Città invisibili tra memoria e rappresentazione (XVI-XIX secolo) / Invisible cities: memory and representation in the 16th-19-th centuries
On 1 June 2026, the volume Città invisibili tra memoria e rappresentazione (XVI-XIX secolo)/ Invisible cities: memory and representation in the 16th-19-th centuries was published. The book is edited by Giulia Ceriani Sebregondi, Principal Investigator of the VeLoCi project, and Francesca Mattei, Head of the Roma Tre Research Unit.
Published by Gangemi Editore in the Antico/Futuro series, directed by Claudio Varagnoli, the volume brings together the results of the PRIN 2022 project The Vesuvian Lost Cities before the “Discovery”. Sources, Experience, Imagery in Early Modern Period, which began in 2023 and concluded in February 2026.
The book represents the project's first collective editorial achievement and marks an important milestone, paving the way for further publications currently in preparation.
The volume comprises seven essays offering a global and multidisciplinary perspective on invisible, lost, and, in some cases, rediscovered cities. The first two contributions examine the representation of volcanic landscapes and geological imagery following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1631. The following essays investigate “absent” or forgotten antiquities through travel accounts from Italy (the Abruzzi and Taranto) and Iran (Soltaniyeh). The final contributions focus on “other” worlds, exploring the rediscovery of the Maya city of Palenque and the case of the vanished Indigenous settlement of Hochelaga in the Americas.
Several cross-cutting themes connect the different chapters, including the relationship between catastrophe and rediscovery as a catalyst for new knowledge. Equally important are the interplay between scientific empiricism and humanistic scholarship, and the role of memory in shaping our perception of places. Lost cities thus emerge not merely as geographical sites, but as powerful intellectual, cultural, and ideological constructs.
The volume includes contributions by Arianna Campiani, Stefania Castellana, Lorenzo Gatta, Diletta Haberl, Domenico Laurenza, Milena Viceconte, and Lorenzo Vigotti.
The book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence and is available for free download at: https://gangemi.com/prodotto/citta-invisibili-tra-memoria-e-rappresentazione-xvi-xix-secolo/
Cover image: John R. Auldjo, Sketches of Vesuvius, with Short Accounts of its Principal Eruptions. From the Commencement of the Christian Era to the Present Time, Naples, George Glass, 1832, plate XIII, coloured lithograph; drawing by John R. Auldjo, lithograph by Francesco Wenzel. Digital version made available in the public domain by the Wellcome Collection, London.
