Cuma al tempo dei Borbone tra scavi e collezioni di antichità

Before the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, lovers of Neapolitan antiquities found in Phlaegrean Fields the precious objects which adorned their houses. At Cumae ancient monuments were in a large part still visible and in the open country. These conditions drew Spanish viceroies’s attention. King Charles Bourbon, on the contrary, showed scarce interest. Bourbon glory was increased by the antiquities from Pompeii and Herculaneum, which raised the Court of Naples at the level of the most prestigious Courts in Europe. During a long time, the fame of Cumae derived from Vergilian poems and Sibylla’s fascination, more than from ancient ruins. Only from the middle of 19th century Cuma was systematically explorated by Leopold Bourbon Count of Syracuse, the brother of King Ferdinand II. Private and illegal excavations advanced parallelly, in order to feed a flourishing traffic of antiquities. This article makes use of fresh evidences from archives, and reconstructs events and passages which led Cuman finds from excavations of 18th and 19th centuries, to private collections and foreign museums.