Photo: Accurimbono · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Museo del Lapidario di Urbino

State museum of epigraphy in the Palazzo Ducale of Urbino, with Roman inscriptions collected by Cardinal Stoppani and by Fabretti, open since 1756.

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About the museum

The Museo del Lapidario is a state archaeological and epigraphic museum housed in the Palazzo Ducale of Urbino and run by the Direzione regionale Musei nazionali delle Marche (Regional Directorate of the National Museums of the Marche). It was founded on the initiative of Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Stoppani, who added to his own collection the finds of the archaeologist Raffaele Fabretti. The display was arranged by Giovan Battista Passeri and the architect Giovan Francesco Buonamici, and the museum, then called “Museo di antiche iscrizioni” (Museum of Ancient Inscriptions), opened on 8 September 1756 in the upper loggias of the palace.

The collections fall into two nuclei: Fabretti’s epigraphic collection, with inscriptions on various supports, bricks and stamps from Rome, and the epigraphic-statuary collection of Stoppani, with funerary inscriptions, statues and reliefs. The inscribed slabs are displayed on twenty-two panels along the walls, while other material occupies the centre of the five rooms; some cippi are in the palace courtyard.

Highlights

Epigraphic collection of Raffaele Fabretti
Epigraphic-statuary collection of Cardinal Stoppani
Twenty-two panels with inscribed slabs in the five rooms
Cippi in the courtyard of the Palazzo Ducale
Museum open since 1756

Permanent exhibition

Collezioni epigrafiche Fabretti e Stoppani – Inscriptions, bricks, statues and reliefs displayed in five rooms of the Palazzo Ducale and in the courtyard.

Founded: 1756
Operated by: Ministero della Cultura – Direzione regionale Musei nazionali Marche