213-556: The Via Giulia is a street of historical and architectural importance in Rome , Italy, which runs along the left (east) bank of the Tiber from Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti , near Ponte Sisto , to Piazza dell'Oro . It is about 1 kilometre long and connects the Regola and Ponte Rioni . The road's design was commissioned in 1508 to Donato Bramante by Pope Julius II ( r. 1503–1513 ), of
426-643: A Saracen tournament organised in 1617 by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese at the Oratorio della Compagnia della Morte , for which he invited eight cardinals. During the summer months the street was sometimes flooded for the pleasure of the common people and the nobility. One of the most glamorous celebrations was held by the Farnese in 1638 to celebrate the birth of the French dauphin , the future king Louis XIV . Via Giulia hosted buffalo races, parades of carnival floats , and in 1663
639-456: A civil war against the Senate and Pompey. After his victory, Caesar established himself as dictator for life . His assassination in 44 BC led to a second Triumvirate among Octavian (Caesar's grandnephew and heir), Mark Antony and Lepidus , and to a final civil war between Octavian and Antony. In 27 BC, Octavian was named Augustus and princeps , founding the principate ,
852-510: A diarchy between the princeps and the senate. Over time, the new monarch came to be known as the imperator (hence emperor ), meaning "commander". During the reign of Nero , two thirds of the city was ruined after the Great Fire of Rome , and the persecution of Christians commenced. Rome's empire reached its greatest expansion in the second century under the Emperor Trajan . Rome
1065-463: A senatore or patrizio . In the 12th century, this administration, like other European cities, evolved into the commune , a new form of social organisation controlled by the new wealthy classes. Pope Lucius II fought against the Roman commune, and the struggle was continued by his successor Pope Eugenius III : by this stage, the commune, allied with the aristocracy, was supported by Arnaldo da Brescia ,
1278-464: A series of civil wars between rival claimants to power resulted in the unification of the empire under Constantine the Great in 324. Hereditary succession was restored, but the east–west division was maintained. Constantine undertook a major reform of the bureaucracy, not by changing the structure but by rationalising the competencies of the several ministries. The so-called Edict of Milan of 313, actually
1491-671: A Europe of substantial literary and philosophical contact with the Muslim world, encouraged by such factors as Averroism ("Averrois, che'l gran comento feo" Commedia, Inferno, IV, 144, meaning "Averrois, who wrote the great comment") and the patronage of Alfonso X of Castile . Of the twelve wise men Dante meets in Canto ;X of the Paradiso , Thomas Aquinas and, even more so, Siger of Brabant were strongly influenced by Arabic commentators on Aristotle . Medieval Christian mysticism also shared
1704-521: A backward path. Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is, and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious. These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dante's Hell: Upper Hell, outside the city of Dis, for the four sins of indulgence ( lust , gluttony , avarice , anger ); Circle 7 for
1917-527: A coherent architectural and urban programme over four hundred years, aimed at making the city the artistic and cultural centre of the world. In this way, Rome first became one of the major centres of the Renaissance and then became the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism . Famous artists, painters, sculptors, and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, creating masterpieces throughout
2130-513: A crusade against the Colonna family and, in 1300, called for the first Jubilee of Christianity , which brought millions of pilgrims to Rome. However, his hopes were crushed by the French king Philip the Fair , who took him prisoner and held him hostage for three days at Anagni . The Pope was able to return to Rome, but died a month later, it was said of shock and grief. Afterwards, a new pope faithful to
2343-419: A fragment of a letter from his co-emperor Licinius to the governors of the eastern provinces, granted freedom of worship to everyone, including Christians, and ordered the restoration of confiscated church properties upon petition to the newly created vicars of dioceses. He funded the building of several churches and allowed clergy to act as arbitrators in civil suits (a measure that did not outlast him but which
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#17328523628362556-420: A fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth . The most familiar of these myths, and perhaps the most famous of all Roman myths , is the story of Romulus and Remus , the twins who were suckled by a she-wolf . They decided to build a city, but after an argument, Romulus killed his brother and
2769-511: A large area in Rome, and the city has one of the largest areas of green space among European capitals. The most notable part of this green space is represented by the large number of villas and landscaped gardens created by the Italian aristocracy. While most of the parks surrounding the villas were destroyed during the building boom of the late 19th century, some of them remain. The most notable of these are
2982-591: A major roadway inserted in a new system of streets superimposed on the maze of alleys of medieval Rome; the construction of a large avenue surrounded by sumptuous buildings to testify to the renewed grandeur of the Catholic Church ; and finally, the foundation of a new administrative and banking centre near the Vatican , the seat of the popes, and far from the traditional city centre on the Capitoline Hill , dominated by
3195-578: A mix of Latins , Etruscans , and Sabines . Eventually, the city successively became the capital of the Roman Kingdom , the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire , and is regarded by many as the first-ever Imperial city and metropolis . It was first called The Eternal City ( Latin : Urbs Aeterna ; Italian : La Città Eterna ) by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression
3408-569: A modern reading of the poem in his labyrinthine "Conversation on Dante". Erich Auerbach said Dante was the first writer to depict human beings as the products of a specific time, place and circumstance, as opposed to mythic archetypes or a collection of vices and virtues, concluding that this, along with the fully imagined world of the Divine Comedy , suggests that the Divine Comedy inaugurated realism and self-portraiture in modern fiction. In T. S. Eliot's estimation, "Dante and Shakespeare divide
3621-619: A monk who was a religious and social reformer. After the pope's death, Arnaldo was taken prisoner by Adrianus IV , which marked the end of the commune's autonomy. Under Pope Innocent III , whose reign marked the apogee of the papacy, the commune liquidated the senate, and replaced it with a Senatore , who was subject to the pope. In this period, the papacy played a role of secular importance in Western Europe , often acting as arbitrators between Christian monarchs and exercising additional political powers. In 1266, Charles of Anjou , who
3834-409: A peripheral position with respect to the new city centre. At the end of the 17th century, the road took on a triple face, which it would maintain for another 150 years: an area of building speculation in the north, a detention centre in the middle, and an elegant location in the south, theater of feasts and games. Among the latter, a tournament held in 1603 by Tiberio Ceuli at Palazzo Sacchetti, and
4047-538: A place named Postribolo di Ponte Sisto ("Ponte Sisto's Brothel"). In 1586, architect Domenico Fontana built on the orders of Pope Sixtus V ( r. 1585–1590 ) the Ospizio dei Mendicanti (lit. "Beggar's Hospice") thus marking the southern end of the Via Giulia . The hospice was established to solve the begging problem in the city and was given a yearly endowment of 150,000 scudi , enough to employ 2,000 people. At
4260-658: A specific moral scheme, subdivided into three subcategories, while two others of greater particularity are added to total nine. For example, the seven deadly sins that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the late repentant and the excommunicated . The core seven sins within Purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love ( Lust , Gluttony , Greed ), deficient love ( Sloth ), and malicious love ( Wrath , Envy , Pride ). In central Italy's political struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines , Dante
4473-474: A two-century decline, from the 1950s onwards the road's fame was renewed to be one of the city's most prestigious locations. In Rome, since the early Middle Ages , while the political and representative heart of the city seemed to have remained on the Capitoline Hill, the area of the ancient Campus Martius developed into one of the most densely populated districts ( abitato ). The maze of narrow alleys
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#17328523628364686-454: A very rare occurrence (the most recent ones were in 2018, 2012 and 1986). Divine Comedy The Divine Comedy ( Italian : Divina Commedia [diˈviːna komˈmɛːdja] ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri , begun c. 1308 and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and one of
4899-539: A warrior pope, to Alexander VI , immoral and nepotist , from Julius II , soldier and patron, to Leo X , who gave his name to this period ("the century of Leo X"), all devoted their energy to the greatness and the beauty of the Eternal City and to the patronage of the arts. During those years, the centre of the Italian Renaissance moved to Rome from Florence. Majestic works, as the new Saint Peter's Basilica ,
5112-614: A wheel, all at one speed, by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars. According to the Italian Dante Society, no original manuscript written by Dante has survived, although there are many manuscript copies from the 14th and 15th centuries – some 800 are listed on their site. Coluccio Salutati translated some quotations from the Comedy into Latin for his De fato et fortuna in 1396–1397. The first complete translation of
5325-458: Is a wide consensus that the city developed gradually through the aggregation (" synoecism ") of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. This aggregation was facilitated by the increase of agricultural productivity above the subsistence level , which also allowed the establishment of secondary and tertiary activities . These, in turn, boosted the development of trade with
5538-405: Is above 21 °C (70 °F) during the day and 9 °C (48 °F) at night. In the coldest month, January, the average temperature is 12.6 °C (54.7 °F) during the day and 2.1 °C (35.8 °F) at night. In the warmest month, August, the average temperature is 31.7 °C (89.1 °F) during the day and 17.3 °C (63.1 °F) at night. December, January and February are
5751-566: Is also a notable pine wood at Castelfusano , near Ostia. Rome also has a number of regional parks of much more recent origin, including the Pineto Regional Park and the Appian Way Regional Park. There are also nature reserves at Marcigliana and at Tenuta di Castelporziano. Rome has a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification : Csa ), with hot, dry summers and mild, humid winters. Its average annual temperature
