Annibale degli Abati Olivieri


Annibale degli Abati Olivieri was an Italian archaeologist, numismatist and librarian, considered the founder of the Biblioteca Oliveriana, Pesaro. An aristocrat without heirs, he was the author of works of archeology and numismatics. He also discovered the site of a Roman sacred grove, the Lucus Pisaurensis at his property on Collina di Calibano in the countryside of Pesaro, at which he unearthed the 13 Votive Stones of Pesaro.

Biography

Olivieri was born in Pesaro in 1708. He was educated in Bologna and then went to Pisa, studying with Tommaso Romito, Giuseppe Averani and Luigi Guido Grandi. He graduated in law while in Urbino in 1727, then moving to Rome where he studied epigraphy. Here, with the assistance of his uncle, Fabio degli Abati Olivieri, he was able to locate rare archaeological finds which were deposited in his personal museum.
In 1735, Olivieri returned to Pesaro, a date which coincides with the publication of his first antiquarian and philological work. Two years later, he completed the Marmora Pisaurensia notis, illustrated. What followed was a period intense work as evidenced by the many books he wrote. In 1756, he made a large donation to Pesaro: his library of scrolls and many thousands of works, printed and handwritten, of high value and significance for the history and culture of the city, along with a collection of antiques, consisting essentially of material dug up throughout Pesaro. This donation formed the nucleus of the Biblioteca Oliveriana. He died in Pesaro in 1789.

Selected works