Page 1. Philine Helas Lebende Bilder in der italienischen Festkultur des 15. Jahrhunderts Akademi... more Page 1. Philine Helas Lebende Bilder in der italienischen Festkultur des 15. Jahrhunderts Akademie Verlag Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. Philine Helas Lebende Bilder in der italienischen Festkultur des 15. Jahrhunderts Page 6. Page 7. ...
Ansichten Christi. Das Christusbild von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, (Ausstellungskatalog, Köln, Wallraff-Richartz-Museum), hg. v. Roland Krischel, 2005
Glaube Hoffnung Liebe Tod. (Ausstellungskatalog, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Wien), hrsg. von Christoph Geissmar Brandi und Eleonora Louis, pp. 116-117, 1995
Strangers and Poor People. Changing Patterns of Inclusion and Exclusion in Europe and the Mediterranean World from Classical Antiquity to the Present Day, ed. by Andreas Gestrich / Lutz Raphael / Herbert Uerlings, 2009
Der Globusfreund. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für Globen- und Instrumentenkunde XLV/XLVI (1997/1998), S. 155-175, 1998
Fifteenth Century Italian culture is characterized by sumptuous pageantry at public feasts, eccle... more Fifteenth Century Italian culture is characterized by sumptuous pageantry at public feasts, ecclesiastical processions, and in profane ceremonies such as the festive entrance of a ruler, bride or guest of state. On such occasions, living images or tableaux vivants were used. At two events, the entrance of Alfonso ďAragona in Naples in 1443 and the wedding of Costanzo Sforza and Camilla ď Aragona in Pesaro in 1475, this pageantry included a personification placed on a globe. These examples are important documentations for the history of the globe in 15-th Century Italy. At the above-mentioned event in Naples, Florentine merchants presented a statue of the emperor Caesar standing on a sphere painted to represent the earth, which was constantly revolving. It is my hypothesis that this globe was a product of the „scientific revolution" which began in early 15-th Century Florence and was further proliferated by the Union Council in 1439 where Greek and Latin scholars met. Written sources make no mention of the creator of the 1443 globe. We can, however, reconstruct a highly suggestive connection: Piero de' Ricci was the author of a poem recited by Caesar; de' Ricci was acquainted with Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, the great Florentine cartographer who, in turn, was a friend of Filippo Brunelleschi, the well-known architect, engineer and constructor of machines for the religious spectacles in Florence. Together this is a rare combination of humanistic, artistic and scientific knowledge which could have formed the basis for this invention. It should also be noted that ephemeral decorations formed a special place for artistic experiments. In Florence, the first picture of a globe can be found in the 1470's in a painting by Piero Poliamolo. Many other examples can subsequently be found in miniatures. Perhaps influenced by Florentine inventions, Federico da Montefeltro made his court a center of humanistic and scientific studies, generating another ephemeral globe in 1475. Only two years later, the first „real" globe is documented in Italy. It was made for Sixtus IV by the German astronomer Donnus Nikolaus Germanus. It appears that an artistic readiness to use and transform knowledge of geometry and optics formed the basis of an interest in „imaging" the earth. This was later to become an important part of the history of science.
Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, 43 (2017/2018), S. 99-126, 2020
Flooding of the Tiber River has regularly afflicted Rome since antiquity. This paper analyzes the... more Flooding of the Tiber River has regularly afflicted Rome since antiquity. This paper analyzes the flood of the year 1495-for which we have documentation in the form of texts, images and flood markers-and focuses on the perception of the flooded city's topography and on strategies of crisis management. The main source, Giuliano Dati's poem Del diluvio de Roma, was the first account dedicated exclusively to the description and illustration of a flood or a natural disaster as a historical event. The frontispieces of two editions, one printed in Rome by Johann Besicken and Andreas Freitag and another printed in Florence by Antonio Miscomini, are just as unusual as the text itself and reflect the exceptional situation that they illustrate. The model for both frontispieces can be traced to representations of the biblical flood, in addition they depict an important aspect of the text: that is, the way those affected deal with the crisis by attempting to save themselves and others. These illustrations of the 1495 flood are dated to the exact time when a change in representations of the Deluge can be observed. While medieval pictures dramatically depict drowned bodies and birds gnawing corpses, Renaissance images rarely show dead bodies, instead making the subject of the picture the heroic struggle of humans against the flood. In this respect, the innovative interpretation of a natural disaster in Dati's Diluvio may have prepared the way for later Renaissance imagery of the Deluge.
