Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Collector · Agent

Giacomo Cecconi

1866–1941 · Italy

Entomologist. Sold to Luigi Adriano Milani; worked with Michael Caremfilaki.

Life and work

  1. 1893
    First zoological trip, to Crete; the same year became assistant at the Royal National Forest Institute, Vallombrosa.

    CreteSoldi 2025, p. 14

  2. September 1897
    Applied to the Italian Geographic Society (SGI) for a grant for a four-month zoological excursion to Cyprus, planned for the second half of November 1897; awarded 300 lire (about 1,360 euros today per Soldi). He promised to send travel notes and photographs for the Society's Bollettino, which he never did. The Italian consul at Larnaca advised postponement because of the autumn 1897 smallpox outbreak.

    RomeSoldi 2025, p. 13, p. 14, p. 15

  3. 1898–1899
    Zoological expedition to Cyprus. Soldi, from the SGI records, places it at the end of 1898 and the start of 1899 (Cecconi also asked the SGI for a barometer and a passport for Cyprus and the nearby Asiatic coast). His own printed note says he visited Cyprus during 'almost all of January last year': Larnaca, Famagusta, Trikomo, Akanthou, Aghios Ambrosios, Bellapais, Kyrenia, Nicosia, Kythrea 'and their surroundings'. He also visited Jaffa and Alexandria on the trip. His scientific papers (1899 reptiles and amphibians, 1901 plant galls) mention no archaeological sites or purchases.

    CyprusSoldi 2025, p. 15

  4. 10 January 1902
    Wrote from Fano to L. A. Milani, introduced through Prof. Giglioli (probably Enrico Hillyer Giglioli, Soldi says not certain), offering about fifteen small ancient vessels and terracottas bought in Cyprus, to recover part of the trip costs. Milani offered 50 lire; Cecconi hoped for at least 60 to cover expenses; Milani bought the whole lot for 60 lire (about 280 euros today per Soldi). The objects were shipped from Fano to Florence.

    FanoSoldi 2025, p. 12, p. 16, p. 17

  5. 28 January 1902
    Wrote to Milani that at Vallombrosa, where he would be returning in the middle of March, he had 'many photographs of ancient objects from Cyprus that someone from there is offering for sale': the opening of the Caremfilaki connection. Date printed as '28.[1].1902' (month in square brackets in the source).

    VallombrosaSchiavo 2011

Connections

3 people
Luigi Adriano MilaniSebastiano SoldiMichael CaremfilakiGiacomo Cecconi
Sales & giftsScholarshipColleagues

Sales, gifts & bequests

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Objects

  • Group of 18 objects: small vessels and terracottas (Red Polished III juglets and bowls, a Late Helladic three-handled jar FS 46/47, Cypro-Geometric/Archaic wares incl. White Painted I, Black-on-Red II (IV) and White Painted IV, one Hellenistic vessel, two Roman lamps), a Ptolemy XII coin (probably Paphos mint), a Byzantine half-follis of Justinian (Cyzicus), a bronze leaf-shaped dagger (EC III-MC II) and a glass unguentarium

    Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze MAF 80140 (the Mycenaean jar, with a note inside: 'Cypriot Antiquity shipped from Fano by Mr. Cecconi')January 1902Soldi 2025, p. 16, p. 17, p. 19

Sources

  1. 1.Sebastiano Soldi (2025). “The Italian entomologist Giacomo Cecconi and Cyprus: a step towards the formation of the Cypriot collection in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence”. Empire & Excavation: Critical perspectives on archaeology in British-period Cyprus, 1878-1960, 93-.
  2. 2.G. Cecconi (1899). “Rettili e anfibi raccolti nell'isola di Cipro”. Bollettino della Società Romana per gli Studi Zoologici 8, 152-155.
  3. 3.G. Cecconi (1901). “Intorno ad alcune galle raccolte nell'isola di Cipro”. Malpighia 15, 38-41.
  4. 4.M. Bettelli, F. Lo Schiavo (2010). “La raccolta del Museo archeologico di Firenze nel quadro della storia del collezionismo di antichità cipriote in Italia”. Researches in Cypriote History and Archaeology, 85-94. Florence University Press.
  5. 5.Fulvia Lo Schiavo (2011). “A Newly Rediscovered Cypriot Tripod-Stand in the Florence Archaeological Museum”. Metallurgy: Understanding How, Learning Why. Studies in Honor of James D. Muhly. INSTAP Academic Press.
  6. 6.“Giacomo Cecconi”. Wikipedia (it). Online
  7. 7. (1897). “Società geografica italiana, Fondo amministrativo, fascicoli 1.11 'Studio di Giacomo Cecconi su Cipro' and 1.12 'Spedizione entomologica a Cipro'”. Archivio storico del Senato della Repubblica.
  8. 8.F. Venturi (1954). Giacomo Cecconi, considerato il fondatore dell'entomologia forestale, discorso commemorativo pronunciato in Fano il 20 marzo 1954. 1-19. Fano, Tipografia Sonciniana.