In February, 2005, I was honored to deliver a paper at a conference in Bologna, Italy, on the presence and activities of the Dominican Order in Bologna in the early 13th century. The conference, entitled “L’origine dell’Ordine dei Predicatori e l’Università di Bologna,” was held from February 18-20, 2005, in the famous (and newly restored) Cappella Ghisilardi at the church of San Domenico (St. Dominic himself is buried elsewhere in the church). My paper, “La ‘Summa de poenitentia’ attribuita a Paolo Ungaro,” dealt with an early Dominican teacher, Paul of Hungary, who had been a member of the Bologna law faculty before joining the Dominicans; Paul’s manual for confessors, Summa de penitentia, is currently being edited by me; it represents the beginnings of the Dominican moral tradition. The papers from the conference will appear shortly in the journal, Divus Thomas, the house journal of the Studio Filosofico Domenicano in Bologna. As you'll see from the pictures, things got a little interesting...

In March, 2002, I went to spend a week in Rome to do work at the Vatican Library (manuscript work). Getting there on a Saturday, I went down to Thomas's birthplace in Roccasecca on the Sunday, then back to Rome for four days of wonderful research. The wallpaper I have here comes from these pictures, and from some I took in 2000, on a trip to Rome.