Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani

Background

Lanciani was born at Montecelio (now Guidonia Montecelio), near Rome, Italy January 1, 1847.

Education

Lanciani earned LL. D. degrees from Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Harvard and a Ph. D. degree from Würzburg.

Career

By training an engineer, he joined Prince Torlonia's excavating project around Trajan's harbor, at Ostia, the mouth of the Tiber. An exemplary description of the site followed, published in the Monumenti and Annali of the Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica, and Lanciani became absorbed in monumental archaeology.

When Rome became the capital of Italy in 1870, a unique period of building activity and archaeological discovery began in the city. In 1872 Lanciani was appointed secretary of the municipal archaeological commission; in 1878 he was made a university professor. His first-hand records of current discoveries steadily grew, along with a collection of excerpts from Renaissance records and from the albums of Renaissance artists, the archaeological significance of which Lanciani was among the first to recognize. Much of this has been preserved through Lanciani's own donation of his schedario, or series of portfolios, to the Vatican Library, and through his heirs' gift of his books, prints, plans, and manuscripts to the Istituto Italiano di Archeologia e Belle Arti.

Lanciani formed a core of distinguished late nineteenth-century scholars of the Roman Forum including Henri Jordan, Christian Huelsen, Samuel Ball Platner, and Thomas Ashby.

Achievements

• He was known for his studies of the topography and monuments of the city of Rome. Lanciani's great work was the production of a map of the ancient city of Rome.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Pagan and Christian Rome
  • The Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome: A Companion Book for Students and Travelers (Classic Reprint)

Membership

He was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, the Academia di S. Lucia, the Berlin Institute, the Royal Academy of Belgium, and the Archaeological Society of Brussels.

Connections

He was married twice, first to an American woman and then to the British widow of Prince Colonna.

colleague:

Austen Henry Layard