‘Tal disordine è di grande importanza’: Drawing the Disordered River in Renaissance Tuscany

VISUAL REPRESENTATION, MATERIALITY, AND MEDIUM

SPEAKERS: Caroline Murphy, MIT

Caroline Murphy is an Assistant Professor in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art section of the Department of Architecture at MIT. Her research and teaching explore the interconnected material and intellectual histories of architecture, landscape, state administration, and political economy in early modern Europe, focusing on Italy and its global contact zones. She is currently working on her first book, titled Forged in Flood: Rivers and the Design of Territory in Late Renaissance Italy, which examines the planning of fluvial territory in the ducal state of Tuscany at the dawn of the "Little Ice Age." A revision of her doctoral dissertation, which was awarded the Alan Reinerman Prize for Best Unpublished Manuscript in Italian History from the Society for Italian Historical Studies, the book explores how architects, engineers, and politicians within and beyond the Medicean principality sought to transform its landscapes of unruly rivers into viable communication infrastructures, both to mitigate flood disasters and partake of the fruits of early globalization. Before joining the faculty at MIT, she taught in the Department of History at Villanova University and earned her PhD from MIT.