Early Christian Rome: Art and History

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1 Early Christian Rome: Art and History Start date 22 January 2016 End date 24 January 2016 Venue Madingley Hall Madingley Cambridge Tutor Professor Edward James Course code 1516NRX088 Director of Programmes For further information on this course, please contact Emma Jennings Public Programme Co-ordinator, Clare Kerr or To book See: or telephone Tutor biography Edward James is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at University College Dublin. He has held Chairs of Medieval History at both Reading and UCD; before that he was in the Department of History at the University of York, and directed the Centre for Medieval Studies there from 1990 to He has held research professorships at Rutgers and Sydney. His DPhil from Oxford was in early medieval archaeology, and he has always emphasised the importance of archaeology for understanding the history of this period, and vice versa. He has published numerous articles on the archaeology and history of early medieval Europe, focussing on France. His first book was The Merovingian Archaeology of South-West Gaul (1977) and this was followed by an edited book on Visigothic Spain (1980), The Origins of France (1982), The Franks (1988), Britain in the First Millennium (2001) and Europe s Barbarians (2009). His translation of Gregory of Tours Life of the Fathers was the first book to appear in Liverpool University Press s Texts in Translation series (1985); in 2015 it appeared in a new printing, with a 30 th anniversary introduction. He is currently working on a book on Gregory of Tours. In another life he is a science fiction and fantasy fan. He published Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century with Oxford UP in 1994, and with Farah Mendlesohn edited The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (2003), which won a Hugo Award at the 2005 World Science Fiction Convention, and The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature (2012). Their book A Short History of Fantasy appeared in In 2014 he prepared an extensive website on Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of the Great War. He is currently Chair of the Science Fiction Foundation.

2 Course programme Friday Please plan to arrive between 16:30 and 18:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 18:15. Tea and coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms. 19:00 Dinner 20:30 22:00 Rome and the Empire in Late Antiquity: An introduction 22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion Saturday 07:30 Breakfast 09:00 10:30 Rome at the time of Constantine 10:30 Coffee 11:00 12:30 Rome from Constantius II to the Sack of Rome 13:00 Lunch 14:00 16:00 Free 16:00 Tea 16:30 18:00 Rome in the Fifth Century 18:00 18:30 Free 18:30 Dinner 20:00 21:30 Rome under the Goths and the reconquering Romans 21:30 Terrace bar open for informal discussion Sunday 07:30 Breakfast 09:00 10:30 Gregory the Great s Rome 10:30 Coffee 11:00 12:30 From Gregory to Honorius I and Beyond 12:45 Lunch The course will disperse after lunch

3 Course syllabus Aims: Outline the political and artistic developments in the city of Rome between the times of Constantine the Great and Gregory the Great Discuss the sources and the academic problems of evaluating these sources Introduce the main monuments of early Christian Rome that can still be seen in the city, and discuss their importance and significance. Content: This course will explore developments in the city of Rome in the years between Constantine the Great (Emperor from 307 to 337) and Gregory the Great (Pope from 590 to 604). There will be an introduction that will place this in context, and a conclusion that will sketch out the main historical and artistic developments in Rome after the death of Gregory. The three hundred years on which the course focuses saw the death of traditional paganism, the establishment of a new Christian order, the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the emergence of the Papacy as the dominant institution in Roman affairs. Rome was sacked several times, its population shrank to a fraction of its size under the early Emperors, and at the same time it became a major attraction for pilgrims and the site of exciting experimentation for artists and architects, as new forms of art and architecture were developed to suit the new circumstances. This course will look at these developments chronologically, and will introduce students to all the major new buildings that appeared in Rome in these years. Brief texts from the written sources (the Liber Pontificalis, papal letters, inscriptions and so on) will also be circulated and examined in the classes. Presentation of the course: Each session will begin with an illustrated lecture, interrupted by student questions, and will continue with a class discussion of the main issues, problems and debates. Outcomes: As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to: Demonstrate an outline knowledge of historical and artistic developments in early Christian Rome Understand the problems of analysing the main Roman monuments of the period Critically evaluate the evidence for Roman history and archaeology in this period

4 Reading and resources list Listed below are a number of texts that might be of interest for future reference, but do not need to be bought (or consulted) for the course. Brandenburg, Hugo. Ancient Churches of Rome from the Fourth to the Seventh Century: The Dawn of Christian Architecture in the West (Turnhout (Belgium), 2005) Claridge, Amanda. Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (Oxford UP, 1998) Collins, Roger. Keepers of the Keys of Heaven: A History of the Papacy (Basic Books, 2009) Cooper, Kate and Julia Hillner, eds. Religion, Dynasty, and Patronage in Early Christian Rome (Cambridge UP, 2007). Curran, John R. Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century (Oxford UP, 2000) Denzey, Nicola. The Bone Gatherers: The Lost Worlds of Early Christian Women (Beacon Press, Boston, 2000) Dunn, Geoffrey D. The Bishop of Rome in Late Antiquity (Ashgate, 2015) Erdcamp, Paul, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rome (Cambridge UP, 2013). Grig, Lucy and Gavin Kelly, eds. Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity (Oxford UP, 2012). Krautheimer, Richard. Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (Penguin, 1975) Krautheimer, Richard. Rome: Profile of a City, (Princeton UP, 1980) Lançon, Bertrand. Rome in Late Antiquity: Everyday Life and Urban Change, AD (Edinburgh UP, 2000) Llewellyn, Peter. Rome in the Dark Ages (Faber, 1970) Markus, Robert. Gregory the Great and His World (Cambridge UP, 1997) Neil, Bronwen. Leo the Great (Routledge, 2009) Richards, Jeffrey. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, (Routledge Kegan Paul, 1979) Richards, Jeffrey, Consul of God: The Life and Times of Gregory the Great (Routledge Kegan Paul, 1980) Thunø, Erik. The Apse Mosaic in Early Medieval Rome: Time, Network and Repetition (Cambridge UP, 2015)

5 Webb, Matilda. The Churches and Catacombs of Early Christian Rome: A Comprehensive Guide (Sussex Academic Press, 2001). Website addresses has links to pages on many early churches of Rome, and lists them and the various titulae in chronological order. Note Students of the Institute of Continuing Education are entitled to 20% discount on books published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) which are purchased at the Press bookshop, 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge (Mon-Sat 9am 5:30pm, Sun 11am 5pm). A letter or confirming acceptance on to a current Institute course should be taken as evidence of enrolment. Information correct as of: 11 December 2015