Exploring the Kingdom of Saturn : Kircher's Latium and its legacy / Harry B. Evans.
Evans, Harry B.
2012
DG52 .E93 2012 (Mapit)
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Title Exploring the Kingdom of Saturn : Kircher's Latium and its legacy / Harry B. Evans.
Author Evans, Harry B.
ISBN 9780472118151 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0472118153 (cloth ; alk. paper)
Imprint Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, ©2012.
Language English
Description 236 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Other Standard Identifiers 40021149961
Call Number DG52 .E93 2012
Summary "Exploring the Kingdom of Saturn assesses a pioneering study of ancient Latium by one of the most interesting figures in the history of learning, the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher. Although Kircher's Latium, published in 1671, is not without errors in its reading of the ancient monuments and topography of the area around Rome, this highly influential work launched future topographical study of the Roman campagna. Harry B. Evans investigates Kircher's Latium, its methods and accuracy, its possible use as a reference now, the scholarly quarrel between Kircher and rival scholar Raffaello Fabretti, and the Vatican's publications committee's involvement with Latium. While Kircher himself is well known for his many publications on a wide variety of subjects--Egyptian hieroglyphs, linguistics, natural science, musicology, and the history of China--his work as an archaeologist and topographer has often been dismissed. But his Latium is worth a detailed assessment: not only was it an early attempt to link ancient literary and historical sources to physical evidence, with splendid illustrations and maps, but the book spurred enormous interest in the region, prompting a more sophisticated study of it by Kircher's contemporaries and later generations. Anyone interested in the history of archaeology, the world of seventeenth-century Italian antiquarians and scholars, and the fascinating region of Latium itself will want to learn more about Kircher's achievements and the scholarly legacy of his book."-- Publisher's website.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
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Introduction : tackling topography
Preliminaries : Latium, the church, the pope, and Kircher's preface
It all started with Noah
Latium's lake country, the Alban Hills
Villas and a tomb : Tusculum and the Ager Tusculanus
Praeneste : Barberini town and its mosaic
Villa country : Tivoli and its surrounding territory
The Sabines and Volscians
Draining the Pomptine marshes : a not-so-modest proposal
Habent sua fata libelli : Fabretti's reading of Kircher
The legacy of Kircher's Latium.

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