Publications
More AAR Titles

We are pleased to announce that Carne: Meat Recipes from the Kitchen of the American Academy in Rome is finally available for sale.

We are pleased to announce that Carne: Meat Recipes from the Kitchen of the American Academy in Rome is finally available for sale, just in time for holiday shopping! Written by Chris Behr, head chef at AAR’s Rome Sustainable Food Project, Carne is the fifth book in our cookbook series, following Biscotti, Zuppe, Pasta, and Verdure.

Pasta is a behind-the-scenes tutorial into the way that pastas and sauces are made in the renowned kitchen of the American Academy in Rome.

Pasta is a behind-the-scenes tutorial into the way that pastas and sauces are made in the renowned kitchen of the American Academy in Rome. Yet Pasta is much, much more than “how to” book. The recipes, while remaining true to their authentic Italian roots, are unmistakably influenced by Chef Christopher Boswell’s time at Chez Panisse, and sparkle with a lightness and purity that one doesn’t normally expect from pasta.

Organized seasonally, Verdure is a simple and delicious blueprint for home cooks who want to incorporate more vegetables into daily meals.

Organized seasonally, Verdure is a simple and delicious blueprint for home cooks who want to incorporate more vegetables into daily meals. A collection of Italian contorni, or side dishes, many easily stand on their own as a main course for brunch, lunch, or dinner. They also may be served together as a mixed antipasto or to accompany drinks—the recipes in Verdure offer endless possibilities, festive enough for any party, easy enough for every day. Based on a Mediterranean diet, the dishes are healthy and economical. Inspired by traditional Italian cooking and Chef Boswell’s time at Chez Panisse, the recipes are new classics.

Zuppe is the second volume in the series of Rome Sustainable Food Project cookbooks.

Zuppe is a logical second volume in the series of Rome Sustainable Food Project cookbooks—soups are a centerpiece at almost every Academy meal, and the preparation that perhaps more than any other showcases the produce provided by Giovanni Bernabei, whose farm provides the Academy’s kitchen with an endless source of fresh, organic vegetables that inspire the inventive seasonal menus. The fifty recipes draw from the four traditional categories of Italian soups: those made with water (aqua cotta), with stock (brodo), with cream (veloute), and soups for the evening meal. The recipes are arranged by seasons.
The Rome Sustainable Food Project, a program devoted to providing organic, local and sustainable meals for the American Academy in Rome, has launched a delicious revolution to rethink institutional dining. Headed by chef Mona Talbott, and guided by Alice Waters, the menus have given rise to a new, authentic cuisine, inspired by la cucina romana, Chez Panisse, and the collective experience of those working in the AAR kitchen.

From the innovative kitchen of the American Academy in Rome comes fifty authentic, simple recipes for Italian bite-sized cookies, or biscotti.

They are divided into five categories—Milk and Wine; Nuts; Honey, Citrus, and Spice; Meringue; and Chocolate. Some are dry and not too sweet—traditional Italian biscotti that are eaten for breakfast with caffè latte or dipped into a glass of vino dolce—others recall medieval and Renaissance kitchens and the influence of the spice trade. Whether chocolate, lemon, pistachio, or simply butter, flour, and sugar, each memorable cookie is infused with the history and conviviality of la cucina romana, Chez Panisse, American childhoods, and international friendships.
Narrated with carefully explained techniques and methods, the recipes have been scaled down for the home kitchen, but may be scaled back up for large-batch cooking in an institutional setting.
Biscotti is the first in a series of small hardcover cookbooks, each on a single subject, that will bring together favorite dishes served at the academy’s communal table. Each will feature a single and essential subject in the repertoire of the RSFP’s eco-gastronomic vision.

This volume reunites a selection of paintings from the Roma series, completed during Philip Guston’s residency at the American Academy in Rome in 1970–71.

Since Philip Guston’s death in 1980, his late figurative paintings and drawings have steadily reaped the acclaim they deserve—acclaim that was largely denied them during his lifetime. Hilton Kramer infamously reviewed Guston as a “mandarin pretending to be a stumblebum” in a damning 1970 New York Times article. This volume reunites a selection of paintings from the Roma series, completed during Guston’s residency at the American Academy in Rome in 1970–71. (He was also a Fellow in 1949.) From early in his career, Guston had taken inspiration from Italian art, and his 1973 painting Pantheon features a list of Italian painters: de Chirico, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Giotto and Tiepolo. Italian cinema (especially Fellini) and classical sculpture were also dear to his heart. The Roma works consolidate this dialogue with Italian art and culture. Diary entries published alongside the reproductions recount exchanges at the American Academy, pilgrimages to Venice, Arezzo, Sicily and Orvieto, and observations of the international cultural community in Rome.

An entirely sui generis amalgam of travel writing, biography, criticism, and pure poetry—altogether an unexcelled introduction to the world of the classics.