. In: Iconographica. Rivista di Iconografia medievale e moderna, III . In: Iconographica. Rivista di Iconografia medievale e moderna, III (2004), pp. 63-87, 2004
Denaro e Bellezza. I banchieri, Botticelli e il rogo delle vanità, Firenze 17.09.2011-22.01.2012, a cura di Ludovica Sebregondi e Tim Parks, Firenze 2011, 160, 2011
Denaro e Bellezza. I banchieri, Botticelli e il rogo delle vanità, Firenze 17.09.2011-22.01.2012, a cura di Ludovica Sebregondi e Tim Parks, Firenze 2011, 156, 2011
Page 1. Philine Helas Lebende Bilder in der italienischen Festkultur des 15. Jahrhunderts Akademi... more Page 1. Philine Helas Lebende Bilder in der italienischen Festkultur des 15. Jahrhunderts Akademie Verlag Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. Philine Helas Lebende Bilder in der italienischen Festkultur des 15. Jahrhunderts Page 6. Page 7. ...
Ansichten Christi. Das Christusbild von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, (Ausstellungskatalog, Köln, Wallraff-Richartz-Museum), hg. v. Roland Krischel, 2005
Glaube Hoffnung Liebe Tod. (Ausstellungskatalog, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Wien), hrsg. von Christoph Geissmar Brandi und Eleonora Louis, pp. 116-117, 1995
Strangers and Poor People. Changing Patterns of Inclusion and Exclusion in Europe and the Mediterranean World from Classical Antiquity to the Present Day, ed. by Andreas Gestrich / Lutz Raphael / Herbert Uerlings, 2009
Der Globusfreund. Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für Globen- und Instrumentenkunde XLV/XLVI (1997/1998), S. 155-175, 1998
Fifteenth Century Italian culture is characterized by sumptuous pageantry at public feasts, eccle... more Fifteenth Century Italian culture is characterized by sumptuous pageantry at public feasts, ecclesiastical processions, and in profane ceremonies such as the festive entrance of a ruler, bride or guest of state. On such occasions, living images or tableaux vivants were used. At two events, the entrance of Alfonso ďAragona in Naples in 1443 and the wedding of Costanzo Sforza and Camilla ď Aragona in Pesaro in 1475, this pageantry included a personification placed on a globe. These examples are important documentations for the history of the globe in 15-th Century Italy. At the above-mentioned event in Naples, Florentine merchants presented a statue of the emperor Caesar standing on a sphere painted to represent the earth, which was constantly revolving. It is my hypothesis that this globe was a product of the „scientific revolution" which began in early 15-th Century Florence and was further proliferated by the Union Council in 1439 where Greek and Latin scholars met. Written sources make no mention of the creator of the 1443 globe. We can, however, reconstruct a highly suggestive connection: Piero de' Ricci was the author of a poem recited by Caesar; de' Ricci was acquainted with Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, the great Florentine cartographer who, in turn, was a friend of Filippo Brunelleschi, the well-known architect, engineer and constructor of machines for the religious spectacles in Florence. Together this is a rare combination of humanistic, artistic and scientific knowledge which could have formed the basis for this invention. It should also be noted that ephemeral decorations formed a special place for artistic experiments. In Florence, the first picture of a globe can be found in the 1470's in a painting by Piero Poliamolo. Many other examples can subsequently be found in miniatures. Perhaps influenced by Florentine inventions, Federico da Montefeltro made his court a center of humanistic and scientific studies, generating another ephemeral globe in 1475. Only two years later, the first „real" globe is documented in Italy. It was made for Sixtus IV by the German astronomer Donnus Nikolaus Germanus. It appears that an artistic readiness to use and transform knowledge of geometry and optics formed the basis of an interest in „imaging" the earth. This was later to become an important part of the history of science.
Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, 43 (2017/2018), S. 99-126, 2020
Flooding of the Tiber River has regularly afflicted Rome since antiquity. This paper analyzes the... more Flooding of the Tiber River has regularly afflicted Rome since antiquity. This paper analyzes the flood of the year 1495-for which we have documentation in the form of texts, images and flood markers-and focuses on the perception of the flooded city's topography and on strategies of crisis management. The main source, Giuliano Dati's poem Del diluvio de Roma, was the first account dedicated exclusively to the description and illustration of a flood or a natural disaster as a historical event. The frontispieces of two editions, one printed in Rome by Johann Besicken and Andreas Freitag and another printed in Florence by Antonio Miscomini, are just as unusual as the text itself and reflect the exceptional situation that they illustrate. The model for both frontispieces can be traced to representations of the biblical flood, in addition they depict an important aspect of the text: that is, the way those affected deal with the crisis by attempting to save themselves and others. These illustrations of the 1495 flood are dated to the exact time when a change in representations of the Deluge can be observed. While medieval pictures dramatically depict drowned bodies and birds gnawing corpses, Renaissance images rarely show dead bodies, instead making the subject of the picture the heroic struggle of humans against the flood. In this respect, the innovative interpretation of a natural disaster in Dati's Diluvio may have prepared the way for later Renaissance imagery of the Deluge.
. In: Iconographica. Rivista di Iconografia medievale e moderna, III . In: Iconographica. Rivista di Iconografia medievale e moderna, III (2004), pp. 63-87, 2004
Denaro e Bellezza. I banchieri, Botticelli e il rogo delle vanità, Firenze 17.09.2011-22.01.2012, a cura di Ludovica Sebregondi e Tim Parks, Firenze 2011, 160, 2011
Denaro e Bellezza. I banchieri, Botticelli e il rogo delle vanità, Firenze 17.09.2011-22.01.2012, a cura di Ludovica Sebregondi e Tim Parks, Firenze 2011, 156, 2011
A collection of antiquarian books with a history stretching back over more than a century does no... more A collection of antiquarian books with a history stretching back over more than a century does not ‘grow’ by chance. The original nucleus of the holdings of the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History dates back to the end of the nineteenth century and consists of the bequest of the founder Henriette Hertz. It has been successively expanded by generations of librarians and scholars through selective purchases, bequests and donations and today comprises some 20,000 volumes. Since 2015, the traditional sections of the collection have grown in line with a programme of systematic acquisitions, in response also to the Institute’s new directions of research. For example, in agreement with the research department headed by Tanja Michalsky, there has been a focus on antique publications devoted to topics such as Naples and southern Italy, while also opening up the field to ‘natural disasters’ such as earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Vesuvius constitutes, so to speak, the point of intersection between these interests. This led to the idea of presenting part of the book holdings already present in the ‘rare’ collection, together with numerous more recent acquisitions, through a digital exhibition – ‘Eruzioni di carta’ (‘Paper eruptions’) – for which this material was selected, studied and catalogued by a study group set up for the occasion.
The entire library holdings are currently being digitised in line with the highest technical standards, and are being made available to the public in open source mode. The digitised volumes of this exhibition can be consulted in the DLIB digital library, where they form a special collection (links can be found in the respective files). All texts are undergoing neural transcription with the help of Transkribus, providing additional research tools for those who want to try their hand at this material in the future.
