Constellations: HAA 2105 Medieval Architecture
The seminar topic this term concentrates on the objectives, methods, and results of one of Europe's most ambitious archaeological excavations. Between 1965 and 1980 these excavations--mainly under the direction of the course instructor--located the remains of the Early Christian cathedral of Santa Reparata (ca. 500 AD) buried below the successor cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy. The total scope of what was found involved sixteen centuries (1st-century BC through 15th-century AD) at the heart of one of Europe's great cities, from a Roman house through three stages of a church, to the building of the existing cathedral. The seminar will work in four main disciplines: liturgy (church ritual both inside the building and in the streets of medieval Florence); scientific archaeology; art history and social and political history. The liturgical documents and the archaeological evidence provide the text of the course; the art-historical and historical interpretations are the context. Text and context together offer findings not only rich to look at but significant enough to modify or revise much of the history of Florence between the eras of Augustus and Dante.
