Rome: Continuing Encounters between Past and Present

Few other cities can compare with Rome's history of continuous habitation, nor with the survival of so many different epochs in its present. This volume explores how the city's past has shaped the way in which Rome has been built, rebuilt, represented and imagined throughout its history. Bringing together scholars from the disciplines of architectural history, urban studies, art history, archaeology and film studies, this book comprises a series of studies on the evolution of the city of Rome and the ways in which it has represented and reconfigured itself from the medieval period to the present day. Moving from material appropriations such as spolia in the medieval period, through the cartographic representations of the city in the early modern period, to filmic representation in the twentieth century, we encounter very different ways of making sense of the past across Rome's historical spectrum. The broad chronological arrangement of the chapters, and the choice of themes and urban locations examined in each, allows the reader to draw comparisons between historical periods. An imaginative approach to the study of the urban and architectural make-up of Rome, this volume will be valuable not only for historians of art and architecture, but also for students of cultural history and film studies.

Contents: Foreword; Preface; Introduction: continuities of place, Dorigen Caldwell; Roman archaeology in medieval Rome, Caroline J. Goodson; Roma renascens: 16th-century maps of the Eternal City, Jessica Maier; Time concertinaed at the altar of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Emma Stirrup; Lione Pascoli, Giovanni Gaetano Bottari, Giovanni Battista Nolli: functions and topography of Rome in the 18th century, Mario Bevilacqua; The political topography of modern Rome, 1870-1936: Via XX Settembre to Via dell'Impero, Terry Kirk; 'Reconciliation' or 'conquest'? The opening of the Via della Conciliazione and the Fascist vision for the 'third Rome', Aristotle Kallis; 'An extraordinary proliferation of layers': Pasolini's Rome(s), Jacopo Benci; Piazza Vittorio: cinematic notes on the evolution of a piazza, Lesley Caldwell; Archaeology and the modern city: thoughts on Rome (and elsewhere), Daniele Manacorda; Bibliography; Index.

Dorigen Caldwell is Lecturer in Italian Renaissance Art in the Department of History of Art and Screen Media at Birkbeck, University of London and Lesley Caldwell is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Italian Department of University College London.