Categoria: news

«Los orígenes de la arqueología cristiana de Tarragona y la figura del Dr. Pere Batlle Huguet (1907-1990)».

The exhibition «Los orígenes de la arqueología cristiana de Tarragona y la figura del Dr. Pere Batlle Huguet (1907-1990)» is intended as a tribute to Dr. Pere Batlle, an important figure for the protection of the archaeological and artistic heritage of the city of Tarragona, who wrote the first scientific work on the Christian epigraphs of the Roman-Christian necropolis of Tarragona.

It is also an opportunity to deepen and disseminate some important findings about his person and his work and finally to transfer knowledge about the genesis of Christian archaeology in Tarragona.

The exhibition is part of the UC3M Conex Plus project “LIT! Living in the catacombs! Reception of catacomb art in European culture and architecture between the 19th and 20th century”. It was born from an idea of Chiara Cecalupo and the director of the Museum Andreu Muñoz, with the cooperation of their collaborators, but also from the contribution of the Historical Archive of the Archdiocese of Tarragona and the Library of the Pontifical Seminary, in particular the director Enric Mateu. Other entities such as the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology and Tarraco Viva, the Roman Festival of Tarragona, as well as the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology of Rome also played an important role. This harmony of local and international collaboration has therefore been a good opportunity to create a link between people and institutions that enhances Tarragona, its heritage and history, and which hopefully will continue in the future in other activities and with the same spirit.

The exhibition is structured in the following sections:
1. Christian archaeology and the first art of the universal Church.
2. Christian archaeological heritage of Tarraco.
3. Christian archaeology in Catalonia between the 19th and 20th centuries.
4. Dr. Pere Batlle Huguet. His training and research in Christian archaeology and epigraphy.
5. Safeguarding the heritage of Tarragona.

The exhibition is located in the Biblical Museum of Tarragona, specifically in the room dedicated to the early Christian world (Mn. Joan Magí room). The exhibition contents are projected through a set of explanatory posters accompanied by archaeological objects, photographs and documents.

The exhibition has been scheduled to run from 10 May to 3 June 2023 and the planned activities are set out below:

–10 May, 7 p.m.: Opening act and lecture: “The origins of Christian archaeology in Tarragona and the figure of Dr. Pere Batlle Huguet (1907-1990)”, by Dr. Chiara Cecalupo (UC3M). Auditorium of the Museo Bíblico Tarraconense.

– 18 May, 7 p.m.: Lecture: “The Cathedral of Tarragona: Contributions to the Christian archaeology of the city” by Dr. Josep M. Macias Solé (ICAC). Auditorium of the Biblical Museum of Tarragona.

– 20 May: Guided tours of the area of the latest archaeological work in the cloister of Tarragona Cathedral. By the archaeologists Josep M. Macias Solé (ICAC), Andreu Muñoz Melgar (MDT/ICAC) and Andreu Muñoz Virgili (ICAC).

– Saturday 27th May (11 a.m.), Wednesday 31st May (5 p.m.), Saturday 3rd May (11 a.m.). Guided visits to the exhibition by Dr. Chiara Cecalupo (UC3M). The visits are free of charge and without prior reservation.

More info at museu.biblic@arquebisbattarragona.cat

A video (in Catalan and Spanish) of the opening and the exhibition:

The catalogue of the exhibition is in open access for free downloading:

llibret-pere-batlle-2023Download the catalogue

Credits:

Scientific Committee of the exhibition:
Chiara Cecalupo (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)
Josep M. Macias Solé (Instituto Catalán de Arqueología Clásica)
Enric Mateu Usach (Archivo Histórico Archidiocesano de Tarragona y Biblioteca del Seminario)
Andreu Muñoz Melgar (Museos Diocesanos de Tarragona / Instituto Superior de Ciencias
Religiosas San Fructuoso)
Míriam Ramon Mas (Museos Diocesanos de Tarragona)
Stefan Heid (Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana, Roma)
Immaculada Teixell Navarro (Asociación Cultural San Fructuoso)
Exhibition curators:
Chiara Cecalupo (Universidad Carlos III Madrid)
Míriam Ramon Mas (Museos Diocesanos de Tarragona)
Texts:
Chiara Cecalupo y Andreu Muñoz Melgar
Production and assembly:
Josep M. Brull Alabart, Magda Domènech Jordà, Rosa Ferré Rovira, Roser Fornell Guasch, Josefina Folch Sabaté, Josepa Franquès Bultó, Joaquim Galià Romaní, Sergi Guardiola Martínez, Dolors Iglesias Torrellas, Joan Quijada Bosch, Neus Sánchez Pié, Paco Roca Simón, Jordi-Lluís Rovira Canyelles, Adolf Quetcuti Carceller y Andreu Ximenis Rovira.
Audiovisual:
«La Tarraco de los primeros cristianos», Asociación Cultural San Fructuoso
Acknowledgements:
Asociación Cultural San Fructuoso
Museo Nacional Arqueológico de Tarragona
Real Sociedad Arqueológica de Tarragona
Jordi López Vilar

