BMCR 2009.06.17: Stenhouse on Rosa, Symbolae Antiquariae 1 - 2008

Mario Rosa, Stefano Bruni (ed.), Symbolae Antiquariae 1 - 2008.
Pisa/Roma:  Fabrizio Serra, 2008.  Pp. 219.  ISBN 19726538.

Reviewed by William Stenhouse, Yeshiva University ([email protected])
Word count:  871 words
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[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

This is the first volume of a new journal devoted to the history of the
study of antiquities. As the editors Mario Rosa and Stefano Bruni point
out, this is a field that falls between disciplines with the result
that relevant contributions are scattered far and wide. Symbolae
antiquariae, then, is an attempt to provide a venue for work on
antiquarianism from a variety of perspectives. This volume includes
four substantial essays related to the Florentine Anton Francesco Gori
(1691-1757). Gori was one of the cogs around which eighteenth century
learned culture in Europe, Italy, and particularly Tuscany, turned. He
was a priest, corresponded widely, wrote poems, edited others' work,
founded a learned society (the Accademia Colombaria), and at one time
owned Galileo's index finger, now in the Museo di Storia della Scienza
in Florence. His most famous passion, though, was the study of
antiquities, and his best-known contributions, in his lifetime and now,
were to the study of Etruscan objects and language. For so productive
and famous a scholar, Gori was poor and, unusually, well liked: the
abbe/ Barthe/lemy described him as "le meilleur homme du monde, sans
passion, sans jalousie, et sans argent; respectable par ses moeurs et
ses travaux universellment respecte/ des e/trangers et de ses
compatriotes. . .  Si vous le connoissier, vous l'aimeriez." Rosa and
Bruni claim with some justification this prominent, sympathetic, and
prolific figure of the early Italian Enlightenment as an inspiration
and fitting starting-point for their project.

Gori is hardly unknown: there is no recent biography, but a recent
collection of papers devoted to his correspondence offers a useful
introduction.[[1]] The four essays here do not pretend to offer an
overview of his life or his contributions to the study of antiquity but
rather examine particular aspects of his scholarship and his place in
the world of eighteenth-century letters. Stefano Bruni begins by
rejecting the conventional claim that Gori was the model for the
pedantic and deluded Conte Anselmo Terrazzani in Carlo Goldoni's comedy
La Famiglia dell'antiquario; the modest Gori, whom Goldoni admired, was
too well-regarded for such an identification to hold water. In the
second half of his piece, Bruni goes on to examine Gori's position in
erudite Europe more generally, by considering the comments of his
correspondents and the reputation of his works. This section, which
illuminates the creation and reception of Gori's works on antiquities
-- most notably the Museum Etruscum (1736-43) and the Museum
Florentinum (1731-62), but also his early essay on the columbarium of
the liberti of Livia (1727) and reports on the discovery of Herculaneum
(1748) -- will be of particular interest to readers of this journal.
Cristina Cagianelli considers some other scholarly responses to, and
posthumous comments on Gori (not all of them quite as favorable as that
of Barthe/lemy). Cagianelli also discusses the dispersion of Gori's own
antiquities, which can now be read in conjunction with Clara Gambaro's
independent study of Gori's collection.[[2]] Bruno Gialluca examines
Gori's relationship with one particular correspondent, Louis Bourguet,
and the two men's discussion of the Etruscans and their language.
Bourguet, who was based in Neucha^tel, had the linguistic expertise and
a pioneering understanding of the Etruscan alphabet, Gori the access to
the antiquities, and for a time the two regularly shared information
and ideas in the 1730s. At one point Bourguet tired of providing
interpretations of Etruscan inscriptions for Gori's Museum Etruscum,
and told Gori as much; but happily their connection did not end
completely. After a break of a year, they continued to write to one
another on and off until 1741. Finally, Miriam Fileti Mazza considers
the history of the Museo Fiorentino project after Gori's death. All
essays are thoughtful and thorough, and collectively provide a wealth
of information about both Gori and his milieu.

The recent burst of interest in classical traditions and receptions has
largely bypassed studies of antiquarianism and the history of studying
material remains. Rosa's and Bruni's effort to establish this
attractively-produced journal for work in these areas is to be
commended. This first issue provides an important series of studies
about Gori. It is both well-documented (all the essays have extensive
footnotes, Cagianelli includes a transcription of Gori's will, and
Gialluca of the letters between Gori and Bourguet that he discusses)
and easy to refer to (there is a full index and subscribers can access
a pdf of the whole volume). Whether it will persuade classicists of the
benefits of studying antiquities' receptions is less clear; the
volume's prosopographical theme, and discussion of some of Gori's
activities without immediate relevance to his study of the classical
past, may confirm prejudices about the nature of antiquarian study
rather than remove them. This would be a pity given the weight of the
scholarship in this issue and the potential interest of the field.

Stefano Bruni, "Anton Francesco Gori, Carlo Goldoni e La Famiglia
dell'antiquario. Una precisazione," 11-69
Cristina Cagianelli, "La scomparsa di Anton Francesco Gori fra
cordoglio, tributi di stima e veleni," 71-119
Bruno Gialluca, "Anton Francesco Gori e la sua corrispondenza con Louis
Bourguet," 121-181
Miriam Fileti Mazza, "Riletture e fortuna del Museo Fiorentino nelle
carte della gestione della Galleria mediceo-lorenese," 183-202
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Notes:


1.   C. De Benedictis and M. G. Marzi (eds), L'epistolario di Anton
Francesco Gori. Saggi critici, antologia delle lettere e indice dei
mittenti (Florence: 2004).

2.   C. Gambaro, Anton Francesco Gori collezionista: Formazione e
dispersione della raccolta di antichita\ (Florence: 2008). See also
Cagianelli's earlier study, "La collezione di antichita/ di Anton
Francesco Gori. I materiali, la dispersione e alcuni recuperi," Atti e
memorie dell'Accademia Toscana di Scienze e Lettere La Colombaria, 71
(2006): 99-167.