The
Arc-Team
started his misson of spreading Open Source in Archaeology
with the aim of joining together our common efforts to build up an
international community of archaeologists.
For that reason we
decided to don't set up our own forum but to take part in a great
project named archaeologieforum.at
There
you can find our
International
Forum Archaeology & Open Source
where
we invite you to post your comments to discuss and to join us
in our mission!!!
The
"talking statues" are the means by which the citizens of Rome have
during centuries opposed arrogance and corruption of the ruling class
with
great sense of humor.
Since the early 16th century, late at night,
satirical posters were hung to a number of statues which stood in
well-known sites, so that in the morning everyone could read them
before they were taken away by the police.
The
posters sometimes
had a poem, sometimes a joke; in most cases their satire was
addressed to the pope. And the authors, of course, always remained
unknown.
The
people gave nicknames to these statues, the most
famous of which was "Pasquino"; nowadays they seem to have
lost their speech, but nevertheless they are still in place.
Since
1501, "Pasquino" stands in a small square just behind
piazza Navona; also the square is now named after the
personage.
This
statue is a torso of a male figure, probably
dating from the 3rd century BC; it is so badly
preserved
that it has been impossible to tell whom it represents, probably a
king or a hero of ancient Greece.
Also
the origin of the nickname
remains a mystery; it is commonly said that the statue was once
discovered near an old barber parlour (or according to others, a
tavern), whose owner was called Pasquino.
This tradition lasted
until the 19th century, and the jokes left near the statue or hung to
its neck were known as pasquinate.
One
of the most famous ones was against pope Urban VIII (a member
of
the Barberini family), who had Bernini remove the bronze parts from
the Pantheon for the making of the huge canopy over the main altar in
St.Peter's (1633): quod non
fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini
("what barbarians did not do, the Barberini did") was
Pasquino's remark.
This
text was taken from the following webpage about Rome, we invite you, to
visit it: http://mp_pollett.tripod.com/roma-c2.htm
We thank the autor!
