idegen denotátumra vonatkozó toponimák. A tanulmány a földrajzi elnevezések egy különleges csoportját, az Örök Városhoz tartozó toponimákat vizsgálja magyar nyelvű útikönyvekben. E földrajzi elnevezések különlegességét az adja, hogy mind a latin, mind az olasz nyelvű alakok eredetinek tekinthetők, továbbá egy részüknek több konvencionális magyar elnevezése is létezik, így felmerül a kérdés, hogy milyen alakokat használnak a magyar nyelvű útikönyvek szerzői. Eredeti vagy magyarított formában jelennek meg a toponimák? Az útikönyveket áttekintve megállapítható, hogy az eredeti toponimák helyett, ritkábban mellett, magyar nyelvű változatokat használnak, amelyek azonban nem tekinthetők egységesnek, hiszen könyvenként eltérő alakok fordulhatnak elő.

Biskup Marcin Szyszkowski (1616–1630) jako twórca nabożeństwa siedmiu kościołów krakowskich

Przypuszcza się, iż opisany w XVI wieku przez św. Filipa Nereusza szlak wędrówki dewocyjnej po siedmiu bazylikach Rzymu mógł mieć swoje źródła w tradycji ludowej, a bez wątpienia wynikał z przywołania i zaadaptowania do nowych warunków pamięci o znanej niegdyś ludycznej w charakterze obrzędowości modlitewnej. Opisane przez tego świętego itinerarium pielgrzymie wyznaczały cztery bazyliki większe: św. Piotra na Watykanie, św. Pawła za Murami, św. Jana na Lateranie, Najświętszej Maryi Panny Śnieżnej oraz trzy mniejsze: św. Krzyża Jerozolimskiego, św. Wawrzyńca za Murami oraz św. Sebastiana.W 1621 roku w krakowskiej oficynie drukarskiej Franciszka Cezarego została wydana broszura zatytułowana Siedm kościołów krakowskich. Inicjatorem jej druku był biskup krakowski Marcin Szyszkowski, który przez wiele lat przebywał w Rzymie, gdzie zapoznał się z działalnością św. Filipa Nereusza. Od chwili, kiedy został biskupem krakowskim zaczął zaszczepiać w swojej diecezji elementy potrydenckiej dewocji Wiecznego Miasta. Jednym z nich było zainicjowanie nabożeństwa Siedmiu kościołów krakowskich, które otrzymało przywileje i odpusty rzymskiego szlaku pątniczego.

Between Rome and the Sea: Ancient and Recent Gateways to the Eternal City

Between Rome and the Sea: Ancient and Recent Gateways to the Eternal City

:Rome Measured and Imagined: Early Modern Maps of the Eternal City

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The Elegant Science of Antiquity: Ersilia Caetani-Lovatelli, Archaeology, and Travel Writing in Fin-de-Siècle Italy

Even though Rome was perhaps the most important destination for travellers on their Grand Tours since the early seventeenth century, many touristic sites in the Eternal City were not particularly w...

All Roads Lead to Rome: Exploring Human Migration to the Eternal City through Biochemistry of Skeletons from Two Imperial-Era Cemeteries (1st-3rd c AD).

Migration within the Roman Empire occurred at multiple scales and was engaged in both voluntarily and involuntarily. Because of the lengthy tradition of classical studies, bioarchaeological analyses must be fully contextualized within the bounds of history, material culture, and epigraphy. In order to assess migration to Rome within an updated contextual framework, strontium isotope analysis was performed on 105 individuals from two cemeteries associated with Imperial Rome—Casal Bertone and Castellaccio Europarco—and oxygen and carbon isotope analyses were performed on a subset of 55 individuals. Statistical analysis and comparisons with expected local ranges found several outliers who likely immigrated to Rome from elsewhere. Demographics of the immigrants show men and children migrated, and a comparison of carbon isotopes from teeth and bone samples suggests the immigrants may have significantly changed their diet. These data represent the first physical evidence of individual migrants to Imperial Rome. This case study demonstrates the importance of employing bioarchaeology to generate a deeper understanding of a complex ancient urban center.

Being the Nação in the Eternal City: New Christian Lives in Sixteenth-Century Rome by James W. Nelson Novoa

Being the Nação in the Eternal City: New Christian Lives in Sixteenth-Century Rome by James W. Nelson Novoa

Being the Nação in the Eternal City: New Christian Lives in Sixteenth-Century Rome by James W. Nelson Novoa

Being the Nação in the Eternal City: New Christian Lives in Sixteenth-Century Rome by James W. Nelson Novoa

Ватиканский дворец и формирование типологии римского палаццо второй по- ловины XV века.

