Acknowledgments
A project of the scope of the present work necessarily accumulates many debts of gratitude. It is a pleasure to record these debts at this final point.
First, we were fortunate to be able to study the material in the inspiring environment of the Getty Villa in Malibu and to be guided through the commendably organized and recorded collection by a friendly and helpful staff. Our thanks go first to Kenneth Lapatin, Curator of Antiquities, for his support of the project; he was always ready to accommodate us in the midst of many other museum duties. Former Senior Curator Karol Wight enthusiastically furthered the project at every turn during her time as head of the Antiquities Department. Their colleagues, especially David Saunders, Jens Daehner, Nicole Budrovich, and Mary Louise Hart, responded with efficiency and patience to our need for revisiting both items and issues. We are especially grateful to Claire Lyons, Curator of Antiquities, who shepherded our manuscript through the process of publishing it as an online catalogue.
Special thanks go to the Museum’s departments of Antiquities Conservation and Imaging Services, both further acknowledged in the context of the Introduction below. The contributions and expertise of their staffs have greatly enhanced this catalogue. Marina Belozerskaya, formerly of Getty Publications, helpfully responded to many questions at an early point. The greatest debt of gratitude we owe, however, to our editor and friend, Benedicte Gilman. We regard ourselves very fortunate to have had access to her unequaled professional competence and standards, as well as her amazingly sharp eye for every detail. She guided us firmly and kindly through the intricacies of the process to a much improved end product and managed with diplomacy to make the years-long process in the end a pleasure of enlightenment.
We are also grateful to the staff of Getty Publications who helped to make this catalogue a reality, most particularly Greg Albers and Eric Gardner, who oversaw the making of the digital publication with a strong assist from interns Gail Acosta and Nick Geller; Karen Levine, Rachel Barth, and Kim Wilkinson for their editorial and logistical expertise; and Elizabeth Chapin Kahn for production supervision.
The Getty Research Institute has provided a haven for scholarly work. We are most grateful to its staff, which was always ready to provide service with material desired, as well as to answer a variety of questions in response to our needs.
Several institutions outside the United States also deserve our gratitude for assistance and welcoming cooperation. Some were visited by Jean Bussière alone, others by both authors. At the Römisch-Germanische Kommission, Frankfurt, our special thanks go to its director, Dr. Susanne Sievers, and to its chief librarian, Dr. Gabriele Rasbach; at the Römisch-Germanisches Museum, Cologne, we thank Professor Hansgerd Hellenkemper, now retired, and Dr. Eva Maria Cahn-Klaiber, whose assistance and information concerning the rich lamp collection of that museum were most helpful. At Bochum University Museum, its head curator, Dr. Cornelia Weber-Lehmann, amiably facilitated access to the Schüller collection there and provided valuable information, while Karin Goethert allowed us to reproduce some figures from her catalogue; our further thanks go to the Maison Mediterranéenne des Sciences Humaines, Aix-en-Provence; the Maison de l’Orient, Lyon; and the Centre Archéologique de Lattes (UMR 5140, CNRS). Our special thanks to librarians Marie-Paule Seure and Blandine Nouvel (Aix), and Véronique Humbert and Christine Lam (Lattes).
Our project further profited from the interest and generosity of many individuals. Birgitta Lindros Wohl is grateful to—among others—Daniela Summa (Berlin) and John Traill (Toronto) for expert assistance with some Greek inscriptions. Jean Bussière is especially indebted to Donald M. Bailey and Carlo Pavolini for always answering his various questions and providing encouragement; to Laurent Chrzanovski for free access to his rich lychnological documents at the Institut Multimédia Roumain-Suisse directed by his wife; and to Michel Feugère (CNRS UMR 5138 MOM LYON) for his constant availability and willingness to tackle our electronic problems.
Many others in the scholarly community on two continents gave of their time and expertise in small and large questions, discussions, and suggestions—especially during the various congresses of the International Lychnological Association (ILA). We cannot mention them all, but we wish to express our thanks particularly to the following: Nina Berson (Los Angeles), Anastasia Dinsmoor (Washington, D.C.), Marc André Haldiman (Geneva), Marcus Heinrich Hermanns (Cologne), John Lund (Copenhagen), Maria Marani (Rome), Jean-Louis Podvin (Lille), John Pollini (Los Angeles), Laurent Wilmet (Namur), and Denis Zuravlev (Moscow). We thank Jean-Claude Rivel (Villemoustaussou) for his excellent drawings and his generosity in sharing his own lamp collection.
Finally, we wish to express our warm thanks to Marion True, former Curator of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum. She initiated the catalogue project and supported it by giving us the opportunity to work from an excellent set of black-and-white photographs, making it possible to start the study at a time when the lamps themselves were crated up and inaccessible. Without the additional help of Kelly Ramage (Los Angeles) the work would have been much further delayed. He rapidly and ably created the multiple color work photos necessary for the next stage. His constant readiness and generosity in sharing his considerable expertise, also in electronic communications, was a welcome support, which we greatly appreciate.
Jean Bussière died on 24 October 2016, before Ancient Lamps in the J. Paul Getty Museum was published. He was thus deprived of the pleasure of seeing the release of this groundbreaking work. However, he had finished all his work on it, except for correcting the proofs, so this catalogue is indeed a testimony to his wide knowledge of ancient lamps. His dedication to this topic spanned his entire professional career, as his extensive publications show. The loss of his expertise will be mourned among lychnologists. This publication is dedicated to his memory and work.