The antiquarian and the myth of antiquity

Description

Since the close of antiquity, Rome has been revered as a symbol of secular and spiritual authority as well as for the enduring presence of its monuments. The origins of the city, shrouded in mystery already by imperial times, are still today a source of awe and fascination. In The Antiquarian and the Myth of Antiquity: The Origins of Rome in Renaissance Thought, Philip Jacks traces the attempt by Renaissance humanists to verify the historical foundations of Rome and to map its nascent urban formation. Remarkably, their debates hinged as much on polemics as on the evidence of inscriptions and texts. Antiquarians, apart from what they could observe from the vestiges of ancient Rome, actively reinterpreted the meaning of classical antiquity in light of their own culture. In analyzing the archaeological, philological, and historical methods of this period, The Antiquarian and the Myth of Antiquity demonstrates how the ancestry of Rome - its myths, rituals, and artistic symbols - were continually redefined and reappropriated. To Roman citizens this inheritance seemed part of their historical destiny. Yet in city after city throughout Italy, local humanists showed the same determination to establish their descent from ancient civilization.