Overview

One of the most visited sites in Italy, the Roman Forum is also one of the best-known wonders of the Roman world. Though a highpoint on the tourist route around Rome, for many visitors the site can be a baffling disappointment. Several of the monuments turn out to be nineteenth- or twentieth-century reconstructions, while the rubble and the holes made by archaeologists have an unclear relationship to the standing remains, and, to all but the most skilled Romanists, the Forum is an unfortunate mess. David Watkin sheds completely new light on the Forum, examining the roles of the ancient remains while revealing what exactly the standing structures embody - including the rarely studied medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque churches, as well as the nearby monuments that have important histories of their own. Watkin asks the reader to look through the veneer of archaeology to rediscover the site as it was famous for centuries. This involves offering a remarkable and engaging new vision of a well-visited, if often misunderstood, wonder. It will be enjoyed by readers at home and serve as a guide in the Forum.

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9780674033412

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Reviews

Though not strictly modern--well, not modern at all, really--the Wonders of the World series of books from Harvard Universtiy Press remains my favorite ongoing run of architectural tomes. Classicist Mary Beard is the series editor, and each of these trim volumes takes up the subject of a particular building. Ranging from Stonehenge to the Parthenon to the Temple of Jerusalem , imagine these scholarly works as biographies of buildings...[You should] race to add the newly released Roman Forum and Piazza San Marco to your collection...The well-illustrated little book traces the Forum from antiquity to today, and serves as an able roadmap to the historical eras and ideologies written across what may have been the most striking expression of Roman architecture. Popes, plunderers and preservationists all play roles in this book, and it's an ideal stocking stuffer for those who take their architecture with a solid dose of intellectual rigor. And that the book will tuck nicely into a blazer pocket is only a welcome bonus... Be sure to pick up the entire set yourself. I'm awfully glad I've got mine, and can't wait to tuck into the next one. -- Aaron Britt dwell.com (12/15/2009)

Author Information

David Watkin is Professor Emeritus of the History of Architecture at the University of Cambridge.

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