5964-474: Is also a product of Scholasticism , especially as expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas. This influence is most pronounced in the Paradiso , where the text's portrayals of God, the beatific vision, and substantial forms all align with scholastic doctrine. It is also in the Paradiso that Aquinas and fellow scholastic St. Bonaventure appear as characters, introducing Dante to all of Heaven's wisest souls. Despite all this, there are issues on which Dante diverges from
6177-942: Is also the seat of several specialised agencies of the United Nations , such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the UN System Network on Rural Development and Food Security . The city also hosts the European Union (EU) Delegation to the United Nations (UN) and the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly of
6390-605: Is another large green space: it has few trees but is overlooked by the Palatine and the Rose Garden ('roseto comunale'). Nearby is the lush Villa Celimontana , close to the gardens surrounding the Baths of Caracalla. The Villa Borghese garden is the best known large green space in Rome, with famous art galleries among its shaded walks. Overlooking Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps are the gardens of Pincio and Villa Medici . There
6603-548: Is based on the amount of pork, 3,629,000 lbs. distributed to poorer Romans during five winter months at the rate of five Roman lbs per person per month, enough for 145,000 persons or 1/4 or 1/3 of the total population. Grain distribution to 80,000 ticket holders at the same time suggests 400,000 (Augustus set the number at 200,000 or one-fifth of the population). After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD ;476, Rome
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6816-401: Is disputed ), Dante explains that this reference to Israel leaving Egypt refers both to the redemption of Christ and to "the conversion of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace." Appropriately, therefore, it is Easter Sunday when Dante and Virgil arrive. The Purgatorio demonstrates the medieval knowledge of a spherical Earth . During the poem, Dante discusses
7029-523: Is generally considered to be the cradle of Western civilization and Western Christian culture , and the centre of the Catholic Church . Rome's history spans 28 centuries. While Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement for over three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Europe. The city's early population originated from
7242-555: Is generally thought the population of the city until AD 300 was 1 million (estimates range from 2 million to 750,000) declining to 750–800,000 in AD 400, then 450–500,000 in AD 450 and down to 80–100,000 in AD 500 (though it may have been twice this). The Bishop of Rome, called the Pope , was important since the early days of Christianity because of the martyrdom of both the apostles Peter and Paul there. The Bishops of Rome were also seen (and still are seen by Catholics) as
7455-404: Is known to have lectured on the Inferno , and it has been suggested that the poem may have influenced some of Galileo's own ideas regarding mechanics. Without access to the works of Homer , Dante used Virgil, Lucan , Ovid , and Statius as the models for the style, history, and mythology of the Comedy . This is most obvious in the case of Virgil, who appears as a mentor character throughout
7668-457: Is located in the immediate vicinity of Palazzo Farnese and belonged to the Compagnia della Morte ("Death's Brotherhood") founded in 1538. The fraternity was tasked with burying the dead that – having been recovered from the river or found in the area surrounding Rome – were not claimed by anyone. The building was demolished in 1733 and rebuilt by Ferdinando Fuga in 1737. Its cemetery on
7881-466: Is more psychological than that of the Inferno , being based on motives, rather than actions. It is also drawn primarily from Christian theology, rather than from classical sources. However, Dante's illustrative examples of sin and virtue draw on classical sources as well as on the Bible and on contemporary events. Love, a theme throughout the Divine Comedy , is particularly important for the framing of sin on
8094-629: Is often derived from the phraseology of the Vulgate . This was the only translation of the Bible Dante had access to, as it was one the vast majority of scribes were willing to copy during the Middle Ages. This includes five hundred or so direct quotes and references Dante derives from the Bible (or his memory of it). Dante also treats the Bible as a final authority on any matter, including on subjects scripture only approaches allegorically. The Divine Comedy
8307-644: Is the country's most populated comune and the third most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. The Metropolitan City of Rome, with a population of 4,355,725 residents, is the most populous metropolitan city in Italy. Its metropolitan area is the third-most populous within Italy. Rome is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula , within Lazio ( Latium ), along
8520-428: Is thirty-five years old, half of the biblical lifespan of seventy ( Psalms 89:10, Vulgate), lost in a dark wood (understood as sin), assailed by beasts (a lion , a leopard , and a she-wolf ) he cannot evade and unable to find the "straight way" ( diritta via ) to salvation (symbolized by the sun behind the mountain). Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a "low place" ( basso loco ) where
8733-515: The Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas . In the poem, the pilgrim Dante is accompanied by three guides: Virgil , who represents human reason , and who guides him for all of Inferno and most of Purgatorio ; Beatrice , who represents divine revelation in addition to theology, grace, and faith; and guides him from the end of Purgatorio onwards; and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux , who represents contemplative mysticism and devotion to Mary
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8946-632: The Age of Enlightenment , new ideas reached the Eternal City, where the papacy supported archaeological studies and improved the people's welfare. But not everything went well for the Church during the Counter-Reformation. There were setbacks in the attempts to assert the Church's power, a notable example being in 1773 when Pope Clement XIV was forced by secular powers to have the Jesuit order suppressed . The rule of
9159-562: The Altoviti , Ghinucci, Acciaiuoli , Chigi and Fugger . Close economic ties with Tuscan bankers like Agostino Chigi were sought and promoted. As a resulting consequence of the project, the area around the Vatican and Trastevere would have been enhanced at the detriment of the Capitoline Hill, symbol of the Roman nobility's power. The plan was thus intended to separate the papacy from the city's powerful noble families (the baroni ), particularly
9372-533: The Apocalypse of Paul in the 4th century. Despite a lack of "official" approval, the Apocalypse of Paul would go on to be popular for centuries, possibly due to its popularity among the medieval monks that copied and preserved manuscripts in the turbulent centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Divine Comedy belongs to the same genre and was influenced by the Apocalypse of Paul. Dante lived in
9585-782: The Cinecittà Studios have been the set of many Academy Award –winning movies. According to the Ancient Romans' founding myth , the name Roma came from the city's founder and first king , Romulus . However, it is possible that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternative theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma . Several hypotheses have been advanced focusing on its linguistic roots which however remain uncertain: Rome has also been called in ancient times simply "Urbs" (central city), from urbs roma , or identified with its ancient Roman initialism of SPQR ,
9798-463: The Comedy was made into Latin prose by Giovanni da Serravalle in 1416 for two English bishops, Robert Hallam and Nicholas Bubwith , and an Italian cardinal, Amedeo di Saluzzo . It was made during the Council of Constance . The first verse translation, into Latin hexameters , was made in 1427–1431 by Matteo Ronto [ fr ] . The first translation of the Comedy into another vernacular
10011-520: The Dominate , derived from his title of dominus ("lord"). His most marked feature was the unprecedented intervention of the State down to the city level: whereas the State had submitted a tax demand to a city and allowed it to allocate the charges, from his reign the State did this down to the village level. In a vain attempt to control inflation, he imposed price controls which did not last. Diocletian divided
10224-553: The Ebro , dawn in Jerusalem, and noon on the River Ganges : Just as, there where its Maker shed His blood, the sun shed its first rays, and Ebro lay beneath high Libra, and the ninth hour's rays were scorching Ganges' waves; so here, the sun stood at the point of day's departure when God's angel – happy – showed himself to us. Dante travels through
10437-656: The Fontanone di Ponte Sisto (lit. "The Big Fountain of the Sistine Bridge") was built on the façade of the beggars' hospice on Via Giulia. Despite these interventions the meaning of the street in the city structure did not change. The expansion of the city towards the Campo Marzio plain, begun by Leo X with the construction of Via di Ripetta , and the urban planning initiatives of Gregory XIII ( r. 1572–1585 ) and Sixtus V had already irreparably relegated Via Giulia to
10650-605: The Gauls , Osci - Samnites and the Greek colony of Taranto , allied with Pyrrhus , king of Epirus ) whose result was the conquest of the Italian peninsula , from the central area up to Magna Graecia . The 3rd and 4th century BC saw the establishment of Roman hegemony over the Mediterranean and the Balkans through the three Punic Wars (264–146 BC) fought against Carthage and
10863-659: The Hospital of Santo Spirito in the Borgo . Both roads–designed by the pope's favourite architect Donato Bramante– flanked the Tiber and were closely connected to it. The Lungara had the dual aim to relieve the pilgrimage route to Saint Peter and transport goods coming from the Via Aurelia and the Via Portuense roads towards the centre of the city. Moreover, the street, overlooking
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#173285236283611076-577: The House of Medici , continued the work, favoring the northern end of the road, that is the stretch between the unfinished Palazzo dei Tribunali and the banking district, where his Florentine countrymen lived and the Florentine merchant community worked. With the bull of 29 January 1519, the pope granted the Florentine Compagnia della Pietà the construction of the church of San Giovanni , located also at
11289-440: The Inferno only. The Divine Comedy has been a source of inspiration for countless artists for almost seven centuries. There are many references to Dante's work in literature . In music , Franz Liszt was one of many composers to write works based on the Divine Comedy . In sculpture , the work of Auguste Rodin includes themes from Dante. Sculptor Timothy Schmalz created a series of 100 sculptures, one for each canto, on
11502-604: The Inferno , allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to "[make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety." Dante called the poem "Comedy" (the adjective "Divine" was added later, in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High ("Tragedy") or Low ("Comedy"). Low poems had happy endings and were written in everyday language, whereas High poems treated more serious matters and were written in an elevated style. Dante
