Description: Rome… see it written, hear it spoken, and images flood the mind. From the glories of the Augustan Age to the elegant splendor of the Renaissance.  But what of the time between, the millennium that separates the “Fall” of Rome in the 5th century and the “Rebirth” of Rome in the 15th?  Was it truly a cultural wasteland, characterized only by misery and war, a time when art and science were lost and people stumbled through existence during the “Dark Ages?”

Far from it. 
The city of Rome certainly suffered dark hours as rival Germanic tribes wrestled for the spoils of empire, culminating in the devastating Gothic-Byzantine War of the mid-sixth century.  At the end of that conflict, what had once been the largest city in the world, with well over a million inhabitants, was left with perhaps no more than about 17,000 souls.  How the mighty had fallen…
But the city transformed herself, and within a remarkably short time became once again the largest city in Europe, a rank that it would retain into the 18th century.  Under the patronage of the popes, Rome reclaimed what she saw as her rightful role in the affairs of men.  Her great temples became mighty churches; her halls resounded with the footsteps of kings; her bishops crowned emperors.  In the early 13th century, the Pope was the most powerful sovereign in Europe, more than two centuries before the flowering of the movement that became known as the Renaissance. 

In this two-day seminar we discover Medieval Rome, from Constantine, her first Christian emperor, to the first Jubilee in the year 1300.  Day One opens with the controversial Conversion of Constantine in the early 4th century and the subsequent establishment of a New Rome (Constantinople) in the East.  We identify some of the new elements introduced, but also trace some of the fundamental continuities, ideological and artistic.  The Fall of Rome  to the Visigoths in 410 was the first in a series of disastrous events that spanned a century, culminating in the Gothic-Byzantine War.  We examine the effects of these events on the city and her inhabitants, describing the re-use of space, the recycling of salvaged materials (spolia), and the re-establishment of law, order, and commerce in these new and very different circumstances.  We see the transformation of power structures within the city and the region and a trend towards papal assumption of the responsibilities of government and civic life. 

The day continues with a presentation of the rivalries that developed between Germanic princes, the representatives of the Byzantine emperor, and the popes.  Fear of the Lombards, pressing ever closer to Rome, led to a papal appeal for help from the Franks.  The alliance between the Church of Rome and the Frankish kings was soldered by the crowning on Christmas Day of the year 800, in St Peter’s Basilica, of Charlemagne as Roman Emperor. 
The second day of the seminar begins by describing the effects of the new power system.  Travel increased, commerce and trade swelled, and no city in Europe benefitted more profoundly – or more visibly – than Rome herself.  The ideas of power and authority, of identity and legitimacy, that developed during this time shaped the course of European history into the modern age.  It was during this Carolingian Renaissance that the papacy became a truly international institution.  How was this felt by the people of the city of Rome?  How were their lives and livelihoods effected?  What visible evidence remains of the changes to the urban landscape? 

Following the demise of the Carolingian dynasty, imperial prestige and power were held by the ruling princes of the Germanies.  The rise of the royal houses of Europe and the consolidation of power within the kingdoms, especially in France, brought the sovereigns of the continent into constant competition.  The influence of the popes was undeniable, making the throne of Saint Peter an enviable seat indeed.  Rome’s noble families carved up the city into fortified enclaves and jockeyed for position and the for the papal see.  But the popes and the rival baronial families also had to contend with an increasingly self-aware citizenry, especially after the formation of the first Roman Commune.  Although much of the period of the High Middle Ages in Rome is characterized by incessant struggles for control, the city’s infrastructure was continuously expanded and improved.  The popes were among the greatest builders on the Continent, and Rome was home to some of Europe’s most talented and prodigious craftsmen and artisans.  The fortress-like monasteries of the Aventine Hill collected, organized, copied and distributed the great works of Western civilization, safeguarding the wisdom of the ages for generations to come.  As the 13th century came to a close, all Christendom eagerly awaited the first Jubilee: a call to renewal of faith, to charitable good works… and pilgrimage to Rome.  Saint Francis of Assisi was practicing what he preached; Cavallini and  Giotto were painting; Saint Thomas Aquinas was interpreting Aristotle; and Dante was about to begin work on The Divine Comedy. 

The Seminar in Medieval Rome is a voyage through an oft-ignored period of the city’s life and history.  The exploration of the Middle Ages here requires only that one scratch beneath the frequent Renaissance stucco and Baroque façades, revealing a world perhaps forgotten, but not lost.  The presentations of material and lecture discussions are not held in a classroom, but rather under the trees, in the cloisters, even beneath the streets of the city.  We move from place to place, either by public transport or by foot, to see, touch, feel the pulse of the city’s medieval past.  One of the principal themes of the seminar is continuity, and we discover the common threads that run through the layers of Roman life, thought, prayer, and art.  Often those layers are not merely metaphorical, but quite concrete.

To give just a few examples of what we’ll see and where we’ll be, in San Clemente we encounter more than a thousand years of history in a single location: 12th-century mosaics, among Rome’s most beautiful; we explore the subterranean basilica of the 4th century, adorned by Carolingian frescoes; and we discover the 1st-century Roman homes and a place of worship of the god Mithra.  We peruse the halls of the Roman houses beneath the basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, a home decorated with frescoes in the 4th century by a nobleman who was restyling a house that was already 500 years old when he moved in.  The Museo Nazionale di Roma’s Cypta Balbi offers an extraordinary experience of time travel through a slice of the city’s soil, with exhibits and artifacts relating to various periods displayed on three levels, each one a testament to the building’s own past lives. 

Santa Maria Maggiore is one of Rome’s four principal papal basilicas and one of the most important points on the path of pilgrimage.  Beneath the Baroque grandeur is a structure that was erected while there was still an emperor on the throne in the West, an emperor whose eyes would have rested like ours on the astonishing 5th-century mosaics in the apse.  Tucked discretely nearby, all but unknown to most visitors to Rome, are two churches dedicated to sisters, Santa Prassede and Santa Pudenziana, who tradition holds were caring for the bodies of the martyrs during one of Saint Paul’s sojourns in the city.  Each of these maintains a sense of medieval mystique, from exposed brick interiors to subterranean sarcofaghi to the chapel of Saint Zenon, a masterpiece of Byzantine brilliance.  We repose for discussion and elaboration in the solitude of the cloisters of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, an amalgam of structures and styles from Late Antiquity  and the Medieval period. 

No meander through the Middle Ages of Rome would be complete without a stroll through Trastevere and down via della Lungaretta, one of christendom’s oldest and most important routes of pilgrimage.  The bastion-like churches on the Aventine Hill tell tales of warrior monks, defending the city with sword and song and preserving the cultural heritage of the West with pen and prayer.  In the Orange Garden of Santa Sabina we reflect over our voyage through Medieval Rome as we watch the sun begin its descent over the Tiber River and the rooftops of the Eternal City. 

ITINERARY:*

Day One
S Clemente, I Quattro Santi Coronati, SS Giovanni e Paolo, SS Cosma e Damiano, S Maria in Aracoeli, Crypta Balbi, S Maria Sopra Minerva, S Maria Maggiore, S Prassede, S Pudenziana

Day Two
S Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, S Crysogono, via della Lungaretta, S Benedetto in Piscinula, S Cecilia in Trastevere, Tempio di Ercole, S Maria in Cosmedin, Circo Massimo, S Anselmo, SS Bonifacio e Alessio, S Sabina, Giardino degli Aranci di S Sabina.

*   Changes may be made without notice to the itinerary, depending on weather conditions, site closure, or other unforeseen circumstances.