My project is a study of the papal Curia and the impoverished city to which it returned in 1420. It will begin by exploring some of the internal dynamics of the Curia with special attention to the efforts of classicizing scholars, or humanists, to carve out a distinctive niche for themselves in the agonistic atmosphere of the papal court. Drawing on archival documents and humanist social commentary, it will then offer a précis of the social and economic concerns of Rome’s unruly populace. Finally, the various players will be brought together, if not in harmony then in creative cacophony, as they sought to turn the city into something more than her dingy early quattrocento self. The book will thus illuminate an urban environment in transition and parse the ways in which curialists and Roman citizens collaborated and competed to develop the city’s ancient legacy into a potent cultural myth.