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Salvatore Aurigemma

SALVATORE AURIGEMMA was born in Monteforte Irpino in the province of Avellino on 10th February 1885 and died in Rome on 1st April 1964. He graduated in the Ateneo romano under Ettore De Ruggiero and was a student of Roman history who dedicated much time to epigraphic research. In 1935 he became lecturer in Classical Antiquities at the University of Bologna.

He was collaborator and son-in-law of Spinazzola, for whom he became the depository of writings and he edited the enormous three volume Pompeii in the light of new excavations in Via dell’Abbondanza.

Archaeological exploration in the Etruscan necropoli of Spina in Valle Trebba, in the swamps of Comacchio and the creation of the Museo di Spina in Palazzo di Lodovico il Moro in Ferrara are among his important contributions to the field.

Boni was pupil and collaborator to Halbherr in the Scuola Archeologica di Atene e Roma. In Libya he was in the forefront of excavations, arriving as the Turkish-Italian war broke out. In Rome and Lazio many examples of his work. The most important of these are the explorations of Villa Adriana in Tivoli and the restoration of the Tempio della Fortuna Primigenia di Palestrina.

His career took him first to the post of Inspector of the Museo Nazionale di Napoli and in 1924 he became Soprintendente alle Antichità dell'Emilia e della Romagna. In 1939 he became Soprintendente all'Etruria Meridionale (Roma II), with its seat in Villa Giulia. In 1942 he entered the soprintendenza alle antichità del Lazio al Museo Nazionale Romano, where he was in charge of safeguarding monuments during war emergencies.

After the war he re-opened the Museo Nazionale Romano and increased the numbers of rooms. He was also responsible for the preservation of one of the most important sections of the Mura Serviane that was under risk of demolition. By consolidating the Basilica neopitagorica di Porta Maggiore, he protected it from deterioration due to the passage of trains. Among other offices he held that of Soprintendente for antiquities and colonial art in Tripolitania. One of the most important studies in Africa is his “L'Arco di Marco Aurelio e Lucio Vero in Tripoli” (Tripoli 1970) which was published after his death.

Bibliografia:

• A. Gabucci, s.v. "Aurigemma Salvatore", in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani), Roma 1988, primo supplemento, pp. 205 ­ 207.
• P. Romanelli, Salvatore Aurigemma, in "Atti dell’Accademia Nazionale di San Luca", VIII, 1965-1966, pp. 5 -10.