Enjeux environnementaux et souci de la nature, de la Rome ancienne à la Renaissance Questioni ambientali e senso della natura, d

Inspired by Paolo Fedeli’s seminal work (La natura violata. Ecologia e mondo romano, 1990), the Franco-Italian research network ERA (Ecologia Roma Antica) has been formed to explore the relationships between humans and nature in Roman antiquity and their transmissions to modern times. 

The present work, resulting from a first conference held in Florence in October 2019, inaugurates this series of studies by bringing together the contributions of fourteen French and Italian researchers. 

The first part deals with certain animals, hunted for spectacular entertainments (uenationes) and the display of magnificence (luxuria). The second part considers soils and vegetation, focusing on denunciations of deforestation, the imaginary of the forest associated with wild nature and barbaric space, reconfigurations of its exploitation and its representations in the Middle Ages, garden art bearing the deep mark of the Roman tradition in the Renaissance. The third part is devoted to water, covering the legal treatment of the occupation of the shores, the religious model of the management of the Tiber, the ideology of peace permeating Ausonius’ description of the Moselle. The last part presents various conceptions of nature: in Titus Livius, Lucretius and Ovid, Seneca and Lucan, and finally the ancient heritage of Politianus and Pontano, up to Giordano Bruno.

The role of war and Roman conquests, the strategic use of natural resources and living organisms, and the harm done to the environment are all highlighted, as well as the emergence of a concern for nature and an “environmental reflexivity”, where respect for the earth is nourished by religious motives and moral considerations: the image of a generous nature, capable of absorbing human activity and regenerating itself, coexists with the dread of degradation in relation to an idealised primitive world and with concern about the destructive forces of human greed or of nature itself.