The Maffeiano Lapidary Museum is situated in front of the Philharmonic Theatre, in Piazza Bra, in the very heart of the city. It was built during the first half of the 18th century in order to display the inscriptions collected by Scipione Maffei, who first organized the epigraphs found in the Philharmonic Academy and later integrated them with a lot of new items. The public nature of the exhibition, not just in terms of its legal status but also for the way it could be used was a novelty at the time it was first established. It therefore became a suitable place to perform a clear didactic function and to bring citizens closer to culture.