Liborio e Giovanni Michilli a Villa Adriana: note per la ricostruzione di uno scavo settecentesco

This paper focuses on reconstructing the excavation campaigns carried out between 1739 and 1744 by Liborio and Giovanni Michilli on their estates in Hadrian’s Villa (Tivoli), which culminated in the discovery of four famous statues: a figure of Harpocrates, a young athlete (the so-called “Pales- trita”), an Osiris-Antinous and a female goddess known as “Flora”. Remarkable for their craftsmanship and state of preservation, these sculptures were given by their finders to Pope Benedict XIV, who promptly donated them to the newly founded Capitoline Museums in Rome. A comprehensive analysis of contemporary sources enhances our understanding of this sequence of events by providing a solid framework for interpreting the roles of the protagonists in this significant episode in the history of modern exploration of Hadrian’s Villa, while also clarifying the extent and methods of their discoveries, as well as their chronology and placement within the extensive Tiburtine complex.