The British School at Rome: One Hundred Years

The British School at Rome celebrates its first hundred years of activity with this historical account, richly illustrated with over 270 images drawn from its archives. The main narrative, by the current Director, examines the way the School has responded to the opportunities offered by Rome in bringing together archaeologists and historians with artists, architects and art historians in a fruitful marriage of interests. It underlines both the continuities that link the vision of Thomas Ashby to the present, and the transformations by which the institution has adapted itself to the changing current of European history. Chapters on the artist scholars by two artists closely linked with the School, Alistair Crawford and Stephen Farthing, look at the diverse responses to the opportunities offered by living in Rome. This attractive publication will be of interest to all concerned with Britain’s cultural engagement with Italy, in the fine arts, archaeology, and general. “The first visit marked me for life, as it has many others before and after me. It aroused a passion for Italy, and a long, slow-burning, love for the School. It was profoundly educational precisely because the School was not a purely academic institution, set in the marvellous cultural location of Rome, but included, as part of its very essence, practising artists as well.‘ - Geoffrey Rickman.