Annual Report 2007-8 - The British School at Rome

FACULTY OF A RCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY AND L ETTERSThe Faculty’s size and scope have increased during thisyear as a result of its reintegration with the School’sPublications Advisory Committee. With a plannedmembership of fifteen, this expansion has brought wideracademic expertise to the Faculty’s deliberations over theaward of fellowships and scholarships at its spring meeting,while the addition of an autumn meeting will enable thecommittee to play a greater role in advising the School onits academic and archaeological policies, in monitoringongoing work by fellows and scholars, and in helpingformulate publication plans. This last area, however,remains in the ambit of the Chair of Publications (as well asof the Editor of the Papers, of course), who, like the Chairof Archaeological Fieldwork, now operates from within theFaculty. One practical benefit of this positive reorganisationis that School staff are required for one less meeting eachyear in London. The new colleagues from the PublicationsAdvisory Committee were welcomed at the March meetingof the Faculty, at which occasion departing members DavidAtkinson and Maria Wyke were also warmly thanked for alltheir work on the School’s behalf.At its March meeting the Faculty worked through anotherlarge set of applications for fellowships, scholarshipsand awards. It is gratifying to find that the School’sacademic reputation continues to make it so sought-after alocation for many of the best eligible students and scholarsworking within its fields.From 2008 the School will also host the new GilesWorsley Travel Fellowship, founded in memory of theBritish architectural historian and writer who died aged 44in 2006. Since the Fellowship is open to either anarchitectural historian or an architect, it represents awelcome collaboration with the Faculty of the Fine Arts,whose Chair was consulted on the applications received inthe first round. The Royal Institute of British Architectswas also represented, along with Giles Worsley’s family, atthe selection meeting. In this, as in all of the proceedingsdescribed above, I have continual reason to be thankful forthe calm and well-organised administration of the School’sRegistrar in London, Gill Clark, as well as to the Directorand his colleagues in Rome.The activities of the scholars and fellows who have beenin residence at the School during 2007–8 are detailedelsewhere in this Annual Report, as are the many events thatfall under the umbrella of Faculty interest. I should like,however, to mention one event in which I had personalinvolvement. This was the conference staged by Sue Russellin February 2008 entitled Before and after Palladio’s Rome:antiquarianism from antiquity to the nineteenth century. Linked asit was to a fine exhibition (in the Sainsbury Lecture Theatrefoyer) of works related to the topic, selected by ValerieScott from the School’s rare books collection, this conferenceseemed a model of what the School can achieve. Itwas also a fitting tribute in the 500 thanniversary year ofPalladio’s birth, drawing a number of notable persons fromother national institutes in Rome into its audience. On thewarm, sunny, morning following the event, the speakers(who came from six different countries) were invited toconduct a small symposium on the architecture anddecorative programme of Pirro Ligorio’s Casino of Pius IVin the Vatican Gardens — though they were regrettably notinvited to participate in the luncheon being laid out in theCasino during their visit for a group of fortunate Cardinals!Frank SalmonChair, Faculty of Archaeology, History and Letters26