Materiali etrusco-italici e greci da Vulci (scavi Gsell) e di provenienza varia

This title is the first in a new series that will publish the antiquities collection of the Pontifico Istituto Biblico in Rome. The Institute was founded by Pope Pius X in 1909 and is administered by the Jesuits. Although technically considered a part of the Vatican, it occupies Palazzo Muti Papazzurri on the Piazza della Pilotta (near Palazzo Colonna) in central Rome. Lucina Vattuone provides a useful history of the collection and its contents in a preamble (15–28). Archival photographs show typical early display cases crowded with everything from stuffed crocodiles to bronze menorahs. In April 1982 the antiquities portion of the collection formally became part of the Vatican Museums, with the proviso that it would still be available for study by the Institute’s students and faculty. The Vatican would ensure the collection’s conservation and would incorporate the antiquities into the relevant sections of the Museum’s many areas. To facilitate this process Pierre Proulx prepared a general summary of the Institute’s collection. His inventory divides objects into 15 basic groups (e. g., flora, fauna, birds, antiquities, numismatics, utensils, minerals, etc.), then gives totals for each group, as well as provenience (if known; many are not) and sometimes materials (e. g., terracotta, bronze, wood, parchment, etc.). It is a highly varied list of about 7,500 objects and not unlike the inventory for a small 19th century natural history museum. Ferdinando Sciacca’s fine introduction (29–36) precedes his extensive catalogue of Etruscan and Greek materials selected for this first definitive publication. Although some portions of the Near Eastern and Egyptian collections have been published (29, n. 3), this book is the first authoritative study of a significant porEtruscan Studies 2019; 22(1–2): 182–185