11715-413: The Moon , containing the inconstant, whose vows to God waned as the moon and thus lack fortitude; Mercury , containing the ambitious, who were virtuous for glory and thus lacked justice; and Venus , containing the lovers, whose love was directed towards another than God and thus lacked temperance. The final four incidentally are positive examples of the cardinal virtues, all led on by the Sun , containing
11928-430: The Neoplatonic influence of Sufis such as Ibn Arabi . Philosopher Frederick Copleston argued in 1950 that Dante's respectful treatment of Averroes , Avicenna , and Siger of Brabant indicates his acknowledgement of a "considerable debt" to Islamic philosophy. In 1919, Miguel Asín Palacios , a Spanish scholar and a Catholic priest, published La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia ( Islamic Eschatology in
12141-411: The Oratorio della Nunziatella in Foligno. The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory : each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternative meanings. Dante's allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem (see the Letter to Cangrande ) he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory: the historical, the moral, the literal, and
12354-677: The Orsini and Colonna families, who until then had been the Pontiff's most trusted allies, replacing them with a new organisation formed by Papal legates . Around 1508 the executive phase of the project started: the pope ordered Bramante to start expropriating and demolishing properties in the densely populated Campo Marzio to create the new street. Giorgio Vasari wrote: Si risolvé il Papa di mettere in strada Giulia, da Bramante indrizzata, tutti gli uffici e le ragioni di Roma in un luogo, per la commoditá ch'a i negoziatori averia recato nelle faccende, essendo continuamente fino allora state molto scomode. The pope decided to consolidate all
12567-501: The Paradiso , such as a sevenfold division of Paradise , although this is not unique to the Kitab al Miraj or Islamic cosmology. Many scholars have not been satisfied that Dante was influenced by the Kitab al Miraj . The 20th-century Orientalist Francesco Gabrieli expressed skepticism regarding the claimed similarities, and the lack of evidence of a vehicle through which it could have been transmitted to Dante. The Italian philologist Maria Corti pointed out that, during his stay at
12780-426: The Pax Romana ), in order to ask at the upcoming conclave the restoration of the commune authority and the abolition of various taxes. The pope's prompt recovery made the possibility of conclave fade away; Julius, under pressure from abroad, came to terms with the nobles, propagandizing the anti-papal pact as an agreement in his favour and revoking several decisions taken against the comune . Among these, he granted
12993-418: The Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti on the Ponte Sisto to the Piazza dell'Oro in front of the church of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini. This last building in Via Giulia was built in 1924 by Marcello Piacentini on behalf of the Avvocato Pateras. Today it houses the Consulate of the French Republic in Rome. The fountain diagonally opposite Palazzo Farnese was built around 1626 by Carlo Rainaldi and paid for by
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#173285236283613206-424: The San Lorenzo district was subject to Allied bombing raids , resulting in about 3,000 fatalities and 11,000 injuries, of whom another 1,500 died. Mussolini was arrested on 25 July 1943 . On the date of the Italian Armistice 8 September 1943 the city was occupied by the Germans. Allied bombing raids continued throughout 1943 and extended into 1944. Rome was liberated on 4 June 1944. Rome developed greatly after
13419-487: The Sistine Chapel and Ponte Sisto (the first bridge to be built across the Tiber since antiquity, although on Roman foundations) were created. To accomplish that, the Popes engaged the best artists of the time, including Michelangelo , Perugino , Raphael , Ghirlandaio , Luca Signorelli , Botticelli , and Cosimo Rosselli . The period was also infamous for papal corruption, with many Popes fathering children, and engaging in nepotism and simony . The corruption of
13632-456: The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) as well as the headquarters of several Italian multinational companies, such as Eni , Enel , TIM , Leonardo , and banks such as BNL . Numerous companies are based within Rome's EUR business district, such as the luxury fashion house Fendi located in the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana . The presence of renowned international brands in the city has made Rome an important centre of fashion and design, and
13845-436: The Via dei Banchi Nuovi . Aside from serving as a means of communication and representation for the Church, the road was supposed to host the city's new layman's administrative centre. A drawing by Donato Bramante discovered by Luitpold Frommel in the Uffizi shows a new huge administrative complex, the Palazzo dei Tribunali . All the notaries and courts operating in Rome had to be centralised in this building: among them,
14058-513: The Vicolo del Cefalo , today nothing remains of the palazzo . After the death of Julius II in 1513, the demographic situation in Rome had changed: because of the wars in Italy , a large number of Lombards had emigrated to the city, settling in the northern area of the Campo Marzio, where their national church already existed. This caused a shift in the centre of gravity of the city's development, which excluded Via Giulia. Despite that, Julius' successor, Pope Leo X ( r. 1513–1521 ) from
14271-408: The Villa Borghese , Villa Ada , and Villa Doria Pamphili . Villa Doria Pamphili is west of the Gianicolo hill, comprising some 1.8 km (0.7 sq mi ). The Villa Sciarra is on the hill, with playgrounds for children and shaded walking areas. In the nearby area of Trastevere, the Orto Botanico (Botanical Garden) is a cool and shady green space. The old Roman hippodrome (Circus Maximus)
14484-539: The anagogical . The structure of the poem is also quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns distributed throughout the work, particularly threes and nines. The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante's skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentine and Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante's use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of
14697-399: The science of his day (this mixture of science with poetry has received both praise and criticism over the centuries). The Purgatorio repeatedly refers to the implications of a spherical Earth , such as the different stars visible in the southern hemisphere , the altered position of the sun , and the various time zones of the Earth. For example, at sunset in Purgatory it is midnight at
14910-543: The western and eastern empires respectively. The seat of government in the Western Roman Empire was transferred to Ravenna in 408, but from 450 the emperors mostly resided in Rome. Rome, which had lost its central role in the administration of the empire, was sacked in 410 by the Visigoths led by Alaric I , but very little physical damage was done, most of which was repaired. What could not be so easily replaced were portable items such as artwork in precious metals and items for domestic use (loot). The popes embellished
15123-440: The 16th century, Via Giulia's path was defined for good; it ended by the Florentine quarter to the north and the Ospizio dei Mendicanti to the south. It became less of a major commercial street and more a busy promenade and a place for celebrations, processions (such as that of the ammantate , poor girls which were dowried by the goldsmiths of Sant'Eligio degli Orefici ) and races. In the baroque period three major works changed
15336-458: The Angels' Bridge to be cleared of stalls and shops; the first urban planning measures in the area were initiated, defining in his programme the abovementioned three streets as the city's main ones. Starting with Nicholas, the policy of the popes was to leave the control of the Capitoline Hill area to the Roman nobility, concentrating urban development on the Tiber bend and the Vatican, made important by
15549-525: The Balkans made serious uncoordinated incursions that were more like giant raiding parties rather than attempts to settle. The Persian Empire invaded from the east several times during the 230s to 260s but were eventually defeated. The civil wars ended in 285 with the final victory of Diocletian , who undertook the restoration of the State. He ended the Principate and introduced a new authoritarian model known as
15762-511: The Black Guelphs. This exile, which lasted the rest of Dante's life, shows its influence in many parts of the Comedy , from prophecies of Dante's exile to Dante's views of politics, to the eternal damnation of some of his opponents. The last word in each of the three cantiche is stelle ("stars"). The poem begins on the night before Good Friday in the year 1300, "halfway along our life's path" ( Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita ). Dante
15975-610: The Capitoline court jurisdiction over all cases between Roman citizens, except those pending before the Sacra Rota . This decision caused the interruption of the works for the new road and the Palazzo dei Tribunali , whose project was definitively abandoned when the pope died, while the planned square in front of it was forgotten. Apart from a few rusticated blocks between the Via del Gonfalone and
16188-532: The Cardinal, decorated with frescoes by Giovanni Lanfranco , was accessible from Palazzo Farnese through a terrace and the Arco Farnese. The building still stands along Via Giulia, but its original internal disposition has been changed through several interventions, while its giardino segreto ("secret garden") with its loggia with three arches open on the river has been destroyed. The bridge connects Via Giulia to
16401-568: The Church. Under the popes from Pius IV to Sixtus V , Rome became the centre of a reformed Catholicism and saw the building of new monuments which celebrated the papacy. The popes and cardinals of the 17th and early 18th centuries continued the movement by having the city's landscape enriched with baroque buildings. This was another nepotistic age; the new aristocratic families ( Barberini , Pamphili , Chigi , Rospigliosi , Altieri , Odescalchi ) were protected by their respective popes, who built huge baroque buildings for their relatives. During
16614-675: The Divine Comedy ), an account of parallels between early Islamic philosophy and the Divine Comedy . Palacios argued that Dante derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter from the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi and from the Isra and Mi'raj , or night journey of Muhammad to heaven. The latter is described in the ahadith and the Kitab al Miraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before as Liber scalae Machometi , "The Book of Muhammad's Ladder"), and has significant similarities to
16827-620: The Excommunicated from the church and the Late repentant who died, often violently, before receiving rites. Thus the total comes to nine, with the addition of the Garden of Eden at the summit, equaling ten. Allegorically, the Purgatorio represents the Christian life. Christian souls arrive escorted by an angel, singing In exitu Israel de Aegypto . In his letter to Cangrande (the authenticity of which
