Ridolfino Venuti
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Ridolfino Venuti (* probably November 1705 in Cortona ; † March 30, 1763 in Rome ) was an Italian antiquarian , archaeologist , numismatist and art historian . He is considered one of the most important antiquarian booksellers of his time and made a name for himself above all with his illustrated catalogs of Roman archaeological collections. Venuti was from 1744 until his death papal antiquarian and overseer of the collections of antiquities and excavations of the Papal States .
Ridolfino Venuti came from a long-established, respected family from Cortona. He embarked on a career as a clergyman and began studying various languages, especially Latin , ancient Greek and Hebrew , but also English and French in Prato and at the University of Pisa . On December 29, 1726, he and his brother Niccolò Marcello were among the eleven founding members of the Accademia Etrusca , an international scholarly organization that was primarily, but not only, dedicated to studying the Etruscans and other ancient cultures and which still exists today. In 1734 he went to Rome to serve Cardinal Alessandro Albani . Through this uncle Onofrio Baldelli , who was a collector of art , he met many scholars, artists and travelers in Rome. Philipp von Stosch , Francesco Valesio , Francesco Bianchini and Francesco de Ficoroni belonged to his circle . As a tour guide, he led many important guests through Rome and its ruins. Venuti had access to all of Rome's major collections. In addition to the Vatican collections and that of his employer Albani, there were also important private collections such as the Capponi , Mattei and Odescalchi collections . He quickly gained an excellent reputation as a connoisseur of antiquity, whereupon Pope Benedict XIV appointed him to the Accademia di storia Romana e d'antichità profane , newly founded in 1740 . In 1742 he co-founded the Giornale di letterati , in which scientific news was discussed with an international focus. In 1744 he was appointed Commissario delle Antichità as the successor to Francesco Palazzis and thus superintendent of the ancient monuments and the papal collections of the city, of the excavations and the sale of antiquities. Venuti used the almost 20 years in this function to systematically record, process and document the Roman monuments and collections. His successor in office was Johann Joachim Winckelmann . In 1748 Venuti received his doctorate with the dissertation sopra due antiche greche iscrizioni . His high esteem beyond national borders was evident in his appointment as associé libre of the Académie royale des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in 1750 and 1757 as a member of the Royal Society .
Venuti did not enrich archeology with new theories of archeology, nor did he advance it with new interpretations of works of art. Due to his widespread interest and his tendency to systematically record materials from monuments in the city of Rome as well as in the Roman collections, his archaeological merits were in his works of great abundance of material, which were also accompanied by many illustrations. As a result, they have great documentary value to this day. As a co-founder of the Academy of Cortona, his work can still be felt today. Two directions can be identified in Venuti's work. On the one hand he was a local patriot and praised his homeland Cortona and his adopted home Rome in his work. On the other hand, an incipient Italian nationalism can also be recognized in him, for example by representing the primacy of Italian over French painting. His most important works were pictorial catalogs of Roman collections. In 1736 he published the mixed Borioni collection , in 1739 the coins of the Albani collection and in 1744 the papal numismatic collections ( Numismata Romanorum Pontificum praestantiora a Martino V. ad Benedictum XIV. ). The three volumes on the sculptures in the Mattei Collection were only published posthumously . In 1750, together with Antonio Francesco Gori , he wrote a catalog for the Museum of Cortona, which was to give a strong boost to the emerging Etruscology . A guide to the Capitoline Museums was aimed primarily at non-academic visitors. The main works of Venuti are the descriptions of the Roman monuments Accurata e succinta descrizione topografica delle antichita di Roma , which were published posthumously in the year of his death and reprinted several times until the 19th century, as well as the work on contemporary Rome published in 1766.
Fonts
- Sopra l'antica città di Cortona, e suoi abitatori. 1743
- Numismata Romanorum Pontificum praestantiora a Martino V. ad Benedictum XIV. 1744
- Dissertazione sopra due antiche greche iscrizioni. 1748
- Osservazione sopra il fiume Clitunno, detto in oggi Le Vene. 1753
- Accurata, e succinta descrizione topografica delle antichità di Roma. 1763
- Accurata, e succinta descrizione topografica e istorica di Roma moderna, Opera postuma dell'abate Ridolfino Venuti cortonese. Roma, 1767 Google books
literature
- Martin Bentz : Venuti, Ridolfino. 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. 1254–1256.
Web links
- Venuti, Ridolfino. In: Enciclopedie on line. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Venuti, Ridolfino |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian antiquarian, archaeologist, numismatist and art historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 1705 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cortona |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 30, 1763 |
| Place of death | Rome |