Main description (English)

When and in what forms did medieval Rome become an object of interest in modern Rome? When did a literary tradition begin that had stories of medieval Rome as its source? This is the question from which this article started. Naturally it is not possible to give a univocal answer, and the question should rather be considered a solicitation to investigate the evolving legacy of medieval Rome in the modern age, both as an artistic heritage and as a trove of stories and literature. The eighteenth century was certainly a key century in this context, in which medieval Rome became an object of study and of sustained interest, a fact which gives the eighteenth-century texts on medieval Rome not only the character of sources on works and documents which later disappeared, but also that of chapters in the history of culture. We therefore propose the case of a Latin elegy composed and recited by Michele Giuseppe Morei for the celebration of Christmas in 1711, held by the Accademia dell’Arcadia at Palazzo della Cancelleria, residence of Pietro Ottoboni. The elegy presents a history of the vision of Augustus and the Araceli, which in Western culture was entrusted to the Mirabilia Rome and their late-medieval remakes and revivals. Morei’s text allows us to return to the tradition of the Mirabilia and to retrace the literary fortunes of the legend of the Araceli in the early modern period.