 is thank you to the organizers of this big huge conference. That's a challenge, so thank you for the effort and for taking this challenge. And thank you to the organizers of this session, also for accepting us to present this paper here. So as you see, what I present here is a joint paper. Unfortunately, my colleague was not able to come here today. But I wanted to also to be here to present these as part of a project funded by the Ministry of Economy Competitiveness and Industry of the Spanish government that is an original orient on the ballistic antigua in Spain. It's a project that we are both of us working on, launched just this January this year. So what you're going to see here are first steps of this project and also an ongoing research we are carrying on the history of ancient Middle Eastern studies in Spain end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th century. Let me then begin with the presentation. As you know, in the second half of the 19th century, that working among scholars from several countries influenced and shaped the way some archaeological collections and museums were then newly created and also managed. In this communication, we aim to show that the Spanish academia, of course, was no exception to this trend. And we will do it through the case studies, exactly two case studies, which have as common link the figure of the historian Juan Facundo Riano. So first we're going to be in with some words to present who was Juan Facundo Riano. Riano was an art historian, an artist, and he was at the time in Spain the main promoter of art history as a specific subject, differentiated from philology, literature, or archeology. Riano, unlike most Spanish historians of the time, since the yacht was showing a clear international vocation. So he was undertaking a staze among others in London and Rome, something that was not that frequent at that time. He carried out also an intense academic career. He was professor of finance in the School of Diplomatic, the director of the Museum of Artistic Reproductions, and he also had an intense political career. He was of progressive political conception and occupied several positions like the ones you can see here in this slide. Moving now to the first case study. This first case study has to do with the Museo de Reproducciones Artísticas. In the 1870s, there was a project to create a cast museum in Spain to make accessible, make works of art of antiquity, make economic works to divide their public. This was a practice that you, as you know, common at that time, you also have seen an example in the previous communication. The first steps to launch the project were, first, to decide who was to be in charge of this project, and the one chosen was Riano, to take care of everything, let's say, from choosing the pieces, ordering the cast, managing the budget, everything, everything necessary to launch the museum. You can see in the image, Riano, and also images of his successors as directors of the museum. Second decision to be taken, where, and this where was the Casón del Buen Retiro of Madrid. You can see also an image here in the slide. And then this one, after these years of preparation, was 1881, was the year the museum was opened, just with 156 pieces. But the collection from then was growing and growing, and nowadays this collection has about 3,000 pieces, so really has grown a lot. The museum was located in the Casón del Buen Retiro only until 1961. After that, it was closed for a time, traveling from one place to another, and finally reopened just few years ago, 2012, as part of the Museo Nacional de Cultura in Valladolid. We have been lucky enough to find in the archives of the British Library in London a letter Juan Facundoriano sent to Austin, Henry Lallard, February 17th, 1881. Precisely the year the Museo de Reproducciones Artísticas was opened. The letter has four pages here. We show you the first and the last page of this letter, and I will read for you just some excerpts of the first and the second page. The interest of this letter is that the museum was not yet opened, so it helps us to see what goes going on when they were still preparing this opening of the museum. As you know, Lallard was a well-known British archaeologist and diplomat at that time, and Rianio and Lallard were in touch for their whole life. And it was interesting that the relationship was a counselor and advice relationship in both ways, because Rianio was advisor of the South Kensington Museum, the current Victorian Albert Museum, and Lallard was also counselor of Rianio, for example, ordering some of the castes, so they were enriching the collections of both countries with their correspondence and their contacts. Let me begin then just reading some of the excerpts of this letter. Let me read the excerpt you have here in the slide, and I quote, I hope the new change of government may not affect the interests of the museum. So much money has already been spent upon decorating it that they hardly will think of making use of the building for any other purpose, end of the quote. So here what you see is that at the end of 19th century Spain, there was this