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I am seeking funding to support the research and writing of one chapter of my book, Piranesi's Imperfect Ruins. Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) was one of the most celebrated cultural figures of eighteenth-century Europe. As an antiquarian, antiquities restorer, archaeologist, architect, art dealer, author, bookseller, draftsman, engraver, entrepreneur and publisher, he collaborated or quarreled with the most important men of his day. Yet while Piranesi's fame as an artist still shines brightly, his role as a public intellectual, one who actively participated in the Enlightenment project of creating an epistemology of the classical past, remains obscure. This project recasts this key artistic figure, studying both his famous images and his forgotten texts. It also recaptures the important associations between Piranesi's concerns and the creation of the modern cultural sciences devoted to the study of the past.