Read more
Both Gaetano and Raffaele studied and collected incessantly until the end of their days. They also
participated to the local political life. Gaetano, almost octogenarian, published one of his most important works, the Chronicles of the City of Fermo. After eleven years his brother Raffaele, who also was about seventy years old, concluded the best-known publication, the corpus on Fermo inscriptions, source from which Mommsen also drew for his CIL.
Unfortunately, the passion for the ancient and the preservation of the country’s memories remained
confined within the narrow limits of their not very short life. Their nephew Pietropaolo appointed universal heir, had already sold most of the collection two years after the death of his last uncle, Gaetano, in 1871.
Everyone knows how much the library of the brothers Raffaele and Gaetano De Minicis was
appreciated by the universal for the works, for the abundance of several historical documents and
for the most famous editions. We were confident that this treasure would have remained intact to adorn the country. But the heir of those noble men, aiming only at his own interest, showed the purpose of making money for sale; then some intelligent citizens and lovers of the decorum of their native place, asked the Council to ensure that the collection was not purchased by strangers (by the Council Approval of the Municipality of Fermo, 17 th February, 1872)
Only a few objects are preserved of this rich private museum which had such an important impact on the history of Fermo culture between the 18th and 19th centuries. Unfortunately, many other private collections of the period had the same destiny. We know they reached their peak among the contemporaries and then little by little they dispersed on the antique market due to the indifference of the heirs.
The enlightened initiative of the then mayor of Fermo Ignazio Trevisani allowed the salvation of the most conspicuous nucleus of the De Minicis library, purchased for Fermo public estate in 1872, for thirty-three thousand lire.
The sale was preceded by a complicated – sometimes embarrassing – negotiation with their nephew,
whose sole purpose was to obtain the greatest economic advantage, even though with deceit. On the record of the civic library are kept the documents of the librarian, Filippo Raffaelli. At that time he was commissioned by the Administration to carry out an estimate of the assets and he was able to see the absence of some documents, fraudulently declared by the nephew to increase the value of the purchase. The municipal resolution meant the salvation of the book heritage of the two brothers, currently preserved and available for consultation in the “Romolo Spezioli” Civic Library and of a small nucleus of the archeological collection. Unfortunately, a large part of the collection was lost in the antiquarian markets; some finds converged in the collection of the Louvre in Paris, and in the national archaeological museum in Arezzo; others in the private collections of the Mackenzie castle in Genoa, of the Vitali counts in Fermo, the Bruschi palace in Arezzo and of the Counts Maximus in Rome.
The civic archaeological collection, initially exhibited in the civic library, found a suitable location since 1981 in a special antiquarium, which was located in the Roman cisterns, in Largo Calzecchi Onesti (commonly known as Small Cisterns). The closure of the museum to the public in 2002 led to the inaccessibility of the archaeological collection until the creation of the current setting up, which opened in 2023.