Francesco Ficoroni (1664–1747) was an Italian connoisseur and antiquarian

Antiquarian

An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...

 in Rome closely involved with the antiquities trade. He was the author of numerous publications on ancient Roman sculpture

Roman sculpture

The study of ancient Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the Apollo Belvedere and Barberini Faun, are known only from Roman Imperial or Hellenistic "copies." At one time, this imitation was taken by art...

 and antiquities, guides to the monuments of Rome and the city's ancient topography

Topography of ancient Rome

The topography of ancient Rome is a multidisciplinary field of study that draws on archaeology, epigraphy, cartography and philology.The classic English-language work of scholarship is A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome , written by Samuel Ball Platner, completed and published after his...

, and on Italian theatre and theatrical masks, among other subjects. For his antiquarian works he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 of London. A major segment of his potential audience, both for his publications and for the objects from his perpetually-changing collection, was composed of British milordi on their Grand Tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

s. His complementary volumes on ancient and modern Rome (1744) remained in print long after his death: Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

 purchased both volumes while he was abroad in 1785-89.

Life

Ficoroni was born near Lugnano, in the comune of Valmontone

Valmontone

Valmontone is a comune in the Province of Rome in the Italian region Lazio, located about 45 km southeast of Rome.-Geography:...

, Latium

Latium

Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...

.

From 1705 to 1710 he undertook a series of excavations along the Via Appia in the vigna Moroni, the Moroni vineyard, which revealed ninety-two funerary chambers decorated with fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es and mosaics, which provided material for his Bolla d'oro (1736); the excavation was supported by Cardinal Filippo Antonio Gualterio

Filippo Antonio Gualterio (cardinal)

Filippo Antonio Gualterio was made a papal nuncio to France and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church from 1706....

, who purchased many of the antiquities discovered. Later Ficoroni bought back some of Gualterio's objects, while over two hundred of the examples of glass, terracotta oil lamps and some carved hardstones were purchased by Sir Hans Sloane

Hans Sloane

Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS was an Ulster-Scot physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the foundation of the British Museum...

 and eventually found their way, with the rest of his collection, to establish the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

. Reasons of cost aborted the engraving of the watercolor drawings of the frescoes (now long disappeared) made for Ficoroni by Gaetano Piccini (1681–1736); the watercolors were purchased by Cardinal Gualterio but dispersed after his death in 1728. The frescos in the 92 tombs unearthed along the via Appia were visited by the painter Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta or Maratti was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition stemming from Raphael, he was not exempt from the influence of Baroque painting...

, who brought his students to view them.

Ficoroni's excavations at Hadrian's Villa

Hadrian's Villa

The Hadrian's Villa is a large Roman archaeological complex at Tivoli, Italy.- History :The villa was constructed at Tibur as a retreat from Rome for Roman Emperor Hadrian during the second and third decades of the 2nd century AD...

 were never fully published. Carlo Fea

Carlo Fea

Carlo Fea was an Italian archaeologist.Born at Pigna, in what is now Liguria, Fea studied law in Rome, receiving the degree of doctor of laws from the university of La Sapienza, but archaeology gradually attracted his attention, and with the view of obtaining better opportunities for his research...

 summarised some outstanding finds in 1790.

The most famous object that was in his collection or passed through his hands was the fourth-century BCE cylindrical bronze ritual vessel known still as the "Ficoroni cista", which was found in an Etruscan

Etruscan society

Etruscan society is mainly known through the memorial and achievemental inscriptions on monuments of Etruscan civilization, especially tombs. This information emphasizes family data. Some contractual information is also available from various sources...

 woman's tomb just south of Palestrina

Palestrina

Palestrina is an ancient city and comune with a population of about 18,000, in Lazio, c. 35 km east of Rome...

 (the ancient sanctuary site of Praeneste) in 1738 and which Ficoroni gallantly presented to the museum assembled by Athanasius Kircher

Athanasius Kircher

Athanasius Kircher was a 17th century German Jesuit scholar who published around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology, and medicine...

 in the Collegio Romano. It has four finials on its lid, the figure of Dionysus flanked by aroused satyr

Satyr

In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....

s, and love scenes of Heracles and Iolaos.

The catalogue of his own collection of ancient Roman mercantile sealings stamped in lead was written by conte C. Gaetani and doubtless published at Ficoroni's expense.

He died in Rome.

Selected publications

• Osservazioni... sopra l'antichità di Roma... dal... Padre B. de Montfaucon
  Bernard de Montfaucon
  Bernard de Montfaucon was a French Benedictine monk, a scholar who founded a new discipline, palaeography; an editor of works of the Fathers of the Church; he is also regarded to be one of the founders of modern archaeology.-Early life:Montfaucon was born January 13, 1655 in the castle of...
  
  (Rome, 1700, 1709).
• Lettera scritta al ill. Sig. G., Lord Johnstone... sovra un nuova cameo esprimente Marcello nipote di Augusto (Naples, 1718, 1726).
• Le memorie più singolari di Roma e sue vicinanze, notate in una lettera... all'Illustrissimo Cav. Bernard Inglese aggiuntavi nel fine la spiegazione d'una medaglia d'Omero (Rome, 1730).
• La Bolla d'oro de fanciulli nobili Romani, e qualla de' libertini (Rome, 1732); one of the objects described is the gilded glass medallion, long considered to be a forgery, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
  Metropolitan Museum of Art
  The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
  
  .
• I Tali, ed altri istromenti lusorj degli Antichi Romani (Rome, 1734)
• Le Maschere sceniche e le figure comiche d'antichi Romani descritte brevemente(Rome: Antonio de' Rossi, 1736, 1748) Dedicated to nob. sig. Paolo Ippolito De Beawille. A Latin translation, De larvis scenicis, ppeared in 1750 and 1754..
• Breve descrizione di tre particolari statue trovatesi in Roma l'anno 1738 (Rome, no date [1738]).
• Le Vestigia e rarità di Roman antica ricercate, e spiegate (Rome:G. Mainardi, 1744)
• Le Singolarità di Roma moderna (Rome, 1744), a companion volume to I Tali.
• Le memorie ritrovate nel territorio della prima, e seconda città di Labico e i loro giuste siti. (Rome:G. Mainardi, 1745)
• Gemmae litteratae antiquae, aliequae rariores (Rome, 1757). The engraving were by P. Nicola Galeotti.