Topography of Ancient Rome (Archaeology)

No serious study of ancient Roman topography and its monuments is undertaken without consulting the work of Rodolfo Lanciani (1845-1929), the archaeologist and scholar of ancient Rome. His Forma Urbis Romae, a large map published in sections between 1893 and 1901, captures all that was then known of the existence of the built world in the city. His multi-volumed Storia degli Scavi (1902-1913) is a formidable reference work, filled with notices of archaeological finds made in Rome from c. 1000 to 1870. Beginning in c. 1871, Lanciani provided innumerable articles and notes for two primary journals published by the Italian state and Rome' s municipal government, respectively, Notizie degli Scavi and Bulletino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma, on artifacts or buildings being freshly unearthed in Rome. In addition, he wrote English-language books and articles, using the recent discoveries to educate an Anglo-American audience about ancient Roman culture.

Although his life has been fully examined by Domenico Palombi in 2006, a rigorous examination of Lanciani' s formidable scholarly production has not yet been undertaken. This monograph will do this, positioning some of his fascinations, interpretations, and presentations of ancient Rome within a broad context of historical and cultural events in late 19th- / early 20th-century Rome. It scrutinizes Lanciani' s published work with the following in mind: the subtle transformations in the practice of archaeology in Italy, the extreme destruction of ancient Rome during the construction of the modern capital, the variable oversight of the bureaucratic archaeological services in Rome, and the heated political discourse over the ownership and display of cultural patrimony in the new nation. In addition, it takes into account that Lanciani's publications significantly contributed and responded to the interests of a nexus of international scholars, archaeologists, collectors, and museum professionals, including those from the United States.

Susan M. Dixon is Chair of the Art Department and Associate Professor of Art History at La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA.
Bibliography:
2006: Between the Real and the Ideal: The Accademia degli Arcadi and its garden in eighteenth-century Rome (Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press/Associated University Presses)
Edited Books:
2015: Art and Social Change: Essays on the La Salle University Art Museum Collection, co-editor with Klare Scarborough (Philadelphia: La Salle University Art Museum)
2014: Printmakers of the Baroque: Explorations of Space and Light in 17th-Century Prints, editor, exhibition catalogue (Philadelphia: La Salle University Art Museum) - undergraduate student essays
2008: Italian Baroque Art: An Anthology of Teaching Sources, editor (London: Blackwell Publishing)

Dixon Susan M.

Year: 2019
Publisher: L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER
Series: Studia Archaeologica, 231
ISBN: 978-88-913-1874-9
Binding: Paperbacj
Pages: 180, 40 ill. B/N
Size: 17 x 24 cm

The publication of the Epigrammata Antiquae Urbis (Rome, Giacomo Mazzocchi, 1521) was a determining factor in the development of Roman studies in the 16th-century. As the first collection of classical inscriptions from the city of Rome, it set the example for subsequent epigraphic corpora, and became an exceptional witness to Rome's antiquities before the Sack of 1527. In the papers collected in this book, leading researchers in the field explore several aspects of the Epigrammata's composition and reception: Mazzocchi's editorial program, the question of its anonymous authorship, and the sources from which the book derived; the annotated copies of Latino Giovenale Manetti and Benedetto Egio; the circulation of the book among 16th-century transalpine humanists; a recension of the copies kept at the Vatican Library and in several American collections; the sifting of the Epigrammata for the collections of Martinus Smetius and Sanloutius; and the relevance of the Renaissance manuscript
tradition for the knowledge of the epigraphy from the city of Rome. These studies are supplemented with the first ever list of known copies of the Epigrammata Antiquae Urbis, which registers over three hundred copies worldwide.

Edited by Joan Carbonell e Gerard González Germain
Year: 2020
Publisher: L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER
Series: Bibliotheca Archaeologica, 63
ISBN: 9788891319166
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 196, 33 ill. B/N, 30 ill. Col.
Size: 21,5 x 28 cm

Nel 1917, durante i lavori per l’allargamento della via Ostiense, fu rinvenuto un ampio settore della necropoli romana che fiancheggiava l’antica via Ostiensis. Le tombe, dotate di stucchi e affreschi dipinti e pavimenti a mosaico in ottimo stato di conservazione, costituiscono un’importante testimonianza della popolazione che abitava questo settore della città dalla tarda età repubblicana al IV secolo dell’Impero. Le numerose iscrizioni funerarie rinvenute nell’area ci parlano di un ceto medio di artigiani e mercanti, spesso di origine servile, con nomi orientali o greci.
L’accurato scavo archeologico, eseguito fra il 1917 e il 1919 sotto la direzione dell’allora ispettore del Ministero per la Pubblica Istruzione Giuseppe Lugli, e la successiva musealizzazione dell’area archeologica ad opera del Comune di Roma, con l’acquisizione dei reperti più significativi nei musei comunali, costituiscono un precoce e fruttuoso esempio di tutela preventiva e collaborazione Stato-Comune per la valorizzazione dei beni culturali presenti sul territorio.
Ad un secolo dalla scoperta, la Sovrintendenza Capitolina avvia un nuovo programma di ricerca scientifica sull’area della necropoli, comprendente lo studio dei resti ossei combusti conservati ancora intatti all’interno delle olle cinerario dei colombari romani e realizzato in collaborazione con gli antropologi del Dipartimento di Archeologia dell’Università di Valencia.

In 1963, Frank Brown carried out an excavation in the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli. He never published it, and it has remained little known. This article presents the evidence of the excavation that it has been possible to find. Selected ceramic fragments, apparently kept at the American Academy in Rome since 1963, constitute the major element now available. They were stored without any contextual information and thus cannot be associated securely with the stratigraphic layers that were observed according to testimony that evidently goes back to Brown and his team. Most of the finds preserved date to the late antique and to some extent the early mediaeval period and may well come largely from the upper three meters of the excavation. Two lower layers were reported, and there are some earlier pieces. Besides shedding light on Brown’s excavation, the material offers a range of finds that may prove useful as comparanda for other contexts and includes examples of wares and types that are still little known or unattested at Rome. ***An addendum to this article, which contains color photographs, fabric images and an erata corrige, can be found on the blog of the Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores*** https://blog.fautores.org/