THE ORSINI
A ROMAN BARONIAL FAMILY IN CONTEXT
POLITICS, SOCIETY AND ART

Conference and exhibit at UCLA
February 1-3, 2007

The Orsini, whose prominence in Italian history dates back to the twelfth
century, boast three popes, twenty-eight cardinals, and marriages into
several ruling houses of Europe. This international conference celebrates
the conclusion of a two-year project to catalog the Orsini Family Papers in
UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections.
The Orsini collection at UCLA constitutes a significant portion of the
family¹s private archive, with documents dating from ca. 1300 to 1950.

The conference will bring together current scholarship on the the Orsini
family and encourage the use of this exceptionally rich store of primary
material. The sessions will focus on the family and its milieu in the early
modern period, addressing such questions as the research potential of
baronial archives, the family's political strategies, their artistic
patronage, and the role of Orsini women.

It is hoped that this constellation of perspectives will yield a portrait of
the family, in context, as a formidable political, economic and social
entity, and also as a human one.

The UCLA Library gratefully acknowledges the support of the Steinmetz Family
Foundation, whose generous funding of the two-year project to catalog the
Orsini Family Papers at UCLA has made this conference and exhibit possible.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Thursday, February 1, 2007
Royce Hall 314

WELCOME
5:00 p.m.
Victoria Steele
UCLA Charles E. Young Library Department of Special Collections
Brian Copenhaver
UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Elisabetta Mori
Archivio Capitolino, Rome

KEYNOTE LECTURE
5:20 p.m.
Carlo Ginzburg, UCLA
"Making Sense of the Chinese Rites Debate: Rome 1735, Los Angeles 2007"

OPENING RECEPTION
6:15 p.m.
Royce Hall 306

Friday, February 2, 2007
Charles E. Young Research Library Conference Center

SESSION 1
9 a.m.-12 p.m.

THE FAMILY ARCHIVE AS A RESOURCE

Chair:
Richard Rouse
UCLA

Panel:
Guendalina Ajello
UCLA Special Collections
"The Orsini Papers at UCLA: Property, Administration and Political strategy"

Elisabetta Mori
Archivio Capitolino, Rome
"Paolo Giordano Orsini, the Archive and the Reasons for Memory"

Thomas Kuehn
Clemson University
"Fideicommissum and Family: the Orsini di Bracciano"

SESSION 2
2-5 p.m.

POLITICS, POWER AND ADMINISTRATION

Chair:
John Marino
UC San Diego

Panel:
Christine Shaw
Cambridge University, UK
"The Exemplary Career of a Rogue Elephant: Napoleone Orsini, abate di
Farfa."

Ingrid Rowland
Notre Dame, Rome
"Agostino Chigi and the Orsini"

Thomas Cohen
York University, Canada
"A Baron Explains his Lordship over a feudo: Giuliano Cesarini in 1556"

Saturday, February 3, 2007
Charles E. Young Research Library Conference Center

SESSION 3
9 a.m.-12 p.m.

SOCIETY AND CULTURE

Chair:
Dale Kent
UC Riverside

Panel:
Caroline Murphy
UC Riverside
"Women, Property and Possessions in UCLA's Orsini Family Papers."

Caroline Castiglione
Brown University
"When a Woman "Takes" Charge: Anne Marie de la Tremoille (1642-1728) and
the End of the Patrimony of the Dukes of Bracciano"

Renata Ago
La Sapienza, Rome
"The Orsini and the Aesthetics of Everyday Life between the Seventeenth
and the Eighteenth Centuries"

SESSION 4
2-5 p.m.

PATRONAGE AND THE ARTS

Chair:
Geoffrey Symcox
UCLA

Panel:
Henry Dietrich Fernández
Rhode Island School of Design
"Nicholas III's Interventions at the Vatican Palace"

Kristin Triff
Trinity College, Hartford, CT
"Patronage and Public Image in Renaissance Rome: The Orsini Palace at
Monte Giordano"

Barbara Furlotti
University of London
"Displaying Credit. The Dukes of Bracciano and their Possessions in the
Late Sixteenth Century"

5:30-6:30 p.m.

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

Dale Kent, UC Riverside
John Marino, UC San Diego
Richard Rouse, UCLA
Geoffrey Symcox, UCLA

PLEASE RSVP
by JANUARY 17, 2007 to
Kelly Haigh
310 794.4408 or
khaighlibrary.ucla.edu

FOR FURTHER CONFERENCE DETAILS
PLEASE CONTACT:
Guendalina Ajello Mahler
Orsini Archivist
UCLA Special Collections
gajellolibrary.ucla.edu

ACCOMODATION
A block of rooms has been reserved for those planning to attend the Orsini
conference at:

Hilgard House
927 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90024
http://www.hilgardhouse.com/
Tel: 310-208-3945
Fax: 310-208-1972
Rsrv: 800-826-3934
Reserve by December 31, 2006 to take advantage of the conference rate.

PRESENTED BY:
The Ahmanson Foundation
UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
UCLA Center for Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Studies
UCLA Charles E. Young Library Department of Special Collections
UCLA Department of Italian