Rome and the guidebook tradition : from the middle ages to the 20th century

Open Access To this day, no comprehensive academic study of the development of guidebooks to Rome over time has been performed. This book treats the history of guidebooks to Rome from the Middle Ages up to the early twentieth century. It is based on the results of the interdisciplinary research project __Topos and Topography__, led by Anna Blennow and Stefano Fogelberg Rota. From the case studies performed within the project, it becomes evident that the guidebook as a phenomenon was formed in Rome during the later Middle Ages and early Renaissance. The elements and rhetorical strategies of guidebooks over time have shown to be surprisingly uniform, with three important points of development: a turn towards a more user-friendly structure from the seventeenth century and onward; the so-called ’Baedeker effect’ in the mid-nineteenth century; and the introduction of a personalized guiding voice in the first half of the twentieth century. Thus, the ‘guidebook tradition’ is an unusually consistent literary oeuvre, which also forms a warranty for the authority of every new guidebook. In this respect, the guidebook tradition is intimately associated with the city of Rome, with which it shares a constantly renovating yet eternally fixed nature. Acknowledgements Contents The authors Introduction 1. Wanderers and Wonders. The Medieval Guidebooks to Rome 2. Two Sixteenth-Century Guidebooks and the Bibliotopography of Rome 3. Architects, Antiquarians, and the Rise of the Image in Renaissance Guidebooks to Ancient Rome 4. Fioravante Martinelli’s Roma ricercata nel suo sito and his “lettore forastiero” 5. “Authors of degenerated Renaissance known as Baroque”. The Baedeker Effect and the Arts: Shortcuts to Artistic Appreciation in Nineteenth-Century Rome 6. Mental Maps and the Topography of the Mind. A Swedish Guide to the Roman Centuries 7. Ellen Rydelius’ Rom på 8 dagar (Rome in 8 Days). A Story of Change and Success 8. Codifying the Genre of Early Modern Guidebooks: Oskar Pollak, Ludwig Schudt and the Creation of Le Guide di Roma (1930) Appendix I: Must-See Monuments – the Colosseum in Guidebooks through the Centuries Appendix II: Itineraries through Trastevere from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century Name Index Place Index Almost everyone has used a guidebook, when travelling, or in the armchair at home. But how was the guidebook born? In this book, scholars from various disciplines argue that the guidebook emerged in Rome in the late Middle Ages, to form a surprisingly consistent model for guidebooks up to our time. The descriptions of must-see monuments, recommended routes, and value-laden instructions have guided travellers to Rome through more than 1000 years.