Roma nella memoria e nelle immaginazioni del Medio Evo vol. I

The first volume offers a sweeping examination of how the ancient city of Rome lived on in medieval minds. Drawing from a broad range of texts—chronicles, poetry, popular tales, and theological treatises—the author maps the shifting symbolism that turned Rome into a moral compass, a source of wonder, and a contested political ideal. The introduction frames this inquiry as a corrective to earlier scholarship that dismissed myth and folklore as mere noise.

The author then turns to the legends themselves, treating them not as fanciful falsehoods but as double‑edged mirrors that reflect both external power structures and internal spiritual anxieties. By juxtaposing high literary rhetoric with the humble chants of ordinary people, the study reveals how medieval imagination kept Rome alive, reshaping its image to suit changing theological and civic agendas. Listeners will find a nuanced portrait of a city that never truly vanished, only transformed through story.