La Villa dei Mosaici di Negrar (VR) e l'epistolario Preto

This article explores the history of study of the so-called Villa dei Mosaici in Negrar di Valpolicella (VR), using some partially unpublished archival documents from the De Stefani Private Archive. The building in question, discovered in the last decades of the 19th century, is one of the most outstanding examples of a Late Antique villa in northern Italy. The aim of this study is to analyze the events that led to the discovery of part of the building and its mosaic between 1886 and 1893, among others by Stefano De Stefani, the excavation inspector at the time. A preliminary analysis will therefore consider, on the one hand, the already known archival material relating to the above-mentioned fund and, on the other hand, a critical investigation of the documentation. The latter includes a letter by Vittorio Preto to De Stefani, dated 19 January 1892 and containing a series of four photographs of part of the mosaic pavement of the villa in situ, before it was transported to the then Civic Museum of Verona. Another aim is to valorize the archival heritage as a memory, often a unique record of the archaeological datum, and an instrument of resilience and continuity between the ancient and contemporary datum.