Landscape and Identity in Early Modern Rome

Download or read book Landscape and Identity in Early Modern Rome written by Tracy L. Ehrlich and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-10-14 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the early modern period, the villas of Frascati played a central role in Roman social politics. New families penetrated Roman society and began to climb from the ranks of the ecclesiastical nobility into the secular aristocracy in the mid-sixteenth century. In this study, Tracy Ehrlich analyzes one such villa--the Villa Mondragone--(built by Pope Paul V Borghese) to demonstrate how architecture, landscape and rituals of villegiatura (villa life) were used to forge a new identity as a Roman noble house.