John Marino is the American Academy in Rome Scholar in Residence and a Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, San Diego.
What part of the United States did you come from?
I grew up in Chicago and have my BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Chicago. I have been teaching at the University of California San Diego for thirty-four years and have been studying and researching in Italy for many years. I first met fellows from the AAR in the fall of 1970 while doing a trip around Sicily and I first visited the AAR in 1974/75 when I was a Fulbright fellow in Naples doing dissertation research. I then visited the AAR often in 1977/78 when I was living on the other side of the Villa Sciarra with an Italian Einaudi post-doc fellowship. In 2003, I co-organized a conference sponsored by the AAR, “Politics and Society in Spanish Italy,” with revised essays published as Spain in Italy: Politics, Society, and Religion 1500-1700 (Brill, 2007). Two years ago, my wife and I spent two months in 2011 at the Villa Chiaraviglio.
Have you had any “eureka!” moments or unanticipated breakthroughs in the course of your work here?
I had a “eureka” moment in Rome in 1978 when working in the Doria-Pamphili Archive on the account books of the Doria feudal estate at Melfi. I was able to confirm the consequences of sheep mortality after harsh winters. At an AAR lunch, then Director John D’Arms helped me coin the neologism “sheepography” (for what veterinarians call “animal demography”), which has become a cause of great mirth among colleagues.
What is your favorite spot at the Academy? or in Rome?
No matter how many times I come to Rome or how many times I visit the Pantheon or the Campidoglio, I remain in awe. Most of my recent research time in Rome has been in the Vatican Library and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma, both wonderful places to work.