Pirro Ligorio and Sicilian antiquities: indifference or an unwitting ‘short circuit’?

The antiquarian knowledge of Pirro Ligorio, among the most extensive of his time, shows an important gap concerning the antiquities of Sicily. This seems even more remarkable when we consider that in the period between 1537 and 1573 the most important historical and antiquarian works on the history of Sicily were published by Claudio Mario Arezzo, Tommaso Fazello and Francesco Maurolico. Here, we will try to provide an explanation for this gap and to understand the reasons for it in the light of the facts offered by the cultural context and by the biography of Pirro Ligorio.