Thursday 2 April 2009

Resources: Fondo Amedeo Maiuri

I have been attempting to find out something (anything!) about the ‘Fondo Amedeo Maiuri’, having heard about it at the Herculaneum conference here in Rome the other week. It doesn’t have a website – but I have been able to find out a few things.
Maiuri’s personal archive was acquired from his daughter, Bianca, in 2001 by the Università Suor Orsola Benincasa di Napoli. Today it is housed in the ‘Centro Internazionale per gli Studi Pompeiani’. This is in Scafati, at the Villa Nunziante a Scafati (once known as the Caserma del Polverificio Borbonico). It consists of c. 1200 photos of different format of all the sites that Maiuri was involved with (i.e. Pompeii, Herculaneum, Beneventum, Campi Flegrei and so on). Those of Pompeii date to the 1950s and 60s. Then there is his library of over 3000 books, and a file of letters sent to Maiuri from 23 different correspondents (I have no idea who at present), in addition to conference invitations and the like for the entire period 1911 to 1961, his bibliographical notes, and two manuscripts about Herculaneum. The archive also includes honours awarded to him – medals, diplomas, honorary citizenships! There must be other things too.
I would like to know if any of you have been to the Centro Internazionale, and seen (or worked with) Maiuri’s archive. The Centro website describes the facilities for students of Suor Orsola, but doesn’t mention anything about opening its doors to outsiders. There’s not even a telephone number. Does anyone know anything about this???

2 comments:

Jo Berry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jo Berry said...

I'm posting this on behalf of Massimo, who has been having problems doing it himself (has anyone else had problems? I will look into this.)

It looks like that in the villa there is ALSO the private school the Istituto Tecn. Comm. "Villa Nunziante" (Scuola Superiore: Istituto Tecnico Commerciale - Paritaria), Via P. Vitiello, 104 - Cap: 84018Telefono: 081-8562874; Fax: 081-081-8562.From Google Maps street view it is clear that the building visible at this address is the same one visible in the photo of the webpage of the Instituto Universitario Suor Orsola Benincasa. Searching in the website of this Insituto, it looks like that the last time they did some academic activity was in 2004.I think that more information might be obtained calling directly the school Istituto Tecn. Comm. "Villa Nunziante" at the number that I wrote a few lines earlier.

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