Rome is one of the most captivating cities in the world, a magnet for pilgrims and tourists, poets and artists, almost since the time of its founding more than 2500 years ago.
A good part of its mystique lies in its unbroken history—the countless incarnations and eras that merge in the cityscape. No other place can quite match Rome’s resilience, its three millennium-long series of reinventions.
In her upcoming book, The Eternal City: A History of Rome in Maps, art and architectural history professor Dr. Jessica Maier asks What defines a city? Its skyline, its landmarks? Its history, or myths? The character of its inhabitants? The city’s topography, its natural or manmade contours? In three sessions, Maier will take a chronological and thematic look at the Eternal City, seeing how it exists not only in brick and mortar, but also in the realm of ideas, and through the eyes of locals and visitors. Topics will include Rome’s urban and architectural development, as well as its representation in maps and artworks from across the city’s exceptionally long lifetime.
This mini-course is for anyone who has spent time or has longed to spend time in the Eternal City—anyone with an interest in great cities, history, art and architecture (not to mention anyone missing travel in our current homebound time).
Session 1: Three walls, one river, seven hills
How did Rome become Rome? In this session Maier will sift through layers of history, legend, topography, and archaeology to follow the path of this site from modest hamlet to capital of the ancient world.
Session 2: Romans and visitors
Rome has been a melting pot from its earliest days. In this session Maier will trace the various communities and stakeholders who have helped to make Rome Rome. Ranging from elite to modest, from great caesars and popes to anonymous ranks of pilgrims, tourists, and diplomats, all have had a share in shaping the city we see today.
Session 3: Rome across the ages
How did Rome become the Eternal City? Unique among places, Rome has remained relevant, even central, for more than two millennia. In this session attendees will step back into chronology to follow the city’s ups and downs from the Middle Ages to the present, as it has transformed from decrepitude and near desertion to vibrant modern metropolis and world capital.
“Rome was all the world, and all the world is Rome.” Joachim du Bellay, Antiquitez de Rome, 1558
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Jessica Maier is associate professor of art history at Mount Holyoke College. She is the author of Rome Measured and Imagined: Early Modern Maps of the Eternal City, published by University of Chicago Press, and her articles have appeared in The Art Bulletin, Renaissance Quarterly, and elsewhere. Maier holds degrees from Columbia and Brown Universities and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome.
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