Tatiana Warsher

Tatiana Warsher was a Russian-born expert on Pompeii who was born in Moscow and initially studied at the woman’s college of the University of St. Petersburg (1898-1901) under the ancient historian Michael Rostovtzeff who would become a major influence on her career. In 1911 she married a young doctor named Suslov, and on their honeymoon the young bride visited Pompeii for the first time. She was widowed young, married her brother-in-law, but he was killed a few years later as a member of the White Armies. In 1921 Tatiana Warsher left Russia for Berlin where she studied Pompeian architecture and painting. In 1923 she went to Paris to meet Professor Rostovtzeff, who had also left Russia and would eventually move to the United States. He encouraged her to establish herself in Rome and concentrate on the study of Pompeii, devoting herself to the recording of the city under the auspices of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. This she did and soon produced a guidebook to the site, but her major work was in photographing, measuring, and recovering all the extant information (including artifacts and paintings originally associated with specific architecture) on the streets and buildings of the ancient city, culminating in the huge volumes of the Codex Topograpicus Pompeianus. By the time of her death in Rome she had completed thirty-seven volumes.

Author of biography: L. Richardson Jr.
Includes bibliography? Yes

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Keywords: University of St. Petersburg, Michael Rostovtzeff, Suslov family, University of Berlin, Franz Noack, Gerhart Rodenwalt, Pompeii, Walter Amelung, Karl Lehmann-Hartleben, Matteo Della Corte, Giuseppe Spano, Codex Topographicus Pompeianus, German Archaeological Institute, American Academy in Rome, Swedish Institute in Rome, American Society of Papyrologists, Duke University, Via di Mercurio, Strada Stabiana, Casa del Torello di Bronzo, Casa di Marco Lucrezio, Via di Nola, Strada Consolare, C.B. Welles, W. Helbig, Wandgemälde Campaniens, Second World War, protection of Jews, Halsted B. van der Poel, Corpus Topographicum Pompeianum