Dr. John Osborne, Professor Emeritus, Distinguished Researcher and former FASS Dean Dr. John Osborne’s recent book, Rome in the Ninth Century, has received the prestigious Premio Daria Borghese (awarded annually to the best book on Rome written by a non-Italian).
Intended as a sequel to Rome in the Eighth Century (Cambridge, 2020), Dr. Osborne’s new book, functions as a survey of the material culture of the city of Rome, spanning the period from the imperial coronation of Charlemagne in 800 to the nadir of the fortunes of the Roman Church a century later. The evidence of standing buildings, objects, historical documents, and archaeology is brought together to create an integrated picture of the political, economic, and cultural situation in the city over this period, one characterized initially by substantial wealth resulting in enormous patronage of art and architecture, but then followed by almost total impoverishment and collapse.