Roberto Bugini, Luisa Folli: Pietre dell'antico Egitto

Roberto Bugini, Luisa Folli: Pietre dell'antico Egitto

Roberto Bugini, Luisa Folli: Pietre dell'antico Egitto e analoghe pietre italiane Confronto fra caratteristiche e impiego in architettura

STONES OF ANCIENT EGYPT AND SIMILAR ITALIAN STONES
Building and decorative stones coming from different regions of ancient Egypt were largely employed in the architecture of the whole Roman empire. The largest towns like the small ones of Italian territory and also the private villas were involved in the use of the egyptian hard stones. The roman buildings were employed as quarry for the new buildings in the Middle Ages when the Egyptian stone quarries became out of reach; the lack of original materials increased since the Renaissance and the Italian stones came into use. The features of the most important Egyptian stones are compared together with the corresponding Italian stone and examples of their use in architecture are given. The second part of the paper points out the characters and the uses of ornamental stones coming from the Egyptian territory. In this case the comparison is quite impossible because of the better qualities showed by Egyptian stones. This difference supported a long lasting reuse of the egyptian stones coming from roman building, mainly in the church altars.