Memoirs of the AAR

This volume from the American Academy in Rome represents the interests of AAR, its fellows, residents, and the larger international community who utilize its excellent library and facilities. The Memoirs series (MAAR) presents a selection of ambitious articles on subjects represented by AAR. These topics include, but are not limited to, Roman archaeology and topography, ancient and modern Italian history, Latin literature, and Italian art and architectural history.

Volume 54 includes the following essays: “From Gregory XIII to Louis XIV: The Art and Politics of Reform in France” by Nicola Courtright; “Gregory XIII and Political Pragmatism in the Age of the Pax Hispanica” by Thomas Dandelet; “Pope Gregory Xiii, Jurist” by Jack Freiberg; “Mimesis, Ceremony, Praxis: The Cappella Paolina as the Holy Sepulcher” by Margaret A. Kuntz; “A Dragon for the Pope: Politics and Emblematics at the Court of Gregory XIII” by Marco Ruffini; “Gregory XIII and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome” by Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe; “Three Passages on Tiberius and the Courts” by Leanne Bablitz; “Porta Triumphalis and Fortuna Redux: Reconsidering the Evidence” by Melanie Grunow Sobocinski; “Rewriting Vergil, Rereading Rome: Maffeo Vegio, Poggio Bracciolini, Flavio Biondo, and Early Quattrocento Antiquarianism” by Elizabeth M. McCahill; and “The Art of the Appraisal: Measuring, Evaluating, and Valuing Architecture in Early Modern Europe” by John Nicholas Napoli.

Piranesi was an architect, engraver, antiquities restorer and dealer, draftsman, archaeologist, furniture and fireplace designer, author, and bookseller. His creations in paper and in stone garnered considerable renown in his own lifetime, allowing him to transform himself from a penniless son of a stonemason to a wealthy entrepreneur. However, despite attempts to catalogue and analyze his work, little is known about Piranesi. Since Henri Focillon published his monograph on the artist in 1918, scholars have sought to expand his interpretive strategies used to examine Piranesi and his work. This volume is a representative sampling of the contemporary scholarship on Piranesi, with each essay scrutinizing a particular aspect of his oeuvre. By engaging with material found in eighteenth-century manuscripts and printed materials, as well as the texts and images Piranesi produced, the nine essays by esteemed contributors add to the rapidly growing and diversifying field of eighteenth-century studies. The outcome is a volume that will add to the expanding, glittering mosaic of Piranesi’s life and his work.

Jacket illustration: G. B. Piranesi, engraving with inscription in ink. Biblioteca Corsiana, Rome, 29 H 22.

“The contributors offer a fresh view of Piranesi, one that not only serves to capture an ephemeral ‘state of the question,’ but should also redirect subsequent research in new and productive channels.”
—John Pinto, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University

“These essays help us to see Piranesi in a new light.  Erudite . . . highly readable . . . a major success.”
—Marcello Fagiolo

This study of an important class of ceramics from the key coastal colonial site of Cosa in southwest Tuscany documents the rise of republican Rome to dominance in central Italy in the third and second centuries BC. The town and territory of Cosa constitute one of the most extensively explored sites of the Roman republican period on the Italian peninsula. Excavation and survey work by the American Academy in Rome and others at Cosa over the past half century have greatly enriched our knowledge of the development of public and domestic urban and rural architecture, the organization and exploitation of the resources of the countryside, and the patterns of economic exchange to which they testify. These latter are particularly evident in the varieties of imported and locally made black-glaze pottery that have been recovered in the excavations. While we tend to think of the ubiquitous Greco-Italic amphorae as the commercial indicators par excellence of mid to late republican Italy, this class of tableware is no less important for understanding both the maritime and inland routes of exchange.

“Ann Scott presents our best picture of Late Republican black-glaze in central Italy from the third through the mid-first century B.C. In Cosa: The Black-Glaze Pottery 2, she reassesses and updates the material published fifty years ago by Doris Taylor as well as presenting more recent deposits of black glazed pottery from Cosa.”
—Shelley Stone, Professor of Art History, California State University, Bakersfield

“This admirable study will quickly establish itself as the classic treatment of a topic of central importance for the archaeology of central Italy in the Roman republican period.”
—Bernard Frischer, Director, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, and Professor of Art History and Classics, University of Virginia

Jacket illustration: Russell T. Scott

It was not until the third century BCE that geopolitical realities beyond Italy forced Rome to recognize the importance of the sea to its own fate. Two centuries later, following the fall of Egypt in 30 BCE, Rome emerged as the dominant maritime power. Once in place, Rome’s dominance of the sea became an important component of its imperial history. No other power before or since has controlled the Mediterranean basin or exercised an imperial naval tenure to such an extent.

