In Pamela O. Long’s book Engineering the Eternal City: Infrastructure, Topography, and the Culture of Knowledge in Late Sixteenth-Century Rome (Engineering the Eternal City), the focus is on the engineering projects that changed Rome from a medieval city into a Renaissance city. Dr. Long got her PhD in Renaissance and Reformation history from the University of Maryland at College Park, with a dissertation that focused on architecture and Vitruvian commentaries. Engineering the Eternal City, published in 2018, was awarded the Sidney M. Edelstein Prize by the Society for the History of Technology, among other honors. Long’s previous works include Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance¸ published in 2001, and Technology, Society, and Culture in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe, published in 2000.
The major themes of Engineering the Eternal City are infrastructure and the culture of knowledge in late sixteenth-century Rome. In Rome, most of the inhabited areas of the city were within the confines of the Tiber River’s floodplain. When floods struck the city, such as in 1557, the devastation was widespread and deadly. Long states that the floodwaters reached up to 60 feet in height, which caused the deaths of about one thousand people and damaged an unknown amount of property. Other infrastructure-related problems included the aqueducts, which had fallen into disrepair when the Western Roman Empire ceased to exist, and the sewers, which were no longer connected to one another and adversely impacted public health as a result. The ancient Romans had laid the groundwork for this system of sewers and aqueducts, but their system was repaired regularly. In sixteenth-century Rome, people regarded bad air as a cause of disease, following the Galenic tradition. Thus, drinking water from a fountain was not considered dangerous, even if the pipes were broken and the water had been standing for a few weeks. Long cites a case study of when water was linked to disease: after someone drank from a fountain and died, the physicians did not link the man’s death to bad air (mal aria in Latin), but instead to contaminated water. Whether the physicians knew that the man’s death was linked to what we would define as contaminated water or not is a moot point: what matters is that they linked the cause (people dumping household waste into a public water fountain used for drinking) to the effect (the man dying from drinking the water).
The culture of knowledge is an important secondary theme in Long’s book. Topography played a critical role in determining what engineering projects went forward and which ones did not. The very fact that most of Rome’s inhabited districts lay within the Tiber floodplain provided the impetus for ambitious engineering projects designed to limit the extent of the damage, such as digging a moat around the Castel Sant’Angelo, which would absorb some of the floodwaters. However, the problem of flooding was not resolved until 1910, when engineers built a floodwall to contain the Tiber. This solution required the technological innovation of the Industrial Revolution in order to work, and the people of the sixteenth century had insufficient technology to achieve this ultimate goal. Maps and guidebooks were a way in which the outside world saw Rome promoted as a beautiful Renaissance city. Urban planners also used ancient maps of Rome, such as the Forma Urbis Romae, to plan their engineering projects. The streets were seen not just as structures, but as places for people to congregate. Long goes into detail about the types of people one would find on a typical Roman street in the late sixteenth century, mentioning Jews, prostitutes, and beggars among them. Attempts to reform the city through engineering went hand-in-hand with social reforms intended to aid its people. The reforms affected these groups differently, as the Jews were confined to a ghetto, while the Colosseum was almost converted into accommodations for Rome’s beggars. The plan never came to fruition due to the high cost and how much in taxes it would have required from the Roman people. Long takes care to remind the modern reader that in the sixteenth century, the pope controlled more than the Vatican, as he controlled much of the area surrounding Rome, as well as the city itself. The popes also spent money on repairing ancient structures, which led to higher taxes for the Roman populace and made the popes who spent money on the ancient structures unpopular, especially in times of need. Rome suffered a famine in the 1580s and a flood in 1589, which made any attempt to divert funds from the people’s needs unpopular.
Long’s account of the rebuilding of Rome is well-written and enjoyable. The only criticism I would have is that there is too much of a focus on the social side of things in Chapter Seven. It is interesting to hear about the papal processions and the treatment of non-elite people, as well as non-Christians. The connection between the social reforms and the engineering projects felt tenuous at best. In one moment, I was reading about these remarkably forward-thinking flood prevention projects and the book suddenly changed course to talking about how the Jews were treated in Rome after 1555. It felt disjointed, and I felt that the author could have spent more time on questions of public health, such as what motivated the Pope to order that the Pontine Marshes be drained. If the other chapters had expanded upon the social aspect of this time period, then Chapter Seven would not feel nearly as disjointed. When one places it within the greater context of the book as it is, the chapter’s shift in focus feels jarring.
Overall, Engineering the Eternal City is well-written, enjoyable, and organized. If one’s knowledge of Roman history begins with the ancient Romans but has a large gap between the fall of Rome and the present, this book serves as an excellent introduction to how Rome eventually became a modern city. Engineering the Eternal City is an interesting book that would appeal to specialists in historical architecture and engineering, as well as the interested general reader.
