Francesco Vettori (antiquarian)

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Francesco Vettori (* 1692 or 1693 in Spello , Umbria , † May 10, 1770 ) was an Italian antiquarian . He had important services as a researcher of ancient glyptics and was himself an important collector of antiquities. From 1757 until his death he headed the Museo Sacro in the Vatican founded by Pope Benedict XIV . Also known as the Museo Cristiano , it has been part of the Vatican Museums since 1999 .

Life

The reconstruction of Francesco Vettori's biography is still problematic and largely unclear. According to Vannucci, he came from the well-known Vettori merchant family from Florence and was related to the philosopher and humanist Piero Vettori . It is clear that Vettori, who came from good circles and his mother was a noblewoman from Cortona , studied at the Collegio Nazareno in Rome . In Rome he quickly began to be interested in antiquity and while building up his collection acquired extensive knowledge of numismatics and gemology as well as reading ancient writings. Vettori was a member of the Accademia Etrusca and the Accademia della Crusca .

He was in direct contact or by letter with many important researchers of his time. These included Antonio Francesco Gori and Paolo Maria Paciaudi , with whom he also had a legal dispute. Stocks his own gem collection were prints of the collection Stosch . Here they were edited by Johann Joachim Winckelmann , who also dealt with Vettori's scientific work. Vettori's work and the impressions of his gems in Philipp von Stosch's collection became an important basis for Winckelmann's work alongside the work of Fulvio Orsini , Giovanni Pietro Bellori and Lorenz Beger .

Vettori donated his collection of antiquities to Pope Benedict XIV, who had it transferred to the Museo Sacro . In 1757 Vettori was appointed curator of this papal sub-collection, while Ridolfino Venuti was the Commissario delle Antichità at the time . Parts of the collection can now also be found in other collections. The main works were Il fiorino d'oro antico illustrato , published in 1738 , a fictional numismatic debate with Antonio Francesco Gori, and the Dissertatio glyptographica, printed a year later . In contrast to what was customary at the time, Vettori not only presented the holdings of a collection in the work, which quickly spread, but also addressed questions of glyptic in general. This also included a list of the collected names of ancient and modern stone cutters, with which he placed himself in the tradition of Giorgio Vasari . These lists were continued by Pierre-Jean Mariette in 1750 .

Despite its importance during his lifetime, Vettori was quickly overshadowed by other gem researchers, Winckelmann in particular raised her to a whole new level a generation later, and is today almost only known in specialist circles, despite the seemingly modern approaches, and the meaning behind them is also here seen. Parts of his extensive library, around 250 manuscripts, were bought by the Palatinate-Bavarian Elector Karl Theodor around 1779/80 and transferred in parts to the Biblioteca Palatina in Mannheim before his successor Maximilian IV finally combined the entire holdings in the court library in Munich in 1803 .

Fonts

  • Nummus aereus veterum christianorum commentario in duas partes distributo explicatus prodit nunc primum. Rome 1737.
  • Il fiorino d'oro antico illustrato discorso di un accademico etrusco indirizzato al sig. dottore Antonio Francesco Gori lettore delle storie sacra, e profana nello studio fiorentino. Florence 1738.
  • Dissertatio glyptographica, sive Gemmae duae vetustissimae emblematibus et graeco artificis nomine insignitae, quae exstant Romae in Museo Victorio, explicatae et illustratae. Accedunt nonnulla veteris elegantiae et eruditionis inedita monimenta. Rome 1739.
  • Animadversiones in lamellam aeneam vetustissimam Musei Victorii hujus moduli. Rome 1741.
  • Sanctorum Septem Dormientium Historia, Ex Ectypis Musei Victorii Expressa. Dissertations Et Veteribus Monimentis Sacris Profanisque Illustrata. Rome 1741.
  • Dissertatio Philologica Qua Nonnulla Monumenta Sacrae Vetustatis Ex Museo Victorio Depromta Aeri Incisa Tabula Vulgantur, Expenduntur, Illustrantur. Rome 1751.
  • Del culto superstizioso di Cibele detta dagli antichi la Gran Madre dissertazione. Colla quale s'illustra una statuetta di marmo pario che si conserva in roma nel museo Vettorj. Rome 1753.

literature

  • Atto Vannucci: Vettori (Francesco) . In: Emilio De Tipaldo (ed.): Biografia degli italiani illustri nelle scienze, lettere ed arti del secolo XVIII e de'contemporanei . Volume IV, Tipografia di Alvisopoli, Venice 1837, pp. 299-301 ( digitized version ).
  • Helga and Peter Zazoff : Gem collectors and gem researchers. CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-08895-3 , p. 121.
  • Claudia Lega: La nascita dei Musei Vaticani: le antichità cristiane e il museo di Benedetto XIV. In: Bollettino Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie 28, 2010, pp. 95-184.
  • Marcus Heinrich Hermanns: Vettori, Francesco. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 1258-1260.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Museo Cristiano. In: m.museivaticani.va. Retrieved June 1, 2020 (Italian).
  2. ↑ a b Atto Vannucci: Vettori (Francesco) p. 299.
  3. ^ Marianne Reuter: The Codices iconographici of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek - Part 1: The manuscripts of the Middle Ages and the early modern period up to the middle of the 17th century . Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-89500-848-1 , p. 26 PDF .
personal data
SURNAME Vettori, Francesco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Victorius, Franciscus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian antiquarian, gem researcher and collector of antiquities
DATE OF BIRTH 1692 or 1693
PLACE OF BIRTH Spello , Umbria
DATE OF DEATH May 10, 1770