Gherardo Ghirardini

Memorial plaque with bust of Gherardo Ghirardini, Palazzo del Comune, Badia Polesine , Veneto

Gherardo Ghirardini (born July 13, 1854 in Badia Polesine ; died June 10, 1920 in Bologna ) was an Italian classical archaeologist .

After visiting the Lyceum in Rovigo studied Gherardo Ghirardini Humanities at the University of Bologna , where he in 1877 at the literary historian Carducci with the work Della visione di Dante nel paradiso terrestre ( "On Dante's vision in earthly paradise ") laureiert was. But already during his studies and strengthened by the archaeologist Edoardo Brizio (1846-1907), who was appointed to Bologna in 1876 , Ghirardini had a pronounced archaeological interest. A close friendly relationship developed between Brizio and him, the first scientific fruit of which was an essay by Ghirardini on new vase finds from Bologna.

Immediately after completing his studies, Ghirardini took up a job as a private teacher for economic reasons, but was soon afterwards - mediated by Carducci - employed as a teacher at a lyceum in Florence . In 1878 he won a three-year scholarship from the Scuola italiana di archeologia together with the future numismatist and classical philologist Luigi Adriano Milani (1854–1914) . During these three years he not only had the opportunity to deepen his studies in Pompeii , Rome and Athens for a long time , but also with well-known archaeologists from home and abroad - such as Luigi Pigorini , Giovanni Battista de Rossi , Wolfgang Helbig , Adolf Furtwängler or Friedrich von Duhn - to get in closer contact.

In 1880 he was appointed inspector at the Galleria degli Uffizi , an activity that was not suitable for him because of the administrative tasks involved. The general director of the museums and excavations in Rome, Giuseppe Fiorelli , brokered numerous commissions for him in various regions of Italy, which Ghirardini took on for the Ministero della pubblica istruzione ("Ministry of Public Education"). These included the excavations in Tarquinia , in Formello , the newly discovered Vetulonia , in the amphitheater in Padua .

The reputation associated with these excavations and the extensive publications of the excavation results led to an appointment to the chair of archeology at the University of Pisa in 1885 . Here he taught until 1899. During these years, emerged from the ongoing study of the Villanovan be the Situlae dedicated three-volume work La situla italica primitiva, studiata specialmente in Este , where he tried this important today especially with the northern Italian -Este culture related genre to be sorted typologically and chronologically. Studies from the Pisan period also included topics from classical archeology, such as the Apollo of Belvedere or the pouring satyr of Praxiteles .

When he was appointed to the University of Padua in 1899, he was also appointed soprintendente for the antiquities of Veneto . In this function he devoted himself to the exhibition design of the museums in Este and Adria and introduced as an innovation that not only the works of "high art", but all expressions of human creativity were exhibited in these museums.

When his friend Edoardo Brizio died in 1907, Ghirardini was his successor on the chair at the University of Bologna. At the same time he became director of the Museo civico archeologico of Bologna and soprintendente for the antiquities of Emilia . He held all these positions until his death. During the years as overseer of antiquities, he carried out the first stratigraphic excavations in Theodoric's palace in Ravenna and examined the necropolis of San Vitale , a district in Bologna. In recent years he has devoted his academic studies to the Etruscans , to the origin and development of their culture.

Gherardo Ghirardini was president of the Deputazione di Storia Patria per le provincie di Romagna , was a member of the German Archaeological Institute and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei as well as other academies. An annual grant from the Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria is dedicated to him.

Publications (selection)

For a complete bibliography of the writings of Gherardo Ghirardini see: Giuseppe Sassatelli: I dubbi e le intuizioni di Gherardo Ghirardini. In: Cristiana Morigi Govi, Giuseppe Sassatelli (ed.): Dalla stanza delle antichità al Museo civico. Storia della formazione del Museo civico archeologico di Bologna. Bologna 1984, pp. 459-464.

• Della visione di Dante nel Paradiso Terrestre. Garagnani, Bologna 1877
• Nuovi vasi scoperti a Bologna. 1878.
• La necropoli antichissima di Corneto-Tarquinia. Rome 1882.
• La situla italica primitiva, studiata specialmente in Este. 3 volumes. Rome 1893, 1897, 1900.
• La necropoli primitiva di Volterra (= Monumenti Antichi pubblicati per cura della Regia Accademia dei Lincei. Volume 8). Rome 1898.
• I Veneti prima della storia. Padua 1901.

literature

• Carlo Anti : Gherardo Ghirardini nel centenario della nascita. Tipografia Antoniana, Padua 1958.
• Giuseppe M. Della Fina: Ghirardini, Gherardo. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani . Volume 53. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000 (Italian).
• Albert Grenier : Un témoignage sur Ghirardini. In: Revue archéologique . Series 5, Volume 12, 1920, pp. 332-334 ( digitized version ).
• Giuseppe Sassatelli: I dubbi e le intuizioni di Gherardo Ghirardini. In: Cristiana Morigi Govi, Giuseppe Sassatelli (ed.): Dalla stanza delle antichità al Museo civico. Storia della formazione del Museo civico archeologico di Bologna. Bologna 1984, pp. 445-464.

Web links

Commons : Gherardo Ghirardini  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Gherardo Ghirardini  - (Italian)

Remarks

1. ^ Gherardo Ghirardini: L'Apollo di Belvedere e la critica moderna. In: Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma. Volume 17, 1889, pp. 407-436. 451-466 ( digitized version ).
2. ^ Gherardo Ghirardini: Il Satiro che versa da bere. Studi prassitelici. In: Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma. Volume 20, 1892, pp. 237-260. 305-339 ( digitized version ).