The result of close cooperation between the Library department and the Michalsky research department with the technical support of the Photographic Collection, this digital exhibition has been personally curated by Elisabetta Scirocco, Philine Helas and Hanna Sophie Stegemann, building on the work carried out over the years by librarians Beate Thomas and Barbara Dinsing. The study and cataloguing of the works in the exhibition have been enriched by the contribution of the research group of the ERC project Disasters, Communication and Politics in Southwestern Europe: The Making of Emergency Response Policies in the Early Modern Age (DisComPoSE), directed by Domenico Cecere at the Department of Humanistic Studies of the University of Naples “Federico II”, and dedicated to the links between the circulation of news about natural disasters, the processing of information and memories of the events and the development of emergency management policies in the European and non-European territories of the Hispanic Monarchy between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
While it is true to some extent that “the bibliography of Vesuvius begins with the great eruption of 1631” (Furchheim 1897, Preface, p. V), the volcanic phenomena of Roman Campania Felix continued to attract the interest of travellers and ‘health tourists’ throughout the Middle Ages and the modern age, gaining a prominent place in guidebooks and works aimed at lovers of antiquities who travelled south of Rome. It is no coincidence that these ‘natural monuments’ are included in various picture cycles dedicated to antiquities or the wonders of Italy, alongside architectural monuments built by human hands. However, it is difficult to underestimate the cultural impact of the eruptive event of 1631, which constitutes a real watershed in the history of Naples and its territory and marks the start of the volcano’s continuous activity over the following two centuries. Writers, historians, artists and travellers were continuously interested in the mountain, and during the eighteenth century were joined by naturalists who laid the foundations for the birth of modern geology and volcanology. In the nineteenth century, the latter was to establish itself as a discipline on an international scale, placing the volcanoes of Campania and those of the rest of the world on a similar level of investigation. Visiting Vesuvius and/or the Solfatara as a natural spectacle and historical site of tragic events was throughout the late modern age an integral part of the tour programme of travellers and subsequently of travelogues, while the numerous gouaches depicting Vesuvius during an eruption indicate a flourishing market for such souvenirs.
The six sections of the exhibition retrace this important thematic trail in European publishing and visual culture from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The enormous production of texts with accounts, chronological series and catalogues of eruptions, theological discourses, mineralogical and volcanological investigations, printed by Neapolitan publishers and others, was accompanied from the outset by an equally flourishing production of images, linked closely intrinsically and extrinsically with the source texts. The diffusion and transmigration of visual topoi and codes of representation linked to ‘volcanic landscapes’ and catastrophes is in fact another possible key to understanding the volumes on display.
Some of the volumes on display entered the Institute’s collection very early on; others belonged to internationally renowned scholars who have long animated the intellectual life of the Institute, such as Richard Krautheimer. The success of the theme and the rich production of books and pictures on the subject of the eruptions of Vesuvius have recently been matched by the interest of the underground market and unscrupulous collectors. Proof of this is the systematic defacement of many of the volumes on display, with engravings depicting the volcano (represented as a force of nature in activity or as a landscape element) being cut out from them, often in a targeted and selective manner. In these cases, wherever possible, the exhibition cards refer to these missing engravings found in other examples available on the web, to allow a virtual recomposition of the works in their relationship between texts and images, albeit with the awareness of the impossibility of recovering the uniqueness of the book-object that characterised every single example of the same print run. For this reason, the work of scientific analysis for the exhibition was accompanied by the updating of the files concerning these same volumes in the library catalogue.
‘Eruzioni di carta’ is only the first exhibition of its kind. Other exhibitions will follow at regular intervals, with the aim always of combining the library’s scientific and research expertise and presenting some of the treasures of the Institute’s book heritage to the specialist public.
