The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient World (Faber Finds)

- London: Faber and Faber, 2013. - 252 p. - ISBN: 9780571308767.Roman towns and their history are generally regarded as being the preserve of the archaeologist or the economic historian. In this famous, unusual and radical book which touches on such disparate themes as psychology and urban architecture, Joseph Rykwert has considered them as works of art. His starting point is the mythical, historical and ritual texts in which their foundation is recounted rather than the excavated remains, such texts having parallels not merely in ancient Greece but also further afield Mesopotamia, India and China.Title PageDedicationEpigraphList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsPreface to the Paper EditionOne Town and Rite: Rome and RomulusTwo City and SiteThree Square and CrossFour Guardians of Centre, Guardians of BoundariesFive The ParallelsSix The City as a Curable Disease: Ritual and HysteriaConclusion

Roman towns and their history are generally regarded as being the preserve of the archaeologist or the economic historian. In this famous, unusual and radical book which touches on such disparate themes as psychology and urban architecture, Joseph Rykwert has considered them as works of art. His starting point is the mythical, historical and ritual texts in which their foundation is recounted rather than the excavated remains, such texts having parallels not merely in ancient Greece but also further afield Mesopotamia, India and China.
To achieve his reading of the Roman town, he has invoked the comparative method of the anthropologists, and he examines first of all the 'Etruscan rite', a group of ceremonies by which all, or practically all, Roman towns were founded. The basic institutions of the town, its walls and gates, its central shrines and its forum are all of them part of a pattern to which the rituals and the myths that accompanied them provide clues. Like in other 'closed' societies, these rituals and myths served to create a secure home for the citizen of Rome and to make him feel part of his city and place it firmly in a knowable universe.
'It is refreshing to look at standard themes of the history of urban design from a nonrational point of view, to see surveyors as quasi priests and orthogonal planning as a sophisticated technique touched by divine mystery . . .. Rykwert's lasting worth will be to wrench us away from rationalist simplicities, and to make us face the fundamental disquietof the human spirit in its claim to a permanent place on the land.' Spiro Kostoff, Journal of the Society Architectural Historians

Town And Rite: Rome And Romulus -- Romulus And Remus -- The Ritual Books -- The New Community -- Planning Techniques: Rational And Irrational -- The Choice Of Site -- The Founder And The City -- Recording The Foundation -- City And Site -- How To Choose The Site: -- (i) The Theorists -- (ii) The Rites Observed -- Romulus Again -- Templum -- The Surveyors -- Haruspication -- Mundus -- Orthogonal Planning And The Surveyors -- The First Furrow -- Castrum -- Destruction Rites -- Square And Cross -- The Etruscans -- Terramare -- Marzabotto -- Spina -- Spina And Orghogonal Planning -- Myth And Rite -- The Boundary Of The First Rome -- Luperci And Lupercal -- Guardians Of Centre, Guardians Of Boundaries -- Roma Quadrata -- Vesta -- Boundary And Terminus -- Boundary And Centre: Mundus And Terminus -- Boundary Of The Land And Boundary Of The People -- Troy: Trojan Horse And Trojan Game -- Mundus And Pomoerium -- Boundary, Strength And Fertility -- The Boundary And The Gate -- The Guardian Of The Gate -- The Riddle And The Maze -- Maze, Dance, City -- The Guilty Founder -- The Parallels -- Mandala -- The Mande Rites -- The Bororo Rites -- The Sioux -- The Tiwi -- Separation, Guilt And Reconciliation -- The Quartered Body As A Picture Of The World -- The Hausa -- The Dogon -- The Everyday Microcosm -- The Great Plan -- The City As A Curable Disease: Ritual And Hysteria -- The First Builders -- The Sign For A Town. Joseph Rykwert. -- Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The Description for this book, Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy, and the Ancient World, will be forthcoming.