In this pioneering study of the water infrastructure of Renaissance Rome, urban historian Katherine Rinne offers a new understanding of how technological and scientific developments in aqueduct and fountain architecture helped turn a medieval backwater into the preeminent city of early modern Europe. Supported by the author’s extensive topographical research, this book presents a unified vision of the city that links improvements to public and private water systems with political, religious, and social change. Between 1560 and 1630, in a spectacular burst of urban renewal, Rome’s religious and civil authorities sponsored the construction of aqueducts, private and public fountains for drinking, washing, and industry, and the magnificent ceremonial fountains that are Rome’s glory. Tying together the technological, sociopolitical, and artistic questions that faced the designers during an age of turmoil in which the Catholic Church found its authority threatened and the infrastructure of the city was in a state of decay, Rinne shows how these public works projects transformed Rome in a successful marriage of innovative engineering and strategic urban planning.

Publisher description

Kleijn, G. de The Water Supply of Ancient Rome. City Area, Water, and Population. 2001 The Aqua Appia (312 BC) was the first of the eleven aqueducts leading to Rome to be built in antiquity. Time and again, the volume of water brought into the city was increased through the construction of new aqueducts. Rome’s population and the extent of its built-up area also changed over time. This study examines how data derived from our knowledge of the urban water supply in antiquity may help answering questions about the urban social fabric and topography. DMAHA 22 (2001), 365 p. Cloth. - 68.00 EURO, ISBN: 9050632688

Engaging study of key issues in Roman water regulation from legal and environmental history, both ancient and modern

This is the first urban history of Rome to span its entire three-thousand-year history. It examines the processes by which Rome's leaders have shaped its urban fabric by organizing space, planning infrastructure, designing ritual, controlling populations, and exploiting Rome's standing as a seat of global power and a religious capital.