Rome: The Poetics of Infrastructure FS24

Rome, more than any other civilization, is characterized by its infrastructure. When we think of ancient Rome, we think of roads drawing an ever-straight line into the landscape, and of aqueducts towering high above the ground. Later generations of Romans often restored these ancient buildings with great pomp, or tried to outrival them. These infrastructural buildings acquire the quality of art works and thus uniquely unite the functional with the poetic - even more so when one takes into account their inscriptions, depictions, and reflections in drawings or travelogues. During the seminar week, we will trace Roman infrastructures in their urban and rural landscapes and follow their echoes in images, literature, and even music. From our base at the Biblotheca Hertziana, one of Rome's largest libraries for art history, we will go on explorations of cityscape and landscape. This course requires an attentive eye, sturdy shoes, and stamina - and will reveal Roman sights not shown on tourist maps from the emperors via the popes to present days.