Indice degli autori

Abstract: Road paving: the use of traditional materials and attempts at innovation in nineteenth century Rome   The contribution offers a picture of the quality and quantity of road paving in Rome between 1829, the year in which a “list of the urban streets with their respective surface measurements" was presented and 1872 when the specifications provided by Nicola Maria Nicolai in 1829 were updated. Comparative graphics demonstrated that the advances made in urban road conditions during forty years, while considerable, were insufficient to place the newly born Italian capital on a par, not only with other important European capitals, but even with provincial cities. Therefore, the roads, public spaces symbolizing a new social and political order, become the focus of interest for national and international companies with proposals for the use of new materials, both for the sidewalk, an innovative element rising above street level, and for the roadway itself. Using documents preserved in the Archivio Storico Capitolino, the article demonstrates that the advise given by Mayor Pianciani in 1873 «to abandon the exclusive use of paving stone» was accepted by both Roman and non Roman entrepreneurs. Traditional techniques came to be accompanied by others better suited to the different requirements of the thoroughfares already built or planned for the new quarters of the city.