Claudia Moatti

Moatti studied classics at the École normale supérieure de Sèvres in France, where she specialised in political thought and the crisis in culture that arose at the end of the Roman Republic and in the early Roman Empire, a period around the 2nd century BC to 1st century AD.[4]

She earned her PhD in History at the Paris-Sorbonne University,[5] and taught at the University of Paris. She is also a former member of the staff of the French Academy in Rome. She has done research on the history of the discovery of ancient Rome and the "invention" of Roman archaeology in the late 1980s. The first findings of this project is presented in her book À la recherche de la Rome antique.[4]

Moatti has been a full professor at USC since 2004.[5] She has published a number of books and articles. She is interested in the construction of the concept of Res publica, her book on this subject—Res publica : Histoire romaine de la chose publique—has been published in April 2018, by Fayard.[6] She is currently working on four books.[5]

À la recherche de la Rome antique

Author	Claude Moatti
Original title	À la recherche de la Rome antique
Translator	Anthony Zielonka
Cover artist	Joseph-Louis Duc (FR ed.) Jacques Carlu (UK & US eds.)
Country	France
Language	French
Series	Découvertes Gallimard●Archéologie
Release number	56
Subject	Archaeology of the city of Rome
Genre	Nonfiction monograph
Publisher	FR: Éditions Gallimard US: Harry N. Abrams UK: Thames & Hudson
Publication date	1989
Published in English	1993
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	208 pp.
ISBN	978-2-070-53073-1 (first edition)
OCLC	717883007
Preceded by	Cézanne : « Puissant et solitaire »
Followed by	Les sorcières, fiancées de Satan
Website	www.gallimard.fr/Catalogue/GALLIMARD/Decouvertes-Gallimard/Decouvertes-Gallimard/Archeologie/A-la-recherche-de-la-Rome-antique

Detail of "The Flavian Amphitheatre in its restored state" by Joseph-Louis Duc, 1830. Cover image for French edition.

Moatti organised a project of research on the history of rediscovery of the ancient city of Rome in the late 1980s, the findings of this project gave birth to a small volume—À la recherche de la Rome antique (lit. 'In Search of Ancient Rome'; English-language edition: The Search for Ancient Rome)—published by Éditions Gallimard in their "Découvertes" collection. According to standards of the collection, the book is profusely illustrated with colour plates—illustrations taken from manuscripts, maps, mosaics, frescoes, photographs, drawings, engravings, 16th to 19th-century paintings and other sources—printed on glossy paper.

It is part of the Archéologie series, that is to say, the work recounts how people discovered the past of this Eternal City after the fall of Roman Empire. The story is divided into six chapters: I, "Rome, the Eternal City" (Rome, Ville Éternelle); II, "The Age of the Humanists" (Les Temps des humanistes); III, "From Private Collections to Art History" (Des collections privées à l'histoire de l'art); IV, "Rome Under Napoleon" (La Rome de Napoléon); V, "The Age of Reason" (L'Âge de raison); VI, "From One Myth to Another" (D'un mythe à l'autre). At the beginning, Moatti emphasises the obscurity of Rome's past, because Rome was "being destroyed and buried time and time again over centuries, its history has been obscured", and "the veil of legend has covered its ruins". During Medieval period, these ruins have exerted a real fascination as shown in the Mirabilia Urbis Romae. In the Renaissance era, while Columbus was exploring the New World, artists, scholars, princes, adventurers and popes were searching through the soil of Rome for the remains of its former splendour. The city was rebuilt, brought back to life. But it was not until the 20th century, thanks to the development of archaeology, that the origins of the city were finally revealed.

The second part of this book is the "Documents" section containing a compilation of excerpts which is divided into six parts (pp. 145–199): 1, The city under threat (La ville menacée); 2, Piranesi, the archaeologist (Piranèse archéologue); 3, The journey to Rome (Le voyage à Rome); 4, Parker the photographer (Parker photographe); 5, Tales of excavations (Histoires de fouilles); 6, Christian archaeology (L'archéologie chrétienne). These are followed by a list of further reading, list of illustrations and an index. The book has been translated into American and British English, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Slovenian, South Korean, Spanish, simplified and traditional Chinese.

• With Odile Bombarde, Living in Ancient Rome, Young Discovery Library, 1988
• À la recherche de la Rome antique, coll. « Découvertes Gallimard » (nº 56), série Archéologie. Éditions Gallimard, 1989
  • US edition – The Search for Ancient Rome, "Abrams Discoveries" series. Harry N. Abrams, 1993
  • UK edition – The Search for Ancient Rome, 'New Horizons' series. Thames & Hudson, 1993 (reprinted in 2001)
• The Birth of Critical Thinking in Republican Rome, Cambridge University Press, 2015
• Res publica : Histoire romaine de la chose publique, Librairie Arthème Fayard, 2018