Nestore Leoni e il restauro del Codex Purpureus Rossanensis

Nestore Leoni (1862-1947), in the middle of his long and profitable career of miniaturist, decided to devote himself to the restoration of ancient parchments. Conservation interventions on important manuscripts were conducted at the same time with making artistic creations which gave to him a great success, as the Sonnets of Shakespeare and the Vita Nova of Dante. From 1915 to the following year, Leoni, thanks to the support of Adolfo Venturi and Corrado Ricci, carried out the restoration of the four Exultet belonging to Gaeta’s Cathedral and Capua’s Dome and subsequently, from the month of July 1917 he was committed in the restoration of the Salerno Cathedral’s Exultet and since the Codex Purpureus Rossanensis, that he concluded in the middle of 1919. This study aims to assess the Leoni’s methodological approach in the field of restoration through the analysis of archive documents discovered inside the Fondo Direzione Generale Antichità e Belle Arti, preserved in the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome.