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Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti

 

foto dell'articoloIn 1968, when she was already 46 year old, Eugenia Salza Prina Ricotti, an architect who in 1946 graduated at the Faculty of Architecture of the Roman University “the Sapienza, discovered a group of maritime villas built on a a series of promontory of the Lybian coast and dating from the II cent. She surveyed, studied and then published them in the “Atti della Pontificia Romana Accademia di Archeologia” and with this she began her work in the archaeological field. In 1968 she came back to Italy and was encouraged to study Sperlonga’s grotto where in 1957 Bellanti, an Engineer directing the road works of the Domiziana, had excavated the central fish pond bringing to light three splendid Hellenistic group: the Blinding of Polyphemus, Scylla destroying Ulysses ship, and Menelaus with Patroclus remains. The problem was then to find where in the grotto the groups had been placed.
After an accurate survey she found where the Blinding of Polyphenus had been set, then she reconstructed the group and published her discovery.
In succession she was offered to study Villa Adriana near Tivoli of which she did a new survey and drew the map. During her 38 years of research in the Hadrianic complex she made very interesting discovery. In 2002 when she was already 80 year old she had the joy to culminate her work discovering in Villa Adriana the Tomb of Antinous a funerary monument that many archaeologists had tried without success to find.
In the meantime she also studied and published works on Ancient Romans daily life and particularly on their social life, their banquets and their recipes. She also studied the functional parts of the Roman house; published different forms of Roman triclinia; wrote about the I cent B.C.
Roman women, their men and their passionate love stories, but she didn’t overlook Roman children and their favourite plays, nor she ignored the adult games.
In 1983, in the presidential estate of Castel Porziano she discovered and for three years excavated Pliny the Younger’s Laurentinum, up to then erroneously identified with a Castel Fusano Villa. After this she studied Ancient Rome gardens reconstructing the more imposing among them.
She also developed minor studies on the utilisation of spices in ancient perfumery, medicine and cooking.
In all these Years she has published 9 books, one of which has been translated in Japanese and another one in English. The last book to appear deal with Greeks social life, their banquets and their favourite dishes.

  1. L’arte del convito nell’antica Roma, Rome, 1983 Ed. L’Erma di Bretschneider.
  2. Kodai Roma no Kyoden 1982, Ed. Heibonsha Tokyo
  3. Amori e amanti tra la repubblica e l’impero, 1992; reprinted 1996; new emission 2000. Many reprints. Ed. L’Erma di Bretschneider, Roma
  4. Le radici della cucina italiana: la tavola dei romani e 52 ricette per conoscerla, Cooptip Modena 1993
  5. Ricette della cucina romana di Pompei e come eseguirle, Pub. L’Erma di Bretschneider, Rome, 1993, Reprinted 1996, New emission 2000, Many reprints.
  6. Giochi e giocattoli 1995 Ed Quasar, Roma
  7. Dining as a Roman Emperor, 1995. II emission, 1999. Many reprints. Ed. L’Erma di Bretschneider, Roma
  8. Villa Adriana: il sogno di un imperatore, 2001 Ed. L’Erma di Bretschneider, Roma
  9. L’arte del convito nell’antica Grecia: l’evoluzione del gusto da Achille ad Alessandro Magno, Roma 2005, Casa Editrice l’Erma di Bretschneider” .
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Forty nine papers of her studies have been published in Italian, American and Japanese Academic reviews. She also took part in collaboration books and wrote subjects in the Italian Treccani Enciclopedy.
In the popular works on Archeo Magazine hers are 7 papers and, always on Archeo, 11 dossiers, plus a monography on the alimentation and the ancient world cooking.
Many have been her lectures in Academic Italian, Japanese and American centers.

 


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