"Donec in musaei specime crescerent..." Il Giardino Giusti e le sue iscrizioni

This paper focuses on the history of the Giardino Giusti epigraphic collection, a story made of presences and absences, which can be traced only broadly, in the absence, at least for now, of new archival data. From this study a remarkable fact emerges: the collection of the Giardino Giusti is the only survivor of the numerous private epigraphic collections, which existed in Verona (but also in other cities of the Veneto region) from the end of the sixteenth century. It is also the only one to have kept the number of inscriptions preserved in it almost unchanged over time, thanks to a family that for four centuries, through tumultuous historical moments, has managed to preserve an important historical heritage, saving it from dispersal.