page_title: Vincenzo Mirabella
section_title: Literary and historical works
hierarchical_section_title: Vincenzo Mirabella / Literary and historical works
context_page_description: Vincenzo Mirabella Alagona was an Italian historian, archaeologist and architect, best known for his work Plans of Ancient Syracuse.
context_section_description: He published his first book, a collection of madrigals, in 1604. In recognition of his earlier works he was enrolled in the Accademia degli Oziosi in Naples and in 1614 he became the first Sicilian to become a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, (his membership was proposed by Giambattista della Porta) where he met Galileo Galilei, with whom he corresponded. Passionate about the country's history and archaeology, he wrote a History of Syracuse, but did not manage to have it published, and the manuscript was eventually lost.
  From October to December 1608 he accompanied the painter Caravaggio on visits to the archaeological remains of Syracuse.  On a trip with him to a disused quarry, Caravaggio coined the name 'Ear of Dionysius' for it and later used it as a setting for his famous work the 'Burial of St.Lucy'.
  Vincenzo Mirabella assembled the objects he excavated into a diverse archaeological collection, which he exhibited in the rooms of his palace in Ortygia, at the current Via Mirabella nº23, which he steadily transformed into his own museum. At his death, his heirs donated parts of this collection to the Museu Patrio of Syracuse, which later became the Museo archeologico regionale Paolo Orsi.
caption: Caravaggio's 'Burial of St. Lucy'
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