Raniero Gnoli's 'Marmora romana': The Bible of Ancient Marble

Raniero Gnoli's 'Marmora romana', first published in 1971 by Edizioni dell'Elefante, remains the definitive census of decorative stones used in ancient Rome. Gnoli, an orientalist, Sanskrit scholar, and collector, traveled from Egypt to India to trace ancient quarries, often accompanied by scholar Dario Del Bufalo. The book catalogs marble types, their origins, aesthetic and technical properties, and their reuse through centuries—from Roman construction to medieval plundering and Napoleonic ambitions. Gnoli's work, praised by Mario Praz, organizes the diaspora of precious marbles across five chapters: Ancient Rome, Literature, Middle Ages and Renaissance, Constantinople, and Collections and Museums. The 2018 edition by Nave di Teseo, curated by Vittorio and Elisabetta Sgarbi, features high-definition digital images. Gnoli credited Enrico Fiorentini, founder of a marble workshop on Via Margutta in 1967, for practical knowledge of ancient materials. The book transformed the study of marble fragments, which Del Bufalo says were previously ignored. Gnoli began collecting marble as a child on the Palatine Hill, inspired by Faustino Corsi's 19th-century treatise 'Delle pietre antiche'. He died at 95 on the eve of the 2013 conclave.