Papal Rome

This essay focuses on Father Léon Dehon (1843-1925), founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and his longstanding relationship with Rome and the Roman spiritual and physical spaces. Dehon studied in a Roman seminary in the late 1860s and, as many clergymen of his generation, he developed a strong devotion to the Roman identity of the Catholic Church. Starting from the analysis of Dehon’s Roman experiences between the papacies of Pius IX and Leo XIII, this essay investigates how the ecclesiological notion of romanitas and its applications changed in front of the sharp modernizationof Rome in the late 19th century, evolving from a static and merely defensive idea (the ultramontane compliance of the whole Church and society to the religious and political model embodied by the Papal State) to a dynamic and expansive one (the papacy as international player and unique legitimate heir of Roman universalistic mission and civilization).

This article examines textual descriptions of smiling, laughing and joking with the pope in thirteenth-century Rome. It focuses on two Anglo-Norman accounts of conducting litigation at the papal curia: Thomas of Marlborough's (d.1236) Chronicon abbatiae de Evesham and Gerald of Wales's (c. 1146–1220×23) De jure et statu Menevensis ecclesiae. Both authors include several careful and prominent references to smiling, laughing and joking, and specifically in relation to Pope Innocent III. These passages have previously been read as straightforward examples of wit and friendship, but this study shows that the authors use these physiological expressions to convey complex and subtly different pictures of the papal curia. Above all, this article demonstrates how Thomas and Gerald's descriptions of humorous interactions with the pope play crucial narrative and mnemonic roles within their work.

Il presente articolo esamina le descrizioni testuali del sorridere, del ridere e dello scherzare con il Papa nella Roma del XIII secolo. Si focalizza in particolare su due resoconti anglo-normanni di controversie nella curia papale: il 'Chronicon abbatiae de Evesham' di Thomas of Marlborough (data di morte 1236) e il 'De jure et statu Menevensis ecclesiae' di Gerald of Wales (c. 1146–1220×23). In entrambi i testi sono presenti molti riferimenti attenti agli atti di sorridere, di ridere e di scherzare, in particolar modo in relazione a Papa Innocenzo III. Questi passaggi sono stati in precedenza interpretati come inequivocabili esempi di umorismo e amicizia, ma questo studio dimostra come gli autori usino queste ‘espressioni fisiologiche’ per descrivere immagini leggermente differenti della curia papale. Soprattutto questo articolo mostra come le descrizioni di interazione umoristica con il papa di Thomas of Marlborough e di Gerald of Wales giochino ruoli narrativi e mnemonici cruciali all'interno dei loro lavori.

The essay investigates the reconstruction of the Greek College in Rome, undertaken by the Society of Jesus shortly before its suppression in 1773. This interesting example of late Baroque architecture, which stands out in the typological panorama of the religious colleges for an unusual quality, was linked to the name of the Roman architect Clemente Orlandi, although many uncertainties regarding the latter’s role. This essay, based on a exhaustive study of archival documents and critical comparisons with other known works of Orlandi, allows us to definitively attribute to the Roman designer the full authorship of the building.

Quale era il «sistema di welfare» che prima dell’introduzione del «welfare state» rispondeva ai bisogni della popolazione anziana? A quanti anni si era considerati vecchi tra Cinquecento e Ottocento? A che età ci si ritirava dal lavoro? Come sopravvivevano gli anziani prima dell’introduzione dei moderni sistemi pensionistici? Nel passato i figli erano necessariamente il bastone della vecchiaia dei propri genitori? Che ruolo avevano nella vita degli anziani le istituzioni di assistenza? E in che misura il diritto agli alimenti era garantito dai tribunali del tempo?
Questi gli interrogativi da cui ha preso origine l’indagine sui rapporti tra vecchie e giovani generazioni nella Roma dei Papi. Un’indagine che smentisce i luoghi comuni che idealizzano i valori solidaristici delle famiglie del passato, mostrando come il sostegno agli anziani, ieri come oggi, sia il risultato di una
competizione/negoziazione tra famiglie e collettività in cui spesso sono chiamati in causa anche gli apparati giudiziari. Un’indagine storica che, in un tempo in cui lo stato sociale è sotto assedio in nome del progressivo invecchiamento della popolazione, fornisce utili spunti al ripensamento delle politiche di welfare.

Lecture su "Oltre la clausura. I monasteri femminili in età moderna: relazioni, conflitti, negoziazioni"
all'interno del ciclo di Seminari 2017 intitolati "Inclusione / esclusione: modelli, strategie, conflitti" del Dottorato di Ricerca in Storia, Antropologia, Religioni - Dipartimento di Storia, Culture, Religioni - Università di Roma La Sapienza

Lunedì 5 giugno 2017, ore 17,00 - Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Aula di Etnologia (3° piano), Università La Sapienza, Roma, Città Universitaria

[...]. A perspective on the relations between Rome and Madrid at the beginning of the seventeenth century will be examined by focusing on recommendations, favours, rewards, and benefices as recompense for gratitude and friendship. The approach purports to deepen the practice of early modern diplomacy by considering Caetani's networks and his perceptions as a privileged observer of court life.

Printed descriptions of ceremonies, festivities, and pageants were a growth sector of publishing in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Giving particular attention to the publishing format of such works, this article analyzes 110 examples produced in Rome between 1623 and 1655. The vast majority are quarto pamphlets of no more than sixteen pages. Political, devotional, and commercial motives were driving this type of publication, which participated in the general increase of cheap printed sub-book genres in the seventeenth century. In Baroque Rome ceremonial publications reflected the responsiveness of Catholic monarchs and religious orders to the new possibilities of cheap print as well as the growing commodification of news in these decades.

There are works attributed to G. P. Panini derived from Piranesi's The Campidoglio from the side, which prompts an investigation of how Panini in fact represented the Campidoglio compared to Piranesi. It looks at the sightlines they employed. Whereas Piranesi privileged the Trofei di Mario,  Panini wrestled with the relationship between the statues of Castor and Pollux and the buildings behind depending on the purpose of the image.

This conference examines the significant topic of papal communication from the perspective of the recipients; it focuses on the diverse responses and receptions to papal communications found across medieval Europe between the years 1000 and 1300.

Themes include the construction and questioning of papal authority, responses to gifts and giving and to rituals and liturgy, sermons and papal letters; encounters in papal assemblies; historical writing in Anglo-Norman England; as well as discussions about the theoretical and methodological framework for studying papal communication in the Middle Ages.

The longevity, paradoxes, and ambivalence of British relations with Europe in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries coalesce in vivid fashion when examining Anglo-Roman cultural contact. Rome meant many different things to Norman England during this period: the city’s ancient heritage was a source of marvel and a touchstone of ancient Latin culture, but it was also inexorably bound to the papal curia – a site of success for some Englishmen but ruin for others. During this period medieval English writers were both the most admiring and the most critical in their responses to ‘Rome’ and Roman identity. In the words of G.B. Parks, this relationship was one of “the most balanced dislike”.