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Consul / diplomat · Donor · Guide

Caprara

fl. 1845 · Ottoman

Austrian vice-consul at Larnaca who gave Ludwig Ross three small alabaster figures in 1845 and pointed him to inscriptions near Kition and at Kellia.

Biography

In 1845 the German archaeologist Ludwig Ross spent an afternoon at Larnaca with the Austrian vice-consul, a Herr Caprara, and his lawyer, learning about the island and its people; Caprara came back that evening with accounts of Ottoman rule1. His forename is not given.

Caprara gave Ross what Ross called a very pretty present: three small female figures in alabaster, about three inches high, standing on one base and taken from a tomb at Larnaca. Ross published them in 18491. Where they are now is not stated.

Ross was in Larnaca in March 1845, and owed to Caprara his knowledge of two Greek inscriptions at Caprara's country house in a village half an hour north of Kition, and of a Phoenician inscription in the church of St Antonios at Kellia1. No other dealing or collection of Caprara's is recorded.

Life and work

  1. 1845
    Ross spent the rest of a day with the Austrian vice-consul Caprara and his lawyer Dalt(ina?); Ross learned much about the island from them. Caprara visited him again that evening and told him about Ottoman administration under a cruel pasha.

    LarnacaRoss 1852, p. 87

  2. 1845
    Gave Ross 'a very pretty present': three small female alabaster figures, about 3 inches high, on a common base, from a local tomb, which Ross published in Gerhard's Archäologische Beiträge (1849).

    LarnacaRoss 1852, p. 95

  3. March 1845
    Directed Ross to two Greek inscriptions at his country house near Kition and to a Phoenician inscription in the church of St Antonios at Kellia (Ross was in Larnaca 6-8 and 19-24 March 1845 per the chapter headings).

    KitionRoss 1852, p. 195

Connections

1 person

Sales, gifts & bequests

Fieldwork & employment

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

  • Three small female figures in alabaster on one base, c. 3 inches high

    From tomb at Larnaca (per Ross: 'einem hiesigen Grabe')1845Ross 1852, p. 95

Sources

  1. 1.L. Ross (1852). Reisen nach Kos, Halikarnassos, Rhodos und der Insel Cypern. 81-212. Halle, Schwetschke und Sohn. Online
  2. 2.Giovanni Mariti (1909). Travels in the Island of Cyprus. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.