Il vizio virtuoso. Collezionismo e mercato a Roma nella prima metà del Settecento

Alessandro Gregorio Capponi (1683-1746) was a refined bibliophile and, as to antiquities, an amateur. He was an honorary member of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and the first president of the Capitoline Museum. Throughout his life, he gathered a well selected collection of works by Tuscan authors, which afterwards were donated to the Vatican Library, and a collection of antiquities. Starting from two important autographed registers of the marchese, this article analyses the economical dimension, in the widest sense, of Capponi's collections. In the first part we estimate the weight of collecting in the context of the accounts of a noble amateur, such as Capponi was, by analysing the evolution of his expenses. Then we reconstruct the social networks underlying his consumption of books and objects. Capponi purchased books, antiquities and art from the most different suppliers, buying from professional dealers or exchanging things with his friends and correspondents. To give more relevance to his collection, Capponi also promoted erudite studies, offering his resources to many intellectuals. The importance of the non-monetary and non-economical dimension of the circulation of cultural goods is one of the most striking traits emerging from the study of the documents related to Capponi's collecting activity. The collection is at the core of a continuous exchange, which does not concern objects only, but reputation, information and intellectual pleasure.