La flora del MANN. Raffigurazioni vegetali nel Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. 2023. approx. 120 col. & b/w illustrations. 168 p. gr8vo. Paper bd. - In Italian.

The crucial role that plants have always played in human life - both as a source of food and raw materials, and for their cultural and symbolic significance - is clearly evident in the artistic imagination of Greek and Roman civilisation, from the widespread use of decorative elements to the depiction of the complex relationship between humankind and nature and the profound links with the divine universe. In this respect, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) represents a veritable ‘naturalistic’ treasure trove, offering archaeological and historical-artistic inscriptions, botanical and plant-related motifs in their own right, and insights into issues linked to the religious sphere - involving deities such as Demeter, Athena and Dionysos - as well as to agriculture, diet, and the routes taken by seeds and plants from distant lands, and the landscape of antiquity: a selection of seventy-four works, the result of a survey of the plant motifs appearing on more than eight hundred and fifty objects from the MANN’s collections, reconstructs in this special guide forty-seven different tree species, along with the semantic and symbolic implications associated with the type of artefact, its intended use, and the relevant chronological and cultural context.