The great maquette of Rome from Gismondi
Italo Gismondi (Rome, August 12, 1887 - December 2, 1974) was an Italian archaeologist.
Gismondi worked from 1910 for the Amministrazione delle Antichità e Belle Arti, the institution responsible for antiques and arts. He was appointed director of the excavations in Ostia Antica, where he worked 44 years. Between 1919 and 1938, Gismondi was also responsible for all antiquities in Rome.
Gismondi's primary focus was in Ostia, where he made an important contribution to research into the history of the city. He is particularly interested in the architectural aspects of antique buildings.
He was also an architect and worked on many projects, such as a plan for the imperial fora, which were partially excavated at the time. In 1927, he restored the northwestern section of the Diocletian's Thermal Baths and worked at the Planetarium, which was located in one of the outbuildings of this complex. Between 1935 and 1971 he worked on his Plastico, the renowned model of the city of Rome in ancient times. The maquette was built on a scale of 1: 250 and returns to the city in the time of Constantine the Great, at the beginning of the 4th century AD. The Plastico is set in the Museo della Civiltà Romana. Here is also Gismondi's smaller model of Rome in Republican time.
Outside Rome, Gismondi worked in Abruzzo, Molise, Umbria and Sicily. He was also active in Libya, occupied by Italy at that time. Here he worked on the excavations of Cyrene and Tripoli. Also see
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