alternance of prime ministership between liberals and conservatives in really short periods of time. So it was really difficult, let's say, to launch a project and to finish this project with the same government. And it's what happened here. The image you see here in the slide is the image of Antonio Canobas del Castillo, who was the prime minister putting on the table the project of the Museo de la Productiones Artísticas. And in this slide, you can see an image of one of the catalogs of the museum with a dedication to him. But then Canobas del Castillo was launching the project, but when the museum was opened, the prime minister was Praxe des Mateos Agasta. And he was in charge of this prime ministership from February 8th, 1881. So just 10 days before Reaño wrote the letter we are discussing here. That's why he is mentioning this. Well, there's a recent change of the government. Let's say what happens. Let's hope that everything is going to be working as it was planned. Following the same example, let me read the red part and I quote, unfortunately it has not yet opened and the great thing the architect has done has been to send away almost all the women who were busy painting the pedestals, et cetera. Well, this part is really interesting because the museum opened 1881, as I told you, but we do not have the exact date. If you have a look on the catalogs, on the Avenon, the first catalog, they mentioned January 1881 and in recent publications about the museum always is mentioned January 1881 as the official date of opening, but we know from this letter that was not opened because the letter is from February. What we can imagine maybe for this mention of these workmen still painting pedestals and everything is that maybe they were making an official opening of the museum in January, presenting the catalog and so on, and then not opening to the public maybe until March or April and then the workmen, of course, had to came back and paint what was remaining. Moving now, sorry, what you have seen in this previous slide is the main room, the main hall of this Casa del Buen Retino that was the only one opened from the very beginning. Then they were opening other rooms and finally was the whole building occupied. Continuing with the second page, moving now to the second page, it's interesting because here you have some clues about how these reproductions were ordered. Let me read this excerpt you have in the slide. I am happy to say that I have nothing to do with the building itself, which saves me from many worries. So you see that the issue of the building was really a big issue. As soon as I see my way, I'm probably will be in the summer, I will write to P. Scognamiglio and order the reproductions you have marked. I am rather short of fans right now and I am expecting daily some heavy bills forecast ordered at the Lynn and Athens end of quote. Let me begin with this, who is this P. Scognamiglio because it's not so well known. It's a bit tricky to identify him. Most probably this was Pasquale Scognamiglio and indeed Pasquale Scognamiglio was mentioned in a guide of a temporary exhibition of archeological materials from the south of Italy, which was held at Caserta in 1879. In the presentation of the guide of this exhibition, you can see the covering in this slide. Giulio Minervini, one of the organizers of the exhibition is mentioning and acknowledging this Pasquale Scognamiglio as one of the antique sellers from Napoli collaborating with some pieces on loan for the exhibition. It seems, however, that Scognamiglio was not only antique seller, but he was also running a society making and selling reproductions of the paintings found at Pompeii and Ercolano. In the catalog of the Museo de Reproducciones Artísticas published 1915, an updated version of the previous one, there are 10 of these paintings that were ordered to Sofiedades Scognamiglio or Sofiedades Scognamiglio and Compañia, which witnessed this activity and witnessed the contact of Scognamiglio with Rianio also during all these years. Maybe then the letter refers to some of these paintings, but there is still another possibility. Maybe the letter refers not only or not at all to the paintings, but to sculptures, because it also seems that Scognamiglio himself was a gifted sculptor and it seems that the Sofiedades Scognamiglio as well was supplying not only paintings, but sculptures. In 1915, in the catalog of the museum, I just mentioned, there are about 30 sculptures by Scognamiglio, those made of bronze, or Sofiedades Scognamiglio, those made of bronze or stone, or just a stone. The image you can see in this light is one of these reproductions precisely by the mate of bronze and is one of the images chosen for the permanent exhibition in this new display of the museum reopened from 2012 and one of the ones also chosen as representative of the museum for the online catalog that they are now putting online. Finally, to close this first case study, let's come back to the last excerpt of the letter I read you to take care of the last sentence. I am expecting daily some heavy bills for castes, order at Berlin and Athens. Well, for the first