Giacomo Boni (archaeologist)

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Giacomo Boni in front of the Arch of Titus in Rome.

Giacomo Boni (born April 25, 1859 in Venice ; died July 19, 1925 in Rome ) was an Italian classical archaeologist and architect . From 1898 until his death he was the head of the excavations at the Roman Forum in Rome. Intense interest in Roman religion , he tried to bring about a revival of ancient cults. He hoped for support from Benito Mussolini and the Italian fascists . His interests were wide and besides his archaeological research he dealt with botany , geology and literature .

Education and early years

Giacomo Boni was the son of the captain Luigi Boni and his wife Maria, nee De Nardi. After completing a technical degree, he took part in the restoration of the Doge's Palace in Venice, which had been ongoing since 1870, from 1878 onwards . Here he showed his special talent in technical documentation, but also in dealing with the historical aspects of old buildings. He began to correspond with John Ruskin and William Morris on issues of restoration - both pioneers of modern monument preservation - and forged close ties to the cultural world of Great Britain .

In 1880 Boni began studying architecture at the Accademia di belle arti di Venezia , which he completed in 1884, and deepened his knowledge of ancient culture and thought. Travels through the provinces of the Roman Empire also took him to Austria and Germany . From 1885 he led the first excavation on the foundations of the Campanile of San Marco and developed the method of stratigraphic investigation in archaeological field research independently of Wilhelm Dörpfeld and others . In the same year he became a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects .

In 1888, the newly appointed Minister of Education Paolo Boselli appointed him secretary at the Royal Collection of Copper Engravings , and two years later he became inspector at the General Directorate for Antiquities and the Arts under the direction of Giuseppe Fiorelli . Among other things, he took part in this function in 1892 in the investigation of the Pantheon , which was carried out by Luca Beltrami and Giuseppe Sacconi , the architect of the monument for Vittorio Emanuelle II . In 1895 and 1896 he headed the Rome office of the General Management. As an architect, he was also responsible for the restoration of the Villa Blanc of the then Italian Foreign Minister Alberto Blanc from 1896 to 1897 . In the garden of the villa Boni had a Roman mausoleum rebuilt, which he had excavated in the Tor di Quinto district of Rome and whose original location is now under the expanded Via Nomentana .

Head of the excavations in the Roman Forum

In early 1898, the Minister of Education, Guido Baccelli , appointed him to head the excavations at the Roman Forum . For the first time, stratigraphic examinations of the forum were carried out and Boni documented all finds and findings equally. Medieval things were just as interesting for him as antiquities and were included in drawings, photographs and written documentation on an equal footing. He was pioneering archaeological research throughout Italy and set standards for his successors in excavation archeology of Roman antiquity in Italy. In the years up to 1907 he exposed the archaic necropolis at the temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina , discovered the Lapis Niger , the Regia , the Lacus Curtius and the underground passages under the forum from Caesar's time , as well as the Remains of the Horrea Agrippae and the sanctuary of Venus Cloacina . In 1899 he had the church of Santa Maria Liberatrice on the forum demolished in order to be able to uncover the remains of the early Christian church of Santa Maria Antiqua . In addition to all of this, he also supervised the restoration of the Campanile of San Marco in Venice, which was badly damaged in an earthquake in 1903 and was opened to the public again in 1910.

In 1907 his competence and responsibility were extended to the Palatine. In the following years he discovered an archaic tholos-shaped cistern on the Palatine Hill , the Casa dei Grifi , the so-called Aula Isiaca , the so-called Baths of Tiberius in the Domus Transitoria and the remains of an Iron Age hut under the peristyle of the Domus Flavia . The First World War interrupted the research on Forum and Palatine and Boni enlisted in the army. After returning from the front, he fell seriously ill and did not resume his archaeological work until 1916. For his achievements, but also because of his proximity to Italian fascism, he was appointed senator of the kingdom in 1923 . In addition, he has received numerous high awards and honors. His grave is - as his friend Gabriele D'Annunzio requested to Mussolini - in the middle of the Farnesian Gardens on the Palatine Hill.

Act

Giacomo Boni's grave on the Palatine Hill

In addition to his archaeological research and interests, which were reflected not only in his progressive and impartial excavation methods, his focus was generally on the documentation of antiquities and the related public relations. He supported the establishment of the Gabinetto Fotografico Nazionale in Rome, supervised the establishment of a national catalog of antiquities and was involved in the development of standards for restorations, in which he considered conservation more important than reconstruction.

Early on, Boni developed a keen interest in the eastern religions of India, China and Japan, and he felt an increasing alienation from Christianity. Finally, under the impression of personal mystical experiences - he anticipated in a dream the discovery of Lapis Niger that followed the next day, for example - he turned to the ancient Roman religion and thought about how to put it under the protection of the state again Could bring life to life. In this sense he wanted to influence Francesco Crispi , Sidney Sonnino , especially Benito Mussolini . He hoped for a resurrection of ancient Rome from Mussolini and the Italian fascists.

In his eyes, Boni repeatedly organized pagan rituals , such as a libation on the anniversary of the discovery of Lacus Curtius in 1903 together with the British historian and friend Horatio Brown . On mistaken for the temple of Jupiter Victor held the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine bonuses took place in 1916, a cleansing ritual. In 1917 he erected an altar on the Palatine Hill , what he called the ara graminea , at which every Italian should sacrifice for a favorable fate for Italy in the First World War. For the anniversary of the march on Rome initiated by Mussolini, which subsequently made the Duce Prime Minister, Boni designed a comprehensive program that included the celebration of the Lupercalia , sacrifices at the Mundus Cereris and the organization of a Ludus Troiae as well as Palatine games.

Boni also maintained close relationships with esoteric circles of his time, such as Emmelina De Renzis, mother of Giovanni Antonio Colonna Di Cesarò , post minister under Mussolini. He was in written contact with Leone Caetani . Together with the archaeologists Roberto Paribeni and Giulio Quirino Giglioli , he advised Roggero Musmeci Ferrari Bravo , a writer who publishes under the pseudonym Ignis and belongs to the Via romana agli Dèi , for whom Boni developed the ancient Roman characters of the tragedy " Rumon ".

Honors

literature

  • Giacomo Bonuses †. To the death of the Palatine excavator . In: Vossische Zeitung , July 11, 1925, morning edition, p. 9.
  • Sandro Consolato: Giacomo Boni, l'archeologo-vate della Terza Roma . In: Gianfranco De Turris (ed.): Esoterismo e fascismo: storia, interpretazioni, documenti . Edizioni Mediterranee, Rome 2006, ISBN 88-272-1831-9 , pp. 183–193 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Pietro Romanelli :  Bonuses, Giacomo. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 12:  Bonfadini – Borrello. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1970, pp. 75-77.
  • Eva Tea: Giacomo Boni nella vita del suo tempo . 2 volumes. Casa Editrice Ceschina, Milan 1932.
  • David Whitehouse: Bonuses, Giacomo . In: Nancy Thomson de Grummond (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archeology . Volume 1, Greenwood Press, Westport (CT) 1996, pp. 171-172.
  • Paola S. Salvatori: L'adozione del fascio littorio nella monetazione dell'Italia fascista . In: Rivista Italiana di Numismatica e Scienze Affini. Vol. 109, 2008, pp. 333-352.
  • Paola S. Salvatori: Liturgy immaginate: Giacomo Boni e la romanità fascista . In: Studi Storici , LIII, 2012, 2, pp. 421-438.

Web links

Commons : Giacomo Boni  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Bonuses, Giacomo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian classical archaeologist and architect
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 1925
Place of death Rome