Interpreting and Collecting Antiquity at the End of the Eighteenth Century. The ‘Osservazioni su due musaici antichi istoriati’ by Ennio Quirino Visconti, Sponsored by José Nicolás de Azara

Abstract

The essay studies the different manifestations of the concept of antiquity in relation to the edition of Osservazioni di Ennio Quirino Visconti su due musaici, sponsored by the Spanish diplomat José Nicolás de Azara and produced at the Stamperia Reale run by the printer Giambattista Bodoni in Parma in 1788. The artistic and cultural context of the work and the agents involved in the material production process of the volume are examined, dwelling on the content and values conveyed. Starting from the interpretations of two ancient mosaics, the Osservazioni redefine the concept of antiquarian object, which is embodied in the volume itself as an object of bibliophilia, with its symbolic value (artistic, historical-antiquarian and identity) and its relation to contemporary and future consumers. The methodology adopted is critical-documentary, using the Azara-Bodoni correspondence as primary source, and theoretical-critical for the interpretive approach.