Urban Developments in Late Antique and Medieval Rome: Revising the Narrative of Renewal

A narrative of decline punctuated by periods of renewal has long structured perceptions of Rome’s late antique and medieval history. In their probing contributions to this volume, a multi-disciplinary group of scholars provides alternative approaches to understanding the period. Addressing developments in governance, ceremony, literature, art, music, clerical education and the construction of the city’s identity, the essays examine how a variety of actors, from poets to popes, productively addressed the intermittent crises and shifting dynamics of these centuries in ways that bolstered the city’s resilience. Without denying that the past (both pre-Christian and Christian) consistently remained a powerful touchstone, the studies in this volume offer rich new insights into the myriad ways that Romans, between the fifth and the eleventh centuries, creatively assimilated the past as they shaped their future.

Gregor Kalas is Associate Professor of Architectural History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he is the Riggsby Director of the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. He is the author of The Restoration of the Roman Forum in Late Antiquity: Transforming Public Space (2015). Ann van Dijk is Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at Northern Illinois University. Her publications examine the patronage of Pope John VII as well as its reception in the early modern period. Her articles have been featured in The Art Bulletin, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Word & Image, and Renaissance Studies.