The PRIN 2022 research project "VeLoCi – The Vesuvian Lost Cities before the 'Discovery': Sources, Experience, and Imagery in the Early Modern Period" invites submissions for the conference "Lost Cities in a Global Perspective: Sources, Experience, and Imagery in the Early Modern Period (15th–18th century)," which will take place on October 16–17, 2025, in Caserta, Italy.
The application deadline is March 15, 2025.
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In 1972 Italo
Calvino published the book Invisible Cities, encouraging a reflection on
modern megalopolises starting from the reactivation of the imaginary arising
from the memory of historical cities. In the paragraph Cities and Memory 3,
the writer wrote that “The city does not tell its past, it contains it like the
lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, in the grilles of the
windows, in the handrails of the stairs, in the antennas of the lightning rods,
in the poles of the flags”, underlining how the knowledge of a city passes
through the discovery of material elements (space) and immaterial elements
(history).
More recently,
Salvatore Settis (Se Venezia muore, 2014) postulated that “Cities die in
three ways: when they are destroyed by a ruthless enemy (like Carthage, which
was razed to the ground by Rome in 146 BC); when a foreign people settles there
by force, driving out the natives and their gods (like Tenochtitlan, the
capital of the Aztecs that the Spanish conquistadores destroyed in 1521
and then built Mexico City on its ruins); or, finally, when the inhabitants
lose their memory of themselves, and without even realizing it become strangers
to themselves, enemies of themselves. This was the case of Athens”.
Many cities, all
over the world, have disappeared over the centuries, abandoned - but perhaps
never forgotten -, destroyed by natural disasters or buried under new urban
layers (Teotihuacán, Chichén Itzá, Copàn, Tulum, Angkor, Petra, Rome, Pompeii,
Herculaneum, Brescia), re-emerging for different reasons. Fascinating
historians, explorers, archaeologists, architects and artists, the ‘lost cities’
- both literally and metaphorically - have continued to exist in literary
sources, descriptions, chronicles and sometimes in iconographic
representations.
Pompeii and
Herculaneum are two of the most famous cities that disappeared due to natural
disasters. Although according to historiographical and narrative tradition
their ‘discovery’ occurred in conjunction with the start of the Bourbon
excavations in the 18th century, the VeLoCi project, however, has demonstrated
how even before the start of systematic excavations, material traces of the
existence of ancient cities had emerged and, on the other hand, there was no
lack of literary, antiquarian and scientific sources dedicated to the history
of these disappeared cities. Similarly to the Vesuvian cities, other cities,
which disappeared following catastrophes or simple stratification, were not
unearthed, despite their historical past being well known.
What was then the
perception, the relationship of coexistence and/or study and knowledge with the
buried/lost cities in the different cultures of the world in the early modern
era? What phenomena or episodes have reactivated their systematic research? What
are the operational, scientific and epistemological approaches to the discovery
of the past? What are the reasons that suggest seeking and valorising the past?
Starting from the
case study of the Vesuvian cities, the international conference Lost Cities
in a Global Perspective: Sources, Experience, Imagery in Early Modern Period
(XV-XVIII century) is aimed to investigate in an interdisciplinary and
comparative way the material and imaginary dimensions assumed by the lost
cities in a global perspective, before the birth of archaeology as a science in
the 18th-19th century. We invite scholars from a variety of
disciplines, including architectural history, art and literary history,
history, history of science, archaeology, cultural studies, and other related
fields, to submit papers examining cases from any geographical context.
Interdisciplinary approaches are particularly welcome, as are contributions
that reflect on the exchange of knowledge and cultures at a global level.
Topics may include
(but are not limited to):
Travel Accounts and Exploration: the role of European explorers and
missionaries in shaping the narratives of lost cities in Asia, Africa and the
Americas.
Historiographical approaches: the role of early modern historians and
intellectuals in constructing and reconstructing the idea of lost cities.
Myth and
Reality: what role did legends and fantastic narratives have in shaping lost
cities and how did they intertwine with emerging archaeological or geographical
knowledge.
Visual Culture and cartography: the role of
representations of lost cities in art and cartography.
Colonialism and
Cultural Exchange: the impact of colonial expansion on the perception of lost
cities and the relationship with native cultures.
Material Culture
and Archaeology: proto-archaeology and antiquarian research in exploring the
physical remains of lost cities and ancient civilizations.
Literature and
Lost Cities: the role of literature in constructing of the idea of lost cities,
from utopian and dystopian narratives to adventure tales.
Cultural Memory
and Identity: how did the notion of lost cities has served as a tool for
constructing cultural memory and national identity, and how did societies have
preserved or forgotten this memory.
Environmental Factors
and Natural Disasters: what role has climate change, natural disasters and
geographical displacement played in the disappearance of cities.
The two-day conference,
organised by Giulia Ceriani Sebregondi, Francesca Mattei and Danila Jacazzi, is
promoted by the PRIN 2022 research project “VeLoCi - The Vesuvian Lost Cities
before the ‘Discovery’. Sources, Experience, Imagery in Early Modern Period” at
the end of its duration and will be hosted at the University of Campania “Luigi
Vanvitelli”, in Caserta. VeLoCi will organise and pay for accommodation and
reimburse travel costs (economy class) for the speakers. At the end of the
conference, the publication of some contributions in a peer-reviewed collective
volume will be evaluated. Scientific and organisational secretariat by Giorgia
Aureli and Giorgia Pietropaolo.
INTERNATIONAL
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE OF THE PROJECT
Candida Carrino, Giulia Ceriani Sebregondi, Kathleen Christian,
Bianca de Divitiis, Danila Jacazzi, Francesca Mattei, Tanja Michalsky, Massimo
Osanna, Francesco Sirano.
ABSTRACT
SUBMISSION
Participation in
the conference is free of charge.
Conference languages
are Italian and English.
Abstracts, in
PDF format, of maximum 1500 characters (about 250 words), must be presented in
Italian or English, and must include a title and a short biography of maximum
1500 characters (about 250 words) of the contributor.
To apply, please
send the material to ve.lo.ci.prin@gmail.com
This CFP is open
also to PhD students and independent scholars.
TIMELINE
CFP closing: March
15, 2025
Notification of
accepted proposals: April 15, 2025
