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The catacombs of Rome have captured imaginations for centuries. This innovative study takes a fresh look at these underground spaces, and considers how art, space, texts, and practices can tell us more about the catacombs and the people who dug and decorated them.

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Table of Contents 1. Prologue 2. The History of the Catacombs 3. Heterotopia 4. Heterotopian Spaces and Places 5. Art and Heterotopia 6. Heterotopian Texts 7. Heterotopia as Lived Space 8. Conclusions and Epilogue Bibliography

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"This clearly structured and engagingly written work presents an original methodology that combines examination of space, art, texts, and practices in an effort to understand more fully the Catacomb of Callistus and its paintings, especially those in the Cubicula of the Sacraments, in their multiple contexts. I was glad to accept the author´s imaginative opening invitation to walk with ´Callistus´ and ponder the paintings of ´Dionysus´ for a vivid four-dimensional experience of early Christian catacomb painting." - Elizabeth Struthers Malbon, Professor, Religion and Culture, Virginia Tech, USA and author of The Iconography of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus: NEOFITVS ITT AD DEVM

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Eric C. Smith is Visiting Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity and New Testament Studies at the Iliff School of Theology, USA.

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