Benedectine Monasteries of Subiaco , clic sull'icona benedettina per tornare alla home
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With funds from Jubilee 2000 the Administration of the Province of Rome has restored old sections of St. Scholastica's Monastery and converted them into the very interesting Luigi Ceselli Museum.
Here one can find various collections regarding geology, archaeology, paleontology and ethnology as well as ancient didactic instruments for schools. (coll.Papa Pio VI) Luigi Ceselli, President of the Natural Science Facility of the Pontifical Academy of the Concezione, President of the Mineralogy Facility of the Quiriti, honorary member of the National Philotechnic Institute and social correspondent of other national as well as foreign academies, gathered a huge quantity of rare objects and relics from the prehistoric and proto-historic areas of Rome and Campagna Romana.
Before 1846, along with Giuseppe Ponzi, Luigi Pigorini and M. Stefano de Rossi, he began an in depth study to bring to light the most ancient origins of mankind. Today these studies are invaluable especially because most of the archaeological sites examined in 1800's have been destroyed due to the large amount construction that has gone on in recent years.
Ceselli stretched his research even into the following ages collecting finds that cover the period from the fourth century B.C. to the late ancient age. These last finds are described the present catalogue. There are implements of daily and common use that shed light on the family, civic and economic life of the time. The absence of artistic objects leads us to believe that Ceselli was interested in scientific research more than mere collections and that he conducted himself as an archaeologist according to the theories of Winckelmann.
To the disappointment of scholars, traces of the collection were lost with Luigi Ceselli's death in 1882. Through the interest of the then Abbot- Bishop of Subiaco, Simone Lorenzo Salvi, Marco Ceselli, an ancestor of Ceselli, donated the collection, which had been closed in boxes, to the Benedictine community of Subiaco in memory of his uncle and of Luigi Ceselli's brother, Mariano, who had been a monk in the community. These relics were gathered in a section of St. Scholastica's Monastery in Subiaco and arranged by Dr. Father Anthony Caselli, Professor of Science at the Seminary of Parma. They proved to be of enormous didactic use for teachers and students of the monastery and the diocesan seminary of Subiaco.
The last World War struck Subiaco and the valley hard, interrupting the tranquil work of the inhabitants. The monastery suffered grave damage. The collection also underwent serious losses and damages, and only a portion of it was saved from ruins. In 1953 the same Father Abbot Salvi took up the case of the recovered material and pointed out the need for a new system of organization to the Minister of Public Education. There followed inspections and favorable decisions for the reorganization of the collection in suitable, existing locales. The actual restoration of this great inheritance was begun only in 1970 by the Director General of Antiquities and Fine Arts, Dr. Vito Agresti.