Roman workshop

Lithotheque, 1763

Wood, bronze and polychrome marbles

Museo Schifanoia, inv. OA992

The lithotheque, a unique and sought-after object, consists of two wooden, console-shaped valves joined by two metal hinges and resting on four gilded bronze lion paws. The interior surface is entirely occupied by 131 rigorously cataloged and classified stone tiles, representative of of the entire scenario of ornamental rocks found in Rome. The procurement of such rocks took place not only in the quarrying areas of the time, but also through the massive use of excavated marble from quarries now extinct. It is, at the same time, an exquisite ornamental object and an important lithological repertory well suited to the taste and scientific-antiquarian interests of eighteenth-century scholarship. As the inscription on the top indicates, it was donated to the Ferrara Museum in 1763 by Cardinal Gian Maria Riminaldi, an important reformer of the University and Museums of Ferrara. It is likely that he commissioned the work in Rome, from some workshop specializing in the making of these furniture-champions, perhaps from Antonio Minelli with whom he was in contact in those years.