Museum Veronense Hoc Est Antiquarum Inscriptionum Atque Anaglyphorum Collectio Cui Taurinensis Adiungitur Et Vindobonensis. Accedunt Monumenta Id Genus Plurima Nondum Vulgata, Et Ubicumque Collecta.
Pages I-DXIX comprise 459 pages and 33 plates - the plates and their versos being numbered continuously with the pages, except for the plate inserted after page CXXVI.
Contents
[Front., t.-p., dedic.] - Praefatio - [Approbation] - Museum Veronense - Museum Vindobonense - Inscriptiones Variae - Addenda et Emendanda - Indices; Indicum Conspectus - Nomina Eorum Quorum insignia in Musei porticu spectantur - Subscribentium Nomina - Regestum.
Responsibility Note
Many plates are signed as engraved by F. Zucchi. Some carry also the names of draughtsmen - Cignaroli, A. Cristofali, D. Bertoli. One of the two folding plates is signed as drawn by C. Natoire and engraved by Et. Fessard.
The work is dedicated by Scipio Maffei to Pope Benedict XIV.
References
Scipione Maffei nell'Europa del Settecento, ed. P. Romagnani [convention, Verona, 1996] (1998).
Summary Note
The celebrated author of the tragedy Merope and founder of the Giornale de' letterati d'Italia, Scipio Maffei was also an accomplished archaeologist and palaeographer. In 1731-2 he published his Verona illustrata, a history based on original documents.
In the present work he descibes the sculpture and inscriptions held in the Lapidary Museum which he himself established at Verona, as well as those at Turin, Vienna and elsewhere. The collection includes several Greek and a few Hebrew and Egyptian inscriptions; which are provided with Latin, and occasionally also Italian, translations.
Several of Maffei's comments take the form of letters to other scholars, such as Baron Bimard, A. Fabricius, A. Mazzocchi, J.S. Assemani and Edmund Chishull.
Provenance
Purchased from Francesco Sastres in sheets for £1 10s. on 19 April 1788 (see his original invoice dated that day 'for books sent to Mr. Wilton for the Royal Academy').
Binding Note
Late 18th-century mottled calf; bound for the Royal Academy by John Miller for 10s. (see his bill dated 13 July 1788); rebacked in 1996, retaining original red morocco spine-label lettered 'Museum Veronense'.