"Excavating an Archive. The Borgia Collection of Egyptian Antiquities in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN)"

As a part of my PhD project on the Egyptian Collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN), I am undertaking a thorough study of its history through archival documents from museums and libraries in Italy and abroad. I am focusing especially on the Stefano Borgia Collection, one of two major groups of Egyptian Collections of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, sold by Camillo Borgia to Gioacchino Murat in 1814. The consultation, the study and the comparison of all the ancient documents has allowed me to identify in some cases the provenance of some finds both from 18th and 19th century excavations in Italy (Villa di Adriano in Tivoli or San Paolo Fuori le Mura) and from antiquities market, and to reconstruct both the history and the manner in which the Egyptian Collection was scattered, not only during the transfer from Velletri to Napoli but also in the Museo Borbonico (Bourbon Museum) itself due to the internal movement of finds in other collections during the 19th century.