Gilbert Highet was a legendary teacher at Columbia University, admired both for his scholarship and his charisma as a lecturer. Poets in a Landscape is his delightful exploration of Latin literature and the Italian landscape. As Highet writes in his introduction, “I have endeavored to recall some of the greatest Roman poets by describing the places where they lived, recreating their characters and evoking the essence of their work.” The poets are Catullus, Vergil, Propertius, Horace, Tibullus, Ovid, and Juvenal. Highet brings them life, setting them in their historical context and locating them in the physical world, while also offering crisp modern translations of the poets’ finest work. The result is an entirely sui generis amalgam of travel writing, biography, criticism, and pure poetry—altogether an unexcelled introduction to the world of the classics.
The book contains a preface by Michael C. J. Putnam, a 1964 Fellow and 1970 Resident.

The Alchemy of Extremes publishes the proceedings of an international conference held in Rome in 2003 and promoted by the European Intellectual Lexicon of the National Research Council, in collaboration with the American Academy in Rome.

Il volume raccoglie gli atti di una Conferenza internazionale, tenuta a Roma nel maggio del 2003 e promossa dall’Istituto del Lessico Intellettuale Europeo del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, in collaborazione con l’Accademia Americana di Roma. Il titolo della conferenza, ripreso da un volume di Ferruccio Masini pubblicato nel 1967, riporta un’espressione che corrisponde ad una immagine e ad un’idea evocata più volte negli Eroici furori. L’opera, di struttura complessa sia per il linguaggio che per il contenuto filosofico, fu pubblicata a Londra nel 1585; costituita da un commento che vari interlocutori intrecciano su una serie di testi lirici, i dieci dialoghi che la compongono rivelano in apparenza una tematica amorosa, mentre discutono in realtà della salita dell’anima verso l’Uno infinito. In questo senso, l’amore diviene una forza esaltante, un’esperienza travolgente vissuta dal saggio per divenire altro da sé e poter attingere alla divinità. Il commento di Bruno vuole quindi dimostrare come sia possibile raggiungere una immersione nell’unità infinita dell’universo attraverso lo strumento della poesia e attraverso l’uso del furor, che la tradizione platonica riconosceva come carattere peculiare del poeta. I contributi raccolti si occupano tutti di varie problematiche inerenti l’opera ed il contesto in cui essa si pone, dal rapporto con il platonismo e l’aristotelismo alla riflessione sulla magia, che interessa gran parte della produzione filosofica di Bruno, dall’analisi della posizione del filosofo nolano nei confronti della religione allo studio del linguaggio poetico, inserito nella tradizione del petrarchismo ma caratterizzato da una forte carica aggressiva e deformante.
Contents: E. Canone, I. D. Rowland, Preface; L. Albanese, La teologia apofatica negli Eroici furori; S. Bassi, Dagli Eroici furori alle opere magiche di Bruno. Percorsi di lettura; P. R. Blum, La caccia di Atteone: mistero e commedia umana tra lo Spaccio e gli Eroici furori¸A. Bonker-Vallon, Hidden unity and self-consciousness of the subject: the presence of neoplatonic christian tradition in the Heroic Frenzies; E. Canone, The two lights: the final concert of Eroici furori; H. Gatti, The sense of an ending in Bruno's Heroici furori; D. Giovannozzi, «De amore qui hereos dicitur». Echi della dottrina della malattia d'amore negli Eroici furori; A. Maggi, 'L'uomo astratto'. Philosophy and emblematic rhetoric in the Eroici furori; I. D. Rowland, Bruno and Luigi Tansillo; L. Spruit, Bodily arousal, emotion and tranquillity in Bruno's Eroici furori; E. Tarantino, The Eroici furori and Shakespeare; M. Wyatt, Bruno and the 'eroico e generoso animo' Philip Sidney. Abbreviations. Index of names.

The Horace’s Villa Project: 1997–2003 gathers evidence from archaeology, inscriptions, geography, and tradition to attempt to answer the question: Is this Horace’s villa?

“Horace’s Villa” is the name given to the site of a Roman country house near the hill town of Licenza, which is located approximately thirty miles from the center of Rome. The site remains in quotation marks as, although the identification is traditional and possible, it is by no means certain. The “Horace’s Villa” Project, 1997–2003 was initiated with the main goal of adding to the knowledge of the site in terms of time and space. There were two main areas to be investigated, which could be called the “meta-archaeological” and the “archaeological.” The former entailed looking afresh at earlier investigations, while the latter offered opportunities to look at new discoveries, such as the baths, entrance, and the rural hinterland. Table of Contents – Volume 1: Introduction, Site History, New Fieldwork, Analysis of Structures and Materials, Miscellaneous Studies, Conclusion. Volume 2: Catalogue of the Principal Textual and Graphical Documentation, Illustrations and Tables, Bibliography, Index.