When reading Irene Fosi’s “The Plural City: Urban Spaces and Foreign Communities” and Arnold A. Witte’s “Scale, Space, and Spectacle: Church Decoration in Rome, 1500-1700,” it was difficult (if not impossible) to attempt to visualize the buildings and spaces that were discussed. Witte’s book chapter focused on decoration of specific buildings while Fosi discussed the more general topic of Roman streets and space in general. Both of these topics were extremely interesting to me and I found myself wishing that I was in early modern Rome to see for myself what it was like; this is where digital humanities saved the day. As I read about Rome and how church decorations went from very minimalistic to extravagant, as well as how collaborations began taking place between artists, I felt as though I was imagining Rome changing through time. Similarly, with the discussion by Fosi on urban space, I could visualize all the different types of Roman individuals wandering around the streets and the unwelcome glances at foreigners… or could I?
I’ve never been great at geography or identifying places without maps, and since I have never been to Rome, it was extremely difficult for me to follow along with what Fosi, Witte, and lectures about specific Roman artwork were saying, until I interacted with Falda’s map that has been turned into a video game-like simulation. I have never experienced anything like it and was so intrigued that I wanted to get lost on the ancient Roman streets for hours. In addition to being very entertaining and beautiful to look at, it was so incredibly helpful in visualizing the narrow streets and rows of buildings that were present all those centuries ago. This portal was definitely my favorite digital resource that we have looked at thus far, and I think that it will be such an important reference for me as we continue to study more of Baroque Rome next week.