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David Lubin Memorial Library

Food and Agriculture OrganizationLibraries in RomeLibrary buildings completed in 2005Rome R. XXI San Saba

The David Lubin Memorial Library is the main library of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Its world-renowned collection consists of technical material related to food, nutrition, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, with emphasis on developing countries. The core of its historical collection is the library of the International Institute of Agriculture (IIA), whose assets were entrusted to FAO when the IIA was disbanded in 1946.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article David Lubin Memorial Library (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

David Lubin Memorial Library
Viale Aventino, Rome Municipio Roma I

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N 41.882311111111 ° E 12.488322222222 °
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Palazzo FAO

Viale Aventino
00153 Rome, Municipio Roma I
Lazio, Italy
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Septizodium
Septizodium

The Septizodium (also called Septizonium or Septicodium) was a building in ancient Rome. It was built in 203 AD by Emperor Septimius Severus. The origin of the name "Septizodium" is from Septisolium, from the Latin for temple of seven suns, and was probably named for the seven planetary deities (Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus) or for the fact that it was originally divided into seven parts. The building had no known practical purpose and was probably meant to be a decorative façade, known as a Nymphaeum. Ancient and medieval sources describe its purpose as being intended to impress Severus' fellow north Africans as they entered the city, as it was located at the place where the Via Appia passes the Palatine and leads east towards the Forum Romanum. Other examples of septizodia are known, all from Africa.Ammianus Marcellinus refers to the building in an ambiguous passage: "The plebs...had come together at the Septemzodium, a popular place, where Marcus Aurelius built a Nymphaeum in a rather ostentatious style."By the 8th century, the edifice was already ruined and had been incorporated in one of the numerous baronial fortresses of the medieval city, held in the 12th-13th century by the Frangipani family. In August 1241, after the death of Pope Gregory IX, the 11 cardinals who were able to get into Rome through the lines of Emperor Frederick II's army came together in the ramshackle palace of the Septizodium. The two-month-long election was arduous, not only because of the deep political crisis but the physical hardships. There was a frightful heat and the rain leaked through the roof of the chamber of the cardinals, mingled with the urine of Matteo Rosso Orsini's guards on the rooftiles. One of the cardinals fell ill and died. The new pope, Celestine IV, was also very worn out, and died 16 days after his election. In 1588, during the reign of Pope Sixtus V, the eastern facade of the building was demolished under the direction of Domenico Fontana. The stones obtained were used for the basement of the Flaminio Obelisk of Piazza del Popolo, the restoration of the Column of Marcus Aurelius, the pope's tomb in St. Mary Major and other structures.

Baths of Decius
Baths of Decius

The Baths of Decius (Latin: thermae Decianae) were a thermae (baths) complex built on the Aventine Hill by the emperor Decius in 249 or 252. Its site was between the present-day sites of the churches of Santo Alessio and Santa Prisca, on the Vigna Torlonia, under piazza del Tempio di Diana (named after the Temple of Diana) and the Casale Maccharini Torlonia, which includes remains from the baths. Some other ruins of the baths also survive. Earlier buildings on the site have also left remains, which can be seen in the basement of the Casale Torlonia and under the piazza del Tempio di Diana. These buildings show something like opus quasi reticulatum, with traces of a decorative scheme of painted stucco imitating marble in the Pompeian First Style, the oldest evidence of this style in Rome, dating to the last quarter of the 2nd century BC. Another building on the site is lavishly decorated with mosaics and wall-paintings showing masks, flowers and landscapes. It dates to the Trajanic period and may have been the Privata Traiani, Trajan's private residence before he became emperor, which is known to have been in the area, or one of Decius' own residences. The main source for the appearance of the Baths of Decius is a plan made by Andrea Palladio, now in the Duke of Devonshire's collection. The complex was 70 by 35 metres, including an apse belonging to an aula at the southern corner. They were built to serve the wealthy and sophisticated inhabitants of the Aventine, unlike the nearby Baths of Caracalla, which were larger but intended for mass use by the inhabitants of Regio XII. They were decorated with artworks, including an infant Hercules in green basalt and a sleeping Endymion, both now in the Capitoline Museums. The complex is mentioned in several inscriptions which not only confirm its location but also give certain details on its history, such as its two restorations, once by Constantius I or Constantius II and a second one in 414 under Honorius by Caecina Decius Acinatius Albinus following damage in Alaric's Sack of Rome.

Domus Severiana
Domus Severiana

The Domus Severiana is the modern name given to the final extension to the imperial palaces on the Palatine Hill in Rome, built to the south-east of the Stadium Palatinum in the Domus Augustana of Septimius Severus. It included the Baths of Septimius Severus (Latin: Balneum Palatii). All that remains of the building are the imposing brick substructures at the corner of the hill, which created an artificial platform at the same level as the palace of Domitian, extending it, since the emperors had run out of space on the hill. There are very few remains of the building itself, which was then built on the terrace under the substructures. It had a view of Rome from the Circus Maximus and the Aventine Hill to the Caelian Hill and the Baths of Caracalla. They were part of an imperial baths complex or thermae, now visible in the remains below the exedra of the Stadium Palatinum, which may have been built under Domitian and which was rebuilt by Maxentius. They were fed by a branch of the Aqua Claudia, which spanned the valley between the Palatine Hill and the Caelian Hill and whose arches are still visible. On the side facing the via Appia, Septimius Severus commissioned an impressive three-level facade akin to the scaenae frons in a theatre, with fountains and colonnades. This became known as the Septizodium. It is said that the emperor monumentalised this side of the building to impress his fellow Africans, who would arrive in Rome along the via Appia. The Septizodium's remains were demolished in the 16th century and it is only known from Renaissance drawings.