Antiquarianism in the eighteenth century

Thanks to the manuscript 601 of the médiathèque of Arles, we can reconstruct the epigraphic journey to Vaison by Étienne Dumont in July 1790. His notes and drawings show his method and his practices, helping also to achieve a better description of some lost inscriptions. However, his journey took place at a time of revolution: the social and cultural foundations of erudition in Provence were at a turning point.

Embora tenham já sido amplo objecto de estudo muitos dos elementos
que alimentaram o gosto pelas antiguidades do Duque de Palmela e dos
seus antecessores, são mal conhecidas as condições em que algumas delas, especialmente as de natureza arqueológica, passaram a integrar esse espólio. Sendo inviável dar uma resposta a esta questão, coligem-se, todavia, alguns dados que permitem compreender algumas das formas como se manifestou o gosto pelas antiguidades romanas no âmbito familiar. Na Itália dos finais do séc. XVIII, D. Alexandre de Sousa e Holstein desenvolveu, a par de uma considerável actividade diplomática, um conjunto de escavações em torno à cidade romana de Arícia, com resultados apreciáveis. Esta vertente da sua vida ficou plasmada em alguma literatura da especialidade, em particular em obras de eruditos coetâneos, sendo possível traçar um breve panorama
dessa sua acção. Coligem-se igualmente alguns dados sobre as relações com algumas figuras que se distinguem no estudo das antiguidades romanas, em particular Carlo Fea, com o qual estabelece uma colaboração muito profícua e uma boa amizade.

In this paper, I have focused on the approach of the first important epigraphist in Africa, F. Ximenez, when studying the ancient inscriptions of the Regency of Tunis in the first third of the 18 th century. Analysing his modus operandi, I have tried to shed some light on his motivations and interests. What kind of data did F. Ximenez collect from the inscriptions and what information did he try to deduce from them? Did he have preferences regarding the type of inscriptions and the data he collects from them? How did he carry out his analyses and which problems did he face in searching and copying inscriptions? I have compared him also with other contemporary authors interested in epigraphy: whether travellers in the Regency or erudite antiquarians. All these aspects will help the historian of antiquity to use the texts of F. Ximenez, and the modernist to place better F. Ximenez within the antiquarians of the time. La récupération d'un épigraphiste Francisco Ximenez de Santa Cathalina (1685-1752) était un frère trini-taire qui séjourna au Maghreb entre 1719 et 1735. Fondateur et administra-teur d'un hôpital de son ordre, mais aussi curieux observateur, il s'est intéressé particulièrement à l'histoire et à la société de la Régence de Tunis. De sa vaste * Cet article a été écrit grâce au contrat post-doctoral « Juan de la Cierva-Formación 2015 » du Ministère espagnol de l'Éducation, la Culture et le Sport.

Conservé au Royaume-Uni, à la John Rylands Library de Manchester (cote 17252), le bloc d’imprimerie xylographique que nous étudions dans cet article est de datation incertaine. Pour certains il remonterait au xve siècle et il serait par conséquent le plus ancien outil d’imprimeur en bois que nous conservions. Pour d’autres il aurait été fabriqué siècle xviiie et imiterait l’iconographie médiévale. Faute d’investigations scientifiques plus poussées, la date exacte du bloc de bois ne peut pas être établie. Notre article envisage donc les deux hypothèses de datation au regard la tradition iconographique (l’image gravée sur ce bloc représente une scène de la vie de saint Jean largement inspirée des Apocalypses figurées des xiiie et xive siècles) et de nos connaissances sur l’histoire de ce bloc. Nous examinons ainsi le statut cet objet selon qu’il est un authentique artefact du siècle xve siècle , ou selon qu’il est une imitation du xviiie siècle.

