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Illustrated lecture to shed light on Boncompagni Ludovisi family history

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T. Corey Brennan, associate professor in the Department of Classics at Rutgers University, will speak on “New Light on Old Papal Rome: Recent Finds from the Archive of the Boncompagni Ludovisi” at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, in LH-9.

The focus of this illustrated lecture is a 2010 discovery of archival material that sheds light on centuries of Boncompagni Ludovisi family history, including the pontificates of Popes Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572-1585, who introduced the Gregorian calendar) and Gregory XV Ludovisi (1621-1623, who canonized the first Jesuit saints), and the development of the famed Villa Ludovisi on the Pincio hill in Rome.

In 1885, the greater part of the villa was redeveloped to form the luxurious business and residential district centered around Rome’s Via Veneto, and the main palace of the Boncompagni Ludovisi has become the headquarters of the U.S. Embassy in Rome. However the family’s secondary palace of the Casino Aurora remains wholly intact as the private residence of the family’s head, and has yielded new archival and artistic discoveries as recently as this year.

Visit the Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi [in English]

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A view of the Villa Ludovisi. Watercolored etching (dated 1818) of an original (ca. 1750) by Thomas Bowles, showing the Palazzo Grande and adjacent gardens. Credit: Archivio Digitale Boncompagni Ludovisi

Event is sponsored by the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Harpur College Visiting Speaker Fund.