Staff Profile:Dr Matthew Nicholls
- Responsibilities:
Matthew Nicholls
- Areas of Interest:
- Ancient Roman architecture and Roman imperial history, ancient books and libraries, 3D reconstruction.
- Research groups / Centres:
Matthew is now Senior Tutor at St John's College Oxford, after many years at Reading, but retains a connection to the department at Reading to host his research and outreach activities in Classics. These reflect his interest in the political and social history of the Romans and the way that the built environments of Rome and cities around the empire expressed their values and priorities. In particular, he has developed a huge 3D digital model of ancient Rome, which he uses in publications, teaching, public talks, TV, and his popular free online course on ancient Rome, which has reached over 32,000 people around the world. He has also published widely on books, intellectual culture, and public libraries in the Roman world. He is a keen public speaker who has appeared in numerous radio and TV documentaries, and given innumerable outreach, tourist, and schools talks. He has directed Reading's unique City of Rome MA programme for over a decade.
Matthew has won numerous national teaching and research awards including the Guardian/Higher Education Academy Most Innovative Teacher of the Year award, a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship, and a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award.
Matthew believes that it is important for students to encounter the ancient world first-hand, and has therefore helped to organise and lead very successful departmental study trips to Rome. To find out more about my Virtual Rome research project, please visit virtualrome.org.
- Publications:
-
YNumber of items: 20.
2020
- Nicholls, M., (2020) Virtual Rome for REF Impact. University of Reading
2019
- Nicholls, M. (2019) Sketchup and digital modelling for Classics. In: Natoli, B. and Hunt, S. (eds.) Teaching Classics with Technology. Bloomsbury, London, pp. 131-144. ISBN 9781350110939
- Nicholls, M. (2019) 'Bookish places' in Imperial Rome: bookshops and the urban landscape of learning. In: Adams, S. A. (ed.) Scholastic Culture in the Hellenistic and Roman Eras: Greek, Latin, and Jewish. De Gruyter, pp. 51-68.
2018
- Nicholls, M. (2018) The Battle of the Teutoburg Forest commemorated: from the Arch of Germanicus to the Arminius Monument. In: Heuser, D. B. G. and Leoussi, A. S. (eds.) Famous Battles and How They Shaped the Modern World: From Troy to Courtrai, 1200 BC-1302 AD. Pen & Sword Books, Barnsley and Havertown, PA. ISBN 9781473893733
2017
- Nicholls, M. (2017) Libraries and communication in the Ancient World. In: Naiden, F. S. and Talbert, R. J.A. (eds.) Mercury's Wings: exploring modes of communication in the ancient world. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 9780195386844
- Nicholls, M. (2017) Classics and 3D digital modelling at the University of Reading. In: Fung, D. (ed.) A connected curriculum for higher education. UCL Press, London, pp. 52-53. ISBN 9781911576334
2016
- Nicholls, M. (2016) Digital visualisation in Classics teaching and beyond. Journal of Classics Teaching, 17 (33). pp. 27-30. ISSN 2058-6310 doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S2058631016000076
2015
- Nicholls, M. (2015) Libraries and networks of influence in the Roman world. Segno e Testo, 13. pp. 125-146. ISSN 2037-0245
2014
- Nicholls, M. (2014) 30-second Ancient Rome. 30-second guides. Ivy Press, London, pp160. ISBN 9781782401315
- Nicholls, M. C. (2014) A library at Antium? In: Rothschild, C. K. and Thompson, T. W. (eds.) Galen's De Indolentia: essays on a newly discovered letter. Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum (88). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, pp. 65-78. ISBN 9783161532153
- Nicholls, M. (2014) Le biblioteche come centri di cultura nel mondo Romano. In: Meneghini, R. and Rossella, R. (eds.) La biblioteca Infinita: i luoghi di sapere nel mondo antico. Electa, Milan, pp. 82-97. ISBN 9788837098551
2013
- Nicholls, M. (2013) Public libraries in the cities of the Roman Empire. In: Woolf, G., König, J. and Oikonomopolou, K. (eds.) Ancient Libraries. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107012561
- Nicholls, M. (2013) Libraries and literature in Rome. In: Claridge, A. and Holleran, C. (eds.) Companion to the City of Rome. Companions to the Ancient World. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781405198196
2012
- Kruschwitz, P., Campbell, V. and Nicholls, M. (2012) Menedemerumenus: tracing the routes of Pompeian graffiti writers. Tyche, 27. pp. 93-111. ISSN 1010-9161
2011
- Nicholls, M. (2011) Bibliotheca Latina Graecaque: on the possible division of Roman libraries by language. Latomus: SIEN Neronia VIII, 327 . pp. 11-21. ISSN 0023-8856
- Nicholls, M. C. (2011) Galen and libraries in the Peri Alupias. Journal of Roman Studies, 101. pp. 123-142. ISSN 1753-528X doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075435811000049
2010
- Nicholls, M. (2010) Parchment codices in a new text of Galen. Greece and Rome, 57 (2). pp. 378-386. ISSN 0017-3835 doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383510000082
- Nicholls, M. (2010) Euergetism. In: Bevir, M. (ed.) Encyclopaedia of political theory. SAGE Publications Inc. , USA. ISBN 9781412958653
2009
- Nicholls, M. (2009) Les bibliothèques du Palatin. Dossiers D'Archéologie, 336. p. 93. ISSN 1141-7137
2005
- Nicholls, M. (2005) Roman public libraries. DPhil thesis, University of Oxford.
Matthew is working on a book on public libraries in the Roman world for Oxford University Press. He is interested in exploring both how these libraries functioned as buildings and as book collections, and also their wider role in disseminating imperial and local ideas of literary culture and political or social identity.
He is also interested in the second century AD doctor and medical writer Galen; a newly-discovered treatise that he wrote on the inadvisability of grief contains wonderful details of the location, contents, and use of library buildings in imperial Rome. Matthew has enjoyed working on this exciting text and hopes to organize a conference where medical and library historians can collaborate further. He has been invited to speak on the subject around the UK and overseas.
More broadly, his research interests include Roman architecture, cities, settlement, and monuments, and the way that emperors and other patrons made use of them.
Matthew has developed an interest in computer modelling as a way of exploring ancient structures and bringing them to life. He began by working on some of 'his' library buildings, such as that at Ephesus (pictured below), and has moved on to an ambitious recreation of the city of Rome in the age of Constantine. This model is constantly evolving, and Matthew uses images taken from it to illustrate various lectures throughout the year. He has been successful in receiving funding to develop the model for possible commercial applications, and has been pleased to see media interest in the project, such as an article in the BBC History Magazine (Feb. 2011).
Outside the lecture hall, Matthew enjoys talking about the ancient world to a variety of audiences including schools, museums and history societies around the country, yacht tours of the Turkish coast, and, last Easter, Radio 4's In Our Time with Melvyn, Lord Bragg (Library of Alexandria). In February 2011 he was delighted to be selected among the AHRC's and BBC Radio 3's 'New Generation Thinkers'.
He also co-teaches the British School at Rome's annual undergraduate summer school, to which Reading undergraduates are encouraged to apply (British School at Rome).
