Luigi Pernier (Rome, 23 November 1874 –

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

, 18 August 1937) was an Italian archaeologist and academic now best known for his discovery of the Disc of Phaistos.''Hidden History''
by Brian Haughton (2006), p. 115, , accessed 8 March 2009

Career

Pernier came from a wealthy family—his father Giuseppe was a rich landowner of French descent and his mother Agnese Romanini belonged to an aristocratic family. He attended the Liceo Ginnasio "Ennio Quirino Visconti" before graduating in Letters at the University of Rome in 1897, with

Rodolfo Lanciani Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani (1 January 1845 – 22 May 1929) was an Italian archaeologist, a pioneering student of ancient Roman topography. Among his many excavations was that of the House of the Vestals in the Roman Forum. Lanciani earned LL.D ...

as his supervisor. He specialised at the ''Scuola di Archeologia di Roma'', gaining a diploma in 1901, after spending periods studying in

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...

at the ''Missione Archeologica Italiana'' under

Federico Halbherr Federico Halbherr (Rovereto, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 15 February 1857 – Rome, 17 July 1930) was an Italian archaeologist and epigrapher, known for his excavations of Crete. A contemporary, good friend, and trusted advisor of Arthu ...

. From 1902 to 1916 he was inspector of 'Museums, Galleries and Excavations of Antiquities' in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

and carried out research at several central Italian sites; at the same time he joined the Italian Mission to

, directing its operations from 1906 to 1909 in place of Halbherr while the latter was detained in Italy. It was at this time that Pernier was involved in the discovery of the

Phaistos Disc The Phaistos Disc (also spelled Phaistos Disk, Phaestos Disc) is a disk of fired clay from the Minoan civilization, Minoan palace of Phaistos on the island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze Age (second millennium BC). ...

. In 1904 he married Tonina Falchi, daughter of

Isidoro Falchi Isidoro Falchi ( Montopoli in Val d'Arno, 26 April 1838 – Campiglia Marittima, 30 April 1914) was an Italian doctor and self-taught archaeologist. He is notable for his discovery of the Etruscan remains at Vetulonia and the necropolises at Pop ...

, who had discovered the site of

Vetulonia Vetulonia, formerly called Vetulonium ( Etruscan: ''Vatluna''), was an ancient town of Etruria, Italy, the site of which is probably occupied by the modern village of Vetulonia, which up to 1887 bore the name of Colonnata and Colonna di Buriano: t ...

. From 1909 he was the first director of the newly established

Italian Archaeological School of Athens The Italian School of Archaeology at Athens ( it, Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene (SAIA); el, Ἰταλικὴ Ἀρχαιολογικὴ Σχολὴ Ἀθηνῶν) is one of the 19 foreign archaeological institutes headquartered in Athe ...

. In 1914 he was made director of the Archaeological Museum of Florence, giving up his directorship of the Athens school. In 1916 he was appointed superintendent of excavations and archaeological museums of Etruria, a position he held until 1922, when he became professor of archaeology and ancient art history at the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first univer ...

. Pernier spent long periods abroad during this time, especially in the summer, on Crete or in Cyrene. On Crete, from 1928 to 1929, he completed the excavations on the palace at

Phaistos Phaistos ( el, Φαιστός, ; Ancient Greek: , , Minoan: PA-I-TO?http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/11991/4031&ved=2ahUKEwjor62y3bHoAhUEqYsKHZaZArAQFjASegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1MwIv3ekgX-SxkJrbORipd ), also transliterated as Phaestos ...

before becoming director of the Italian Archaeological Mission on Halbherr's death in 1930. At Cyrene, from 1925 to 1936, Pernier carried out ten excavation campaigns as part of the Italian Archaeological Mission and (with

Carlo Anti Carlo Anti (28 April 1889 – 9 June 1961) was an archaeologist and an officer in the army in the First World War and until 1922. Archaeologist Born in Villafranca di Verona, Anti studied at Verona and Bologna, where he graduated with Gherardo ...

) led the excavations on the Sanctuary of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

. These duties kept him on the move so much that he died abroad, on

, where he was leading a course organised by the Società Dante Alighieri.Prof. Luigi Pernier
''Nature'' 140, 495-496 (18 September 1937), accessed March 2009

Integrity

In summer 2008

Jerome Eisenberg Jerome M. Eisenberg (July 6, 1930 – July 6, 2022) was an American dealer in antiquities. He had a son. Eisenberg died in July 2022 of pneumonia in a hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with speci ...

