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The history of the relations between Rome (the different political entities embodied by the city) and Persia (in its multiple political transformations since the fall of the Achaemenids) is more than twenty centuries long; it is a history shaped by confrontations between two ancient and robust ideological traditions concerning state, religion, the nature of power and the wisdom that should underpin the rule of human beings. A recent publication explores this encounter by analysing the visual traces that it has left on the urban landscape of Rome: these traces have been pursued in archaeological sites, churches, palaces, theatres, archives and libraries, in search of written documents and plaques, paintings, sculptures and monuments, books, dramas and records of music performances, both sacred and profane. Through this deep, almost physiognomical, exploration of the material culture pertaining to this relationship, the volume proposes a new method of historical research: the result is, not only an original portrait of the Eternal City, but also an unprecedented reflection on the role of Persia in its foreign policy and in its most intimate cultural identity.

Organic studies about the history of Arab-Islamic gastronomy began during the 30s, and continued at very little steps until two decades ago. Those studies were dedicated exclusively to the collection and the translation of ancient and important recipe books; but only recently the interest has shifted towards the literary representations of cooking and other food-related activities. According to the author, culinary poetry should find, with time, its adequate place in literary history, since by revolving around the universal language of food, it represents the philosophy of life that classic Islam has been able to elaborate and offer to Eurasian Medieval and modern culture. An exemplary representation of this role can be found in a work by al-Mas’ūdī, which features conversations “on different types of food and on what has been written on them”. The essay proposes a sample of this text. The article then compares this 'cuisine' with the one of previous epochs and cultures, identifying in the moment in which Baghdad became the capital city, the time in which the ‘gastronomic revolution’ took place, a change that would sign both the Islamic and the European culture. This revolution brought to new texts and compositions, some of which are mentioned in the article. The \"ṭa ‘āmiyya\", the Arab culinary poetry, became thus the sublime expression of the cultural approach to the banquet.

This collection examines the image of Rome through Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Persian descriptions of the eternal city. Placing the twelfth-century renaissance into a Mediterranean context. The city of Rome is revealed as a multi-vocal object of desire and a contested ideal.