La collezione egiziana del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli : storia e ricognizione inventariale

[Italiano]: “L'antichità istessa ebbe la sua antichità, e l'antichità egizia può a ragion chiamarsi l'antichità delle antichità”. Con queste parole di Bernardo Quaranta, Giovambattista Finati conclude la sua prefazione del primo catalogo a stampa della Collezione Egiziana del Real Museo Borbonico nel 1822. A 200 anni dalla sua nascita, attraverso lo studio critico di un’ampia documentazione d’archivio - sparsa tra le città di Napoli, Velletri e Copenaghen - viene ricostruita per la prima volta la storia della Collezione Egiziana del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli dal punto di vista collezionistico, inventariale e museografico. Il volume I, infatti, narra la complessa storia della formazione della raccolta e delle sue diverse acquisizioni, nonché la vita dei reperti sia all’interno che all’esterno del museo napoletano; raccoglie e analizza le numerose incongruenze sia inventariali che di attribuzione e ridà vita a reperti dispersi o decomposti attraverso descrizioni antiche, tavole sinottiche e catene inventariali. Di fondamentale importanza per riscrivere la storia dell’intera raccolta è stato soprattutto il manoscritto di Georg Zoëga del 1784, primo catalogo della collezione veliterna di Stefano Borgia la cui trascrizione (volume II) rappresenta nel contempo uno strumento indispensabile restituire ‘memoria e dignità storica’ all’insigne raccolta egiziana del Museum Borgianum. I volumi sono parte di una tesi di Dottorato in Vicino Oriente Antico presso l’Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” completata nel giugno 2016./ [English]: “L'antichità istessa ebbe la sua antichità, e l'antichità egizia può a ragion chiamarsi l'antichità delle antichità”. With these words by Bernardo Quaranta, in 1822 Giovambattista Finati concludes his preface of the first printed catalogue of the Egyptian Collection of the Real Museo Borbonico. Two hundred years after his birth, through the critical study of large archive documentation - scattered among the cities of Naples, Velletri and Copenhagen - the history of the Egyptian Collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples from a collection, inventory and museographic point of view, is reconstructed for the first time. Volume I tells the complex history of the formation of the collection and its various acquisitions, as well as the life of the finds both inside and outside the Neapolitan museum; collects and analyzes the numerous inventory and attribution mistakes and gives new life to scattered or decomposed finds through ancient descriptions, synoptic tables and inventory sequences. Of fundamental importance for rewriting the history of the entire collection has been, above all, the manuscript of Georg Zoëga (dated back to 1784). It is the first catalogue of Stefano Borgia's collection in Velletri, whose transcription (volume II) represents an indispensable tool to restore memory and historical dignity to the Egyptian collection of the Museum Borgianum. The volumes are part of a PhD thesis in the Ancient Near East at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", completed in June 2016

"An example of “dangerous” nineteenth-century restoration work at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN)"

The National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) owns one of the most important Egyptian collections in Italy. It contains around 2,500 exhibits, originally belonging to different nuclei (two major groups — the Borgia and the Picchianti collection — and some lesser groups of artifacts with various provenances) collected between the 18th and the 20th centuries. On the occasion of a complete reorganization of the collection for a new exhibition plan (inaugurated on October 7, 2016) I’ve studied the history of the collections and of their collectors through different archival documents, some unpublished materials and also the more debated ones. Interesting results have emerged mainly as regards the coffins and the mummies associated with them. During two centuries, these finds have suffered because of singular conservative operations and restorations and they have been subjected to relocation, splits and false associations to meet e exhibition criteria. Through the patient recovery of archival data, especially the unpublished catalogues of Georg Zoëga on the Borgia collection, it was possible to discover and reconstruct an interesting case of a badly-executed 19th-century restoration and identify the original decoration

"Excavating an Archive. The Borgia Collection of Egyptian Antiquities in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN)"

As a part of my PhD project on the Egyptian Collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN), I am undertaking a thorough study of its history through archival documents from museums and libraries in Italy and abroad. I am focusing especially on the Stefano Borgia Collection, one of two major groups of Egyptian Collections of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, sold by Camillo Borgia to Gioacchino Murat in 1814. The consultation, the study and the comparison of all the ancient documents has allowed me to identify in some cases the provenance of some finds both from 18th and 19th century excavations in Italy (Villa di Adriano in Tivoli or San Paolo Fuori le Mura) and from antiquities market, and to reconstruct both the history and the manner in which the Egyptian Collection was scattered, not only during the transfer from Velletri to Napoli but also in the Museo Borbonico (Bourbon Museum) itself due to the internal movement of finds in other collections during the 19th century

"The Borgia collection of Egyptian antiquities: cataloguing as a method"

The Borgia collection of Egyptian antiquities is one of the two main groups that constitute the Egyptian Collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN). The collection, sold by Camillo Borgia to Joachim Murat in 1815, however, is mainly linked to Cardinal Stefano Borgia (Camillo ‘s uncle) and the Danish scholar Georg Zoëga, who studied and catalogued it. The scientific accuracy of Zoëga, motivated by the idea that we must present monuments for themselves and for their own contents and not according to individual taste and personal purposes, led him to develop a cataloguing system that made him a pioneer of a highly modern method for studying archaeological materials. As part of a PhD project on the Egyptian collection of MANN, among whose main objectives is also a new exhibition proposal, consultation of archival documents - and especially of the original writings by Zoëga - is providing fundamental information about the nature and origin of some materials, as well as about their history in the context of European collectors in the late 18th and 19th centuries

"The Borgia collection of Egyptian antiquities: cataloguing as a method"

The Borgia collection of Egyptian antiquities is one of the two main groups that constitute the Egyptian Collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN). The collection, sold by Camillo Borgia to Joachim Murat in 1815, however, is mainly linked to Cardinal Stefano Borgia (Camillo ‘s uncle) and the Danish scholar Georg Zoëga, who studied and catalogued it. The scientific accuracy of Zoëga, motivated by the idea that we must present monuments for themselves and for their own contents and not according to individual taste and personal purposes, led him to develop a cataloguing system that made him a pioneer of a highly modern method for studying archaeological materials. As part of a PhD project on the Egyptian collection of MANN, among whose main objectives is also a new exhibition proposal, consultation of archival documents - and especially of the original writings by Zoëga - is providing fundamental information about the nature and origin of some materials, as well as about their history in the context of European collectors in the late 18th and 19th centuries

DIGITAL HUMANITIES: A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO CLASSIFY YELLOW COFFINS

The Faces Revealed Project takes its lead from innovative research trends that see the combination of different but interconnected skills and competences. It aims at contributing to the study of ancient Egyptian coffins by developing a new and efficient methodology based on fast, simple, cost-effective, and portable technique allowing the acquisition of precise and accurate gemetric data. This technology will provide further insights into the manufacture, production, workshops, and possibly the ancient reuse of the Yellow Coffins and may also constribute to the creation of a new way of classifying these coffins