Pericle Ducati

Pericle Ducati (11 July 1880 – 28 October 1944) was an Italian archaeologist and Etruscologist. He was a professor at the University of Bologna and the author of several studies on the Etruscan civilization.

Biography Pericle Ducati was born in Bologna into a family originally from Trentino. He studied Italian literature at the University of Bologna, where his professors included Giosuè Carducci and Edoardo Brizio. He later studied at the Sapienza University of Rome under Luigi Pigorini and Rodolfo Lanciani.

He then became a professor of classical archaeology at the universities of Catania (1912–1916), Turin (1916–1920) and Bologna (from 1920). From 1921, he directed the Archaeological Civic Museum of Bologna. From 1923 to 1924 and again from 1943 to 1944, he was dean of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy at the University of Bologna.

Ducati was a member of the Superior Council of Antiquities and Fine Arts (Consiglio Superiore per le Antichità e le Belle Arti), as well as a member of numerous Italian and international learned societies, includin the Accademia dei Lincei, the Pontifical Academy of Archaeology, the German Archaeological Institute, and the Accademia di San Luca. A scholar of classical and Etruscan art, he wrote over 3,000 articles and monographs.

Following the Armistice of Cassibile in 1943, Ducati remained loyal to Fascism and joined the Italian Social Republic. This proved to be his downfall. On 24 February 1944, he was attacked on the doorstep of his home by members of the Gruppi di Azione Patriottica who shot him in the back, seriously wounding him. He survived the attack briefly and died of his injuries on 28 October of the same year in a hospital in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Works

Brevi osservazioni sul ceramista attico Brigo, Bologna, Società cooperativa tip. Azzoguidi, 1904.

Le pietre funerarie felsinee, Roma, Tipografia della R. Accademia dei Lincei, 1911. Contributo allo studio degli specchi etruschi figurati, [s.i.], [s.n.], 1912. Pitture funerarie degli etruschi, 1914. Sui riti funebri dei sepolcreti etruschi felsinei, Bologna, Stab. Poligrafico Emiliano, 1915. Osservazioni di demonologia etrusca, Roma, Tipografia della R. Accademia dei Lincei, 1916. Saggio di studio sulla ceramica attica figurata del sec. IV av. Cr., Roma, Tipografia della R. Accademia dei Lincei, 1916. L'arte classica, Torino, UTET, 1920.

Contributo allo studio dell'arce etrusca di Marzabotto, Bologna, Stabilimenti Poligrafici Riuniti, 1923.

I monumenti di Grecia e di Roma, Torino, 1924 (2ª ed. 1925). Etruria antica, Torino, Paravia, 1925 (2ª ed. 1927). Storia dell'arte etrusca, 2 voll., Firenze, Rinascimento del libro, 1927. Origine e attributi del Fascio Littorio, 1927 Storia di Bologna. I tempi antichi, 1928 Lisippo, Roma, 1930 Gli scavi d'Italia, Firenze, 1931 Pontische Vasen, Berlin, 1932 Il santuario di Olimpia, Roma, 1932 La scultura greca, Firenze, 1933-36 La scultura etrusca, Firenze, 1934 La scultura romana, Firenze, 1934 Storia d'Italia. L'Italia antica dalle prime civiltà alla morte di Cesare, 1936 L'arte in Roma dalle origini al secolo VIII, 1938 Le problème étrusque, Paris, Librairie Ernest Leroux, 1938 Come nacque Roma, Firenze, 1939 Italia preromana e stirpe italica, 1940 Preistoria e Protostoria dell'Emilia, 1942