Foundation Day 15th November 2003
Today, at the Museum of the Roman Ships, at the lakeside, there was a meeting at which
various important announcements were made.
The meeting was opened by greetings from the mayors of Genzano and Nemi, expressing their wholehearted
enthusiasm for the project.
The President of the association Dianae Lacus, the association which has been directing the construction
so far, then addressed the meeting with the news that a foundation has been formed, called "Naves
Nemorenses", which will unite various institutions, along with private bodies. This foundation will
give greater visibility and transparency to the project and will be better able to provide the level of
institutional guarantees that sponsorship on this scale requires.
The members of the foundation are as follows:
1. The Association Dianae Lacus
2. The Comune of Nemi
3. The Comune of Genzano
4. The Lazio Region
5. The 'Soprintendenza per i beni Archeologici del Lazio'.
6. The Registro Italiano Navale (Italian Shipping Register)
The president of the new foundation will be the president of the Italian Shipping Register Mr. Ciliberte Gaspare.
This was followed by a bombshell anouncement by the Secretary General of Assimpresa,(the second largest
confederation of employers and businesses in Italy) that the association Assimpresa
would be making an immmediate sponsorisation in the form of providing all the timber required for the
construction of the ship. It need hardly be stressed just how large and important such an undertaking
is. The first tranche will be available in the period from the end of January to the end of February 2004.
Prof. Marco Bonino who is responsible for the design and construction plans for the reconstruction project, attended the meeting, and
presented his new book on the Nemi Ships, entitled "Un Sogno Ellenistico: Le Navi di Nemi". Professor Bonino explained that many
facts were not known at the time of the original work on the Nemi ships. In the intervening period, research and discovery around
the Mediterranean has pushed forward our understanding on two major fronts.
1. On methods of ancient ship construction.
2. On methods used by naval architects to draw their construction plans.
Prof. Bonino then went on to talk about possible dispositions of the superstructure on the two ships.
After Prof. Bonino's presentation there was a screening of a preview of a documentary by Massimo My
on the subject of the two ships. The documentary will be shown on television and will then be available on dvd.