“Writing Rome: Latin Inscriptions in the Modern City”

Under review at the Journal of Modern Italian Studies 

Abstract: This photo essay reconsiders the category of “Latin inscription” by drawing on twelve months of fieldwork in Rome between 2022 and 2025. Archaeologists, epigraphers, philologists, and classicists have long relied on inscriptions to reconstruct daily life, track linguistic change, and recover the voices of marginalized populations. Each discipline assumes, often implicitly, a shared definition of an inscription—what Armando Petrucci once described as a deliberately solemn, durable, and publicly displayed text. Yet this consensus overlooks the proliferation of Latin inscriptions in contemporary Rome: graffiti, tattoos, advertisements, and manhole covers. Through a photographic “cabinet of curiosities,” this essay documents and analyzes these overlooked forms, situating them not as remnants of antiquity but as elements of a living urban aesthetic. Expanding the category of inscription not only reframes our understanding of Roman modernity but also underscores how disciplinary boundaries shape the stories we can tell about the city, its histories, and its enduring dialogues with Latin. [Six images; 4500 words]