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

252 Pages·2011·10.06 MB·English

by  Joseph Rykvert

Marble panel showing two men dressed in togas guiding a yoke of two oxen (bulls?) with four
similarly dressed figures following. 3rd century A.D. Found at Aquilea.
As the toga is hardly peasant’s working dress, this relief was taken to represent a ritual
scene by its discoverer, in fact the drawing of the ‘sulcus primigenius’, even though the manner
of wearing the toga (the heads are not covered) does not conform to the descriptions of the
rite. ‘Notizie Scavi’, 1931, p. 472 ff.: ‘Archäologischer Anzeiger’ 1932, p. 454 Museo Civico,
Aquilea
JOSEPH RYKWERT
The Idea of a Town
The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy and the Ancient
World
to A & A & A and to the memory of Michael Ayrton
… è inutile stábilire se Zenobia sia da
classificare tra le città felici o quelle infelici.
Non è in queste due specie, che ha senso
dividere le città, ma in altre due: quelle che
continuano attraverso gli anni e le
mutazioni a dare la loro forma ai desideri e
quelle in cui i desideri o riescono a
cancellare la città, o ne sono cancellati.
Italo Calvino, Le Città Invisibili
The Idea of a Town
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Preface to the Paper Edition
Preface
One Town and Rite: Rome and Romulus
Romulus and Remus
The Ritual Books
The New Community
Planning Techniques: Rational and Irrational
The Choice of Site
The Founder and the City
Recording the Foundation
Two City and Site
How to Choose the Site:
(i) The Theorists
(ii) The Rites Observed
Romulus again
Templum
The Surveyors
Haruspication
Mundus
Orthogonal Planning and the Surveyors
The First Furrow
Castrum
Destruction Rites
Three Square and Cross
The Etruscans
Terramare
Marzabotto
Spina
Spina and Orthogonal Planning
Myth and Rite
The Boundary of the First Rome
Luperci and Lupercal
Four Guardians of Centre, Guardians of Boundaries
Roma Quadrata
Vesta
Boundary and Terminus
Boundary and Centre: Mundus and Terminus
Boundary of the Land and Boundary of the People
Troy: Trojan Horse and Trojan Game
Mundus and Pomoerium
Boundary, Strength and Fertility
The Boundary and the Gate
The Guardian of the Gate
The Riddle and the Maze
Maze, Dance, City
The Guilty Founder
Five The Parallels
Mandala
The Mande Rites
The Bororo Rites
The Sioux
The Tiwi
Separation, Guilt and Reconciliation
The Quartered Body as a Picture of the World
The Hausa
The Dogon
The Everyday Microcosm
The Great Plan
Six The City as a Curable Disease: Ritual and Hysteria
The First Builders
The Sign for a Town
Conclusion
Index
About the Author
Copyright