This article analyses unpublished documents dating to the first half of the 19th century and concerning the early history of the Museo Egizio in Turin.1 These documents are held, along with about two hundred more, in the State Archive in Turin since 2009, where they were deposited by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte e del Museo di Antichità Egizie.2

My study of these documents, combined with an analysis of published documents and drawings, cross-correlated with the information of the museum’s database and a study of its objects, shed new light on the history of the Museo Egizio. More specifically, my identification of some archival records allowed me to reconstruct how the Museo Egizio’s statue gallery (“Statuario”, currently Gallery 14) was displayed in the 1850s. The identification of the entire cluster of objects displayed in the Statuario in the 1850s and of their precise location is currently in progress. A virtual reconstruction of the Statuario based on this research is planned.

The archival research

In 2018, while doing research in the main archives and libraries in Turin,3 I discovered in the State Archive a folder bearing the title “Inventario minuto delle Antichità Egizie. Monumenti al Pian Terreno” (Pl. 1).4 It contains, among others,5 a document headed “Situazione dei monumenti egiziani delle sale al pian terreno. I numeri sono quelli dati a ciascun monumento nel catalogo provvisorio”6 (henceforth “Situazione”) (Pls. 2–6).

The “Situazione” consists of four pages (on two sheets folded in the middle) bearing two lists of numbers7 (Pls. 3–5), and a plan on two sheets folded in the middle (Pl. 6).8 The latter shows small squares and rectangles of different sizes indicating Egyptian items displayed on the ground floor rooms – undoubtedly the ground floor rooms of the historical and current statue gallery of the Museo Egizio (Statuario) on the ground floor of the Palazzo dell’Accademia delle Scienze, based both on the shape of the rooms and the fact that the documents58 come from the Museo Egizio’s archive.9

The lists appear to be lists of concordances:

On the last page of List 2 are the following thirteen handwritten lines: (Pl. 5)

Nella 1^a tavolala 1^a colonna da il numerodel catalogo provvisorio,la 2^a quello della situazionedei monumenti e cominciadall’entrata a mezzanotte.Nella 2^a tavola,la prima colonna contiene inumeri dello stesso catalogonel loro ordine, la secondala situazione di ciascunmonumento, la terza contienela lettera ed il numero applicatovi.11

This information is thus the key to reading the lists, telling us that they refer to the plan and provide indications about the objects’ location. They were evidently completely understandable by the author and by his contemporaries, but their meaning is not immediately intelligible to a modern reader. More precisely, the legend mentions some elements whose meaning was unknown at the beginning of the investigation such as the “catalogo provvisorio” (provisional catalogue) and the “entrata di mezzanotte” (midnight entrance). Thus, the first step in the research process was to clearly interpret these elements.

The starting point was to identify the “entrata di mezzanotte”, as the legend tells the reader that the “Situazione” – that is the disposition of the objects – starts from there.

List 1 helped in locating the “entrata di mezzanotte” as it indicates that number 19 in the plan corresponds to number 1 of “Situazione” — and thus corresponds to the “entrata di mezzanotte” — 12 number 121 in the plan corresponds to number 2 of “Situazione”, number 44 in the plan to number 3 of “Situazione”, number 122 in the plan to number 4 of “Situazione” and so on and so forth counterclockwise (Pls. 3, 6).

Then, I searched for other documents in order to identify the “catalogo provvisorio”. I derived information in this regard from an 1851 engraving published in 1852 in a city guide with the title “Una Sala del Museo Egizio” (Fig. 1).5913

The room depicted, with its cross vaults and high windows, is clearly the Museo Egizio’s original monumental statue room, the Statuario.14 Some of the items reproduced in the engraving are clearly recognizable, such as the colossus of Sethi II at the back, the seated Ptah and the two colossal sphinxes arranged on either side of the room (Fig. 2).15

These last constituted the turning point of the investigation. Due to their size and position on either side of the room, they should have been detectable in the above-mentioned plan of the Statuario. This assumption turned out to be correct. The two largest rectangles in the left room of the plan align across the room and clearly indicate the two sphinxes. (Pl. 6) They are numbered 15 and 16. Therefore, it follows that the sphinxes are numbered in the “catalogo provvisorio” as 15 and 16.

