Università Roma Tre

Urban landscapes and heritages: a political and cultural history.
The second module aims to retrace some moments in the history of Euro-Mediterranean cities in the Middle Ages, focusing in particular on two thematic axes: 1) presence, uses, and reuses of material structures inherited from Antiquity and Late Antiquity (walls, gates, public palaces, temples, basilicas, squares, bridges); 2) the symbolic, ceremonial, and political values attributed to those structures, then paying further attention to monuments such as statues and columns, and the various memorial narratives attributed to them over time. From this point of view, medieval cities present themselves as an important laboratory of experimentation: indeed, from that laboratory emerged the concept of «urban decorum», which is now at the center of political and cultural debate. The module will involve a cross-analysis of material and written sources, among which inscriptions and the so-called «city praises» (laudes urbium) will be favored.

For attending students, the exam is based on the materials provided by the teacher and discussed in class;

For non-attending students, the exam is based on the following texts:
- D. Internullo, Una prospettiva politica sui monumenti. Il «decoro urbano» di Roma tra Medioevo e Rinascimento, in Paesaggi urbani e suburbani nella Roma dei secoli XIII-XVI, ed. A. Cortonesi, S. Passigli, Roma 2023, pp. 1-18
- A. Fiore, La pietrificazione dell'identità civica (Italia centro-settentrionale, 1050-1220 c.), in Construir para perdurar. Riqueza petrificada e identidad social (siglos XI-XIV), Pamplona 2022, pp. 185-211

- J.-C. Maire Vigueur, Così belle così vicine: viaggio insolito nelle città dell'Italia medievale, Il Mulino, Bologna 2023.