Derived from the proceedings of the conference “The Maritime World of Ancient Rome” held at the American Academy in Rome from March 27 to 29, 2003, this volume was conceived to provide a forum for recent research on subjects relating to the maritime life of Rome and the vast empire it created. With contributions from eminent scholars from around the world, this volume builds upon and extends the scope of the American Academy in Rome’s first volume on Rome's maritime life, The Seaborne Commerce of Ancient Rome: Studies in Archaeology and History. It will be of interest to scholars investigating maritime aspects of the Roman period and to upper level students studying the maritime affairs of the Roman period.

Cover credit: Roman merchantman under sail entering or leaving Portus, ca. third century AD (courtesy Fototeca Unione, AAR).

“From papers on warship slipways to prostitutes, and from piracy to hydraulic concrete, this volume will be a required source for researchers dealing with maritime life in Roman times. As with all good scholarship, the combined gravitas of the contributions here pushes research forward by discussing new fieldwork, reviewing critically previous conclusions, studying evidence in new patterns and experimental archaeology.”
—Shelley Wachsmann, Meadows Professor of Biblical Archaeology, Nautical Archaeology Program, Texas A & M University

“The Maritime World of Ancient Rome provides both theoretical and descriptive discussions of recent scholarly work devoted to expanding our modern understanding of the role of waterways and seas in Roman life. Drawing upon history and archaeology through cogent and accessible contributions by top scholars, the collection will stimulate discussion and debate for years to come. Readers will, like me, be inspired by the overarching perspective of the maritime network and its influence on so many aspects of life in the ancient Roman world.”
—Cheryl Ward, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Florida State University

“The Maritime World of Ancient Rome is not just of interest to maritime scholars but also to anyone working on the ancient Roman world.”
—Hector Williams, Trustee, Vancouver Maritime Museum, and Professor, Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, University of British Columbia

The Roman villa is a classic icon of Western culture, and yet villa can be used to cover a multiplicity of ideas, experiences, and places. In the late Republic and early Imperial periods, villas are inseparable from elite lifestyles, providing a prestigious setting for leisurely and intellectual pursuits. But how did these advanced buildings come about? Roman Republican Villas examines key aspects of early villa culture and architecture, with the goal of understanding the development and deployment of villas in Republican Italy. For instance, where does the “classic” villa architecture originate? How do writers like Cato the Elder or Varro use the villa to their own advantage? How visible are Republican villas in the landscape of central Italy?

Traditional theories about villa development have been largely focused on stereotypical ideals of early Roman austerity and industriousness. New work at sites such as the Auditorium, however, proves the existence of luxurious residences already by the 5th–4th century BCE, even before the Roman conquest of Italy. Such recent developments in archaeological fieldwork have begun to reshape the discourse in such a way that old assumptions are being challenged and, in many cases, found wanting. Within this atmosphere of new discoveries and reconsideration, scholars are uniquely poised to re-examine the villa and the part it played in the culture of Roman Italy, in terms of both the material remains and the literary sources. The villa also plays a prominent role in Republican literature such as the De agri cultura of Cato and the texts of Varro, as the early Latin authors seek to fashion identities for themselves and the city of Rome. Drawing on diverse source materials, the collected essays of Roman Republican Villas help to re-center the discussion of Roman villa culture, particularly in light of new evidence offered both by fieldwork and by new approaches to Republican agricultural writers.

This volume brings together scholars of Latin literature, Roman history, and classical archaeology to offer a multidisciplinary approach to the questions connected to the emergence and development of villas and their farming culture. With contributions from leading scholars Jeffrey A. Becker, John Bodel, Stephen L. Dyson, Carin M. C. Green, Brendon Reay, Nicola Terrenato, Mario Torelli, and Rita Volpe, the viewpoints offered build upon previous scholarship and ask challenging questions about how the evidence of Roman villas has traditionally been interpreted.