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View of the Roman Forum by Piranesi
Museo di Geologia - Università La Sapienza di Roma
A brief history of the Museum of Geology
The Museum of Geology was founded in 1873 by Giuseppe Ponzi (1805-1885), a doctor and naturalist from Rome, when upon the insistence of Ponzi himself, Pio IX established the professorship of Geology, separating it from that of Mineralogy and Geognosis. At that time Ponzi was an eminent geologist who in 1841 had already published a geological map of the Roman region.
Upon its foundation, a few samples and collections from the unique Museum of Mineralogy (partly originated from the eighteen-century Kircher Museum), which Ponzi had directed for several years, were incorporated. Ponzi's adaptability ensured the museum's continuity during the delicate historic period of transformation from Papal States to Kingdom of Italy. He enriched the museum with samples collected mostly in Lazio, but also in central Italy, which he extensively surveyed.
Initially the museum was located in the Palazzo della Sapienza, which at the time was a University building (Archiginnasio Romano) and today houses the State Archive. In 1928 an independent Museum of Palaeontology was created, separating it from the Geology Museum, and in 1935, with the inauguration of the University City, the Museum of Geology was transferred to its current site, inside the Geology-Mineralogy building which was designed by the architect Giovanni Michelucci in 1932.
From the 60s the museum area (which also gave hospitality to a library and the Italian Geological Society, was progressively eroded due to developments in teaching and research activities, initially by the Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and then by the Department of Earth Sciences. Museum activities were mostly limited to special occasions and events outside the museum (those recent decades were the worst in over a hundred years of the Museum's history, during this period the museum seemed to have disappeared).
In 2000, the new director Goffredo Mariotti was determined to definitively re-open the Museum. The inauguration was celebrated with an exhibition dedicated to "Geological risks in Italy". Currently a central and recurring theme highlighted in the museum layout is the relationship between our Planet and mankind.
There are also several objects on display which draw attention on geological concepts and events (for example a bottle covered by a thin layer of mud related to the Florence flood, or a revolver found in the deposits of Tevere river which belonged to the French troops who fought against the Roman Republic in 1849). The Museum also houses interesting multicoloured sand collections from all over the Planetthat the youngest visitors can view and admire at the microscope.
A wide section is dedicated to theEarth’ Risks and Resources: i.e. for seismic risk, small modelsof buildings connected to a seismograph have been created; the models can oscillate differentlyshowing the effects of seismic waves (classes can “live the experience” of generating a small tremor and observing its effects on the seismograph). For the Earth’s resources, a wide section is dedicated to water (it is possible to view practical experiences which demonstrate how rain water filters more or less rapidly through rocks and feeds springs.
Particularly interesting from a “social” point of view are some rotating palaeogeographic globes representing significant moments of the Earth's history (from the Silurian, 430 million years ago up to today). These globes have been created in bright colours and using relief techniques so that they can be "explored" by blind or partially sighted visitors.
The Geology Museum constitutes a valid support and an important complement to formal education for students of degree courses in Geological, Natural and Environmental Sciences:
-it exhibitsrock samples that are useful for the preparation of many exams;
-a small projection hall is available for the screening and looking at videos on specific topics, including around twenty brief videos prepared by the Museum itself;
- several multimedia hubs and data bases are located in the Museum;
- through the site it is also possible to access the "meteorological data detection service", based on the small "Paolo Bono" weather station located on the roof of the Mineralogy building.
The Museum also houses important historic collections of "ancient marbles", including the 19th century collections of "T. Belli" and "E. Dodwell". Both consist of small square and polished pieces of a vast variety of marbles and ornamental stones and are considered to be among the most extensive existing collections of oriental alabasters, breccia stones, “pavonazzo” and “cipollino” marbles, granites and other marbles in general, coming from excavations of Ancient Roman sites and various locations in Italy and Europe. Many of these marbles are the same varieties which can be found in civil and religious Monuments of Rome today, as over the centuries they have been used to embellish the city's most important architectonic structures.
