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WALKING TOURS OF ROME

"Let the ruins rot"

5/5/2019

 
Via Frattina
Plaque to James Joyce, 52 Via Frattina, Rome
Plaque to James Joyce, Via Frattina 52

Not everyone who comes to Rome is captivated by its magic, a case in point being the great Irish writer, James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (1882-1941).

On July 31st, 1906, ​Joyce arrived in Rome from Trieste to take up employment as a clerk in the bank of 
Nast, Kolb and Schumacher, which once stood at the corner of Via del Corso and Via S. Claudio. He was twenty-four years old and was accompanied by his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, and their young son George (known as Giorgio). The family moved into a room on the third floor of a house in Via Frattina (n. 52), which, since 1982, has been marked by a plaque.

The plaque hails Joyce as the writer of Ulysses, one of the great works of literature, which was published in 1922. What it, understandably, fails to note is how much Joyce disliked Rome. After a tour of the Forum, which left him distinctly under-whelmed, he wrote to his brother Stanislaus: “Rome reminds me of a man who lives by exhibiting his grandmother’s corpse.” He later wrote another letter lamenting: 
“I wish I knew something of Latin or Roman history. But it’s not worthwhile beginning now. So let the ruins rot.”

In November, 1906, Joyce's landlady, tired of his drunken behaviour, gave him notice to quit and, in the following month, he and his young family moved to Via Monte Brianzo 51, near Piazza Navona. They didn't stay there long, moving back to Trieste in early 1907. Joyce never returned to the Eternal City.

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    My name is David Lown and I am an art historian from Cambridge, England. Since 2001 I have lived in Italy, where I run private and
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  • Home
  • Private Tours
  • Contact
  • Rome
  • St Peter's Basilica
    • Altars >
      • Altar of St Joseph
      • Altar of St Gregory the Great
      • Altar of the Madonna of Succour
      • Altar of St Sebastian
      • Altar of the Lie
      • Altar of the Presentation of the Virgin
      • Altar of St Jerome
      • Altar of the Transfiguration
      • Altar of Pope Leo the Great
    • Monuments >
      • Countess Matilda of Canossa
      • Maria Clementina Sobieska
      • Queen Christina of Sweden
      • Pope Innocent VIII
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      • Pope Gregory XIV
      • Pope Leo XI
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      • Pope Innocent XII
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      • Pope Pius X
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      • Pope Pius XI
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      • Pope John XXIII
      • The Stuarts
    • Portico >
      • Door of Death
      • Door of Good and Evil
      • Central Door
      • Door of the Sacraments
      • Holy Door
    • Pieta
    • Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament
    • Cathedra Petri
    • Crossing >
      • Baldacchino
      • Confessio
      • Dome
      • St Longinus
      • St Helena
      • St Veronica
      • St Andrew
    • St Peter
    • Chapel of the Choir
    • Chapel of the Baptistery
    • Nave
  • Sistine Chapel
    • North Wall
    • South Wall
    • East Wall
    • Ceiling: Part One >
      • Ceiling: Part Two
      • Ceiling: Part Three
    • The Last Judgement
  • Fountains
    • Trevi Fountain
    • Fontana della Barcaccia
    • Fountain of the Triton
    • Fountain of the Bees
    • Fountain of Moses
    • Fountain of the Four Rivers
    • Fountain of the Acqua Paola
    • Fountain of the Turtles
    • Fountain of the Naiads
    • Fountain of the Cannonball
    • Piazza del Popolo
    • Fountain of the Pantheon
    • Fountains of Piazza Farnese
    • Fountain of Goddess Roma
    • Rioni Fountains
    • Street Fountains
    • Venice Marries the Sea
    • St Peter's Square
    • Fountain of the Moor
    • Fountain of Neptune
    • Fountain of the Porter
    • Fountain of the Seahorses
  • Gallery
    • Piazzas >
      • Piazza del Campidglio
      • Piazza del Quirinale
      • Piazza del Popolo
      • Piazza di Spagna
      • Piazza Navona
      • Piazza S. M. in Trastevere
      • Piazza San Pietro
    • Mosaics
    • Fountains
    • Churches
    • Ancient Rome
    • Palaces
    • Domes
    • Papal Coats of Arms
    • Street Shrines
    • Old Photographs
    • Borromini & the Baroque
  • Images of the Eternal City