Giulio De Petra

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Giulio De Petra (born February 13, 1841 in Casoli , Chieti province ; died July 22, 1925 in Naples ) was an Italian classical archaeologist .

Giulio De Petra was the son of the doctor Pietro De Petra and his wife Raffaella, née Vigezzi. He attended the College of the Piarists in Chieti before studying law at the University of Naples . Soon he followed his inclination to the history sciences and began to listen to the archeology lectures with Giuseppe Fiorelli . In 1862 he became his assistant at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples and inspector of the excavations in Pompeii , Herculaneum , Stabiae and Cumae .

In 1872 he succeeded Fiorelli as full professor of archeology at the University of Naples, and three years later also director of the museum in Naples. His most important discoveries include the wax tablets from Pompeii, excavated in 1875 , of which more than 150 have been reconstructed so far, and the Pisonenvilla in Herculaneum. In 1893 he became the official director of the excavations in Pompeii and the Casa dei Vettii and the Casa di Marco Lucrezio Frontone were discovered.

During this time, however, there were some private excavations in the area of ​​the Soprintendenza , which led to the loss of important antiquities for the Italian state. In 1894 the villa near Boscorela was uncovered by a private citizen , Vincenzo De Prisco, at his own expense and the silver treasure found there was sold to the Louvre . A few years later, numerous wall paintings from the villa appeared at an auction in Paris , although a government commission had certified the national value of the paintings, which are now distributed all over the world, and advised the government to buy them. De Petra, as the responsible director of the museum in Naples, had only acquired a few parts. On December 8, 1900, he was therefore removed from his offices at the museum and in the Soprintendenza. As a result, further indications of his negligent administration became public. In 1901 he published a defense document, “ Intorno al Museo nazionale di Napoli. Autodifesa ”. In 1906 he was reinstated in his post at the Pompeii excavations, which he held until 1909. In 1909, the first Italian laws were also passed prohibiting private excavations. Because the excavations in Boscoreale at that time were entirely permitted.

De Petra was one of Theodor Mommsen's closest collaborators in his studies of central Italy. Because of his merits he became a member of the Società Reale di Napoli in 1877, a member of the German Archaeological Institute in 1878, a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in 1888 and of the Regia Deputazione di Storia Patria in 1910 . In 1914 he was appointed Senator del Regno d'Italia , but was rarely able to attend meetings of the Senate because of his poor health. In 1915 he retired.

Publications (selection)

  • Sulle condizioni delle città italiche dopo la guerra Sociale con applicazioni alle colonie di Pompei e Pozzuoli . Stamperia della R. Universitá, Naples 1866.
  • Le Tavolette cerate di Pompei. Rinvenute a'3 e 5 luglio 1875 . Detken & Rocholl, Naples 1877.
  • Guide to illustrata del museo nazionale di Napoli . Ed. A. Ruesch. Richter, Naples 1908 (German: Illustrated Guide of the National Museum in Naples . Richter, Naples 1911).

literature

  • Damiano Venanzio Fucinese: Arte e Archeologia in Abruzzo . Officina edizioni, Roma 1978.
  • Ada Gabucci:  De Petra, Giulio. In: Massimiliano Pavan (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 39:  Deodato-DiFalco. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1991.
  • Raffaele Aurini: De Petra, Giulio . In: Dizionario bibliografico della gente d'Abruzzo . Volume 3. Andromeda editrice, Teramo 2002, pp. 46-59.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME De Petra, Giulio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES De Petra, Iulius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian classical archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Casoli
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1925
Place of death Naples