Le gemme della Collezione Spano

Giovanni Spano’s publications offer an extraordinary overview of the historical and collectors’ interest in the artistic category of engraved gems from the Roman period, tracing for the first time their evidence and distribution throughout the island on the basis of an ethnographic and antiquarian study. The article aims to provide an overview of gemstone collecting in Sardinia in the 19th century, focusing in particular on the contents of the Roman and modern glyptic collection belonging to Giovanni Spano, which he donated to the Royal Archaeological Museum of Cagliari in 1859. For this purpose, some iconographic typologies will be analysed, which are of particular importance both for the analysis of their distribution on the island and more generally in the field of glyptic productions of the Roman Empire.