Ceramic Arts Archive

Scientific coordinator: Elvia Giudice

The Ceramic Arts Archive, under the supervision of UNICT’s Department of Humanities, exhibits permanent collections of photographs and reproductions of more than 50,000 Attic vases from all over the world and is based in the former anatomical study at Palazzo Tezzano (Piazza Stesicoro, 29).

In 1995, after fifty years of research studies, prof. Filippo Giudice, the then Rector's Deputy for the University Archives until 1997, donated a corpus of both documented and undocumented reproductions of Attic vases. Alongside a careful screening and the evaluation of specialized publications that were both key to the creation of the CAA, all the images that up until then had been gathered during museum trips and from private collections in Italy as well as in European and non-European countries were waiting to have a permanent place for exhibition. Therefore, the opportunity for the University to create an ad hoc foundation came along with all its archival significance and the overall intention to enhance its own museum facilities.

To that end, the Archive was further developed with funds from the University Development Committee; and, on top of that, by employing financial resources from the Catania-Lecce project agreement. At the time of donation, each image came with a related description sheet for about 50,000 Greek vases (mainly Attic) that had been preserved in several other museums worldwide. The CAA in Catania is only second best to the highly regarded Beazley Archive, donated in 1971 by Sir John Beazley to the University of Oxford. It is however unique all over Italy and even greater than the Trendall Archive, donated by a New Zealand scholar to La Trobe University in Melboune. An informal agreement was signed between the CAA and the Beazley Archive for mutual improvement and certainly for the benefit of European and non-European scholars. There is also close liaison with the Australian archive, which is why an agreement is already underway.

Dozens of students, undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates, as well as qualified scholars from UNICT do visit the CAA quite regularly in addition to members of Italian and European universities. CAA is a zealous organization that is also passionate about planning and running exhibition events and conferences offering a key contribution to the cultural heritage domain, archaeology, museum arrangement and design because of - as previously mentioned - the image description sheets it comes along with.