Boni

Giacomo Boni was born in Venice on the 25th April 1859 and died in Rome on the 10th July 1925. After embarking on technical and commercial studies, he took part in the restoration work on the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. During the restoration, Boni immediately showed great skills as a quality designer, particularly in the attention he paid to the historical character of ancient monuments. He subsequently attended architecture courses in the Accademia di Belle Arti, took further studies in classics and formed ties with the British cultural world.

In 1888 he was called to Rome by the Ministro dell’Istruzione P: Boselli, initially as secretary for the Regia Calcografia, and then as inspector of monuments for the Direzione Generale delle Antichità e Belle Arti, which was at that time under the direction of G. Fiorelli. In 1898 the Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione G. Baccelli, named him director of excavations of the Foro Romano.

The documents (papers and drawings) conserved mainly in the Archivio della Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma, in S. Maria Nova, al Palatino, bear witness to all of his work and research, which was particularly intense in the years from 1899 and 1905. His archaeological investigations were carried out using the method of stratographic excavation. This allowed for recuperation of all the data useful for historical reconstruction of the area. The excavation work led to the discovery of important monuments in the Foro Romano (Niger Lapis, Regia, Galleria Cesaree, Horrea Agrippiana, ancient necropoli in the temple of Antonino and Faustina).

In 1907 the excavations office of the Foro Romano also included the area of the Palatine, where Boni uncovered a cistern a tholos (il Mundus), a complex of tunnels leading to the Casa dei Grifi, the c.d. Aula Isiaca, the c.d. Bagni di Tiberio and the base of a hut under the peristilio of the Domus Flavia.

Boni's activity was interrupted by the outbreak of the first world war. He enrolled and when he returned from the front, was taken ill. He took up archaeological research again in 1916 and was later named Senator on the 3rd March 1923. During the fascist reign he supported the ideology of the regime which for him represented a continuation of the ideas of ancient Rome and the Roman Empire. He died in Rome in 1925 and was buried in the centre of the Orti Farnesiani on the Palatine.

Bibliography:

• P. Romanelli, s.v. “Boni Giacomo”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (Istituto dell’Enciclopedia Italiana fondata da Giovanni Treccani), Roma 1970, pp. 75-77
• A. Capodiferro, P. Fortini (a cura di), Gli scavi di Giacomo Boni al foro Romano, Documenti dall’Archivio Disegni della Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma I.1 (Planimetrie del Foro Romano, Gallerie Cesaree, Comizio, Niger Lapis, Pozzi repubblicani e medievali), Roma 2003.