Housed in the United Kingdom, at the John Rylands Library in Manchester (item number 17252), the xylographic printing block that we study in this article has an uncertain date. Some scholars believe that it dates to the fifteenth century and that it is, consequently, the oldest extant woodblock printing apparatus. Other scholars believe that it was made in the eighteenth century and it imitates the medieval iconography. Lacking more scientific investigations, the exact date of the woodblock cannot be established. Our article investigates both possibilities of dating in regard to the iconographic tradition (the carved image on the block represents a scene from the life of St. John, largely inspired by the illustrated Apocalypses of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) and of our understanding of the block. We examine, therefore, the status of the block as an object that is an authentic fifteenth-century object and as an eighteenth-century imitation.

The authored book examines the intersections between architecture, urban space and language in early modern Italy, from the early 15th century to the early 18th century. Tracing these exchanges in both Florence and Rome, the study highlights how developments in architecture were entangled in debates concerning the role and meaning of language; that the communicative dimensions of both physical and pictorial space served as symbolic and visual registers of aural and written forms of communication. The study examines these relationships during four critical periods in the history of Italian culture; the Early Renaissance, the Late Renaissance, the Baroque and the early 18th century.

On the basis of published and unpublished sources, this paper discusses the influence that the visit made by the Austrian numismatist Joseph Eckhel (1737–1798) to Rome in 1772–3 had on the late eighteenth-century arrangement of the coin collection assembled by Queen Christina of Sweden (1626–1689), then in possession of the Odescalchi family. Furthermore, the author tries to assess the impact of this collection on the work of Eckhel, a key figure in numismatic scholarship.

Le sperimentazioni nel campo delle tecniche artistiche sono uno dei temi più frequentati da quanti hanno commentato i luoghi e le opere legate a Raimondo di Sangro, partecipi di quell'aura di arcano che circonda il personaggio. Realtà storica e fantasia diventano difficili da discernere, e così pure sfug-gono la natura e l'entità delle 'scoperte' realizzate dal Principe. È per questo che acquista importanza il dipinto del museo Cappella Sansevero raffigurante la Madonna con Bambino del pittore romano Giuseppe Pesce (firmato e datato 1757). Il quadro, già donato dal Principe a Carlo di Borbone come saggio della «dipintura colle cere colorate a tempera» di cui si dice «primo inventore», è un raro documento di cultura materiale, nella cui analisi i ritrovati del Sansevero rivelano un'aggiornata parte-cipazione alle ricerche che in quegli anni coinvolgono artisti ed eruditi in tutt'Europa.

Experiments in the field of artistic techniques are one of the favorite themes by those who have commented on the places and works related to Raimondo di Sangro, participating in that aura of arcane that surrounds the character. Historical reality and fantasy become difficult to discern, and so do the nature and the extent of the "discoveries" made by the Prince. This is why the painting of the Museo Cappella Sansevero depicting the Madonna and Child by the Roman painter Giuseppe Pesce (signed and dated 1757) gains importance. The painting, once given by the Prince to Charles of Bourbon as an essay on the «painting with colored waxes in tempera» of which he is called «first inventor», is a rare document of material culture; through its analysis the Sansevero findings reveal a updated participation in research involving artists and scholars throughout Europe in those years.

Los objetos de Humboldt: una colección para un mundo global cultura.nexos.com.mx/ Como parte de la actual revaloración historiográfica de la vida y obra de Humboldt, el siguiente ensayo -- una versión de la conferencia magistral celebrando el aniversario 250 de Humboldt en el Humboldt Forum en Berlín -- ilumina el camino tortuoso que tuvo que recorrer su colección y reivindica su trabajo como obra colectiva y bulliciosa, contraria a la de un héroe y científico solitario.

Ferdinando Galiani (1728-1787), known above all for his economic theories and for his extraordinary correspondence, cultivated multiple interests, but so far his antiquarian profile has been barely touched by scholars. This presentation reconstructs its relationship with antiquities, declined in a wide range of personal and institutional interests: the study of the Vesuvian finds and their management and museum exhibition; the practice of collecting, both geological find and overall coins; his full involvement in the antiquarian market, as shown by the case of his (supposed) collection of ancient vases, sold to the King of Sweden. All these aspects combine to outline a personality in which different roles, inclinations and level of interpretation blend seamlessly.