The antiquary Alessio Simmaco Mazzocchi: Oriental origins and the rediscovery of Magna Graecia in eighteenth-century Naples

A. S. Mazzocchi was the most renowned antiquary in eighteenth-century Naples - immersed in many of the prestigious cultural initiatives of the newly installed Bourbon court and celebrated by fellow Neapolitans for his European-wide fame. This paper focuses on an aspect of his work generally overlooked, namely his search for a biblical origin for early South Italian society, a quest that led to his claim that the Greek temples of Paestum were oriental monuments. The present investigation demonstrates that Neapolitan eighteenth-century scholarship was engaged in a lively dialogue with the wider European world, but also that it was caught between local and foreign approaches to the past, suspended between the traditions of Neapolitan heritage and the appeal of emerging Hellenism promoted by the rediscovery of the ancient Greek colonies of southern Italy - Magna Graecia. (Author abstract)