Second talk “Revealing Christian Heritage” – Spain edition

Among the dissemination activities of the Conex-Plus Project LIT!, we will celebrate the second talk of the series “Revealing Christian Heritage – Talks on the rediscovery of Christian archaeology between 1860 and 1930”. This year, the workshop will focus on the rediscovery of Christian antiquity in Spain in late 19th-early 20th century.

The first talk took place in September 2021 (more info here and here) and the publication of the proceedings will be announced soon.

Meanwhile, join us for the second talk on November 24th, at 15 CEST at https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/493e22db2d5e431187a6e93f5b0a9425

The abstract book is available here:

abstractrch-2022Download

Project results: latest publications

After the summer break, the first two months of this academic year have been devoted to results dissemination. I will dedicate a separete blog post to online or on-person activities (stay tuned!), but first I would like to share the latest publications regarding the LIT! project. All in open access!

On October the 5th, the volume 32 of the Anales de Historia del Arte came out with the title Arte y Archivo. I contributed with the article “Catacumbas en museos: archivos documentales y fotográficos para la historia de la museografía” (“Catacombs in Museums: Archival Texts and Photos for the History of Museums”).

Available here: https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/ANHA/article/view/83070

The contribution “Father Delattre’s Correspondence and the History of Christian Archaeology in the Maghreb: His Correspondence with Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1885” is a much loved one for me, and came out on the 21st of October in the 2022 anniversary issue of the Moroccan journal Hespéris-Tamuda “Practicing Archaeology in the Maghreb: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Realities / pratiquer l’archéologie au Maghreb: Perspectives historiques et réalités contemporaines“.

It can be found here: https://www.hesperis-tamuda.com/Downloads/2022/fascicule-2/14.pdf

“

In the September/October issue of the local magazine Esglesia de Tarragona came out a short article of mine regarding the connection between Christian archaeology in Tarragona and in Rome. Check it out here: https://www.esglesiadetarragona.cat/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/R328.pdf

Bonus: my latest article about German researchers in the early Christian Catacombs of Malta finally saw the light this September. I wrote this article during the first months of the pandemic outbreak and I am very fond of it. It was published in the Römische Quartalschrift Band 117, Heft 1-2.

February 2022: the month of Giovanni Battista de Rossi

On the 22nd of February 2022 the scientific community celebrates the second centenary of the birth of Giovanni Battista de Rossi (1822-1894), one of the ‘founding fathers’ of Christian archaeology. He was Scriptor and then head of the Vatican Library, first secretary of the Commission of Sacred Archaeology, established by Pius IX in 1852, creator and curator of the Museo Pio Cristiano Lateranense founded in 1854. He is remembered also as founder and editor of the first specialist journal in the field, the Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana (still existing today as Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana). He began the publication of the critical edition of all the early Christian inscriptions of Rome (ICVR) and was the author of the Roma Sotterranea Cristiana, an in-depth study of the main Roman catacombs (especially the catacombs of San Callisto) drawn up following his own important discoveries.

To celebrate the event, the Vatican State issued a special stamp where de Rossi is portayed with the ruins of the Hypogeum of the Flavi in the catacombs of Domitilla.

The project LIT! owns very much to de Rossi’s work. He was the one who created the first fac-simile catacombs in 1867 for the Universal Exhibition in Paris. We are therefore very happy to share the brand new article about the topic. Enjoy!

C. Cecalupo, GIOVANNI BATTISTA E MICHELE STEFANO DE ROSSI ALL’ESPOSIZIONE UNIVERSALE DI PARIGI (1867), in Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana, 97, 2021,2, pp. 319-347.