, described by ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'' as "a specialist in faked ancient art", accused Pernier of having forged his best known find, the Disc of Phaistos. A symposium was convoked to discuss the Disc in autumn 2008. Eisenberg argues that the disc can be dated by a thermoluminescence test, but in 2009 the Greek curators would not permit the disc to be examined. The authenticity of the Phaistos disc is supported by multiple discoveries made after the disc was excavated in 1908. A sealing found in 1955 shows the only known parallel to sign 21 (the “comb”) of the Phaistos disc. At the symposium, Eisenberg's hypothesis was therefore dismissed. Report on the international Phaistos disk conference
/ref>

Works

* ''A proposito di alcuni lavori eseguiti recentemente nell'interno del Teatro di Marcello''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1901 * ''Commemorazione del socio Federico Halbherr fatta dal corrispondente''. Roma, Dott. Giovanni Bardi tipografo della Reale Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1931 * ''Di una citta ellenica arcaica scoperta a Creta dalla Missione italiana''. Roma : Calzone, 1909 * ''Heliogabalus : M. Aurelius Antoninus''. Roma : L. Pasqualucci, 1911 * ''Il disco di Phaestos con caratteri pittografici''. Roma : tip. dell'Unione editrice, 1909 * ''Il palazzo minoico di Festos : Scavi e studi della missione archeologica italiana a creta dal 1900 al 1934. Vol. I. Gli strati piu antichi e il primo palazzo. (r. Istituto d'archeologia e storia dell'arte)''. Roma : Ist. Poligr. Dello Stato, Libreria, 1935 * ''Il palazzo minoico di Festos : scavi e studi della Missione archeologica italiana a Creta dal 1900 al 1934''. Roma : Libreria dello Stato * ''Il tempio e l'altare di Apollo a Cirene : scavi e studi dal 1925 al 1934 : con 126 illustrazioni e dodici tavole fuori testo''. Bergamo : Istituto italiano d'arti grafiche, 1935 * ''L'Odeum dell'Agorà di Gortina presso il Leteo''. Bergamo : Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche, 1927 * ''La raccolta archeologica Bargagli a Sarteano presso Chiusi''. Siena : Stab. d'Arti grafiche S. Bernardino, 1920 * ''Lavori eseguiti a Festos dalla Missione Archeologica Italiana dal 15 febbraio al 28 giugno 1901 : relazione''. Roma : .n. 1901 * ''Lavori eseguiti dalla Missione Archeologica italiana nel palazzo di Phaestos dal 10 Febbraio al 28 maggio 1902 : relazione''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1903 * ''Lavori eseguiti dalla missione archeologica italiana in Creta dal 2 aprile al 12 settembre 1906 : relazione di Luigi Pernier al prof. Ettore De Ruggiero ...''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1907 * ''Luigi Savignoni e la sua opera scientifica''. Firenze : Stab. tip. E. Ariani, 1918 * ''Mura laterizie e terrecotte figurate di Arezzo antica''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia naz. dei Lincei, 1920 * ''Nuove scoperte archeologiche a Tarquinii : (1904-1906)''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1907 * ''Per lo studio del tempio etrusco''. Roma : Nuova Antologia, 1927 * ''Recenti scoperte archeologiche degl'italiani a Creta''. Roma : Nuova Antologia, 1927 * ''Ricognizioni archeologiche nelle sporadi''. Roma : E. Calzone, 1914, Tip. Ed. Romana * ''Ricordi di storia etrusca e di arte greca della città di Vetulonia''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1914 * ''Scavi della missione archeologica italiana in Creta nel 1907''. Roma : Calzone, 1907 * ''Scavi della missione italiana a Phaestos, 1900-1901 : rapporto preliminare''. Roma : Tipgrafia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1902 * ''Studi sul teatro di Marcello''. Roma : Tipografia Cuggiani, 1928 * ''Templi arcaici sulla Patela di Prinias : contributo allo studio dell'arte dedalica''. Bergamo : Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche, 1914 * ''Tombe eneolitiche del Viterbese (Roma)''. Parma : Stab. tipo-litografico L. Battei, 1905 * ''Tumulo con tomba monumentale al Sodo presso Cortona''. Roma : Bardi, 1925 * ''Un singolare monumento della scrittura pittografica cretese''. Roma : Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, 1909 * ''Vestigia di una Citta ellenica arcaica in Creta''. Milano : U. Hoepli, 1912

Notes

References

* Enzo Catani, "L'attività archeologica di Luigi Pernier a Cirene dal 1925 al 1936", in Lidiano Bacchielli (ed.), ''Quaderni di Archeologia della Libya'' n. 18, pp. 235–255, 2002, , * Editorial, "Prof. Luigi Pernier", ''Nature'', 140, 495–496 (18 September 1937) . {{DEFAULTSORT:Pernier 1874 births 1937 deaths Writers from Rome Italian archaeologists Italian classical scholars Sapienza University of Rome alumni Italian people of French descent University of Florence faculty