Burn's night, Botticelli and beneath the floors of Rome
... I am going to regret beginning the alliteration I think!
Dear all,
Another couple of weeks have passed and no doubt some of you will be looking for updates on the cats. I’m afraid I have very few, other than that it has been a bit chilly here and I looked up from my desk in the library to see a little black and white face staring at me through the window- asking to be let into our lovely warm book cave! Being rather allergic (and in awe of the librarians) though I left him outside!
Rome though has been working her magic.
I am now a little over a month into my time at the BSR and finding interest and unexpected invitations and research trajectories in all directions- drawing together all the disparate threads into something coherent by the end of my three months here may be a struggle. A previous award holder had told me that six months after her time at the BSR ended she was still processing everything she had seen and experienced- I am beginning to understand why!
The last fortnight has been busy and as a result, following a whistle-stop trip to Florence, I reached saturation point for magnificent art and architecture. I didn’t even know this was possible. However, when you’re standing in S. Maria Maggiore looking at what seems like acres of genuinely awe inspiring medieval mosaics and you’re unable to even raise the slightest gasp you know you’re creatively saturated and need to take a breath! Much of this week therefore has been library heavy and I am attempting to read, write, think and draw my way to a little brain space so I can get back to my long list of churches, towers and museums.
The luxury of being able to dictate my own time like this cannot be understated. Additionally the freedom to dictate my own outputs and to adjust the trajectory of my research… I am truly very grateful to the funders who have enabled this!
I have also found myself overwhelmed by the ability of the BSR to open doors and shortcut research loops. I had discovered a wonderful archaeological research project on medieval Rome happening at one of the universities here. Within a few hours of sending an email to the assistant director here (who is an archaeologist) to see if he knew of any of them I had been electronically introduced to the project’s leader and invited to drinks by two leading Roman medievalists to discuss medieval towers. Chris Wickham and Sandro Carocci’s kindness and generosity in answering questions and sending me papers to read genuinely took me by surprise and saved me many hours of library dead ends. (I am also immensely grateful for how good google translate’s app is or else the amount I am currently reading in Italian and French would be impossible!)
I am not quite ready to share more tower project details with you yet as Rome is shifting the emphasis from where I thought it would end up- but maybe next time I can begin to share some tower thoughts.
Aside from all the library time the BSR resident status saw a group of us invited to join in the fun for Burn’s night at the British Ambassador to Italy’s residence where we partook of a haggis supper (address to the haggis read by a Lt. Colonel who speared the haggis with a sword); and a ceilidh chaotically called in a mix of Italian and English by a very dignified member of the local Scottish kirk! I can report that the ambassador is an enthusiastic ceilidh dancer who only occasionally dances into the middle of the next set!
An archaeologist visiting the BSR also took a small group of us on a tour of the archaeological site below the Lateran cathedral (which is the Pope’s cathedral) with his graduate students. Here we saw the remains of Hadrianic villas; which were destroyed to make way for Severan army barracks; which were in turn destroyed for a Constantinian Cathedral; which has been extensively remodelled several times since. Rome is nothing if not a city where (until comparatively recently) the past is ruthlessly cleared to make way for the new! I covered this and some of the thoughts it raised in my BD column here if you’re interested in reading a little more.
Other highlights of the last fortnight include a major exhibition on medieval Rome (sadly not that good- but some of the objects in it were stunning); and some local catacombs where they have the earliest known depiction of the Virgin Mary. Friday and Saturday I spent in Florence (which I was visiting for the first time) where I overdosed on art, finally understood what all the fuss was about regarding Botticelli, and spent hours walking around the town. I found Florence strangely menacing- it was cold and fairly devoid of tourists and in this atmosphere, and deep as my mind is in medieval militarised urbanism I could see all the ways in which Florentine palazzos were designed with urban warfare in mind. Unlike Rome the city fabric here has not been extensively rebuilt so many of the more closed and fortress like palazzos are still in evidence if you’re looking for them.
On a further Florentine note the very talented illustrator Anna Gibb and I have been collaborating on a tower based, Dante inspired, light hearted satire of current architectural practice. I have written a narrative to accompany her beautiful and quirky drawings and she is slowly releasing them over February on her instagram account here. Please go and take a look- this bonkers-ness aside she has some stunning prints and drawings!
In news entirely unrelated to Rome I am also very excited to report that the first proof copy of my upcoming book has arrived with my publisher. It should be available in a couple of week from RIBA books at this link or from amazon here on the first of March. It’s been three years of evenings, weekends and annual leave days to get to this point and I am so excited to get hold of my first copy!
On that note- somewhat over-stimulated and over-excited- I will leave you all, until next time
Eleanor
P.S My scholarship and its architectural history equivalent have their applications open for next year at the moment- do pass the details here onto anyone you know who may be interested- I would highly recommend the experience!