Governing Sustainable Cities

'Marble Past, Monumental Present is excellent and, best of all, both compelling and on occasions provocative. The bibliography is bang up to date. It will shed new light on an immense architectural story.' Richard Hodges, Professor and Director of the Institute of World Archaeology, University of East Anglia, co-author of Byzantine Butrint (2004) 'Building on his previous studies, Michael Greenhalgh in this book has produced a dazzling survey and a proper synthesis of the use and the aesthetics of spolia (and architectural borrowing more generally) in the whole early and central medieval, Mediterranean and European, world. Everyone working on medieval material culture, and on urban and cultural history in general, will have to read this book.' Chris Wickham, Chichele Professor of Medieval History, University of Oxford, and author of Framing the early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400-800 (2005) 'Con uno sguardo telescopico, l'autore misura - senza gerarchie - l'influenza, la forza e la suggestione delle pietre antiche reimpiegate nell'architettura dei paesi cristiani e mussulmani aperti su quel lago circondato dal marmo che e il Mediterraneo. Attraverso una pluralita di riferimenti ed esempi l'a. dispone, entro un eccezionale quadro di insieme, le diverse forme e i 'perche' del riutilizzo dei marmi antichi. Ne emerge una filigrana intrigata e ricca entro la quale ogni mediterraneo riscopre legami e relazioni indissolubili che, oggi piu di ieri, meritano - attraverso la diffusione e la traduzione dell'opera - di essere affermati e conosciuti dai cittadini europei.' Simonetta Ciranna, Universita degli Studi dell'Aquila, and author of Spolia e caratteristiche del reimpiego nella Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura a Roma (2000) 'In this engaging book, Michael Greenhalgh explores the recycling of marbles and other antiquities throughout the post-Roman Mediterranean. Without denying the continuation of artistic and architectural ideals, he shows how dynamic and innovative was the re-use of past monuments and materials. With a nuanced comparative analysis he demonstrates the lack of any desire to imitate the glory of Rome by exact architectural reproduction, and he reminds us all that in order to understand the West, one should constantly look at events and developments in the East. Marble Past, Monumental Present is not only a thought provoking contribution to the history of medieval architecture; it is also an important step forward in our understanding of the ways in which rulers, artists and architects perceived their own past.' Professor Yitzhak Hen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, author of Roman Barbarians: The Royal Court and Culture in the Early Medieval West (2007) and General Editor of the Series Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Brepols: Turnhout)