Research in the Turin Archivio di Stato was very fruitful and also revealed the presence of another interesting document. Among the papers of the Archivio di Stato deposited by the Museo Egizio, I detected a hitherto overlooked inventory (henceforth “Inventario X”) consisting of 14 handwritten booklets listing 5230 Egyptian objects.16 The first page of each booklet bears the written title “Descrizione degli oggetti Egiziani” and specifies the numeric range of the items listed in the booklet (Table 1). In most cases, the final number listed for each range is contained in the next booklet: for example, although the cover of booklet 1 says that it contains objects 1–172, it actually contains objects 1–171; no. 172 is in booklet no. 2.

The number of items listed in Booklet no. 1 (Pl. 7) corresponds to the number of objects displayed in the plan in “Situazione”.17 Therefore, I assumed that this booklet could be related to this plan. In order to verify this assumption, I checked the items listed as numbers 15 and 16 of “Inventario X”. Object number 15 is a “Sfinge simile in tutto al N. 16. Manca solo il serpentello in fronte stato rotto”,18 while object number 16 is a:

Sfinge colossale a faccia d’uomo con lunga barba. Essa è nell’attitudine d’un animale di riposo ed attenzione. Sono alquanto rotti il naso, e i capelli dalla parte destra. Vi ha l’indizio che avesse il serpentello in fronte il quale manca totalmente.6019

These are 2.94 m in length (Pl. 8)

The identification of numbers 15 and 16 of “Inventario X” with the two colossal sphinxes depicted in the engraving is thus beyond question.

In order to verify the hypothesis of a link between the plan and the first booklet of “Inventario X”, I identified other objects that could be recognized with certainty in the engraving – namely the colossal statue of Sethi II and the seated statue of the god Ptah– in the plan, and checked the description of the corresponding numbers in “Inventario X”.

The colossal statue of Sethi II is labelled number 1 in the plan and the seated statue of the god Ptah is labelled number 18. Number 1 of “Inventario X” is described as:

Statua colossale d’uomo in piedi, la gamba sinistra avanti in atto di camminare. Sul capo la parte posteriore dello pschent, con penna ed ureus in fuori della penna ad ambi i lati. Sulla fronte il serpentello. Nella mano destra pendente un scettro corto: dalla sinistra sostiene un alto bastone rotto all’estremità. Sulla faccia anteriore del piedistallo, sulle due laterali, sull’anteriore di tutto il bastone, vi sono iscrizioni geroglifiche. Vi si trova il cartello.20 (Pl. 9)

Number 18 of “Inventario X” is “Ptah seduto. Manca il capo” (Pl. 8).21 It clearly emerges that these descriptions correspond to the statues identified.

Thus, it follows that the objects are labelled in the plan with the number assigned to them in “Inventario X”. The latter also includes an additional column titled “N^o del catalogo ragion.^o”, referring to a permanent catalogue numbering system. This column was never filled in, but confirms that “Inventario X” – called “provisional” in the “Situazione” document – was a provisional catalogue preliminary to a permanent one. Further additions were made in pen or pencil on the document (Pls. 8–9).

Therefore, it is possible to certainly state that “Inventario X” is the “catalogo provvisorio” labelled as column C in the lists of correspondences (Pls. 3–5).

