Lecture | Research Seminars Medieval and Early Modern History
Egyptian Rome in the Sixteenth Century: A Scholarly Programme to Encompass the World
- Date
- Friday 6 November 2026
- Time
- Serie
- Research Seminars Medieval and Early Modern History academic year 2026-2027
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conference room (2.60)
The rethinking and reorganisation of knowledge about an expanded, globe-encompassing world constituted the foundation of the sixteenth-century Church’s scientific programme, under the pressure of completing its spiritual conquest in response to the collapse of Christianity, the expansion of Islam, the ‘discovery’ of Asian polytheisms in Japan and China, as well as the ‘savagery’ of the peoples of the new worlds.
My aim here is to focus on the local dimension of this challenge and to analyse, ‘at street level’, the urban interventions – physical, technical and scholarly – through which the papacy responded to it. I shall examine the transformations of the city’s Egyptian foundations – past and present – and, in particular, the various ways in which the obelisks have been reused. The erection of an obelisk at the centre of gravity of the Catholic Church lies at the intersection of philological, theological, mathematical and naturalistic competences, involving a large set of protagonists, among which the physician Michele Mercati and the architect Domenico Fontana. Their works form the first and primary sources for this study, among other visual and written materials.
Research Seminars Medieval and Early Modern History
The seminars are informal and intended to foster discussion. There are drinks afterwards. Everyone is welcome to join.
If you would like to join a session, and/or receive invitations for the upcoming sessions, you can send an e-mail to: ngassistent@hum.leidenuniv.nl. Further information can be obtained from the organizers Shiru Lim, Judith Pollmann, Jeroen Duindam and Philippe Buc.