Convegno 30 maggio ore 9,15 Convegno -30 maggio L'Archivio di Stato di Roma coglie l'occasione de... more Convegno 30 maggio ore 9,15 Convegno -30 maggio L'Archivio di Stato di Roma coglie l'occasione della mostra per riunire alcuni tra gli studiosi più autorevoli che si sono occupati dell'ordine di Santo Spirito nel Trecento. Come si arrivò alla committenza del Liber Regulae, un codice miniato che rivaleggiava in bellezza e ricchezza iconografica con la committenza papale avignonese? Quale ruolo ebbe l'ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia nei rapporti tra Roma, Avignone e le grandi famiglie romane? Programma 9,15 Paolo Buonora (Archivio di Stato di Roma): Introduzione 9,30 Andreas Rehberg (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom): L'ordine del Santo Spirito in Europa. Alcune considerazioni sulla sua espansione 10,00 Anna Esposito (Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"): La multiforme attività assistenziale dell'ospedale di Santo Spirito nel tardo Medioevo 10.30 Pausa caffé 11,00 Francesca Manzari (Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"): Il Liber Regulae e la miniatura del Trecento: acquisizioni, nuove proposte e interrogativi aperti 11,30 Alessandro Tomei (Università degli Studi "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti -Pescara): Qualche considerazione di stile sulle miniature del Liber Regulae 12,00 Philine Helas (Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rom): La carità nell'arte del Trecento: le miniature del Liber Regulae e il loro contesto iconografico 12,30 Discussione 13,00 -14,00 Pausa pranzo 14,00 Orietta Verdi (Archivio di Stato di Roma): Interventi di restauro sul codice Liber Regulae: l'occasione di una mostra 14,30 Fulvio Mercuri (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata): Dentro le immagini del Liber Regulae. Indagini non invasive delle miniature 15,00 Presentazione del volume Caritas im Schatten von Sankt Peter. Der Liber Regulae des Hospitals Santo Spirito in Sassia: intervengono i curatori Gisela Drossbach (Universität Augsburg), Gerhard Wolf (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut). Discussione
La Direzione dell'Archivio di Stato di Roma invita la SV all'inaugurazione della mostra Vivere la... more La Direzione dell'Archivio di Stato di Roma invita la SV all'inaugurazione della mostra Vivere la Misericordia nel Trecento. Le miniature del Liber Regulae dell'Ospedale romano di Santo Spirito in Sassia che si terrà il 16 maggio 2016 alle ore 16,00 nella Sala Alessandrina del Complesso di Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, Corso del Rinascimento 40
Convegno 30 maggio ore 9,15 Convegno -30 maggio L'Archivio di Stato di Roma coglie l'occasione de... more Convegno 30 maggio ore 9,15 Convegno -30 maggio L'Archivio di Stato di Roma coglie l'occasione della mostra per riunire alcuni tra gli studiosi più autorevoli che si sono occupati dell'ordine di Santo Spirito nel Trecento. Come si arrivò alla committenza del Liber Regulae, un codice miniato che rivaleggiava in bellezza e ricchezza iconografica con la committenza papale avignonese? Quale ruolo ebbe l'ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia nei rapporti tra Roma, Avignone e le grandi famiglie romane? Programma 9,15 Paolo Buonora (Archivio di Stato di Roma): Introduzione 9,30 Andreas Rehberg (Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom): L'ordine del Santo Spirito in Europa. Alcune considerazioni sulla sua espansione 10,00 Anna Esposito (Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"): La multiforme attività assistenziale dell'ospedale di Santo Spirito nel tardo Medioevo 10.30 Pausa caffé 11,00 Francesca Manzari (Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"): Il Liber Regulae e la miniatura del Trecento: acquisizioni, nuove proposte e interrogativi aperti 11,30 Alessandro Tomei (Università degli Studi "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti -Pescara): Qualche considerazione di stile sulle miniature del Liber Regulae 12,00 Philine Helas (Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rom): La carità nell'arte del Trecento: le miniature del Liber Regulae e il loro contesto iconografico 12,30 Discussione 13,00 -14,00 Pausa pranzo 14,00 Orietta Verdi (Archivio di Stato di Roma): Interventi di restauro sul codice Liber Regulae: l'occasione di una mostra 14,30 Fulvio Mercuri (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata): Dentro le immagini del Liber Regulae. Indagini non invasive delle miniature 15,00 Presentazione del volume Caritas im Schatten von Sankt Peter. Der Liber Regulae des Hospitals Santo Spirito in Sassia: intervengono i curatori Gisela Drossbach (Universität Augsburg), Gerhard Wolf (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut). Discussione
Convegno internazionale di studi, a cura di Pjìhiline Helas e Patrizia Tosini, Roma 28-29 gennai... more Convegno internazionale di studi, a cura di Pjìhiline Helas e Patrizia Tosini, Roma 28-29 gennaio Bibliotheca Hartziana, Villino Stroganoff, via Gregoriana 22, Roma
Il 6 marzo 2019 alle ore 16,30 verrà presentato presso la Sala Alessandrina dell'Archivio di Stato di Roma Vivere la misericordia nel Trecento. Le miniature del Liber Regulae dell’ospedale romano di santo Spirito in Sassiam (Roma 2018). Il volume, curato da Letizia Leli e pubblicato dal Croma con il sostegno della ASL Roma1, raccoglie gli atti del convegno promosso dall’Archivio di Stato di Roma il 30 maggio 2016 e il catalogo della mostra allestita presso la Sala Alessandrina nei mesi di maggio e giugno del 2016. Il Liber Regulae, codice membranaceo trecentesco riccamente miniato, contenente la Regola dell’Ordine di Santo Spirito, è stato oggetto di accurate indagini diagnostiche condotte da un gruppo di ricercatori dell’Università di Tor Vergata e, in seguito, di un restauro che ha interessato la legatura di epoca settecentesca. Lo scioglimento della legatura ha permesso di esporre una quarantina di splendide pagine miniate del manoscritto, le quali, organizzate in un percorso tematico, hanno dato vita a un racconto per immagini della vita comunitaria e dell’attività caritativa dell’ospedale. Oltre alla presenza di alcuni documenti provenienti dall’antico archivio del Santo Spirito, un posto d’onore ha avuto, grazie alla concessione della ASL Roma 1, il Liber Fraternitatis, prezioso che riporta i nomi dei membri della Confraternita di Santo Spirito dalla prima metà del Quattrocento a oggi. Saggi di A. Esposito, P. Helas, F. Manzari, F. Mercuri, A. Rehberg, A. Tanese, A. Tomei, O. Verdi. Dopo i saluti di Paolo Buonora, direttore dell’Archivio di Stato di Roma, di Angelo Tanese, direttore generale della ASL Roma 1 e di Carlo M. Travaglini, direttore del Croma, presenteranno il volume Ivana Ait, Silvia Maddalo e Alessandro Zuccari. Sarà presente la curatrice del volume, Letizia Leli.
Uploads
Papers by Philine Helas
At the above-mentioned event in Naples, Florentine merchants presented
a statue of the emperor Caesar standing on a sphere painted to represent the earth, which was constantly revolving. It is my hypothesis that this globe was a product of the „scientific revolution" which began in early 15-th Century Florence and was further proliferated by the Union Council in 1439 where Greek and Latin scholars met. Written sources make no mention of the creator of the 1443 globe. We can, however, reconstruct a highly suggestive connection: Piero de' Ricci was the author of a poem recited by Caesar; de' Ricci was acquainted with Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, the great Florentine cartographer who, in turn, was a friend of Filippo Brunelleschi, the well-known architect, engineer and constructor of machines for the religious spectacles in Florence. Together this is a rare combination of humanistic, artistic and scientific knowledge which could have formed the basis for this invention. It should also be noted that ephemeral decorations formed a special place for artistic experiments.
In Florence, the first picture of a globe can be found in the 1470's in a painting by Piero Poliamolo. Many other examples can subsequently be found in miniatures. Perhaps influenced by Florentine inventions, Federico da Montefeltro made his court a center of humanistic and scientific studies, generating another ephemeral globe in 1475. Only two years later, the first „real" globe is documented in Italy. It was made for Sixtus IV by the German astronomer Donnus Nikolaus Germanus.
It appears that an artistic readiness to use and transform knowledge of
geometry and optics formed the basis of an interest in „imaging" the earth. This was later to become an important part of the history of science.