collection of 156 objects on display, only the best sculptures working on castes at that time were involved and the cast came from London, Paris, Athens, Berlin, mainly, and then also Napoli for some of the materials as we have seen. The prices for the bigger sculptures were, of course, high and most probably a sculpture included in these heavy bills Reaño was expecting was the one used in this light where you see however the original. In the first catalogue of the Museo de Reproducciones Artísticas published in 1881, we find this Victoria de Pallonius mentioned as such and as you see in the example of the museum catalogue we show you here in this light, we have even the price, Mil Reales, and we have to imagine that Mil Reales, of course, was a high price for one of these reproductions at that time. Let me move now to the second case study, it will be much, much, much shorter for time constraints but we think that it is good to have both together to see a bit what was going on. In this case also Reaño is the common link but in this case is dealing with another museum or collection, the one of the cabinet of antiquities of the Real Academia de la Historia of Madrid. This collection was a consequence of the existence of the same institution because since its creation in the 18th century this Real Academia de la Historia was responsible for collecting coins, epigraphs, and other archaeological objects, especially from Spain, that would contribute to a better knowledge of the history of the country. Within its collection, significant pieces stand out, so as I suggest, these ones you can see here, this Corinthian helmet of the Villa de Huelva and then the others use this. But what is interesting for us here are these three pieces. The cabinet of antiquities also contains three Assyrian pieces from the Palace of Senagrid in Minivan, two relives and a royal inscription. The three pieces were acquired at the end of the 1840s by Antonio López de Córdoba and donated to the Royal Academy of History in 1851. López de Córdoba was ambassador of Spain in Constantinople and had the aim that Madrid, despite, of course, the possibilities were not the same, the economic possibilities were not the same, had to have made it a collection of Mesopotamia and antiquities like the ones in Paris and London. Of course, it was on the case because these are the only three pieces and some scattered pieces in the Museo-Arcologica Nacional, so the first theme was not completed, let's say. Also in this case, we were lucky enough to find a letter also helping us to understand something else about what was going on. And it's a letter of February 17th, 1895, now preserved at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, where Juan Facundo Riaña, dressed in this case Archival Henry VI, requesting him to transcribe and translate the cuneiform inscription donated by López de Córdoba to the Real Academia de la Historia. César was professor of comparative semantics and Assyriology at the University of Oxford and published important contributions on Sumerian and Akkadian Philology. Although he also worked in other areas such as archaeology, other philologies, classical philology, biblical studies, theology. The fact that Riaña asked César to translate the inscription is explained by three main reasons. First, César's international prestige in the field of Assyriology. Second, the fact that César was an honorary member of the Real Academia de la Historia. And third, the already mentioned links of Riaña with England. In the letter, Riaña asked César to send a transcription and translation of the text. Although we have not been able to locate César's answer, it goes positive. As Riaña himself reported an article from the same year from 1895, César, who at that time was in Upper Egypt, quickly sent him the requested material. Using a drawing of the inscription that Riaño sent him, César proposed a correct transliteration and correct translation of the text. And it's interesting to notice that it was not until 1966 that Joaquín Peñuela, one of the pioneers of Assyriology in Spain, published a new edition of the same inscription of the Real Academia de la Historia, so only 70 years after that. Just to sum up to wrap up a couple of issues for this final concluding remarks. First, we want to highlight that these two case studies based on the correspondence of Juan Facundo Riaño are good examples of the influence of international academic networks, not only in the creation, but also in the study of collections and museums related to antiquity in Spain, in one way or another at the end of the 19th century. Second international network shown through these correspondence were common at that time throughout Europe and have to be read positively as proof of contact and international work from Spanish scholars. However, in these particular cases studies, we think they also suggest shortcomings. For instance, lack of specialties in some fields such as ideology, lack of certain collections in Spanish museums, or scarcity of money. Shortcomings which have to be also taken into consideration to build a more complex picture. Thanks for your attention.