Ciampi, Adolfo (1876-1934)

Adolfo Ciampi was born in Florence, Italy, in 1876 and graduated with a degree in mining engineering in 1900 from the University of Pisa. He served as director of the Ribolla mine and then the Castelnuovo mine, eventually advancing to technical inspector for mines. He was a member of the Alti Forni Society of Piombino and the Tuscan Society of Agricultural and Mining Industries, studying the iron mines of Nurra and Perda Niedda in Sardinia and the mines of the Campiglia area in Tuscany.

Ciampi built a mineral collection of over 5,000 specimens representing 800 species, especially rich in examples from Sardinia and Tuscany, collected when the mines were still open and mining was in progress. Particularly famous are the beautiful specimens of covellite and azurite, as well as minerals from the Sardinian mines of Monteponi and Calabona. Important suites include 170 cerussites, 95 phosgenites, 140 anglesites, 30 cuprites and 35 and azurites. There are also numerous Tuscan samples including 50 cinnabars from Mount Amiata, 80 pyrites from Gavorrano and Elba and 60 hematites also from Elba. Ciampi had offered to sell this extensive collection to the University of Florence Museum, but could not come to a financial agreement with the director, P. Aloisi. Ciampi died in Florence in 1934.

In 1937, Ciampi’s heirs decided to renew the offer, which was finally accepted in 1938 by the museum after the Magona d’Italia Company made a contribution to supplement the Museum’s funds and cover the expense, since the University had declared that no funds of its own were available for the operation. The Ciampi collection was comparable in aesthetic value and scientific importance to the Elban collection, which had been purchased in two lots towards the end of the 19th century.

The Ciampi collection is described in a typewritten catalogue with an alphabetical index by species and variety. In the catalog, the specimens are progressively numbered, followed by the species (or variety) name, the locality and (added by hand in pencil), the size, the description and the value. The catalog is ordered according to the classification developed by G. D’Achiardi, who had been one of Ciampi’s professors in Pisa.