Introduction to ERCOLANO Database

his database is a digital reproduction of a rare book in its entirety: Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte (The Antiquities discovered in Herculaneum) in 8 volumes, accompanied by the Catalogo (Catalogue), amounting to 9 volumes in total. Its publication was initiated by command of Carlo III, King of Naples, and the books was subsequently compiled by the Accademia Ercolanese (Herculaneum Academy) and printed by the Regia Stamperia (Royal Printing House) in Naples from 1755 to 1792. The original copy used for the reproduction is owned by Gallery Nukaga, Tokyo.

The importance of the book lies not only in the fact that it is the first literature on the excavations of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae. It also made a major contribution to the formation of the neoclassic style which spread over Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Refer to Bibliographical introduction for more details, provided by Masanori AOYAGI (University of Tokyo) and Umberto PAPPALARDO (University of Naples).

Each of the first 8 volumes is composed of five parts: a dedication to Carlo III, a preface, the chapters containing plates with their descriptions, the general observation, and an index. The table of the volumes shows the subject, the date of publication, the physical size, the number of pages and the number of plates for all the volumes.

Thumbnail Index shows a collection of 2770 images, i.e. all pages of the 9 volumes except blank ones. Click the thumbnail and the image will be enlarged in two stages, 500 *406px and 1500 *1218px. All the images were photographed from the original volumes by Akio SUZUKI and Masatsugu NOKUBO (University of Tokyo).

Captions for the database are prepared by Umberto PAPPALARDO and Rosaria CIARDIELLO (University of Naples). List of All plates displays them along with other data of each plate, such as the page number* and the name of artists.
*N.B.: Some pages lack the page number or have an inaccurate one. Correction is indicated with [ ] in such cases.

This database is integrated into the COE Research Program, Research on Pictorial and Cultural Studies, subsidized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, in fiscal years 1999-2003.