I am really inspired by Irene Fosi’s “The Plural City: Urban Spaces and Foreign Communities.” When we talk about Baroque art and Rome during the Baroque period, people usually consider the grand cathedrals and works of art dedicated to the elite class. As a result, I usually neglect the fact that Rome is a diverse city in which not only the privileged resided but also those who used their bodies and strength to construct the great buildings. Upon reading the chapter, I find a lot of resemblance between early modern Rome and a metropolis like New York today. Rome was, if not still remains, a city of conversation and conflicts between the rich and the poor, the native and the foreign, and the powerful and the ordinary. Only when we understand the dynamics within Rome can we truly understand the history of the city. However, as pointed out by Fosi, there are many challenges to this mission: for example, the court records were transcribed and polished by notaries and therefore no longer faithfully reflect the dynamics between the judge and the person in trial.
I had the chance to work on Envisioning Baroque Rome with Professor McPhee and ECDS in a previous semester. It is an ambitious project as Rome is a very big city, and each building is modeled to the most accurate and detailed extent possible. I am impressed by how many maps and building plans were drawn during the Baroque period and hence make this project possible.