In 19th century in Rome there was a widespread interest in the collection of "ancient marbles". Archaeologists and travellers collected different varieties of ornamental stones which had been used to embellish public and religious buildings for centuries during the Roman Empire: Rome was a major city for the collection of multicoloured marbles from the Empire's provinces located along the Mediterranean basin. The main "sources for the supply of marbles" for collectors, apart from stone cutters, were the ancient Roman ruins, which for centuries had been used as an immense and rich quarry from which marble workers extracted colourful marbles to decorate churches and monuments of Papal Rome.
The Museum's "Ancient Marble" collection of T. Belli was constituted around the mid 19th century by a lawyer from Rome, Tommaso Belli, who at the time was the Lieutenant-Governor of Crimes of the Vicariate: it is considered to be the most valuable collection in terms of the quality, beauty and quantity of samples. The Collection was commissioned in 1841 and then purchased at a very high price (6000 Roman “scudi”), during the pontificate of Gregory XVI (1831-1846). A small piece of trivia to complete all this information: the amount was paid in three instalments, between 1847 and 1855. Unfortunately, we never received the "Reasoned Catalogue" of the Collection that was foreseen in the agreement for the private purchase agreement in 1841. The catalogue, which survives in the transcription of H. Tolley, was little more than a simple list of names and locations. Nonetheless most samples are enriched with hand written informations on pieces of paper, sometimes profiled, with a few indications (presumably written by Tommaso Belli himself), which was supposed to have been transcribed in the "reasoned catalogue" (scientific and commercial names of marbles, places or ancient artefacts of origin and where it was possible to view). If we look closer, it is interesting to note on the back side of these pieces of paper,that printed letters still legible orunderstandable, clearly show that these labels are made from pieces of ripped up theatre pamphlets and newspapers.
The "T. Belli" collection contains 636 pieces of marbles which have been perfectly squared (14x8x3) and polished on five out of six faces, a variety of ornamental stones, all different from each other (at least in collection terms); in reality variations which may naturally characterise the same type of rock have been indicated with different names. The collection includes: numerous varieties of oriental alabasters, breccia stones, “pavonazzi” and “cipollino” marble, granites, porphyry and "marbles" (in the word's etymological and commercial, but not petrographic meaning).
The Geology Museum is also home to another important 19th century ancient marble collection by the renowned English archaeologist and traveller Edward Dodwell (1767-1832). In accordance with an extremely wide spread tradition of his age, Dodwell undertook a long journey through different European countries, which of course included Italy too. During his travels, apart from objects of archaeological interest he also collected numerous fragments of "marbles" and rocks, both processed deriving from ancient monuments, as well as natural ones, collected in quarries, which he cut and squared into 11x11x2 cm pieces, polished on one side only. The original collection (247 ancient marbles plus marbles collected in quarries and raw samples) was made up of over 2000 pieces; the Museum collection features 1194 pieces. Unfortunately, not all the conserved marble items contain exhaustive notes regarding the name and location of provenance (normally written by Dodwell himself). The "vulgar name" of marble samples taken from quarries is often indicated but not the location, whereas in many cases, especially for non-ancient marbles, only the provenance is indicated, albeit in a generic manner; perhaps the most frequently recorded element is the collection date. According to the Secretary general of the Direction of the institute of Archaeological Correspondence in “Notice sur Le MuséeDodwell” (Rome 1837), the lithologic collection was estimated by Francesco Belli at around 6000 “piastre” (with a corresponding value of approximately 32250 francs). Unfortunately, the history of this collection's transfer to what was at the time the Archiginnasio Romano (today the Museum of Geology) is not entirely clear. It does appear however that it was the subject of a posthumous donation from Dodwell's family, or his wife Countess Teresa Spaur, who inherited it. The collection, extremely rich from a lithologic point of viewand appreciable for the variability and brightness of colours, consists not only of ancient marbles but also marbles from the British Isles, Greece, France and, obviously, Italy.