At the above-mentioned event in Naples, Florentine merchants presented
a statue of the emperor Caesar standing on a sphere painted to represent the earth, which was constantly revolving. It is my hypothesis that this globe was a product of the „scientific revolution" which began in early 15-th Century Florence and was further proliferated by the Union Council in 1439 where Greek and Latin scholars met. Written sources make no mention of the creator of the 1443 globe. We can, however, reconstruct a highly suggestive connection: Piero de' Ricci was the author of a poem recited by Caesar; de' Ricci was acquainted with Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, the great Florentine cartographer who, in turn, was a friend of Filippo Brunelleschi, the well-known architect, engineer and constructor of machines for the religious spectacles in Florence. Together this is a rare combination of humanistic, artistic and scientific knowledge which could have formed the basis for this invention. It should also be noted that ephemeral decorations formed a special place for artistic experiments.
In Florence, the first picture of a globe can be found in the 1470's in a painting by Piero Poliamolo. Many other examples can subsequently be found in miniatures. Perhaps influenced by Florentine inventions, Federico da Montefeltro made his court a center of humanistic and scientific studies, generating another ephemeral globe in 1475. Only two years later, the first „real" globe is documented in Italy. It was made for Sixtus IV by the German astronomer Donnus Nikolaus Germanus.
It appears that an artistic readiness to use and transform knowledge of
geometry and optics formed the basis of an interest in „imaging" the earth. This was later to become an important part of the history of science.
Since 2015, the traditional sections of the collection have grown in line with a programme of systematic acquisitions, in response also to the Institute’s new directions of research. For example, in agreement with the research department headed by Tanja Michalsky, there has been a focus on antique publications devoted to topics such as Naples and southern Italy, while also opening up the field to ‘natural disasters’ such as earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Vesuvius constitutes, so to speak, the point of intersection between these interests. This led to the idea of presenting part of the book holdings already present in the ‘rare’ collection, together with numerous more recent acquisitions, through a digital exhibition – ‘Eruzioni di carta’ (‘Paper eruptions’) – for which this material was selected, studied and catalogued by a study group set up for the occasion.
The entire library holdings are currently being digitised in line with the highest technical standards, and are being made available to the public in open source mode. The digitised volumes of this exhibition can be consulted in the DLIB digital library, where they form a special collection (links can be found in the respective files). All texts are undergoing neural transcription with the help of Transkribus, providing additional research tools for those who want to try their hand at this material in the future.
The result of close cooperation between the Library department and the Michalsky research department with the technical support of the Photographic Collection, this digital exhibition has been personally curated by Elisabetta Scirocco, Philine Helas and Hanna Sophie Stegemann, building on the work carried out over the years by librarians Beate Thomas and Barbara Dinsing. The study and cataloguing of the works in the exhibition have been enriched by the contribution of the research group of the ERC project Disasters, Communication and Politics in Southwestern Europe: The Making of Emergency Response Policies in the Early Modern Age (DisComPoSE), directed by Domenico Cecere at the Department of Humanistic Studies of the University of Naples “Federico II”, and dedicated to the links between the circulation of news about natural disasters, the processing of information and memories of the events and the development of emergency management policies in the European and non-European territories of the Hispanic Monarchy between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.
While it is true to some extent that “the bibliography of Vesuvius begins with the great eruption of 1631” (Furchheim 1897, Preface, p. V), the volcanic phenomena of Roman Campania Felix continued to attract the interest of travellers and ‘health tourists’ throughout the Middle Ages and the modern age, gaining a prominent place in guidebooks and works aimed at lovers of antiquities who travelled south of Rome. It is no coincidence that these ‘natural monuments’ are included in various picture cycles dedicated to antiquities or the wonders of Italy, alongside architectural monuments built by human hands. However, it is difficult to underestimate the cultural impact of the eruptive event of 1631, which constitutes a real watershed in the history of Naples and its territory and marks the start of the volcano’s continuous activity over the following two centuries. Writers, historians, artists and travellers were continuously interested in the mountain, and during the eighteenth century were joined by naturalists who laid the foundations for the birth of modern geology and volcanology. In the nineteenth century, the latter was to establish itself as a discipline on an international scale, placing the volcanoes of Campania and those of the rest of the world on a similar level of investigation. Visiting Vesuvius and/or the Solfatara as a natural spectacle and historical site of tragic events was throughout the late modern age an integral part of the tour programme of travellers and subsequently of travelogues, while the numerous gouaches depicting Vesuvius during an eruption indicate a flourishing market for such souvenirs.
