Descriptions of Architectural Objects in Antiquity considers how buildings were seen, imagined, described, and interpreted in Ancient Greek and Roman literature and rhetoric. The two basic discourses used in the Ancient world to present architectural objects in any detail were ekphrasis and periegesis, with descriptions of both real and fictional edifices coming in both verse and prose. In these descriptions Greek and Roman authors also made use of topoi, to which the book also pays particular attention. Ancient works that contained ekphraseis and periegeseis of buildings are used as sources for understanding architecture as institution and the social position of the architect in that epoch. Finally, the focus of the book is on the idea that rather than mere being about architectural monuments, these written works can themselves be considered monuments.

Participants: Miloš Ćipranić (IFDT), Nenad Ristović (Department of Classics, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade), Olga Špehar (Department of History of Art, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade), Petar Bojanić (IFDT), Snežana Vesnić (Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade), Tamara Plećaš (IFDT), Tatjana Ristić (Department of Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, Faculty of Philology, Belgrade), Vladimir Mako (Department of History and Theory of Architecture and Art, Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade), Vojislav Jelić (Department for Classics, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade), Zoja Bojić (Institute for Literature and Art, Belgrade)

Miloš Ćipranić is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade. The central area of his investigations is the theory of visual and spatial arts.

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