LECTURES
In addition to housing an extensive library of books, prints and maps of Rome the Studium Urbis is frequently used as a small lecture hall whose walls are lined with originals and reproductions of the actual prints and maps used in the lectures. Upon request individual lectures on Roman urbanism, cartography and architectural history are given at the Studium Urbis (capacity 30 seats) to U.S. university groups visiting Rome. Some of the lectures are associated with specific walks through the city, which can be scheduled for different days. Requests for subjects not listed in the table below require an anticipated time of four weeks.
FEATURED LECTURES
DESCRIPTIO VRBIS: The urban development of Rome through historic maps.
Using modern analytic maps of the ancient and medieval city, and historic maps from the 15th century on, the growth, contraction and re-expansion of Rome is discussed over a range of nearly three millennia. Prints, drawings and photographs round out the analysis of the urban tissue.
Baroque Ovals and Urban Form
The oval as an urban form appears in the work of Michelangelo, Bernini, Specchi and others, but the figure itself goes as far back as the Colosseum, and is illustrated by Serlio in the first of his Five Books on Architecture, not long before it appeared in the design of Piazza del Campidoglio. Ovals, in contrast to ellipses, also appear in church design starting in the mid-16th century.
PIAZZA S. PIETRO: Axes, Alignments & Asymmetry
A study of the pre-existing urban and architectural constraints that affected the design of both parts of Bernini’s Piazza S. Pietro as well as the Scala Regia in the Vatican palace, and the architect’s decisions resulting from these constraints.
COMPLETE LIST
| TITLE | SUBJECT (when not explained in the title) |
|---|---|
| 1551: Bufalini's Exploration of Rome | Cartographic deductions |
| Acqua Virgo Greenway | Tracing the Acqua Virgo through modern Rome |
| Albano | Castrum to modern town |
| Archaeological Park or Urban Desert? | The Forum/Palatine area |
| Area Sacra Argentina | Largo Argentina and its urban history |
| Asymmetry in Symmetry | Non-alignment of symmetrical designs |
| Banchi | The Quartiere de' Banchi and its Trivium |
| Barbey 1697 | G.B. Nolli's immediate predecessor |
| Baroque Ovals & Urban Form | |
| Baroque Urban Planning | |
| Borgate | Dumping grounds for the undesirables |
| Bufalini 1551: Distortion & Rectification | |
| Bufalini and the Imago Urbis | |
| Celio | Topography of an urban triangle |
| Civitatis Piae | Pius IV Medici's Borgo Pio |
| Descriptio Urbis | Urban development of Rome through historic maps |
| Forma Urbis | 3c. Marble map of Rome |
| Forum Chronology | Roman Forum images |
| Garbatella | Housing for the dispossessed |
| Ghetto | |
| Individuality of the Street | Route maps by PSU students |
| Medieval Streets | Reconstructions based on Nolli |
| Monumental vs. Urban | Contrasting approaches to urban studies |
| Nolli as an Instrument of Urban Analysis | |
| Nolli Map, The | |
| Piazza S. Pietro | Axes, Alignments & Asymmetry |
| Piazza di Spagna | Evolution of an urban space |
| Pincio | Story of a parking garage battle |
| Porta Leone | A vanished Renaissance neighborhood |
| Possesso | 1655: Alexander VII Chigi's processianal print |
| Renaissance Planning and Via Papale | |
| Roman Towns | |
| Roman Views | Drawings, paintings & prints of Rome |
| Termini: Transformation of a Site | From suburban villa to railroad station |
| Triviums | Form and adaptation in Renaissance planning |
| Una Roma Visuale | Nolli and Vasi |
| Urban Reciprocity | Street/building Interactions |
| Urban setting of the Pantheon | Reconstruction of the ancient street net |
| Vasi and Public Space | Studies in the Magnificenze |
| Via della Conciliazione | The destruction of Borgo |
| Villa Adriana | Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli |
| Villa Borghese | History of a park |
| Leonardo to Desargues | Projective Geometry |