Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Vaults of Memory: The Roman Jewish Catacombs and Their Context in the Ancient Mediterranean World

Vaults of Memory: The Roman Jewish Catacombs and Their Context in the Ancient Mediterranean World

by Estelle Shohet Brettman, Amy Hirschfeld & Florence Wolsky (with Liza Wolsky)

Web edition revision and preface by Jessica Dello Russo
© 1991-2017 International Catacomb Society
All rights reserved.

Vaults of Memory: The Roman Jewish Catacombs and Their Context in the Ancient Mediterranean World, a monograph by International Catacomb Society founder Estelle Shohet Brettman on "the catacombs and the people who built them", was left unfinished in manuscript form when she died after a brief but agonizing cancer spread in June of 1991. Shortly before her death, Brettman made provisions in her will "for the future of the International Catacomb Society, and that her book would be finished". Society co-founder Florence Z. Wolsky, together with Estelle Brettman's project assistant, Amy K. Hirschfeld, the society's new executive director, were contracted by the board of directors, "heartbroken, but committed to the completion of this important publication," to "finish the book and see it through publication... as a living tribute to Estelle's dedication, vision, and love of the catacombs".
 Vaults of Memory: Jewish and Christian Imagery in the Catacombs of Rome (Exhibition Catalog

Vaults of Memory: Jewish and Christian Imagery in the Catacombs of Rome: An Exhibition, by Estelle Shohet Brettman, Boston: Thomas Todd Publishers, 1985. Paperback.

This catalogue records a remarkable research project which traveled from Boston's Beacon Hill to the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome.  For approximately ten years, Estelle Shohet Brettman, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the International Catacomb Society, repeatedly explored the catacombs of Rome with a gas lamp and camera.  In the vestigial imagery and epigraphy of Subterranean Rome, she noted parallel symbolism among Jewish, Christian, and pagan burials.  The exhibit it records is now digitized and available to view on the site.

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