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2 • The (Re)Discovery of Cyprus Antiquity in the Eighteenth Century
abstract
The spread of archaeological findings on the island is nothing new. Apart from the sporadic finds of coins from Kition (Cizio) by the Florentine merchant Alessandro Rinuccini and the inscriptions transcribed in Cyprus by Ciriaco di Ancona in the mid-fifteenth century, during the last phase of Venetian rule, antiquarian interests had already taken on the appearance of a widespread phenomenon in Cyprus. In this period, numerous travel accounts document the exploration of archaeological sites with the explicit intention of recovering ancient remains, which quickly became popular souvenirs for pilgrims and, on a larger scale, antiquarian fetishes to be recognised as valuable in the process of ideological legitimisation of the Serenissima’s aristocracy.
