Communitas in stone: how Brescia's Lapidarium shaped civic community identity

The concept of "community" is multifaceted and complex, as highlighted by sociologist Gerard Delanty, who describes communities as varying in size, attachment, and purpose. This complexity becomes particularly significant when considering the role of museums in modern-day cities, which are increasingly tasked with engaging communities. A historical case in point is the creation of a "lapidarium" in 15th-century Northern Italy by the Community of Brescia, regarded as the city's first open-air museum where ancient Roman inscriptions were curated. This raises several questions: What motivated Brescia’s rulers to invest in such an innovative cultural initiative at the time? And, perhaps more importantly, why did they explicitly define their efforts in terms of "communitas" (Latin for community) in official documents associated with this operation? To address these questions, both written and archaeological sources were examined through visual, contextual, and critical discourse analyses. The results were unexpected and revealing, showing that the interplay between political power and cultural philanthropy generated unique outcomes. The project revealed how the city’s rulers used the creation of a public museum to consolidate political legitimacy and establish a narrative of shared identity. Moreover, the cultural investment in the lapidarium proved to be more than a mere exhibition – it became a tool for defining the political community’s values and historical continuity in the city itself. This analysis underscores how museums, especially in their early forms, can anchor community identity in shared historical narratives and transform civic public spaces into symbols of communal belonging. Ultimately, this case offers a valuable insight into how museums contribute to the construction and reinforcement of both historical and contemporary community identities, highlighting the evolving role of museums as active agents in the formation of collective memory.