The six sections of the exhibition retrace this important thematic trail in European publishing and visual culture from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The enormous production of texts with accounts, chronological series and catalogues of eruptions, theological discourses, mineralogical and volcanological investigations, printed by Neapolitan publishers and others, was accompanied from the outset by an equally flourishing production of images, linked closely intrinsically and extrinsically with the source texts. The diffusion and transmigration of visual topoi and codes of representation linked to ‘volcanic landscapes’ and catastrophes is in fact another possible key to understanding the volumes on display.
Some of the volumes on display entered the Institute’s collection very early on; others belonged to internationally renowned scholars who have long animated the intellectual life of the Institute, such as Richard Krautheimer. The success of the theme and the rich production of books and pictures on the subject of the eruptions of Vesuvius have recently been matched by the interest of the underground market and unscrupulous collectors. Proof of this is the systematic defacement of many of the volumes on display, with engravings depicting the volcano (represented as a force of nature in activity or as a landscape element) being cut out from them, often in a targeted and selective manner. In these cases, wherever possible, the exhibition cards refer to these missing engravings found in other examples available on the web, to allow a virtual recomposition of the works in their relationship between texts and images, albeit with the awareness of the impossibility of recovering the uniqueness of the book-object that characterised every single example of the same print run. For this reason, the work of scientific analysis for the exhibition was accompanied by the updating of the files concerning these same volumes in the library catalogue.
‘Eruzioni di carta’ is only the first exhibition of its kind. Other exhibitions will follow at regular intervals, with the aim always of combining the library’s scientific and research expertise and presenting some of the treasures of the Institute’s book heritage to the specialist public.
Allegatimer 27 feb, 15:27 (20 ore fa)
a AS-RM
Il 6 marzo 2019 alle ore 16,30 verrà presentato presso la Sala Alessandrina dell'Archivio di Stato di Roma
Vivere la misericordia nel Trecento. Le miniature del Liber Regulae dell’ospedale romano di santo Spirito in Sassiam (Roma 2018).
Il volume, curato da Letizia Leli e pubblicato dal Croma con il sostegno della ASL Roma1, raccoglie gli atti del convegno promosso dall’Archivio di Stato di Roma il 30 maggio 2016 e il catalogo della mostra allestita presso la Sala Alessandrina nei mesi di maggio e giugno del 2016.
Il Liber Regulae, codice membranaceo trecentesco riccamente miniato, contenente la Regola dell’Ordine di Santo Spirito, è stato oggetto di accurate indagini diagnostiche condotte da un gruppo di ricercatori dell’Università di Tor Vergata e, in seguito, di un restauro che ha interessato la legatura di epoca settecentesca. Lo scioglimento della legatura ha permesso di esporre una quarantina di splendide pagine miniate del manoscritto, le quali, organizzate in un percorso tematico, hanno dato vita a un racconto per immagini della vita comunitaria e dell’attività caritativa dell’ospedale. Oltre alla presenza di alcuni documenti provenienti dall’antico archivio del Santo Spirito, un posto d’onore ha avuto, grazie alla concessione della ASL Roma 1, il Liber Fraternitatis, prezioso che riporta i nomi dei membri della Confraternita di Santo Spirito dalla prima metà del Quattrocento a oggi. Saggi di A. Esposito, P. Helas, F. Manzari, F. Mercuri, A. Rehberg, A. Tanese, A. Tomei, O. Verdi.
Dopo i saluti di Paolo Buonora, direttore dell’Archivio di Stato di Roma, di Angelo Tanese, direttore generale della ASL Roma 1 e di Carlo M. Travaglini, direttore del Croma, presenteranno il volume Ivana Ait, Silvia Maddalo e Alessandro Zuccari. Sarà presente la curatrice del volume, Letizia Leli.