In mid. 15th century Rome, which was barely recovering from the devastating period of Avignon Papacy, the private construction was not supported by any theoretical basis or consistent logic of an artistic conception. The situation changed radically when Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455) set a goal to create a new image of the Eternal City. In the historiography of architecture of the 15th century, the Roman palazzo did not receive adequate attention. The creation of secular architecture of the Renaissance is often associated solely with the Florentine tradition, which did not appear in Rome until the end of the 1480s. There was almost no attempt to trace the birth and the development of the Roman palazzo. According to the author, the Vatican wing of Nicholas V established the clear typology of the Roman palazzo, consistent with ideas of L. B. Alberti. The earlier palaces — St. Apollinare, Capranica, Orsini — present a chaotic combinations of vertical and horizontal articulation, living apartments, towers and loggias. In Vatican palace and the palaces built after its example, the same elements are arranged as a homogeneous monumental structure. The author highlights the following steps in the development of the Vatican palace type: 1) the emergence of huge courts that repeat the motifs of the Loggia of the Blessings; (Palazzo Venezia and Palazzo Borgia); 2) an increase in the number of references to antiquity (Palazzo Nardini, della Rovere, San Pietro in Vincoli, Santi Apostoli); 3) the Roman palace all’antica (the role of angular towers and the Vatican planning system in the construction of Palazzo Cancelleria and Castellesi).

Rome Measured and Imagined: Early Modern Maps of the Eternal City. Jessica Maier. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. xii + 276 pp. $50.

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City and Memory: Jerusalem in Israeli Cinema

What might be the affinity between the palimpsest of a city space and memory? What happens if the city in question is the eternal city of Jerusalem? The article unravels interactions between the real, physical place and its traces in the symbolic geography of cinema between collective and individual memory as recorded on film. Three films guide this study: Himmo King of Jerusalem (Amos Guttman, 1987, based on Yoram Kaniuk’s novel), The Cemetery Club (Tali Shemesh, 2006), and Jerusalem Cuts (Liran Atzmor, 2008). Each film introduces a different relation into the dialectic between memory and forgetting. All the films’ narrative structures contain the past and revolve around attempts to embody and construe it between the abstract and material qualities of the city of Jerusalem and the cinematic medium.

Rome measured and imagined: early modern maps of the Eternal City

Rome measured and imagined: early modern maps of the Eternal City

Iconografías angélicas de los siglos XIX y XX en el Cimitero Acattolico de Roma: psicopompos, triunfantes, dolientes y seductores

Tradicionalmente se ha considerado que la naturaleza dual de los ángeles, a medio camino entre la divinidad y la humanidad, los convertía en las representaciones iconográficas más adecuadas dentro del contexto funerario. Herederas de las esculturas de mármol que desde el Renacimiento adornaban las sepulturas, en el siglo xix estas efigies experimentaron una serie de cambios en su aspecto físico que las fueron acercando cada vez más a la imagen que hoy en día tenemos asociada a los cementerios contemporáneos. Esa nueva iconografía contaba con un amplio abanico de posibilidades: ángeles psicopompos, ángeles triunfantes, ángeles dolientes... En el presente estudio nos proponemos trazar una panorámica de las iconografías presentes en el Cimitero Acattolico de Roma, uno de los lugares más peculiares de la Ciudad Eterna por la convivencia que se dio en él entre las tradiciones de las distintas sociedades protestantes y el sustrato católico en el que se encontraban inmersas. Los ángeles que adornan sus sepulturas también acusan esta doble influencia, y sirven como un ejemplo perfecto de sincretismo no solamente entre religiones, sino también entre mentalidades.

Victorian Roads to Rome: Historical Travel in the Wake of the Grand Tour

For centuries, the British imagined Rome as an “Eternal City, the Queen of Cities, the Venerable City” (Echard 165). It was from the “eternal source of Rome's imperial hill” that all “thirst” for k...

Rome Scholarship: Encounters in the Eternal City: Netherlandish drawings after antique sculpture in Rome, 1522–1617

Rome Scholarship: Encounters in the Eternal City: Netherlandish drawings after antique sculpture in Rome, 1522–1617

Being the Naçao in the Eternal City: New Christian Lives in Sixteenth-Century Rome, written by James W. Nelson Novoa

Being the Naçao in the Eternal City: New Christian Lives in Sixteenth-Century Rome, written by James W. Nelson Novoa