Old St. Peter's Rome Conferene, The British School at Rome, 22- 25 March 2010

The basilica that was built by Constantine at the Vatican in the early fourth century to mark the burial place of the Apostle Peter became the central place for Christian worship in the West for more than a millennium until its protracted demolition over the course of the sixteenth century. The essential chronology of the construction of Old St Peter’s, and the major modifications made to its fabric over subsequent centuries, are well established. But a great many questions remain to be answered about details of the building and its monuments, and on the ways in which the basilica and its environs functioned as a ‘theatre’ of worship, burial and power throughout the middle ages from the fourth to sixteenth centuries.
This major international conference, hosted by the British School at Rome, will bring together both leading and new scholars in the fields of ancient, medieval and early modern art history, musicology and liturgical history to answer some of these questions by focussing on the fabric, monuments and use of the basilica of Old St. Peter’s.

Conference convenors

Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
John Osborne, Carleton University
Carol M. Richardson, The Open University
Joanna Story, University of Leicester

SPEAKERS

Monday 22 March

Plenary lecture (18.00–19.00 as part of the BSR public lecture series)
Paolo Liverani (Università degli studi di Firenze)

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Tuesday 23 March

Session I 09.00-10.30
Opening of conference and welcome - Christopher Smith (Director of the British
School at Rome)
Richard Gem (UK), Constantine, Constans and St Peter's: A New Solution to the Building History of the 4th-century Basilica
Lex Bosman (University of Amsterdam), Spolia in the Fourth-century Basilica
Joan Barclay Lloyd (ex LaTrobe, Melbourne), Revisiting Old St. Peter's with Richard Krautheimer


Session II 11.00-12.30
Olof Brandt (PIAC), The Early Christian Baptistery of St. Peter's
Meaghan McEvoy (Dumbarton Oaks/ University of Oxford ), The Mausoleum of Honorius: Late Roman Imperial Christianity and the City of Rome in the Fifth Century
Judson J. Emerick (Pomona College), Did the Early Christian Sant'Anastasia copy Old St. Peter's?


Session III 14.00-15.30
Chair for sessions III and IV - Serena Romano (Université de Lausanne)
Respondent - Herbert Kessler (Johns Hopkins University)
Antonella Ballardini (Università degli studi Roma Tre), Per una ricostruzione dell'oratorio di Giovanni VII nell'antica basilica Vaticana: la decorazione architettonica e scultorea
Paola Pogliani (Università degli studi della Tuscia), Per una ricostruzione dell'oratorio di Giovanni VII (705-707) nell'antica basilica Vaticana: i mosaici
Per Jonas Nordhagen (University of Bergen) , Palladium of the Urbs: The Orant Maria Regina of A.D. 705-707. Byzantine Image-making before Iconoclasm


Session IV 16.00-17.30
Annie Labatt (Yale University), The Life of the Roman “Anastasis” in Old St. Peter's from John VII to Formosus
Giulia Bordi (l'Università degli studi della Tuscia), Frammenti musivi dell'antica basilica di S. Pietro
Pietro Zander (Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro), The Paintings of Old St Peter's

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Wednesday 24 March

Respondent/chair for sessions V and VI - Yitzhak Hen (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Session V 09.00-10.30
Alan Thacker (IHR University of London), Clergy and Custodes at Old St Peter's, 4th- 8th Centuries
Eamonn O'Carragain (University of Cork), Interactions Between Liturgy and Politics in Old St Peter's, 670-740: John the Archcantor, Sergius and Gregory II and III
Peter Jeffery (University of Notre Dame), The Roman Liturgical Year and the Early Liturgy of St. Peter's

Session VI 11.00-12.30
Jesse Billett (University of Cambridge), Qualiter in monasteria Romanae ecclesiae: Music and the Monastic Liturgy in Old St Peter's Reconsidered
Charles McClendon (Brandeis University), Old St Peter's and the Iconoclastic Controversy
Ann van Dijk (Northern Illinois University), Old St. Peter's and the Cult of Icons in Rome

Respondent/chair for sessions VII and VIII – Thomas FX Noble (University of Notre Dame)
Session VII 14.00-15.30

Rosamond McKitterick (University of Cambridge), The Role of Old St Peter's in the Liber Pontificalis
Joanna Story (Leicester University), The Carolingians and Old St Peter's
Caroline Goodson (Birkbeck College), Old St Peters and the political topography of Carolingian Rome

Session VIII 16.00-17.30
Carmela Vircillo Franklin (American Academy in Rome), The Legendary of St Peter's Basilica: Hagiographic Traditions and Innovations in the late 11th century
John Osborne (Carleton University), Plus Caesare Petrus: The Medieval Understanding of the Vatican Obelisk  

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Thursday 25 March

Session IX 09.00-10.30
Katharina Christa Schüppel (Leipzig University), The Stucco Crucifix of St. Peter's: Textual Sources and Visual Evidence on the Renaissance Copy of a Medieval Silver Crucifix
Carol M. Richardson (The Open University), Papal tombs in Old St Peter's after Avignon
Robert Glass (Princeton University), Filarete's Renovation of the Porta Argentea at Old St. Peter's

Session X 11.00-12.30
Catherine Fletcher (Rome Fellow, British School at Rome), Diplomatic Ritual in Old St Peter's During the Fifteenth Century
Bram Kempers (University of Amsterdam), A Hybrid History: The Antique Basilica with a Modern Dome
Close of conference – Susan Russell (British School at Rome)

source: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/oldstpeters/index.html