17040-454: The Farnese, a metal Fleur-de-lis . The fountain was moved against the wall in 1903, losing most of its charm. The poet Wilhelm Waiblinger died in 1830 in the house opposite to it. The garden façade of this palace building is oriented towards the Via Giulia. In 1549 it was designed according to Vignola 's drawings and completed by Giacomo della Porta in 1589. The garden between the façade and
17253-508: The Farnese. It was planned in 1570 to be a public fountain fed by the Aqua Virgo aqueduct to supply people with clean drinking water. However, installation was only possible after Paul V ordered the water pipe to be extended over the Ponte Sisto in 1612. The fountain consists of an ancient large marble mascaron ("Mascherone") on a background with volutes in marble, crowned by the symbol of
17466-626: The Fountain of the Mascherone poured wine for the people instead of water. Under Pope Clement XI 's ( r. 1720–1721 ) rule, the beggars housed in the Ospizio dei Mendicanti were transferred to the San Michele a Ripa . The building was afterwards occupied by both poor unmarried girls ( zitelle in the Romanesco dialect ) and a congregation made up of 100 priests and 20 clerics; the latter prayed for
17679-467: The French was elected, and the papacy was briefly relocated to Avignon (1309–1377). During this period Rome was neglected, until a plebeian man, Cola di Rienzo , came to power. An idealist and a lover of ancient Rome, Cola dreamed about a rebirth of the Roman Empire: after assuming power with the title of Tribuno , his reforms were rejected by the populace. Forced to flee, Cola returned as part of
17892-559: The Gothic siege of 537, the population dropped to 30,000 but had risen to 90,000 by the papacy of Gregory the Great . The population decline coincided with the general collapse of urban life in the West in the fifth and sixth centuries, with few exceptions. Subsidized state grain distributions to the poorer members of society continued right through the sixth century and probably prevented the population from falling further. The figure of 450,000–500,000
18105-627: The Great (which by then was in a dilapidated state) was demolished and a new one begun. The city hosted artists like Ghirlandaio , Perugino , Botticelli and Bramante , who built the temple of San Pietro in Montorio and planned a great project to renovate the Vatican . Raphael, who in Rome became one of the most famous painters of Italy, created frescoes in the Villa Farnesina , the Raphael's Rooms , plus many other famous paintings. Michelangelo started
18318-399: The Greek colonies of southern Italy (mainly Ischia and Cumae ). These developments, which according to archaeological evidence took place during the mid-eighth century BC, can be considered as the "birth" of the city. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome was founded deliberately in the middle of the eighth century BC, as the legend of Romulus suggests, remains
18531-909: The Kings was built on seven hills: the Aventine Hill , the Caelian Hill , the Capitoline Hill , the Esquiline Hill , the Palatine Hill , the Quirinal Hill , and the Viminal Hill . Modern Rome is also crossed by another river, the Aniene , which flows into the Tiber north of the historic centre. Although the city centre is about 24 km (15 mi) inland from the Tyrrhenian Sea , the city territory extends to
18744-472: The Mother , guiding him in the final cantos of Paradiso . The work was originally simply titled Comedìa ( pronounced [komeˈdiːa] , Tuscan for "Comedy") – so also in the first printed edition, published in 1472 – later adjusted to the modern Italian Commedia . The adjective Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio , owing to its subject matter and lofty style, and the first edition to name
18957-532: The Mountain of Purgatory. While the love that flows from God is pure, it can become sinful as it flows through humanity. Humans can sin by using love towards improper or malicious ends ( Wrath , Envy , Pride ), or using it to proper ends but with love that is either not strong enough ( Sloth ) or love that is too strong ( Lust , Gluttony , Greed ). Below the seven purges of the soul is the Ante-Purgatory, containing
19170-520: The Palazzo Farnese. It was erected in 1603, and was used to observe festive processions, games, and horse races in Via Giulia, particularly during Carnival . The arch was part of a project conceived by Pope Paul III and never realised, which foresaw the connection of Palazzo Farnese with the Villa Farnesina in Trastevere by means of a private bridge over the river. The church, built in 1575–76,
19383-518: The Papal States were reconstituted by a decision of the Congress of Vienna of 1814. In 1849, a second Roman Republic was proclaimed during a year of revolutions in 1848 . Two of the most influential figures of the Italian unification , Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi , fought for the short-lived republic. Rome then became the focus of hopes of Italian reunification after the rest of Italy
19596-597: The Popes and the huge expenses for their building projects led, in part, to the Reformation and, in turn, the Counter-Reformation . Under extravagant and rich popes, Rome was transformed into a centre of art, poetry, music, literature, education and culture. Rome became able to compete with other major European cities of the time in terms of wealth, grandeur, the arts, learning and architecture. The Renaissance period changed
19809-560: The Popes was interrupted by the short-lived Roman Republic (1798–1800), which was established under the influence of the French Revolution . The Papal States were restored in June 1800, but during Napoleon 's reign Rome was annexed as a Département of the French Empire : first as Département du Tibre (1808–1810) and then as Département Rome (1810–1814). After the fall of Napoleon,
20022-485: The Roman baronial families opposed to the pontiffs. Despite the interruption of the project due to the pax romana of 1511 and the death of the pope two years later, the new road immediately became one of the main centres of the Renaissance in Rome . Many palaces and churches were built by the most important architects of the time, such as Raffaello Sanzio and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger , who often chose to move into
20235-466: The Roman nobles, became the theatre of tournaments, parties and carnival parades. During this period the popes and private patrons continued to take care of the road by founding charitable institutions and providing the area with drinking water. From the middle of the 18th century, the shift of the city centre towards the Campo Marzio plain caused the cessation of building activity and the abandonment of
20448-496: The Romans expelled the last king from their city and established an oligarchic republic led by two annually-elected consuls . Rome then began a period characterised by internal struggles between patricians (aristocrats) and plebeians (small landowners), and by constant warfare against the populations of central Italy: Etruscans, Latins, Volsci , Aequi , and Marsi . After becoming master of Latium , Rome led several wars (against
20661-625: The Third Century , during which numerous generals fought for power and the central authority in Rome weakened dramatically. Around the same time, the Plague of Cyprian ( c. 250–270) afflicted the Mediterranean. Instability caused economic deterioration, and there was a rapid rise in inflation as the government debased the currency in order to meet expenses. The Germanic tribes along the Rhine and north of
20874-498: The Via Giulia was famous as a venue for parties and entertainment for the common people: in 1720 the Sienese held a festival to celebrate the promotion of Marc'Antonio Zondadari to Grand Master of the Order of Malta ; Fireworks were set off near the Fontanone di Ponte Sisto ; two triumphal arches were raised above the street, one near Santo Spirito and the other near Palazzo Farnese; and
21087-757: The Via Giulia was once adorned by the Farnese bull (now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples ). The palace is now the French Embassy in Italy. Behind the row of lower buildings ("Camerini Farnesiani"), which today belong to the French Embassy, lay a small palace with garden, the Palazzetto Farnese, built around 1603 by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese as his hermitage , also known as Eremo del Cardinale ("Cardinal's hermitage"). This private retreat of
21300-515: The Younger, acquired plots of land or built palaces. In spite of these activities, the urban planning project that was at the base of the road was left unfinished. The decision to relinquish the reconstruction of Nero's bridge , the lack of connection with the Angels' Bridge and the Borgo and the abandonment of the plan for the centralisation of the courts meant that the road became an unused fragment of an abandoned project. The central and southern parts of
21513-432: The area at the time), stretching from the church of Santa Aurea , today Santo Spirito dei Napoletani towards south, got this name in the Middle Ages because it was mainly inhabited by people from Siena . At this end of the Via Giulia, the Farnese family drew up a well-defined architectural development plan, started with the erection of their residence between 1517 and 1520. The Farnese decided to turn their back against
21726-574: The banks of the Tiber was demolished when the river was regulated in 1886. Rome Rome ( Italian and Latin : Roma , pronounced [ˈroːma] ) is the capital city of Italy . It is also the capital of the Lazio region , the centre of the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital , and a special comune (municipality) named Comune di Roma Capitale . With 2,860,009 residents in 1,285 km (496.1 sq mi), Rome
21939-457: The beginning of the 16th century, it had become fashionable for the various nations and city-states to have their own churches built in Rome: these were known as the chiese nazionali . The rioni of Regola and Ponte, along the processional and pilgrim roads, were the preferred locations, and Via Giulia, because of its proximity to Saint Peter and the commercial area, became a favourite place to erect
22152-403: The birth of the conclave . In this period the city was also shattered by continuous fights between the aristocratic families: Annibaldi , Caetani , Colonna , Orsini , Conti , nested in their fortresses built above ancient Roman edifices, fought each other to control the papacy. Pope Boniface VIII , born Caetani, was the last pope to fight for the church's universal domain ; he proclaimed
22365-535: The centre of the Earth in the Inferno , and comments on the resulting change in the direction of gravity in Canto XXXIV (lines 76–120). A little earlier (XXXIII, 102–105), he queries the existence of wind in the frozen inner circle of hell, since it has no temperature differentials. Inevitably, given its setting, the Paradiso discusses astronomy extensively, but in the Ptolemaic sense. The Paradiso also discusses
22578-453: The chronicler Stefano Infessura , however, strategic reasons aside from reducing traffic were also important for these projects. Until then it had been very difficult for the pope to carry out urban interventions within the Aurelian walls , mainly because of the power of the noble families of folk background, but Sixtus could use the revenues of the jubilee to carry out the works in the city. When
