Cicerone


Cicerone is an old term for a guide, one who conducts visitors and sightseers to museums, galleries, etc., and explains matters of archaeological, antiquarian, historic or artistic interest. The word is presumably taken from Marcus Tullius Cicero, as a type of learning and eloquence. The Oxford English Dictionary finds recorded examples of the use earlier in English than Italian, the earliest quotation being from Joseph Addison's Dialogue on Medals. It appears that the word was first applied to learned antiquarians who show and explain to foreigners the antiquities and curiosities of the country.
"The Cicerones", a short story by Robert Aickman, uses the idea of cicerones as people who conduct visitors and sightseers as a metaphor in a tale about a man who is guided to his doom by various characters in a cathedral.