My identification and analysis of “Inventario X”, combined with searches in the internal database of the Museo Egizio and a study of the plan and of the list of concordances allowed me to identify certain of the items displayed in the Statuario in the 1850s and locate them in the plan (Table 2). It would indeed now be possible, by identifying all the items in the plan, to reconstruct the Museo Egizio’s Statuario as it was in the 1850s.61-64

The Statuario’s virtual reconstruction

The abovementioned results of the archival research will allow a multidisciplinary team of the Scuola Normale Superiore to create a digital reconstruction of the Statuario as it was in the 1850s. In autumn 2018, starting from the plan in “Situazione” (Pl. 6), the team used an open-source software to create a virtual reconstruction of one room of the Statuario.22 They set the plan as a background image in top view, then created a wireframe of the walls, added textures and furnished the room with some statue bases based on the 1851 engraving23 (Fig. 3a). The team then made 3D models of the objects24 identified so far (Figs. 3b–3c) and placed them in their original location within the room.

Due to the absence of measurements in the plan, while the room is such as it appears in the plan itself, its proportions are unlikely to be fully accurate. In the Biblioteca Reale in Turin, however, I found a document that allowed us to make up for this shortcoming. It contains eleven hand-drawn architectural plans of the Palazzo dell’Accademia delle Scienze produced in 1837,25 including one of the ground floor26 (Fig. 4). Using the measurements indicated in this plan, it is possible to produce an accurate virtual reconstruction of the statue gallery27 (Figs. 5–8). The work is still in progress and the 3D reconstruction forthcoming.28

The analysis of the architectural plan of the Statuario also highlighted the presence of 84 geometrical forms – mostly rectangles and squares – neatly arranged and painted in blue. These undoubtedly indicate the bases of the objects displayed, a hypothesis further confirmed by the presence of the bases of the two sphinxes on opposite sides of the room that are visible on the lower right of the plan.

By comparing the architectural plan with the plan in “Situazione” it clearly emerges that the objects displayed in the Statuario in 1837 may have been fewer in number than the objects displayed in the 1850s. The lower number of the items indicated in the architectural plan might reflect the real disposition in 1837 or might be due to the nature of the document, namely a neat architectural plan where items considered as superfluous were omitted to avoid clutter. Only further research can confirm or refute these hypotheses.

Finally, the 1850s sketch is not a unicum . On 17 and 19 January 1974, Beppe Moiso, archivist and curator65-68 at the Museo Egizio, drew up two plans of the Statuario at the time giving the disposition and inventory numbers of the objects on display (Figs. 9–10).29

Therefore, thanks to the “Situazione” and to the Moiso map, we are now able to retrace at least four different layouts of the Museo Egizio’s Statuario, including the current one.

Conclusion

The above-discussed documents highlight the importance of archival research for a better knowledge of the history of the Museo Egizio. Future objectives should include identifying all the objects listed in the first booklet of “Inventario X” and locating them in the plan; studying and virtually reconstructing the rooms of the Statuario in the 1850s; creating 3D models of the objects displayed in them in the 1850s and placing them in their original position within the virtually reconstructed room; virtually reconstructing the 1974 display of the Statuario; creating a time-lapse video of the evolution of the Statuario over the years; and producing interactive applications in order to present the research results to a broader audience.30

Appendix: The folder “Inventario minuto delle Antichità Egizie. Monumenti al Pian Terreno”

The folder “Inventario minuto delle Antichità Egizie. Monumenti al Pian Terreno” consists of three handwritten documents, for a total of 32 pages with their numbers pencilled on the bottom right side of the paper:

Document 1 (“Situazione”) is thoroughly analysed in the main text of this article.

Document 2, as its name already suggests, is an inventory indicating the dimensions (length, height), material, original collection, and description of the objects, which are listed in a continuously numbered sequence.