22791-460: The city centre in order to build wide avenues and squares which were supposed to celebrate the fascist regime and the resurgence and glorification of classical Rome. The interwar period saw a rapid growth in the city's population which surpassed one million inhabitants soon after 1930. During World War II, due to the art treasuries and the presence of the Vatican, Rome largely escaped the tragic destiny of other European cities. However, on 19 July 1943,
23004-557: The city took his name. According to the Roman annalists , this happened on 21 April 753 BC. This legend had to be reconciled with a dual tradition, set earlier in time, that had the Trojan refugee Aeneas escape to Italy and found the line of Romans through his son Iulus , the namesake of the Julio-Claudian dynasty . This was accomplished by the Roman poet Virgil in the first century BC. In addition, Strabo mentions an older story, that
23217-556: The city was affected by the divisions which rocked the Church. In 1418, the Council of Constance settled the Western Schism , and a Roman pope, Martin V , was elected. This brought to Rome a century of internal peace, which marked the beginning of the Renaissance . The ruling popes until the first half of the 16th century, from Nicholas V , founder of the Vatican Library , to Pius II , humanist and literate, from Sixtus IV ,
23430-554: The city was an Arcadian colony founded by Evander . Strabo also writes that Lucius Coelius Antipater believed that Rome was founded by Greeks. After the foundation by Romulus according to a legend, Rome was ruled for a period of 244 years by a monarchical system , initially with sovereigns of Latin and Sabine origin, later by Etruscan kings. The tradition handed down seven kings: Romulus , Numa Pompilius , Tullus Hostilius , Ancus Marcius , Tarquinius Priscus , Servius Tullius and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus . In 509 BC,
23643-543: The city was now defined in the Tridente and Quirinale areas, both far away from the Tiber bend, and Via Giulia remained cut off. The only works of some importance were the façade of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, by Alessandro Galilei , the church of Santa Maria dell'Orazione e Morte , by Ferdinando Fuga , and the two small churches of San Filippo Neri and San Biagio della Pagnotta , rebuilt respectively by Filippo Raguzzini and Giovanni Antonio Perfetti . In this period too
23856-466: The city with large basilicas, such as Santa Maria Maggiore (with the collaboration of the emperors). The population of the city had fallen from 800,000 to 450–500,000 by the time the city was sacked in 455 by Genseric , king of the Vandals . The weak emperors of the fifth century could not stop the decay, leading to the deposition of Romulus Augustus , who resided on Ravenna, on 4 September 476. This marked
24069-653: The city. The successors of Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII ( r. 1484–1492 ); Alexander VI ( r. 1492–1503 ); and Pius III ( r. 1503 ), continued the Sistine urban planning policy, often completing the works begun by Pope della Rovere. Among them, in 1497 Alexander VI ordered the widening of the Via Peregrinorum and the opening of the Porta Settimiana through the Aurelian Walls . The latter work
24282-535: The city. In 1871, Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy , which, in 1946, became the Italian Republic. In 2019, Rome was the 14th most visited city in the world, with 8.6 million tourists, the third most visited city in the European Union, and the most popular tourist destination in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site . The host city for the 1960 Summer Olympics , Rome
24495-455: The coldest months, with a daily mean temperature of approximately 8 °C (46 °F). Temperatures during these months generally vary between 10 and 15 °C (50 and 59 °F) during the day and between 3 and 5 °C (37 and 41 °F) at night, with colder or warmer spells occurring frequently. Snowfall is rare but not unheard of, with light snow or flurries occurring on some winters, generally without accumulation, and major snowfalls on
24708-581: The court of Alfonso X, Dante's mentor Brunetto Latini met Bonaventura de Siena, a Tuscan who had translated the Kitab al Miraj from Arabic into Latin. Corti speculates that Brunetto may have provided a copy of that work to Dante. René Guénon , a Sufi convert and scholar of Ibn Arabi, confirms in The Esoterism of Dante the theory of the Islamic influence (direct or indirect) on Dante. Palacios' theory that Dante
24921-569: The decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and executed the famous statue of the Moses for the tomb of Julius II. Its economy was rich, with the presence of several Tuscan bankers, including Agostino Chigi , who was a friend of Raphael and a patron of arts. Before his early death, Raphael also promoted for the first time the preservation of the ancient ruins. The War of the League of Cognac caused
25134-544: The depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world. The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the Southern Hemisphere , created by the displacement of rock which resulted when Satan 's fall created Hell (which Dante portrays as existing underneath Jerusalem ). The mountain has seven terraces, corresponding to the seven deadly sins or "seven roots of sinfulness". The classification of sin here
25347-546: The different stars visible in the southern hemisphere , the altered position of the sun, and the various time zones of the Earth. At this stage it is, Dante says, sunset at Jerusalem, midnight on the River Ganges , and sunrise in Purgatory. After an initial ascension, Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven . These are concentric and spherical, as in Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. While
25560-541: The empire in 286, ruling over the eastern half from Nicomedia , while his co-emperor Maximian ruled the western half from Mediolanum (when not on the move). The empire was further divided in 293, when Diocletian named two caesar , one for each augustus (emperor). Diocletian tried to turn into a system of non-dynastic succession, similar to the Antonine dynasty. Upon abdication in 305, both caesars succeeded and they, in turn, appointed two colleagues for themselves. However,
25773-521: The end of the Western Roman Empire and, for many historians, the beginning of the Middle Ages . The decline of the city's population was caused by the loss of grain shipments from North Africa, from 440 onward, and the unwillingness of the senatorial class to maintain donations to support a population that was too large for the resources available. Even so, strenuous efforts were made to maintain
25986-506: The end of the Western Schism , the influx of pilgrims increased significantly again, especially in the Jubilee years. On 29 December 1450, the last day of the Holy Year, a stampede broke out on the bridge that killed more than 300 people. As a result of the catastrophe, Pope Nicholas V ( r. 1447–1455 ), the first Renaissance pope who systematically dealt with Roman town planning, ordered
26199-450: The end of the 19th century and demolished in the 1930s. This area, lying between Via del Gonfalone , Via delle Carceri , Via di Monserrato and the Tiber, was a major district of ill-repute since the Middle Ages; a manuscript from 1556 reports about the quarter around the eventually demolished church of San Niccolò degli Incoronati hosted "... 150 houses of very simple people, whores and dubious persons ...". The degradation of this part of
26412-400: The entourage of Cardinal Albornoz , who was charged with restoring the Church's power in Italy. Back in power for a short time, Cola was soon lynched by the populace, and Albornoz took possession of the city. In 1377, Rome became the seat of the papacy again under Gregory XI . The return of the pope to Rome in that year unleashed the Western Schism (1377–1418), and for the next forty years,
26625-452: The essence of God, completing the nine-fold division to ten. Dante meets and converses with several great saints of the Church, including Thomas Aquinas , Bonaventure , Saint Peter , and St. John . Near the end, Beatrice departs and Bernard of Clairvaux takes over as the guide. The Paradiso is more theological in nature than the Inferno and the Purgatorio . However, Dante admits that
26838-431: The face of Rome dramatically, with works like the Pietà by Michelangelo and the frescoes of the Borgia Apartments . Rome reached the highest point of splendour under Pope Julius II (1503–1513) and his successors Leo X and Clement VII , both members of the Medici family . In this twenty-year period, Rome became one of the greatest centres of art in the world. The old St. Peter's Basilica built by Emperor Constantine
27051-416: The face of the street: to the north, the completion (except for the façade) of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, a work by Carlo Maderno; in the centre, the construction of the Carceri Nuove (lit. "New Prisons") based on a project by Antonio Del Grande ; to the south, the reconstruction of Palazzo Falconieri , by Francesco Borromini. San Giovanni, thanks to its slender dome, gave the street a vanishing point ;
27264-423: The failed attempt of social reform of the populares Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus , and the war against Jugurtha , there was a civil war from which the general Sulla emerged victorious. A major slave revolt under Spartacus followed, and then the establishment of the first Triumvirate with Caesar , Pompey and Crassus . The conquest of Gaul made Caesar immensely powerful and popular, which led to
27477-399: The first half of the first century (under Tiberius ) and popularised by his apostles through the empire and beyond. The Antonine age is considered the zenith of the Empire, whose territory ranged from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates and from Britain to Egypt . After the end of the Severan dynasty in AD 235, the Empire entered into a 50-year period known as the Crisis of
27690-512: The first plunder of the city in more than five hundred years since the previous sack ; in 1527, the Landsknechts of Emperor Charles V sacked the city , bringing an abrupt end to the golden age of the Renaissance in Rome. Beginning with the Council of Trent in 1545, the Church began the Counter-Reformation in response to the Reformation, a large-scale questioning of the Church's authority on spiritual matters and governmental affairs. This loss of confidence led to major shifts of power away from
27903-399: The first two canticles and who has his epic The Aeneid praised with language Dante reserves elsewhere for Scripture. Ovid is given less explicit praise in the poem, but besides Virgil, Dante uses Ovid as a source more than any other poet, mostly through metaphors and fantastical episodes based on those in The Metamorphoses . Less influential than either of the two are Statius and Lucan,
28116-419: The greatest works of Western literature . The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it existed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language , in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language . It is divided into three parts: Inferno , Purgatorio , and Paradiso . The poem discusses "the state of
28329-471: The help of the plebs (urban lower class) to gain power. In the same period, the bankruptcy of the small farmers and the establishment of large slave estates caused large-scale migration to the city. The continuous warfare led to the establishment of a professional army, which turned out to be more loyal to its generals than to the republic. Because of this, in the late 2nd and early 1st century BC there were several conflicts both abroad and internally: after
