This volume from the American Academy in Rome represents the interests of the AAR, its fellows, residents, and the larger international community who utilize its excellent library and facilities. The Memoirs series (MAAR) presents a selection of ambitious articles on subjects represented by the AAR. These topics include, but are not limited to, Roman archaeology and topography, ancient and modern Italian history, Latin literature, and Italian art and architectural history.

Volume 54 includes the following essays: "From Gregory XIII to Louis XIV: The Art and Politics of Reform in France" by Nicola Courtright; "Gregory XIII and Political Pragmatism in the Age of the Pax Hispanica" by Thomas Dandelet; "Pope Gregory Xiii, Jurist" by Jack Freiberg; "Mimesis, Ceremony, Praxis: The Cappella Paolina as the Holy Sepulcher" by Margaret A. Kuntz; "A Dragon for the Pope: Politics and Emblematics at the Court of Gregory XIII" by Marco Ruffini; "Gregory XIII and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome" by Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe; "Three Passages on Tiberius and the Courts" by Leanne Bablitz; "Porta Triumphalis and Fortuna Redux: Reconsidering the Evidence" by Melanie Grunow Sobocinski; "Rewriting Vergil, Rereading Rome: Maffeo Vegio, Poggio Bracciolini, Flavio Biondo, and Early Quattrocento Antiquarianism" by Elizabeth M. McCahill; and "The Art of the Appraisal: Measuring, Evaluating, and Valuing Architecture in Early Modern Europe" by John Nicholas Napoli.

Vernon Hyde Minor is Research Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.