Life Indoors
Title
Life Indoors
Description
Exterior building materials were varied in medieval Rome, but homes were often made of wood. In a world constantly worried about the risk of fires (indeed, once one broke out, there was little to be done), living in a wooden structure required precautionary measures. For those who could afford it, these included moving the kitchen up to the uppermost level, directly below the roof: with this layout, flames that started in the kitchen would only rise up and through the roof, instead of starting on the ground level and rising through the entire home. Of course, this also meant that homeowners were then faced with transporting water for cooking and cleaning up and down all those steps.
Oftentimes, stairs would be located outside the building, typically covered with a protective roof and leading up to a balcony or loggia. Floor plans suggest that each level had only one or two rooms. For wealthy families, the walls would be lined with fabrics designed to keep out both frigid winds and summer humidity; middle class residents would paint their walls to suggest they could afford the same temperature regulation; and lower-class Romans lived with bare walls, unable to even keep up appearances.
Oftentimes, stairs would be located outside the building, typically covered with a protective roof and leading up to a balcony or loggia. Floor plans suggest that each level had only one or two rooms. For wealthy families, the walls would be lined with fabrics designed to keep out both frigid winds and summer humidity; middle class residents would paint their walls to suggest they could afford the same temperature regulation; and lower-class Romans lived with bare walls, unable to even keep up appearances.
Creator
Halle Beshouri (2020)
Source
Frugoni, Chiara, and Arsenio Frugoni. A Day in a Medieval City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
Krautheimer, Richard, and Marvin Trachtenberg. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Krautheimer, Richard, and Marvin Trachtenberg. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
Date
1350
Identifier
lifeindoors_2019
Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Arco della Pace, 10 00187 Roma RM
Description
Exterior building materials were varied in medieval Rome, but homes were often made of wood. In a world constantly worried about the risk of fires (indeed, once one broke out, there was little to be done), living in a wooden structure required precautionary measures. For those who could afford it, these included moving the kitchen up to the uppermost level, directly below the roof: with this layout, flames that started in the kitchen would only rise up and through the roof, instead of starting on the ground level and rising through the entire home. Of course, this also meant that homeowners were then faced with transporting water for cooking and cleaning up and down all those steps.Oftentimes, stairs would be located outside the building, typically covered with a protective roof and leading up to a balcony or loggia. Floor plans suggest that each level had only one or two rooms. For wealthy families, the walls would be lined with fabrics designed to keep out both frigid winds and summer humidity; middle class residents would paint their walls to suggest they could afford the same temperature regulation; and lower-class Romans lived with bare walls, unable to even keep up appearances.
Creator
Halle Beshouri (2020)Date
1350Coverage
1300sSource
Frugoni, Chiara, and Arsenio Frugoni. A Day in a Medieval City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.Krautheimer, Richard, and Marvin Trachtenberg. Rome: Profile of a City, 312-1308. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.