28542-411: The holy year was over, he changed the responsibilities of the Conservatori (the chief magistrates of Rome's commune ), who until then had the power to curb papal initiatives in Rome, and reinforced the possibility of expropriating land and buildings for public utility. Aim of the pope was the reduction of the property income of the local nobility, and the redevelopment of the three main streets of
28755-526: The importance of the experimental method in science, with a detailed example in lines 94–105 of Canto II: A briefer example occurs in Canto XV of the Purgatorio (lines 16–21), where Dante points out that both theory and experiment confirm that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection . Other references to science in the Paradiso include descriptions of clockwork in Canto XXIV (lines 13–18), and Thales' theorem about triangles in Canto XIII (lines 101–102). Galileo Galilei
28968-460: The last three cantos. The structure of the three realms follows a common numerical pattern of 9 plus 1, for a total of 10. There are nine circles of the Inferno, followed by Lucifer contained at its bottom; nine rings of Mount Purgatory, followed by the Garden of Eden crowning its summit; and the nine celestial bodies of Paradiso, followed by the Empyrean containing the very essence of God. Within each group of nine, seven elements correspond to
29181-481: The latter of whom has only been given proper recognition as a source in the Divine Comedy in the twentieth century. Besides Dante's fellow poets, the classical figure that most influenced the Comedy is Aristotle . Dante built up the philosophy of the Comedy with the works of Aristotle as a foundation, just as the scholastics used Aristotle as the basis for their thinking. Dante knew Aristotle directly from Latin translations of his works and indirectly quotations in
29394-405: The mid-1980s when the comune had more than 2.8 million residents. After this, the population declined slowly as people began to move to nearby suburbs. Rome is in the Lazio region of central Italy on the Tiber ( Italian : Tevere ) river. The original settlement developed on hills that faced onto a ford beside the Tiber Island , the only natural ford of the river in this area. The Rome of
29607-482: The middle of the 18th century. The nobility abandoned the palaces on the street to move to the new centre of urban life in the Campo Marzio plain, and in their place the road hosted artisans, assuming an aspect of abandonment and survival. After Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, the Tiber (known for flooding, particularly in Campus Martius plain) had its banks worked on in 1873 by constructing Lungoteveres , which since 1888 were erected along
29820-513: The monumental centre, the palatine, and the largest baths, which continued to function until the Gothic siege of 537. The large baths of Constantine on the Quirinale were even repaired in 443, and the extent of the damage exaggerated and dramatised. However, the city gave an appearance overall of shabbiness and decay because of the large abandoned areas due to population decline. The population declined to 500,000 by 452 and 100,000 by 500 AD (perhaps larger, though no certain figure can be known). After
30033-407: The most important projects was the creation of two new straight streets on the left and right banks of the Tiber: the Via Giulia on the left bank, a new grand avenue through the most densely populated quarter of Rome, from the Ponte Sisto to the Florentine merchant quarter on the Tiber bend, and the Via della Lungara along the right bank, a straight road from the Porta Settimiana in Trastevere to
30246-401: The nearby zones of the Regola rione . Despite all these construction activities, the character of the street did not change: brotherhoods, nobility, thieves, upper middle class and prostitutes lived next to each other in the street, which remained an axis of service. The poet Annibal Caro in his comedy Gli Straccioni ("The Rags") describes the street as an ill-famed place. At the end of
30459-423: The new street and facing the Palazzo dei Tribunali and the old Cancelleria (today's Palazzo Sforza-Cesarini). The square was not far from the Apostolic Camera (the pope's treasury) in Palazzo Riario and the new Palazzo della Zecca (lit. "papal mint") erected by Bramante at the edge of Via dei Banchi Nuovi (also named Canale di Ponte ). By this road lay the merchants' and bankers' houses and offices, like
30672-478: The night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice , Dante's ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a Florentine woman he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition, which is highlighted in Dante's earlier work La Vita Nuova . The Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux guides Dante through
30885-419: The noble residences along the street was probably due to the degraded state of the area, which housed several brothels. Starting with the middle of the sixteenth century there was an attempt to rehabilitate this area by building welfare facilities. The church and the hospitals of the brotherhood of the Trinity of the Pilgrims ( Italian : Confraternita della Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini ) were erected in
31098-409: The north Latium town of Sutri to the Church, starting its temporal power. In 756, Pepin the Short , after having defeated the Lombards, gave the Pope temporal jurisdiction over the Roman Duchy and the Exarchate of Ravenna , thus creating the Papal States . Since this period, three powers tried to rule the city: the pope, the nobility (together with the chiefs of militias, the judges, the Senate and
31311-415: The north towards the Angels' Bridge , which was therefore the bottleneck of the city's traffic. As Dante Alighieri described in the Divine Comedy , in 1300 Pope Boniface VIII ( r. 1294–1303 ) ordered a two-way traffic system to be set up to avoid traffic jams or panic as a response to the dense crowds on Angels' Bridge. After Pope Martin V ( r. 1417–1431 ) returned to Rome in 1420 at
31524-414: The northern edge of the road and destined to be the parish of all Florentines living in Rome. The church was to become the symbol of Florentine economic and financial dominance in Rome, being at the centre of the area occupied by the banks, the fondachi and the residences of the Tuscan bourgeoisie and nobility living in the pope's capital. Here, important artists, such as Raphael and Antonio da Sangallo
31737-399: The offices and financial centres of Rome in one place in the Via Giulia designed by Bramante. This would have made it easier for businessmen to conduct their business, which until then had been a cumbersome process. In August 1511 the life of Julius II was seriously threatened by an illness. Due to that, the feuding Orsini and Colonna families and the other Barons reached an agreement (known as
31950-474: The opposite side of the Ponte Sisto in what is now Piazza Trilussa . During the fascist period , in 1938 Benito Mussolini ordered the construction of a wide avenue between Ponte Mazzini and the Chiesa Nuova . Because of that, significant building demolitions (including that of the palazzi Ruggia and Planca Incoronati and of Piazza Padella ) took place in the central section of Via Giulia between Via della Barchetta and Vicolo delle Prigioni . The project
32163-448: The organisation of a horse race with naked hunchbacks during Carnival is handed down. During the carnival, Via Giulia hosted several feasts promoted by the Florentines. On 20 August 1662, the road was the scene of an episode that had important consequences: a brawl near the Ponte Sisto bridge between soldiers of the Corsican Guard and French soldiers belonging to the retinue of Louis XIV's ambassador Charles III de Créquy resulted in
32376-457: The original project Via Giulia was supposed to reach the Hospital of Santo Spirito in Borgo through the rebuilt Nero's Bridge . This project had a secondary, celebrative goal to promote the Pontiff as the unifier of Italy and the renewer of Rome; in 1506, after the end of the plague , Julius overthrew the powerful Baglioni and Bentivoglio families, conquering their strongholds of Perugia and Bologna as testified in an inscription along
32589-405: The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War . Italian troops were able to capture Rome entering the city through a breach near Porta Pia . Pope Pius IX declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican . In 1871 the capital of Italy was moved from Florence to Rome. In 1870 the population of the city was 212,000, all of whom lived with the area circumscribed by the ancient city, and in 1920, the population
32802-419: The pilgrimage to Saint Peter and the jubilees. In 1475, Pope Sixtus IV ( r. 1471–1484 ) ordered the Ponte Sisto, named after him, to be built across the Tiber in order to relieve the pilgrimage route across the Angels' Bridge and to connect the rioni of Regola and Trastevere . At the same time he ordered the restoration of Via Pelegrinorum and the area around the Campo de' Fiori . According to
33015-451: The poem Divina Comedia in the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce , published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari . The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three cantiche (singular cantica ) – Inferno ( Hell ), Purgatorio ( Purgatory ), and Paradiso ( Paradise ) – each consisting of 33 cantos (Italian plural canti ). An initial canto, serving as an introduction to
33228-450: The poem and generally considered to be part of the first cantica , brings the total number of cantos to 100. It is generally accepted, however, that the first two cantos serve as a unitary prologue to the entire epic, and that the opening two cantos of each cantica serve as prologues to each of the three cantiche . The number three is prominent in the work, represented in part by the number of cantiche and their lengths. Additionally,
33441-445: The pope, the emperor, and each other. These were the times of Theodora and her daughter Marozia , concubines and mothers of several popes, and of Crescentius , a powerful feudal lord, who fought against the Emperors Otto II and Otto III . The scandals of this period forced the papacy to reform itself: the election of the pope was reserved to the cardinals, and reform of the clergy was attempted. The driving force behind this renewal
33654-402: The populace), and the Frankish king, as king of the Lombards, patricius, and Emperor. These three parties (theocratic, republican, and imperial) were a characteristic of Roman life during the entire Middle Ages. On Christmas night of 800, Charlemagne was crowned in Rome as Emperor by Pope Leo III : on that occasion, the city hosted for the first time the two powers whose struggle for control
33867-410: The powerful della Rovere family, and was one of the first important urban planning projects in papal Rome during the Renaissance . The road, named after its patron, had been also called Via Magistralis ( lit. ' master road ' ) because of its importance, and Via Recta ( lit. ' straight road ' ) because of its layout. The project had three aims: the creation of
