Engineering the Eternal City: Infrastructure, Topography, and the Culture of Knowledge in Late Sixteenth-Century Rome

Between 1560 and 1590, the tumbledown flood-prone Rome of ancient ruins, clogged streets, and water shortages was re-imagined and re-engineered into a city much closer to what it is today. Through the initiatives of four popes, including the great builder Sixtus V, and a host of architect/engineers, noted artists, simple artisans, map makers, cardinals, civic officials, and private citizens, the city enjoyed a remarkable imaginative moment. One of the surprising and previously unknown (at least to me) stories that Long uncovers was a proposal from Sixtus V to rebuild the Colosseum by turning it into a woolen-cloth factory, complete with housing for poor workers. This was just one of the revitalizing projects, many of which succeeded. The repairs on two ancient aqueducts made possible the famous fountains of Rome and an abundant water supply for the parched inhabitants, especially those who could not afford water delivered by water carriers. Large-scale...