Rileggendo la "Topografia generale" (original) (raw)

2022, Forme dell'abitare a Roma. Echi dell'antico nell'architettura del primo Novecento, a cura di S.Benedetti, F.Benfante, I. Benincampi, D.Bigi, L.Kosmopoulos, atti del convegno Roma 23-25 novembre 2021.

In 1953 "Topografia generale", the first volume of the series Scavi di Ostia, was published. The volume's authors were some of the most illustrious scholars of Roman Archaeology in Italy. The book was edited by Guido Calza, who was supported by Giovanni Becatti, Italo Gismondi, Gioacchino De Angelis D'Ossat e Herbert Bloch. Because of their different backgrounds, training and conceptions of archeological practice, these scholars brought the different views of archeology prevailing in their time to bear on the same context, thus highlighting themes and nodes that are still important in the research on Ostia. Almost 70 years after the first publication of this work-which remains a foundamental piece for the archaeological knowledge of Ostia-it is useful to provide a reevaluation in light of the authors' biographies and interests and of the historical, methodological, and professional context in which they operated, including an assessment of the nature and durability of the work's impact on the scientific community. Investigating the 'behind scenes' of the book, we stepped deep into its making and into the authors' thinking, exploring the relations that exist, or ought to exist, among its various components. This paper presents some preliminary considerations on three main points: first, the authors, who exemplify the best of the various souls of Italian Archaeology in the period between the two world conflicts and the immediate postwar, as they were key representatives of different generations gathered around the research on Ostia's stratification; second, the book's structure, partially established by Calza and then updated by Romanelli; and finally the working method of each author and the relations among the various contributions, analyzed through the lens of the Regio III case study.