Rodolfo Lanciani’s Dismissal

• Main Author: Susan M. Dixon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ubiquity Press 2016-11-01
• Series: Bulletin of the History of Archaeology
• Subjects: Rodolfo Lanciani, Felice Barnabei, classical antiquities dealing, history of museums of Rome, Archaeological Institute of America, archaeological service in Rome
• Online Access: http://www.archaeologybulletin.org/articles/592
• ISSN: 1062-4740; 2047-6930

This essay deals with an episode in the career of classical archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani (1845–1929), director of excavations of the Roman Forum from c. 1877 to 1886. Despite his success as a scholar and excavator, the Italian government dismissed him from the archaeological service for improprieties in 1890. The major charges against Lanciani reveal the tensions between the city of Rome and the Italian state on issues related to owning, caring for, and displaying the nation’s antiquities. Significant social, economic, and political changes in the decades after the establishment of the new nation fueled the tensions.