Stones and ancient marbles of the ‘Francesco Belli’ collection: archaeological, art-historical, antiquarian, geological-technical and petrographical aspects

The research work on the F. Belli’s Collection began with the selection of lithotypes of the Collection among those mostly spread in the Roman Empire and in particular in Apulia Region, from the Roman period to the Middle Age. In this paper are shown the results of the research conducted on different fields, focused on: history of the Collection; use of white and colored marbles during the Imperial Age and modalities of their reuse in the Middle Age, referring to the varieties employed in Apulia; study of provenances and physical-mechanical properties of the main lithological groups; isotopic analysis on black and white marbles of the Collection.