Document 3 is also an inventory, indicating the dimensions (length, height), material and description of the listed objects. However, unlike the previous list, the items are here divided in groups31 designated by the letters of the alphabet, except for the group “Monumenti Greco-Egizi”32:

Page 24 is characterized by the addition in pencil of three further groups of items on its left side:

The two inventories bear almost identical titles and Document 2 and the groups A-D of Document 339 present the objects in the same order and described with almost the same words. To offer one example, the first item listed in Document 2 is a “Statua del dio Phtah [sic] ritto col Nilometro”, a standing statue of the god Ptah with a “Nilometer” (a djed pillar)40 in black granite, 2.0 m in height and 0.75 m in width41 (Fig. 11a) while the second is the “Statua del medesimo sedente col Nilometro ristorata nel capo”, a seated statue of the same god in white limestone, also holding a “Nilometer” and with a restored head, 1.2 m in height and 0.72 m in width (Fig. 11b).42 The standing statue of the god Ptah in black granite is also listed first in Document 343 and is likewise followed by the seated statue of the same god in white limestone with a restored head. They are respectively described as “Statua d’uomo ritto con Nilometro, Ptah con iscrizione” with the addition underneath in pencil “forgiato come mummia” (mummiform) and “Statua d’uomo sedente col Nilometro, Ptah, ristorato nel capo”.44 The same goes for the remaining69 items. Thus, it can be concluded that Documents 2 and 3 are almost contemporary handwritten drafts – probably a partial and a complete edition – of the same inventory.

Careful study of these documents combined with a study of the printed catalogues of the Museo Egizio allowed me to confirm this hypothesis and to identify a catalogue characterized by the division into groups which distinguishes Document 345 and in which the objects are listed following the same order as in the drafts.46 The handwritten documents held in the Archivio di Stato thus turned out to be preparatory work for the Catalogo Illustrato dei Monumenti Egizii, Sala al Pianterreno published in 1852 by Pier Camillo Orcurti.47

A well-defined link between Documents 2 and 3 and the plan and lists of the “Situazione” document— which were all stored together within the folder “Inventario minuto delle Antichità Egizie. Monumenti al Pian Terreno”48 — was impossible to prove.

The objects listed in the “Situazione” plan and in the two inventories (Documents 2 and 3) differ in number. The plan shows 172 objects (Pl. 6)49 while Document 2 lists 165.50 Groups A to D of Document 3 – namely those items that correspond to the objects listed in the Orcurti catalogue and in Document 2 – enumerate instead 175 items51 and additional numbers are written in pen or pencil on the right side of the paper (Pl. 15). Document 3 is also characterized by a further 42 objects divided into five categories labelled A to E52 and 75 items written in pencil, plausibly at a later time. Furthermore, in Document 3 the items displayed on the ground floor are grouped in the abovementioned four categories A to D, while the third column of the second list of correspondences is characterized by twelve categories, labelled A to N (Pls. 4–5).7053

The documents held in the folder thus show inconsistent numberings, with the consequence that it is not possible to link the objects mentioned in the inventories with the numbers indicated in the plan. As a result, none of these documents provide a complete understanding of how the Statuario objects were numbered in the “catalogo provvisorio”. The additional numberings of Document 354 may constitute a previous, failed attempt to link this inventory to the plan and to the lists of correspondences.

Bibliography

Moiso, Beppe, La Storia del Museo Egizio, Modena 2016.

Orcurti, Pier Camillo, Catalogo Illustrato dei Monumenti Egizii del R. Museo di Torino. Sale al Piano Terreno, Torino 1852.

Orcurti, Pier Camillo, Catalogo Illustrato dei Monumenti Egizii del R. Museo di Torino. Sale al Quarto Piano, Torino 1855.

Petrino, Carbonassi and Pernigotti, Atlante del Palazzo dei Regii Musei, Torino 1837.

Stefani, Guglielmo and Domenico Mondo, Torino e Suoi Dintorni. Guida Storico-Artistica, Amministrativa e Commerciale, Torino 1852.

Online sources

L’Archivio del Museo Egizio di Torino: https://archiviodistatotorino.beniculturali.it/naviga-patrimonio/progetti/archivio-museo-egizio-torino/

Archivio della Soprintendenza Speciale al Museo delle Antichità Egizie: https://archiviodistatotorino.beniculturali.it/upload/museo-egizio.pdf

Museo Egizio di Torino 2vers: https://archiviodistatotorino.beniculturali.it/upload/museo-egizio-2vers.pdf