When did the decline of the Roman Empire start? Biondo's interpretation of the inclinatio

We are all familiar with Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). Though it is often the first book we think when discussing about the decline of Rome, it is by no means the first attempt in history that tries to explain what exactly happened to the Roman Empire in the Late Antiquity. Multiple Renaissance humanists like Leonardo Bruni and Poggio Bracciolini have pondered this question as well. However, the one who truly took it to another level was Flavio Biondo. As the title of his largest historiographical work, Historiarum ab inclinatione Romanorum imperii decades (The decades of histories from the decline of the Empire of the Romans, 1453), might reveal, Biondo built his whole work (or at least the first 10 books) around the subject. But why and when did Biondo think this inclinatio started? Below, I try to present how Biondo sees this topic.

My first visit to the Vatican library - Spring in Rome as PhD student

[This post is a translation of a blog post I wrote on JYU Medieval studies blog in June 2020. The original post can be found here.]

The first spring of my doctorate program started with a bang. I spent the spring of 2020 in the Finnish Institute in Rome, where I worked as a part of the research group of the director Arja Karivieri. The building where the institute is situated, Villa Lante, is without a doubt on the best spot in Rome, from which one can admire all of Rome. The surroundings were motivational to say the least, and I was looking forward to the working possibilities of the coming spring. Along with the work in the research group, my aim was to start to write my doctoral thesis as efficiently as possible. Because my research focus deals with Italian Renaissance manuscripts and incunables, the Eternal City offered a perfect framework. I had planned to utilize the multiple libraries of Rome to find research literature, but my main aim was to visit the Vatican Apostolic Library, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

A view from the balcony of Villa Lante. Picture: Riikka Vuoksenmaa