This volume, although capable of improvement in certain areas, provides useful insights into the antique studies and archaeology of Magna Graecia, and how they influenced historical concepts of modern Italy.
The introduction outlines the subject and scope of the volume, a treatment of the place of Magna Graecia in European and especially Italian culture, where it has played a peculiar role, with phases of great splendour and others of almost total oblivion, mostly because of the its perceived ‘peripheral’ nature in relation to mainland Greece and Rome.
Chapter 1, ‘Discoveries and Rediscoveries’, covers the earliest scholars who wrote about Magna Graecia during the Renaissance and the revival of interest in the topic in the mid-eighteenth century. The works of De Ferraris Galateo (1558) and Barrio (1571), written in Latin and having a strong local perspective, are the first accounts of the ancient past of South Italy. They emphasise the Greek past of the area and add a new dimension to the Romano-centrism of the Italian Late Renaissance, where direct knowledge of Greek works of art was very limited. The work of Leandro Alberti affords a different perspective. He wrote in the vernacular and included in his 1550 volume Descrittione di tutta Italia the first modern description of the southern regions, which he visited between 1525 and 1526. He started the still ongoing debate about the meaning of the name Magna Graecia. In Italian works the topic is typically presented in relation (implicit or explicit) to the present. It is probably not by chance that only with the Dutch antiquarian Goltzius do we have a book specifically dedicated to Magna Graecia, namely an illustrated catalogue of southern Italian coins. In the eighteenth century the discovery of the inscriptions of Heraclea, published by Mazzocchi, and the rediscovery of the Doric temples in Paestum sparked new interest in Magna Graecia. The eighteenth century also saw the formation of large collections of figured vases, a phenomenon which was especially important in the Kingdom of Naples.
The second chapter, ‘Between Classical and Marginal’, starts with the inclusion of South Italy in the Grand Tour after the rediscovery of Paestum. Special attention is given to Baron Riedesel who, unlike most Grand Tourists, made the decision to travel south of Naples and on to Sicily. The influence of Winckelmann, whom he met in Rome in 1762, is clearly recognisable in all his works. The works of Saint-Non, Denon and Swinburne are also treated. The analysis of the history treatises on Greek western colonisation includes the figures of Bouganville, Heyne, Barron, Gillies and Mitford, while the last pages of the chapter outline the contributions of the scholars of the Late Neapolitan Enlightenment, and especially Cuoco, author of Platone in Italia.
Chapter 3, ‘Individuals and Institutions’, is dedicated to the nineteenth century and the development of modern Classical Archaeology. The uncovering of numerous figured vases at the beginning of the nineteenth century, not only in Magna Graecia but also in Etruria, sparked a hot debate about the vases' provenance, of which C. gives a detailed account. Here she might profitably have added a mention of Lanzi, antiquarian of the Uffizi Gallery, who in 1806 wrote Vasi dipinti volgarmente chiamati Etruschi, an important work that anticipates the conclusions of Gerhard's Rapporto intorno i vasi vulcenti of 1831. At this point an up-to-date bibliography on works and finds mentioned, with reference to their first publication only, would have been useful to the reader. The activity of Gerhard in Italy, a pioneer of modern Archaeology, gives C. the opportunity for a long digression on the Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica and its publications. The Instituto played a major role in the development of a scholarly network and its publications were a prestigious venue for reports on and discussion of recent discoveries. However, as C. points out, this Rome-based institution was not really open to contributions by the local scholars of South Italy. The Bullettino Archeologico Napolitano, founded in 1842, was the first response to this challenge. Isolation and lack of communication concerning the modern trends of research are clearly shown by the persistence of antiquarianism and outdated perspectives among the scholars of the Kingdom of Naples.
Chapter 4, ‘Of Nations and Scholars’, is dedicated to the complex relationship between the archaeology of South Italy and the formation of the Italian nation. The North-American expedition of Frothingam Jr to the site of the sanctuary Hera Lacinia is mentioned as an example. The expedition was soon stopped because of the reaction of Italian scholars, who considered the exploration of the remains of the glorious past of their young nation to be their exclusive duty and responsibility. The most effective opponent of the American project was probably Orsi, who in 1911 took pride in starting the Italian excavation of the site. Orsi was one of the most important figures of Italian archaeology between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Originally from North Italy, he spent most of his career in Sicily and Calabria, where he worked tirelessly on great excavation projects, a number of timely and accurate publications, the establishment of museums, and dealing with illegal excavations, before becoming a senator later in his life. His vision of his mission as an archaeologist was founded on sincere patriotism: the defence and promotion of the cultural heritage of the Italian nation.
In this chapter C. draws attention to the National Schools instituted at the end of the nineteenth century in Greece and in Italy and to the school established by Fiorelli at Pompeii in 1886, whose focus was actually not Magna Graecia.
The panorama of nineteenth-century scholarship is completed by the analysis of other figures and the strong influence of German culture on Italy in the study of the ancient world. A notable scholar of this period is Pais, who is especially relevant to the topic because of his 1894 Storia della Sicilia e della Magna Grecia, a work where he emphasised the contribution of the Greek cities of South Italy to Rome.
The last chapter, ‘Culture and Excavation’, is dedicated to the period from the early twentieth century to modern times. Two figures are especially described, Ciaceri, a supporter of the Fascist regime, and Zanotti Bianco, an opponent of it. Ciaceri, who was supported by the Fascist establishment and frequently contributed to the official publications of the regime, adopted a nationalist perspective and emphasised the contribution of the Italian population rather than the Greek colonists. In his view, South Italy flourished and deserved the name of Megale Hellas precisely because of the fusion of the Greeks with the local population. In complete contrast to Ciaceri is Zanotti Bianco, a physician who moved to Calabria to give assistance to the people of the region. There he encountered Orsi, who interested him in the ‘recovery and safeguarding of the region's ancient monuments’. The two founded the Società Magna Graecia, whose purpose was to support research in the South. As an anti-Fascist, he was later forced to live as an internee in the swampy and unhealthy area of the mouth of the river Sele, where together with Zancani Montuoro he continued his activity and discovered the great sanctuary of Hera.
The years after the Second World War are briefly covered. Important scholars of Magna Graecia, such as Dunbabin, Berard and Adamesteanu might have been accorded more words, especially because of their role in the recent revival of the study of Magna Graecia, while the disputes following the discovery of the Riace Bronzes are, in my opinion, an expression of Italian ‘campanilismo’ rather than a peculiar phenomenon of the South. As a matter of fact, a very similar controversy happened in Central Italy about the Cartoceto Bronzes.
This book explores an interesting aspect of Italian and European culture, which is covered in detail from the Renaissance to the beginning of the twentieth century, while the same depth is not found in the last chapter. This results in a very informative and engaging, if somewhat unbalanced, work.