34080-526: The prisons, erected near the never-built palace of the courts of the Bramante, revived Julius II's idea of bringing the Justitia Papalis into the street; Palazzo Falconieri, finally, added value to the street in an area characterised until then only by Palazzo Farnese , which turns its back on Via Giulia. Beside these works are worth of mention the churches of Sant'Anna dei Bresciani and Santa Maria del Suffragio , and various renovations and mergers, such as that of Palazzo Varese, by Maderno, and Palazzo Ricci. In
34293-441: The prudent, whose wisdom lighted the way for the other virtues, to which the others are bound (constituting a category on its own). Mars contains the men of fortitude who died in the cause of Christianity; Jupiter contains the kings of justice; and Saturn contains the temperate, the monks. The seven subdivided into three are raised further by two more categories: the eighth sphere of the fixed stars that contain those who achieved
34506-403: The river, was going to represent the place of the cultured and refined leisure time of the Roman upper class, who built there some of the most luxurious suburban residences in the city. The two streets, surrounded by palaces, including that of the pope's banker , Agostino Chigi , would have formed "a kind of city within the city, a garden city along the Tiber". The main goal behind these plans
34719-440: The road and required the church of Sant'Anna dei Bresciani to be torn down. The Lungoteveres completely cut off Via Giulia from the Tiber and prevented the loggias and gardens of the palaces facing the river, such as the Palazzi Medici-Clarelli, Sacchetti, Varese, and Falconieri from having a view of the river. Moreover, the Fontanone of Ponte Sisto was demolished together with the Beggars' Hospice in 1879 and rebuilt in 1898 on
34932-426: The road by the nobles. An artisan population with its workshops replaced these, and Via Giulia took on the solitary and solemn aspect that would have characterized it for two centuries. During the Fascist period some construction projects broke the unity of the road in its central section, and the damage has not yet been repaired. Despite this, Via Giulia remains one of Rome's richest roads in art and history, and after
35145-411: The road is to be attributed to a decision of the Planca themselves, who, in contrast to the popes' objective of creating a prestigious road, preferred to rent their properties to prostitutes and malefactors, subjects who paid higher rents than the artisans. South of the Planca's monte lay the Castrum Senense ; this quarter (its name castrum –"fort"–came from the numerous towers that dotted
35358-421: The romantic reappraisal of Dante, juxtaposing him to Homer. The Comedy was "rediscovered" in the English-speaking world by William Blake – who illustrated several passages of the epic – and the Romantic writers of the 19th century. Later authors such as T. S. Eliot , Ezra Pound , Samuel Beckett , C. S. Lewis and James Joyce have drawn on it for inspiration. The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
35571-399: The same period two colleges were established in Via Giulia: the Collegio Ghislieri , another work by Carlo Maderno, and the Collegio Bandinelli, near San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, by Del Grande. In order to supply the quarter with sufficient drinking water, Pope Paul V ( r. 1605–1621 ) had the Aqua Paola extend over the Tiber, reaching the Regola rione and the Ghetto . In 1613,
35784-401: The scholastic doctrine, such as in his unbridled praise for poetry. Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called "the Summa in verse". The Apocalypse of Peter is one of the earliest examples of a Christian-Jewish katabasis , a genre of explicit depictions of heaven and hell. Later works inspired by it include the Apocalypse of Thomas in the 2nd–4th century, and more importantly,
35997-428: The shore, where the south-western district of Ostia is located. The altitude of the central part of Rome ranges from 13 m (43 ft) above sea level (at the base of the Pantheon ) to 139 m (456 ft) above sea level (the peak of Monte Mario ). The Comune of Rome covers an overall area of about 1,285 km (496 sq mi), including many green areas. Public parks and nature reserves cover
36210-416: The shores of the Tiber Valley . Vatican City (the smallest country in the world and headquarters of the worldwide Catholic Church under the governance of the Holy See ) is an independent country inside the city boundaries of Rome, the only existing example of a country within a city. Rome is often referred to as the City of Seven Hills due to its geographic location, and also as the "Eternal City". Rome
36423-408: The shrines with the annexed hospitals and inns for the pilgrims. The Florentines, the Sienese, and the Neapolitans had their churches built along the road (the San Giovanni, the Santa Caterina , and Santo Spirito respectively), while the Bolognese ( San Giovanni e Petronio ), Spanish ( Santa Maria in Monserrato ), English ( San Tommaso di Canterbury ) and Swedish ( Santa Brigida ) churches were built in
36636-426: The sins of violence against one's neighbor, against oneself, and against God, art, and nature; and Circles 8 and 9 for the sins of fraud and treachery. Added to these are two dissimilar, spiritual categories: Limbo, in Circle 1, contains the virtuous pagans who were not sinful but were ignorant of Christ, and Circle 6 contains the heretics who contradicted the doctrine and confused the spirit of Christ. Having survived
36849-536: The soul after death and presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward", and describes Dante's travels through Hell , Purgatory , and Heaven . Allegorically , the poem represents the soul's journey towards God , beginning with the recognition and rejection of sin ( Inferno ), followed by the penitent Christian life ( Purgatorio ), which is then followed by the soul's ascent to God ( Paradiso ). Dante draws on medieval Catholic theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy derived from
37062-473: The souls of deceased priests. As such, the building was nicknamed the Ospizio dei cento preti ("Hospice of the Hundred Priests"). In the nineteenth century, in accordance with the process of degradation of the building heritage that affected the whole city, Via Giulia underwent a myriad of interventions of superfetation, superelevation, and occupation of the free spaces. In this period only a few new buildings or restoration projects were realised: among them were
37275-435: The street suffered most for this situation. The area south of the church of San Biagio –the central part of the Via Giulia around the Monte dei Planca Incoronati , cut in half by the new road with an act of force of the pope against one of the most powerful families of the city nobility– became a slum filled with inns, brothels, and infamous locations like Piazza Padella , a venue known for duels and stabbings up to
37488-408: The street, orienting the main façade of their gigantic palace towards Campo de' Fiori and the centre of the city, and using the road only as a service route. Under Pope Paul III ( r. 1534–1549 ), Cardinal Girolamo Capodiferro decided to build his palace near the Farnese palace, but he too chose to turn his palazzo' s gardens towards Via Giulia. The decision to avoid the overlooking of
37701-404: The street. Several noble families joined them, while European nations and Italian city-states chose to build their churches in the street or in the immediate vicinity. In the Baroque period the building activity, directed by the most important architects of the time such as Francesco Borromini , Carlo Maderno and Giacomo della Porta , continued unabated, while the street, favorite location of
37914-419: The structures of the Inferno and Purgatorio were based on different classifications of sin, the structure of the Paradiso is based on the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues . The seven lowest spheres of Heaven deal solely with the cardinal virtues of Prudence , Fortitude , Justice and Temperance . The first three spheres involve a deficiency of one of the cardinal virtues –
38127-408: The successors of Peter, who is considered the first Bishop of Rome. The city thus became of increasing importance as the centre of the Catholic Church . After the Lombard invasion of Italy (569–572), the city remained nominally Byzantine, but in reality, the popes pursued a policy of equilibrium between the Byzantines , the Franks , and the Lombards . In 729, the Lombard king Liutprand donated
38340-622: The sun is silent (' l sol tace ), Dante is at last rescued by Virgil, and the two of them begin their journey to the underworld. Each sin's punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso , a symbolic instance of poetic justice ; for example, in Canto XX, fortune-tellers and soothsayers must walk with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because that was what they had tried to do in life: they had their faces twisted toward their haunches and found it necessary to walk backward, because they could not see ahead of them. ... and since he wanted so to see ahead, he looks behind and walks
38553-430: The support system from its control. Christianity in the form of the Nicene Creed became the official religion of the empire in 380, via the Edict of Thessalonica issued in the name of three emperors – Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius I – with Theodosius clearly the driving force behind it. He was the last emperor of a unified empire: after his death in 395, his young children, Honorius and Arcadius , inherited
38766-569: The symbol of Rome's constituted republican government . Furthermore, Rome has been called Urbs Aeterna (The Eternal City), Caput Mundi (The Capital of the world ), Throne of St. Peter and Roma Capitale. While there have been discoveries of archaeological evidence of human occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago, the dense layer of much younger debris obscures Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites. Evidence of stone tools, pottery, and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence. Several excavations support
38979-420: The theological virtues of faith , hope , and love , and represent the Church Triumphant – the total perfection of humanity, cleansed of all the sins and carrying all the virtues of heaven; and the ninth circle, or Primum Mobile (corresponding to the geocentricism of medieval astronomy), which contains the angels, creatures never poisoned by original sin. Topping them all is the Empyrean , which contains
39192-419: The three Macedonian Wars (212–168 BC) against Macedonia . The first Roman provinces were established at this time: Sicily , Sardinia and Corsica , Hispania , Macedonia , Achaea and Africa . From the beginning of the 2nd century BC, power was contested between two groups of aristocrats: the optimates , representing the conservative part of the Senate , and the populares , which relied on
39405-402: The tribunal of the Conservatori , for centuries located on the Capitoline Hill and traditionally controlled by the Roman nobility . This decision would therefore put an end to the chaos caused by various jurisdictions subject to ecclesiastical and secular authority, putting the justice under the pope's control. Bramante's sketch shows also a representative square (the Foro Iulio ) opened along
39618-408: The verse scheme used, terza rima , is hendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercets according to the rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC DED ... The total number of syllables in each tercet is thus 33, the same as the number of cantos in each cantica . Written in the first person, the poem tells of Dante's journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from
