Vincenzo Mirabella Alagona was an Italian historian, archaeologist and architect, best known for his work Plans of Ancient Syracuse.
Family life
Vincenzo Mirabella, son of Michele Mirabella and Giovanna Alagona, was born into a patrician family of French origin which had moved to Sicily in the early fourteenth century. As a young man he dedicated himself to the study of Greek, Latin and Italian literature as well as mathematics, music, history and poetry. He played an active part in civic life, holding office as magister nundinarum in 1593, Treasurer of the University in 1613-14 and Jurat, the highest office in the city, in 1616-17. He married Lucrezia Platamone, daughter of Antonio and Giovanna Zumbo, who brought him a substantial dowry and further connections to the leading families of Syracuse. He does not appear to have had any children with her. He lived in a house in Syracuse in front of the Church of St. Thomas in the Pantheon, in a street which bears his name today.
Architecture and building
On a number of occasions he contributed to the development of Syracuse: in 1608 he was involved in the expansion of the cathedral square as representative of the church attorneys; he planned the Theatine Church of San Andrea built in 1610; in 1620 he provided technical advice to the Senate of Syracuse about the construction of a stone bridge over the Anapo to connect the city with Modica. From the early 1620s he moved to Modica to direct the building works for Santa Maria delle Grazie. Of his work on this building, only the western doorway remains, decorated with a fragmentary tympanum supported by two columns mounted on high pedestals and crowned with a decorated arch with an intricate design.
Literary and historical works
He published his first book, a collection of madrigals, in 1604. In recognition of his earlier works he was enrolled in the Accademia degli Oziosi in Naples and in 1614 he became the first Sicilian to become a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, where he met Galileo Galilei, with whom he corresponded. Passionate about the country's history and archaeology, he wrote a History of Syracuse, but did not manage to have it published, and the manuscript was eventually lost. From October to December 1608 he accompanied the painter Caravaggio on visits to the archaeological remains of Syracuse. On a trip with him to a disused quarry, Caravaggio coined the name 'Ear of Dionysius' for it and later used it as a setting for his famous work the 'Burial of St.Lucy'. Vincenzo Mirabella assembled the objects he excavated into a diverse archaeological collection, which he exhibited in the rooms of his palace in Ortygia, at the current Via Mirabella nº23, which he steadily transformed into his own museum. At his death, his heirs donated parts of this collection to the Museu Patrio of Syracuse, which later became the Museo archeologico regionale Paolo Orsi.
Description of the Plan of Ancient Syracuse
His most important work, and the only one still extant today, was published in Naples in 1613 in Naples - 'La dichiarazione della pianta delle antiche Siracuse e di alcune scelte medaglie di esse e dei principi che quelle possedettero' . The work was dedicated to Philip III of Spain, who ruled Sicily at the time. The text was accompanied by a topographic plan of Syracuse, divided into nine panels, which bore a detailed hypothetical description of the city from Ortygia to the Euryalus fortress, and from the source of the riverCiane to the house of Archimedes, with a gazetteer of places of historical and archaeological interest. It was supplemented with biographies of Archimedes, Theocritus, Epicharmus of Kos and Tisias. This work was the fruit of his studies of classical authors - Thucydides, Plutarch, Diodorus Siculus, Cicero, Livy, Strabo and Pomponius Mela, as well as of the archaeological endeavours he undertook at his own expense. He was also the first to excavate the catacombs of Syracuse, which he illustrated in a panel of his book. The first edition of Pianta delle antiche Siracuse was quickly sold out. It was reprinted in Palermo in 1717 with the title Descrizione delle quattro città dell'Antica Siracusa, edited by Giovan Battista Aiccardo. Another edition of the map, recently rediscovered, is in the Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Siciliae of Giovanni Giorgio Graevio, edited by Vander Aa in 1725 in Lugduni Batavorum. There is also a 1989 edition, Pianta delle Antiche Siracuse, edited by Cesare Samà and published by Arnoldo Lombardi.
Death and memorial
Vincenzo Mirabella died of the plague in Modica in 1624. He was buried in the church of the Madonna delle Grazie, with this epitaph on his tomb:
