Maffeian Lapidary Museum

The Maffeian Lapidary Museum is the oldest public museum in Europe dedicated to inscriptions and was founded in 1738 by the Marquis Scipione Maffei, an illustrious Veronese man of letters and archaeologist. Located in Piazza Bra next to the Arena, the museum preserves over 600 Etruscan, Greek, Roman and medieval stone inscriptions collected by Maffei and his successors over the course of three centuries. The collections include funerary stelae, votive altars, cippi, sarcophagi, mosaics and bas-reliefs from Verona and the Veronese territory, in addition to Greek finds acquired in the 18th century.

Of particular importance is the section of Etruscan inscriptions, one of the most significant collections outside Tuscany, and that of Roman inscriptions documenting the social, economic and religious life of ancient Verona. The building that houses the museum is an elegant eighteenth-century neoclassical palace with an evocative colonnaded portico where the most monumental tablets are displayed. The internal garden, decorated with statues and sarcophagi, creates an atmosphere of an aristocratic private collection that reflects the antiquarian taste of the Enlightenment 18th century. The museum is managed by the Academy of Agriculture, Sciences and Letters of Verona.

Scipione Maffei and the birth of Europe's first epigraphic museum

The Marquis Scipione Maffei (1675-1755) was one of the most brilliant figures of the Italian Enlightenment: man of letters, historian, playwright, archaeologist and reformer. Convinced of the educational importance of the study of classical antiquity, in 1738 he inaugurated his epigraphic museum, making it immediately accessible to the public, in an era when art collections were reserved exclusively for the aristocracy. Maffei personally collected hundreds of ancient inscriptions from Veronese territories, recovering them from churches, noble palaces, Roman ruins and archaeological excavations.

He published the monumental catalogue Museum Veronense in 1749, a pioneering work that established the scientific criteria for the study of inscriptions. The museum became a destination of the European Grand Tour: intellectuals, archaeologists and aristocrats from all over Europe visited Verona to admire the Maffeian collection, considered the most important in Europe for ancient inscriptions.

The Etruscan section of the museum preserves over 50 inscriptions in the Etruscan language, many of which come from Chiusi, Perugia and the Po Valley territory. Among these stand out funerary stelae with well-preserved Etruscan alphabet that have allowed important advances in the deciphering of the language. The collection is second only to that of the Tuscan museums and constitutes a fundamental reference for scholars of Etruscology.

The Roman inscriptions document over five centuries of Veronese history from the republican age to the late empire: honorary inscriptions for emperors and magistrates, funerary tablets with names of Veronese families, votive altars dedicated to Roman deities, road milestones of the Via Postumia. Of great interest are the inscriptions that mention the gladiators and shows in the ancient Arena. The Greek section includes original inscriptions acquired in the 18th century from Greek collections and Roman copies of classical Greek inscriptions.

The elegant colonnaded portico that characterises the entrance to the museum was designed in neoclassical style in 1745 to enhance the most monumental tablets. The columns in pink Verona marble support arcades where dozens of Roman inscriptions are walled in arranged according to thematic criteria: honorary, funerary, votive, commercial. The scenic effect recalls the porticoes of Roman villas and creates an evocative atmosphere of ancient Romanity.

The internal garden houses marble sarcophagi decorated with mythological bas-reliefs, headless statues of Roman deities, funerary cippi and architectural fragments. Some sarcophagi feature scenes of the myth of Endymion, of the marine Nereids and of funerary banquets. The garden is an oasis of tranquillity in the heart of Piazza Bra, perfect for those seeking a cultural break away from the tourist crowds. The benches among the antiquities allow one to meditate surrounded by 2000 years of Veronese history.