Source : The conference website.
The basilica that was built by Constantine at the Vatican in the early fourth century to mark the burial place of the Apostle Peter became the central place for Christian worship in the West for more than a millennium until its protracted demolition over the course of the sixteenth century. The essential chronology of the construction of Old St. Peter's, and the major modifications made to its fabric over subsequent centuries, are well established. But a great many questions remain to be answered about details of the building and its monuments, and on the ways in which the basilica and its environs functioned as a 'theatre' of worship, burial and power throughout the middle ages from the fourth to sixteenth centuries.
This major international conference, hosted by the British School at Rome, will bring together both leading and new scholars in the fields of ancient, medieval and early modern art history, musicology and liturgical history to answer some of these questions by focusing on the fabric, monuments and use of the basilica of Old St. Peter's.
Conference convenors
Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge
John Osborne, Carleton University
Carol M. Richardson, The Open University
Joanna Story, University of Leicester
Monday 22nd March
Plenary lecture (18.00-19.00 as part of the BSR public lecture series)
Paolo Liverani (Università degli studi di Firenze), St. Peter's and the City of Rome between the Late Antique and the Early Middle Ages
Tuesday 23rd March
Session I 09.00-10.30
Chair for Session I - Christopher Smith (British School at Rome)
Opening of conference and welcome - Christopher Smith (Director of the BSR)
Pietro Zander (Fabbrica di San Pietro in Vaticano), La costruzione della basilica costantiniana nelle testimonianze superstiti della Necropoli di San Pietro
Richard Gem (UK), Constantine, Constans and St Peter's : A New Solution to the Building History of the 4th-century Basilica
Session II 11.00-12.30
Lex Bosman (University of Amsterdam), Spolia in the Fourth-century Basilica
Joan Barclay Lloyd (LaTrobe University, Melbourne), Revisiting Old St. Peter's with Richard Krautheimer
Olof Brandt (Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana), The Early Christian Baptistery of St. Peter's
Session III 14.00-15.30
Chair for sessions III et IV - Serena Romano (Université de Lausanne)
Meaghan McEvoy (Dumbarton Oaks / University of Oxford), The Mausoleum of Honorius : Late Roman Imperial Christianity and the City of Rome in the Fifth Century
Judson J. Emerick (Pomona College), Did the Early Christian Sant' Anastasia Copy Old St. Peter's ?
Annie Labatt (Yale University), The Life of the Roman "Anastasis" in Old St. Peter's from John VII to Formosus
Session IV 16.00-17.30
Antonella Ballardini (Università degli studi Roma Tre), Per una ricostruzione dell'oratorio di Giovanni VII nell'antica basilica Vaticana : la decorazione architettonica e scultorea
Paola Pogliani (Università degli studi della Tuscia), Per una ricostruzione dell'oratorio di Giovanni VII (705-707) nell'antica basilica Vaticana : i mosaici
Per Jonas Nordhagen (University of Bergen), Palladium of the Urbs : The Orant Maria Regina of A.D. 705-707. Byzantine Image-making before Iconoclasm
Wednesday 24th March
Respondent/chair for sessions V and VI - Yitzhak Hen (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Session V 09.00-10.30
Alan Thacker (IHR University of London), Clergy and Custodes at Old St. Peter's 4th-8th Centuries
Eamonn O'Carragain (University of Cork), Interactions between Liturgy and Politics in Old St. Peter's, 670-740 : John the Archcantor, Sergius and Gregory II and III
Peter Jeffery (University of Notre Dame), The Roman Liturgical Year and the Early Liturgy of St. Peter's
Session VI 11.00-12.30
Charles McClendon (Brandeis University), Old St. Peter's and the Iconoclastic Controversy
Ann van Dijk (Northern Illinois University), Old St. Peter's and the Cult of Icons in Rome
Respondent/chair for sessions VII and VIII - Thomas FX Noble (University of Notre Dame)
Session VII 14.00-15.30
Rosamond McKitterick (University of Cambridge), The Representation of Old St Peter's Basilica in the Liber Pontificalis
Joanna Story (Leicester University), The Carolingians and Old St. Peter's
Caroline Goodson (Birkbeck College, University of London), Old St. Peter's and the Political Topography of Carolingian Rome
Session VIII 16.00-17.30
Carmela Vircillo Franklin (American Academy in Rome), The Legendary of St. Peter's Basilica : Hagiographic Traditions and Innovations in the Late 11th century
John Osborne (Carleton University), Plus Caesare Petrus : The Medieval Understanding of the Vatican Obelisk
Thursday 25th March
Session IX 09.00-10.30
Katharina Christa Schüppel (Leipzig University), The Stucco Crucifix of St. Peter's : Textual Sources and Visual Evidence on the Renaissance Copy of a Medieval Silver Crucifix
Carol M. Richardson (The Open University), Papal tombs in Old St. Peter's after Avignon
Robert Glass (Princeton University), Filarete's Renovation of the Porta Argentea at Old St. Peter's
Session X 11.00-12.30
Catherine Fletcher (Rome Fellow, British School at Rome), The Altar of St Maurice and the Invention of Tradition in St Peter's
Bram Kempers (University of Amsterdam), A Hybrid History : The Antique Basilica with a Modern Dome
Close of conference - Susan Russell (British School at Rome)