Nicola Camerlenghi
Associate Professor
Appointments
Chair, Department of Art History
Associate Professor
Area of Expertise
Early Christian and medieval architecture,
Topography and Urbanism of Rome,
VR, AR and GIS in Architectural History,
History of domes,
Food and art
Biography
A native of Switzerland and Italy, Professor Camerlenghi's interests include early Christian and medieval architecture with a particular focus on the city of Rome; the diffusion and cultural significance of domes in the area around the medieval Mediterranean; the interplay between nature and architecture. He is particularly invested in approaching these topics through digital tools, such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, GIS Mapping, 3D Modeling, Photogrammetry and Laser Scanning.
Nick Camerlenghi teaches seminars and topic courses on medieval architecture around the Mediterranean and the department's foreign study program in Rome.
Education
B.A., Yale University
S.M.Arch.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.A. and Ph.D., Princeton University
Taught Courses
Publications
Visualizing Complexities. Practices and Heuristics of Digital Models in Art History, eds. Nicola Camerlenghi, Tanja Michalsky, Elisabetta Scirocco. Hertziana Studies in Art History, vol. 2 (2024).
"Ground Penetrating Radar Survey at the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura," w/ Salvatore Piro, et al., IMEKO TC-4 International Conference on Metrology for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 2023
St. Paul's Outside the Walls: A Roman Basilica, from Antiquity to the Modern Era, Cambridge University Press, 2018.
reviewed:
Olof Brandt, Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 95 (2019), 475-481.
Michele Luigi Vescovi, Journal of the British Archaeological Association 172 (2019) - Issue 1.
Kordula Wolf, Kunstforum 20 (2019), No. 9.
Julian Gardner, Burlington Magazine, vol. 161, num. 1399 (2019), 877-878.
Hugo Brandenburg, Römischische Quartlaschrift, vol. 114, n. 3/4 (2020), 248-274.
William Tronzo, Speculum, vol. 95, n. 3 (2020), 810-811.
Joseph Connors, Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 73, n. 1 (2020), 219-220.
Dale Kinney, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 80, n.4 (2021), 478-480.
Virtual Nolli 2.0 (Funded in part by the Neukom Institute, Dartmouth College)
"The Millennial Gap in Dome Construction in Rome," in Gesta 58, no. 2 (2019): 103-35.
"Just How Long are the Lives of Medieval Buildings? Framing Spatio-temporalities in the Study of the Built World" in The Long Lives of Medieval Art and Architecture, ed. Jennifer Feltman and Sarah Thompson (New York: Routledge Press, 2019), 17-30.
reviewed:
Elizabeth Carson Pastan, The Medieval Review, 21.09.12
"Learning from Rome: Making Sense of Complex Builtscapes in the Digital Age," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 77 (2018): 256-66. Co-authored with Georg Schelbert.
"Terroir and Architecture," in At Table: Dialogues on Food and Architecture, ed. by Samantha Martin-McAuliffe (London: Berg, 2016), 23-41.
"Splitting the Core: The Twelfth-Century Transverse Wall at the Basilica of San Paolo in Rome." Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, vol. 58 (2013).
"The Longue Durée and the Life of Buildings," in New Approaches to Medieval Architecture, ed. by Robert Bork et al. (Burlington: Ashgate, 2011).
reviewed:
Caroline Bruzelius, The Medieval Review, 12.03.25
Speaking Engagements
Upcoming Talks:
"Shiver Me Timbers: Earthquakes, Fires, and the Roof of St. Paul's Basilica in Rome," in Wood in Architecture of the Medieval World, Centennial Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, spring 2025
"Religious Street Art: The Renaissance Origins of the Madonnelle of Rome," in
Street Art in Early Modern Italy II, at Renaissance Society of America, Boston, Spring 2025
"Lanciani's Forma Urbis - A Map of Words" at Cities in Text: Documenting The Eternal City, Conference at Notre Dame's Rome Center, Rome April 8, 2025.
"Leo the Great's Main Altar at San Paolo fuori le Mura" in Le Prime Chiese di Roma. Nuove Ricerche, PIAC & DAI, Rome 27-28 October, 2025.
Recent Talks:
"From Bricks to Bytes: The Virtual Basilica of St. Paul in Rome," Boston Atheneum, December 2024
"Towering over Trastevere," Trastevere m2 Conference, John Cabot University, Rome; Saturday, April 20, 2024. (Keynote)
"Living Sculptures in the Renaissance Streets of Rome," in Living Sculpture Colloquium, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, September 2024
"The Taste of Place in Architecture." Territory / Territorio / Terroir Conference, Dartmouth College, November 2023
"Reverse Projection and the Development of a Diachronic 3D GIS Map of Medieval and Early Modern Rome" in Past and Present Representations of Historical Urban Spaces, Dubrovnik, 20-23 September 2023.
"Mapping Medieval Rome," Research Seminar, BIbliotheca Hertziana, Rome, May 27, 2021.
Conversazioni/Conversations "The City of Rome: Urban Infrastructure and Urban Form from Medieval to Early Modern Times." with Pamela O. Long, American Academy in Rome, April 13, 2021.
Works in Progress
Towering over Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Rome: 3D Mapping the City's Network of Surveillance and Power (Digital Humanities Fellow, Villa I Tatti, Florence, January-June 2021)
The Madonnelle of Rome, interactice website, supported by a grant from the Renaissance Society of America (co-developer)
The Virtual Basilica Project, 2.0 (an annotated, diachronic and dynamic VR experience of the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome before the fire of 1823) (Funded by an NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication). Version 1.0 available here.
Research Collaborator for Corpus Cosmatorum: The Churches of the City or Rome in the Middle Ages, 1050-1300. Project based at Università della Svizzera Italiana and Universität Zürich.
Augmendo / Augmented Dartmouth (Download AR interface for culture objects on campus) (Funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Office of the Provost, and the Leslie Center of Dartmouth College)
Contact
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Buy the book at cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/church-history/st-pauls-outside-walls-roman-basilica-antiquity-modern-era?format=HB
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Guest teaching with Virtual Reality at Mt. Holyoke College
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Helping to conduct a photo shoot of Filarete's doors at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (Photo by Robert Glass).
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Collaboration with students in the Dartmouth Rome Lab
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Laying out a half-scale plan of Troyes' St. Urbain on Dartmouth's campus (Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
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Enological studies over Urbania, Italy.
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Teaching at the Campidoglio
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Prepping for the "Food and Art" class dinner.