The City of Rome: Urban Infrastructure and Urban Form from Medieval to Early Modern Times

Since Rome was not built in a day, how can we understand the processes by which the city developed? Nicola Camerlenghi and Pamela O. Long (2004 Fellow) have addressed this challenge for the medieval and early modern city, respectively. Camerlenghi, associate professor of art history at Dartmouth College and digital humanities fellow at Villa I Tatti, has developed a diachronic, digital map of towers, bell towers, and other features to chart the medieval city’s network of power and surveillance. Long, an independent scholar of late medieval and Renaissance history, has studied long runs of documents and numerous printed maps across various Roman archives uncovering conflicts and problems during the late sixteenth century. Both scholars have then confronted their primary evidence with a first-hand, holistic engagement with the city. This Conversations/Conversazioni event treats their different but interrelated approaches to the evolving Eternal City. The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation is the 2020–21 season sponsor of Conversations/Conversazioni: From the American Academy in Rome.