Mario Guarnacci (October 25, 1701 in

Volterra Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods. History Volter ...

Province of Pisa The province of Pisa ( it, provincia di Pisa) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Tuscany region of central Italy. Its capital is the city of Pisa. With an area of and a total population of 421,642 (), it is the second most populous and fif ...

– August 21, 1785 in Volterra), was an Italian prelate, archeologist and historian. He was one of the first scholars to carry out systematic excavations of Etruscan tombs.

Biography

Mario Guarnacci was born at Volterra of a noble and wealthy family. He received the

doctor's degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, where he pursued the course of

Anton Maria Salvini Anton Maria Salvini (1653–1729) was an Italian naturalist and classicist who lived in Tuscany. An accomplished linguist, he is noted for his translations of texts in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Biography Born in Florence, at the age of 12, h ...

. He was honored with the favor of

Pope Benedict XIV Pope Benedict XIV ( la, Benedictus XIV; it, Benedetto XIV; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758.Antipope ...

, who charged him to continue Alfonso Chacón's ''Lives of the Popes,'' but he retired in 1757 to his own country. He discovered there the remains of

Roman baths In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...

. He also made a collection of

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...

antiquities Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Meso ...

, which he bequeathed to his native city. The donation also included a rich library of more than volumes. He died August 21, 1785. His most important work was ''Origini Italiche'' (1767), in which he maintained the chronological priority of the Etrusco-Pelasgians over the other peoples of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. According to Guarnacci, the

Pelasgian The name Pelasgians ( grc, Πελασγοί, ''Pelasgoí'', singular: Πελασγός, ''Pelasgós'') was used by classical Greek writers to refer either to the predecessors of the Greeks, or to all the inhabitants of Greece before the emergenc ...

Tyrrhenians Tyrrhenians (Attic Greek: ''Turrhēnoi'') or Tyrsenians (Ionic Greek, Ionic: ''Tursēnoi''; Doric Greek, Doric: ''Tursānoi'') was the name used by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks authors to refer, in a generic sense, to pre-Greek, non-Gr ...

of Italy migrated in

prehistoric times Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

and brought an Italic culture to savage and uncouth Greece. Guarnacci's theories gave rise to a lively controversy involving several prominent historians and scholars of the period, such as

Giovanni Lami Giovanni Lami (8 November 1697 – 6 February 1770) was an Italian jurist, church historian, and antiquarian. Biography He was born at Santa Croce sull'Arno (between Pisa and Florence) into a relatively affluent family; his paternal family ...

Scipione Maffei Francesco Scipione Maffei (; 1 June 1675 – 11 February 1755) was a Italian writer and art critic, author of many articles and plays. An antiquarian with a humanist education whose publications on Etruscan antiquities stand as incunables of ...

and

Antonio Francesco Gori Antonio Francesco Gori, on his titlepages Franciscus Gorius (9 December 1691 – 20 January 1757), was a Italian antiquarian, a priest in minor orders, provost of the Baptistery of San Giovanni from 1746, and a professor at the Liceo, whose nu ...

Works

* ''Dissertazione sopra le XII Tavole'' (Florence, 1747); * ''Vitae et Res Gestae Pontificum Romanorum,'' etc. (Rome, 1751); * ''Origini Italiche'' (Volterra, 1768); * ''Poesie di Zelalgo Arassiano'' (Lucca, 1769).

Bibliography

* *

References

Italian archaeologists 18th-century Italian historians 1701 births 1785 deaths {{Italy-historian-stub