Still today, blessings and addresses delivered by the pope on special occasions each year are directed urbi et orbi - "to the city and the world". This tradition dates back to the Middle Ages, when the popes played on the resemblance between the Latin words for city (urbs) and world (orbs) to stress their position as both the rulers of the city of Rome itself, and also the head of an institution, the Church of Rome, that claimed to hold primacy over the whole (Christian) world. Medieval popes based in Rome could claim to speak urbi et orbi in large part because the city was the "it" destination city of the European Middle Ages, the place visited by more foreigners than anywhere else by far, for reasons ranging from tourism (including religious tourism/pilgrimage) to work and politics. The economy, institutions, and material contours of medieval Rome all evolved in response to the constant presence of huge numbers of outsiders and visitors; and Rome's split identity as a real city inhabited by local Romans on the one hand, and an almost mystical ideal shared and coveted by people living all over Europe and beyond on the other, created tensions and conflicts that made the urban landscape of medieval Rome a uniquely complicated place.

Speaker 
Prof. Hendrik DEY
Department of Art and Art History
Hunter College, The City University of New York

ZOOM Meeting ID: 990 8868 4183
Meeting link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/99088684183