Collecting coins and connecting collectors : government and social networks in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (1816-1860)

Recent archival research has revealed new data on the history of collecting and archaeology in northern Sicily during the nineteenth century, when Sicily was ruled by the Bourbons and annexed to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Records show how collectors, dealers and diggers operated in this historical context, and authorities dealt with illegal excavations, acquisition of collections and exportations of finds abroad. The main scope of this paper is to pinpoint an unexpected system of networks in Bourbon Sicily, focused on two principal case studies. First of all, I outline the so-called ‘Network of state authorities’, which comprises regional and local authorities dealing with the supervision and management of Sicilian antiquities. Archival research has clarified how the Bourbons undertook accurate and careful safeguarding to achieve this aim and to protect the archaeology. To explore this, I use the valuable case study of Giuseppa Giammone (1832), who found and collected ancient coins in Giarre (Catania) without reporting them to the local authorities

The musealisation of the artist's house as architectural project

Artist’s houses that are opened to the public as museums shift from a private and everyday to a semi-public and institutional functioning. This transformation of an artist’s house into a house-museum might appear as a mere legal issue or as a matter of making previously secluded rooms and collections accessible to the public. But this musealisation of an artist’s house always involves a set of museological and architectural interventions as well. Not only need the house and its content to be displayed as historical documents through a careful mise-en-scène and through the addition of a sub-text of labels or explanatory panels that disclose the meaning of these historical documents; there is also a need for a logic and clear visitor’s route in a house that was not intended for this. Often this already demands architectural design decisions, but it is mainly in the introduction of the supporting museum functions like the necessary office spaces and an entrance hall with reception desk, cloakroom and bathrooms that the musealisation comes down to an architectural design challenge. The proposed paper wants to discuss the artist’s house museum from an architect’s point of view, on the basis of a selection of artist’s houses that were recently transformed into museums, such as the Atelier-Museum Luc Peire in Knokke (B) or the renovations of the Permeke and Rubens house museums. I want to propose the artist’s house museum as an architectural typology by mapping its various typical architectural and spatial characteristics. The first crucial point of interest here is how the spatial division is articulated between the historic interiors, the exhibition spaces and the museum’s service spaces outside of the visitor’s circuit. A second architectural question is how the museum as an active institution can be given an architectural ‘face’ while respecting and presenting the house and its collections as historical documents; how can both the ‘authentic’ private atmosphere and the contemporary public museum be given shape, and is there a place for authorial design in this mediating exercise

Alcuni esempi di catalogazione e restauro nell’ambito della Collezione Storica degli Strumenti di Fisica dell’Università di Palermo

In questo articolo presenteremo e discuteremo della catalogazione e restauro e di alcuni strumenti scientifici di particolare interesse storico-didattico appartenenti alla Collezione Storica degli Strumenti di Fisica dell’Università di Palermo. La catalogazione è stata effettuata secondo le indicazioni fornite dell’Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione, per mezzo della scheda per il patrimonio scientifico-tecnologico. Nell’articolo saranno discussi gli aspetti tecnici degli interventi di restauro effettuati e saranno indicate le linee guida generali per il proseguimento dell’attività avviata.The article deals with the cataloguing and restoration of some scientific instruments of particular historical and didactic interest belonging to the Historical Collection of the Physics Instruments of the University of Palermo. The restoration activities have been carried out side by side the cataloguing, which has been done following the instructions supplied by the Central Institute for Cataloguing and Documentation with the official form for the scientific and technological heritage. In the article, we will discuss the technical aspects of the work carried out and basic guidelines will be given for the continuation of the activity

Giuseppe Simonio Assemani tra manoscritti e monete orientali

The paper wants to pick out one of the probable sources of the passion for Numismatics of Simone Assemani. His great granduncle, Giuseppe Simonio Assemani is likely to have excited this passion on him. Giuseppe Simonio Assemani became famous as great scholar of manuscripts of many oriental languages: Coptic, Etiopic, Arabic, Persian, Turkish and, above all, Syrian. He was dispatched by the Pope Clement XI to Egypt and to the neighbouring countries in order to search those manuscripts. For his reputation, he became Prefect of the Vatican Library in 1739. Generally, we know nothing about his particular interest for ancient Numismatics, interest arisen during his prefecture at the Vatican Library. In those year, in fact, very famous collections of coins and medals entered the Library: 328 Greek and Roman Medallions of the collection owned by the cardinal Alessandro Albani, the collection of medallions, coins and medals of the cardinal Gaspare Carpegna, with 4.000 pieces; the famous collection of 6.666 casts in sulphur of cameos and carvings of Pier Leone Ghezzi, the extraordinary collection of more than 5.000 pieces of papal coins of Saverio Scilla. Giuseppe Simonio Assemani was responsible for arranging and ordering a catalogue of those big collections: When he died, a great number of Greek and Roman coins was found in his apartment, together with medals and carvings, collection that shows his private interest for Numismatics. For these reason, probably he passed this interest on his great grandchild Simone Assemani, when he was still a child

Due 'paradossi meccanici' della Collezione Storica degli Strumenti di Fisica dell'Universit\`a di Palermo

Many instruments of the Historical Collection of the Physics Instruments of the University of Palermo date back to the early nineteenth century, when experimental Physics begun to be taught in university studies by using instruments and apparatuses in the classroom to illustrate the laws of Physics. Among the various instruments belonging to the Collection, there are also the so-called 'paradoxes', instruments with surprising properties that do not seem to follow the laws of Physics. In this article we analyze two 'mechanical paradoxes' of the Collection and discuss their possible educational use.Comment: 11 Pages, in Italian, 9 Figures. Accepted for publication in Quaderni di Ricerca in Didattica (Science), special Issue in Italian languag

Capua: collezioni epigrafiche dentro e fuori gli spazi museali

L’antica Capua ha tramandato un patrimonio d’iscrizioni latine così consistente numericamente e così articolato culturalmente, da offrire sempre nuovi spunti allo studioso che intenda dedicarsi alla ricostruzione storica della città romana e del suo territorio.The ancient Capua transmitted a consistent patrimony of latin inscriptions to the posterity. Therefore, the research could try out new hints on the roman historical city reconstruction

Ceramica punica dal sito rurale di Truncu 'e Molas (Terralba, Sardegna)

No abstract available

Il ruolo dell'Information Visualization nella progettazione di interfacce per archivi digitali eterogenei

L'utilizzo di metodologie provenienti dalla information visualization nella progettazione di interfacce a collezioni digitali è una pratica che si sta consolidando negli ultimi anni (Hilton, 2010), con l'obiettivo di superare l'accesso puntuale ai singoli elementi a vantaggio di una visione complessiva dei contenuti. Allo stato attuale queste metodologie sono principalmente utilizzate per costruire singole viste sulle collezioni, concentrandosi su un'unica tipologia di elementi e progettando un'interfaccia che ne rispecchi le caratte-ristiche. Nel caso studio presentato, l'archivio Baldessari, si mostrano le potenzialità della information visualization non solo per costruire singole viste, ma anche e soprattutto nella progettazione di un lin-guaggio visuale coerente che permetta la fruizione unitaria di elementi tra loro eterogenei