Tout cela est digne d’un roi. Nuovi documenti per la storia del Museo Torlonia

Tout cela est digne d’un roi. New documents for the history of the Torlonia Museum · This
paper presents a group of 14 unpublished documents, preserved in Manuscript Ferrajoli 969 of the
Vatican Library under the title ‘Opinions on the Museo di Porta Settimiana’. These documents
are letters or simple notes, addressed to Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) and concerning
the Torlonia Museum, dated between 1861 and 1875 and written by some of the leading exponents
of European 19th century archaeological and classical studies (from Alexander Conze to Giuseppe
Fiorelli). The paper shows how these new data make it possible to write a history of the Torlonia
Museum, which was immediately projected into an international dimension, anticipating by
about a decade the first edition of the Museum catalogue (1876).