39831-418: The view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum . Between the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age , each hill between the sea and the Capitoline Hill was topped by a village (on the Capitoline, a village is attested since the end of the 14th century BC). However, none of them yet had an urban quality. Nowadays, there
40044-420: The vision of heaven he receives is merely the one his human eyes permit him to see, and thus Dante's personal vision. The Divine Comedy finishes with Dante seeing the Triune God . In a flash of understanding that he cannot express, Dante finally understands the mystery of Christ 's divinity and humanity, and his soul becomes aligned with God's love: But already my desire and my will were being turned like
40257-433: The war as part of the " Italian economic miracle " of post-war reconstruction and modernisation in the 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, the years of la dolce vita ("the sweet life"), Rome became a fashionable city, with popular classic films such as Ben Hur , Quo Vadis , Roman Holiday and La Dolce Vita filmed in the city's iconic Cinecittà Studios . The rising trend in population growth continued until
40470-399: The withdrawal of the ambassador from Rome and the French invasion of Avignon . In order to avoid worse consequences, the pope was forced to humiliate himself, disbanding the Corsican Guard and erecting a "pyramid of infamy " at the Corsicans' barracks near the street. From an architectural point of view in the 18th century there were only minor interventions in the street: the development of
40683-453: The works of Albertus Magnus . Dante even acknowledges Aristotle's influence explicitly in the poem, specifically when Virgil justifies the Inferno's structure by citing the Nicomachean Ethics . In the same canto, Virgil draws on Cicero 's De Officiis to explain why sins of the intellect are worse than sins of violence, a key point that would be explored from canto XVIII to the end of the Inferno . The Divine Comedy ' s language
40896-461: The world between them. There is no third." For Jorge Luis Borges the Divine Comedy was "the best book literature has achieved". The Divine Comedy has been translated into English more times than any other language, and new English translations of the Divine Comedy continue to be published regularly. Notable English translations of the complete poem include the following. A number of other translators, such as Robert Pinsky , have translated
41109-420: The youth prison ( Palazzo del Gonfalone ) (1825–27), the renovation of the Armenian Hospice next to the church of San Biagio (1830), the new façade of the Santo Spirito dei Napoletani (1853), and the Collegio Spagnuolo (1853) by Pietro Camporese and Antonio Sarti , which is the only building of architectonic quality among them. However, this did not stop the general decline of the street that started in
41322-424: Was 660,000. A significant portion lived outside the walls in the north and across the Tiber in the Vatican area. Soon after World War I in late 1922 Rome witnessed the rise of Italian Fascism led by Benito Mussolini , who led a march on the city . He did away with democracy by 1926, eventually declaring a new Italian Empire and allying Italy with Nazi Germany in 1938. Mussolini demolished fairly large parts of
41535-453: Was a precondition for the future construction of Via della Lungara on the right bank of the Tiber from Ponte Sisto to St. Peter's Basilica . In addition to reconstructing St. Peter's Basilica , Julius II implemented multiple projects in the framework of Rome's urban renewal ( Renovatio Romae ) in the Ponte, Parione , Sant'Eustachio and Colonna rioni , a task which was started forty years before by his uncle, Pope Sixtus IV. One of
41748-456: Was also taken up by Ovid , Virgil , and Livy . Rome is also called Caput Mundi (Capital of the World). After the fall of the Empire in the west , which marked the beginning of the Middle Ages , Rome slowly fell under the political control of the Papacy , and in the 8th century, it became the capital of the Papal States , which lasted until 1870. Beginning with the Renaissance , almost all popes since Nicholas V (1447–1455) pursued
41961-414: Was criss-crossed by three narrow thoroughfares: the Via Papalis (lit. "papal road"), inhabited by curial employees; the Via Peregrinorum (lit. "pilgrims' road") artisan and business road; and the Via Recta (lit. "straight road", a name common to many roads in medieval Rome). This was used above all by pilgrims coming from the north and was home to small businesses. The three roads converged to
42174-483: Was first under the control of Odoacer and then became part of the Ostrogothic Kingdom before returning to East Roman control after the Gothic War , which devastated the city in 546 and 550 . Its population declined from more than a million in AD 210 to 500,000 in AD 273 to 35,000 after the Gothic War (535–554), reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings interspersed among large areas of ruins, vegetation, vineyards and market gardens. It
42387-443: Was governed by creating regional dioceses. The existence of regional fiscal units from 286 served as the model for this unprecedented innovation. The emperor quickened the process of removing military command from governors. Henceforth, civilian administration and military command would be separate. He gave governors more fiscal duties and placed them in charge of the army logistical support system as an attempt to control it by removing
42600-408: Was heading south to fight the Hohenstaufen on behalf of the pope, was appointed Senator. Charles founded the Sapienza , the university of Rome. In that period the pope died, and the cardinals, summoned in Viterbo , could not agree on his successor. This angered the people of the city, who then unroofed the building where they met and imprisoned them until they had nominated the new pope; this marked
42813-410: Was influenced by Ibn Arabi was satirized by the Turkish academic Orhan Pamuk in his novel The Black Book . In addition to that, it has been claimed that Risālat al-Ghufrān ("The Epistle of Forgiveness"), a satirical work mixing Arabic poetry and prose written by Abu al-ʿAlaʾ al-Maʿarri around 1033 CE, had an influence on, or even inspired, Dante's Divine Comedy . The Divine Comedy
43026-419: Was its first American translator, and modern poets, including Seamus Heaney , Robert Pinsky , John Ciardi , W. S. Merwin , and Stanley Lombardo , have also produced translations of all or parts of the book. In Russia, beyond Alexander Pushkin 's translation of a few tercets, Osip Mandelstam 's late poetry has been said to bear the mark of a "tormented meditation" on the Comedy . In 1934, Mandelstam gave
43239-444: Was known as the caput Mundi , i.e. the capital of the known world, an expression which had already been used in the Republican period. During its first two centuries, the empire was ruled by emperors of the Julio-Claudian , Flavian (who built an eponymous amphitheatre known as the Colosseum ), and Antonine dynasties. This time was also characterised by the spread of the Christian religion, preached by Jesus Christ in Judea in
43452-440: Was not always as well-regarded as it is today. Although recognized as a masterpiece in the centuries immediately following its publication, the work was largely ignored during the Enlightenment , with some notable exceptions such as Vittorio Alfieri ; Antoine de Rivarol , who translated the Inferno into French; and Giambattista Vico , who in the Scienza nuova and in the Giudizio su Dante inaugurated what would later become
43665-453: Was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of humanity, in the low and "vulgar" Italian language and not the Latin one might expect for such a serious topic. Boccaccio 's account that an early version of the poem was begun by Dante in Latin is still controversial. Although the Divine Comedy is primarily a religious poem, discussing sin, virtue, and theology, Dante also discusses several elements of
43878-425: Was part of the Guelphs, who in general favored the papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor . Florence's Guelphs split into factions around 1300 – the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. Dante was among the White Guelphs who were exiled in 1302 by the Lord-Mayor Cante de' Gabrielli di Gubbio , after troops under Charles of Valois entered the city, at the request of Pope Boniface VIII , who supported
44091-405: Was restored in part much later). In 330, he transformed Byzantium into Constantinople , which became his new capital. However, it was not officially anything more than an imperial residence like Milan , Trier or Nicomedia until given a city prefect in 359 by Constantius II . Constantine, following Diocletian's reforms. regionalised the administration, which fundamentally changed the way it
44304-502: Was stopped because of the beginning of World War II , and to this day the resulting empty plot has only been partially filled by the new building of the Liceo Classico Virgilio . Starting with the post-war years, the street regained gradually its status as one of the most prestigious streets in the city. Numerous events took place in 2008 during its 500th anniversary; some churches and palaces were restored and opened to visitors. Via Giulia extends northwest for about one kilometre from
44517-399: Was the monk Ildebrando da Soana , who once elected pope under the name of Gregory VII became involved into the Investiture Controversy against Emperor Henry IV . Subsequently, Rome was sacked and burned by the Normans under Robert Guiscard who had entered the city in support of the Pope, then besieged in Castel Sant'Angelo . During this period, the city was autonomously ruled by
44730-413: Was the prose translation into Castilian completed by Enrique de Villena in 1428. The first vernacular verse translation was that of Andreu Febrer into Catalan in 1429. The first printed edition was published in Foligno , Italy, by Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi on 11 April 1472. Of the 300 copies printed, fourteen still survive. The original printing press is on display in
44943-409: Was to be a constant of the Middle Ages. This event marks the beginning of the Carolingian Empire , the first phase of the Holy Roman Empire . In 846, Muslim Arabs unsuccessfully stormed the city's walls , but managed to loot St. Peter 's and St. Paul's basilica, both outside the city wall. After the decay of Carolingian power , Rome fell prey to feudal chaos: several noble families fought against
45156-424: Was to superimpose to medieval Rome's disorderly building mesh a regular road network having the Tiber as focus; together with the new Via Alessandrina that Alexander VI opened in the Borgo and the Via dei Pettinari that connected the Trastevere on one bank and the Campidoglio on the other, the Lungara and Via Giulia created a quadrilateral network of modern roads in the city's chaotic web of narrow streets. In
45369-431: Was united as the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 with the temporary capital in Florence . That year Rome was declared the capital of Italy even though it was still under the Pope's control. During the 1860s, the last vestiges of the Papal States were under French protection thanks to the foreign policy of Napoleon III . French troops were stationed in the region under Papal control. In 1870 the French troops were withdrawn due to
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