Psss, hey! Universidad Carlos III will soon celebrate de Rossi with a special exhibition. Stay tuned…

Online talk: Revealing Christian Heritage

We are glad to announce that on September 29, 2021, h. 15-17.30 (CET), the project Conex Plus will host the following workshop:

Revealing Christian Heritage. Talks on the rediscovery of Christian archaeology between 1860 and 1930

September 29, 2021, h. 15-17.30 (CET)

online at https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/7038e9bcf05448da9a7b92a4fe21e2b4

Everyone is invited to participate to the talk and the discussion!Feel free to comment this post for additional info!

LIT! at the 27th EAA Annual Meeting

On Friday 10 of September The Project LIT! was presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (officially in Kiel, but held online due to the current situation)

The presentation was included in Session #230, “Stories and Compassion: Material Culture, Memory, and Emotion”, organized by Liv Nilsson Stutz (Linnaeus Univeristy, Sweden) and Sarah Tarlow (University of Leicester, United Kingdom). The precious session explored theories of memory and emotion through archaeological case studies and analysis of material culture. All the presenteed studies explored the connections between materiality, emotion, and memory in the lived experience of the past and present.

My speech investigated the growing interest of European people in catacomb archaeology from the late 19th century and provided many old prints and pictures, archival texts and old articles, that offer clear evidence of the public response to some of the most important fac-simile catacombs build in Northern Europe. From these sources, it appeared that the incredible fascination of original Roman catacombs remained vivid in these “fake” monuments. They clearly contributed to the definition of the role that Christian antiquity had in Europe in creating emotional experience of archeological sites.

I truly hope that the proceedings of these session will be published somewhen!

LIT! Project in the 27th MCAA NEWSLETTER

Our CONEX-Plus project LIT! has been presented on the 27th Newsletter of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA).

The MCAA is an international non-profit organization established and supported by the European Commission, but entirely run by volunteer members and with a bottom-up approach at its core.

This issue of June 2021 is dedicated to the making of a more inclusive research community. As the Editorial by Gian Maria Greco (MCAA Newsletter Editor-in-Chief) states, diversity and access are pivotal factors for the flourishing of the research endeavour. As a community of researchers, over the past few years the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) has been committed to increasing the accessibility of its communication products, services, and events. 

The last section of the issue is dedicateed to out LIT! project (with a wonderful cartoon illustration!) and can be read on the online version: here. Thank you MCAA!

Report

One of the aims of this website is also to keep an eye on other projects and research on the history of collections of Christian archaeology in Europe.

In this case we would like to point out the call for contribution to the website of the project God’s Collections by Crispin Paine and Jessica Hughes.

The project God’s Collections studies how and why collections have developed and lived inside places of worship of all traditions and chronology: check it out here.

Given the proximity of the themes of this work to the LIT! project, we hope to be able to undertake a future collaboration soon!

For the call for contribution see here.

(Church of San Salvatore – Museum of the Complesso di Santa Giulia – Brescia, Italy)

Catacomb studies in Open Research Europe!

For a few weeks now, everyone can surf on Open Research Europe, the European Union’s revolutionary open access platform, that allows researchers in the Horizon 2020 programme to publish their research in accordance with the FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse) and without being subject to the often very long publishing times.

Once the article has passed the prepublication checks, the preprint version is published within 10 days, enabling immediate viewing and citation. Expert reviewers are selected and invited, and their reviews and names are published alongside the article, together with the authors’ responses and comments from registered users. Articles that pass peer review are sent to major indexing databases and repositories. More info here.

Some of the results of the LIT! project will be surely disseminated via Open Research Europe in the following months. For now, however, I would love to share two researches of similar topics already published on the portal.

It is therefore clear that the platform can be used as an important tool for studies in the history of Christian archaeology. We will keep on checking and disseminating future publications on this topic!

“Il-Kollezzjonist”: documentary about the Catacombs of St. Agatha – Rabat (Malta)

We are very happy to share the episode on the museum of the Complex of St. Agatha (Rabat, Malta) of the documentary “Il-Kollezzjonist”, created and presented by Raymond Saliba (a contribution to this site by Raymond can be read here).

The whole episode is available here. It is in Maltese language, but the images of the collection are pure bliss!

Congratulations to our friend Raymond for this beautiful episode.

Il-Kollezzjonist (The Collector) is a series of short documentaries that take the audience on a journey to explore some of the most beautiful private collections in the Maltese and Gozitan islands. It is presented by Raymond Saliba and Sharp Shoot Media Ltd. Il-Kollezzjonist started on the 30th December 2020, and is on air every Wednesday at 6.30pm on Television Malta. Follow the programme here.