Giacomo Boni (archaeologist)

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Giacomo Boni (25 April 1859 - 10 July 1925) was an Italian archaeologist specializing in Roman architecture.

Born in Venice, Boni studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in his native city and later dedicated himself to extensive and important excavations in the Forum Romanum in Rome. His early work as an architect in Venice involved him in the restoration of the Doge's Palace there. During this time he demonstrated his technical skill. He later studied architecture in the Accademia di Belle Arti.

In 1888 he went to Rome; there in 1898 Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione G. Baccelli named him director of excavations in the Forum Romanum. Boni directed the excavations in the Forum from 1898 until his death in 1925. He was interested in the stratigraphy of the Forum, an important advance in the science of Roman archaeology.

His excavations led to many important discoveries, including the Iron Age necropolis near the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, the Lapis Niger, the Regia, Galleria Cesaree, Horrea Agrippiana and other monuments. In 1907 Boni also worked on the slope of the Palatine Hill where he discovered the Mundus (tholos-cistern), a complex of tunnels leading to the Casa dei Grifi, the so-called Aula Isiaca, the so-called Baths of Tiberius and the base of a hut under the peristilio of the Domus Flavia.

The excavations were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, in which he participated as a soldier. He resumed his archaeological work in 1916. He was subsequently elected senator in 1923, at which time he embraced fascism.

Boni died in Rome: he is buried in the Orti Farnesiani on the Palatine Hill.

[edit] Further reading

  • Whitehouse, David. "Boni, Giacomo", Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology. Nancy Thomson de Grummond, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 171-72.
  • [1] Martin G. Gonde, Rome - Roman Forum: Giacomo Boni and the Antiquarium Forense: Rediscovering an Ancient Museum (2004-2007).

[edit] References

  • [2] Prof. Giacomo Boni, "The Public Library of the Forum Museum." THE TIMES (London), July 14th, 1905, pg.4. From: Preface: Rome, the Imperial Fora, and Archaeology – ‘The Demanding and Difficult Work of the Archaeologists: To Excavate, Interpret, Classify and Inform.’ cf. Martin G. Conde, ROMA - I FORI IMPERIALI. The Documentation and Dissemination of the Recent Archaeological Investigations and Related Studies of the Imperial Fora of Rome (1995 – 2007).
  • P. Romanelli, s.v. “Boni Giacomo”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani), Roma 1970, pp. 75-77
  • A. Capodiferro, P. Fortini (a cura di), Gli scavi di Giacomo Boni al foro Romano, Documenti dall’Archivio Disegni della Soprintendenza Archeologica di Roma I.1 (Planimetrie del Foro Romano, Gallerie Cesaree, Comizio, Niger Lapis, Pozzi repubblicani e medievali), Roma 2003.
  • "Trajan's column." Proceedings of the British Academy, London (1912). vol. 3 p. 93-98.
  • Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Venezia. Venice: Stabilimento tipografico dei fratelli Vicentini, 1887.
  • La torre de S. Marco: communicazione. s.l. : s.n., 1903.
  • The Roman marmorarii. Rome: s.n., 1893.
  • "Il duomo di Parenzo ed i suoi mosaici." Archivio storico dell'Arte 7 (1894) [unnumbered, 28 pp.]
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