ABSTRACT
Italy was Jean Emile Humbert’s second homeland. The Italian way of life, the mild climate and the pleasures of food and company made him feel at home. In Italy he could enjoy life in relative anonymity, and in the literary salons of Livorno he enjoyed the reputation of the Colonello Olandese who had excavated in Carthage, had bought impressive collections and now worked as an archaeological agent for the king of the Netherlands. His prolonged stay in Livorno, though contrary to the plans and wishes of Caspar Jacob Christiaan Reuvens, was an active period of his life, with very important consequences for the collections of the archaeological museum in Leiden. In the spring of 1826 the second mission took Humbert to Livorno, where he had to embark for the North African coast. The rest of the year 1828 was spent by Humbert on the logistics of packing and shipping the enormous number of antiquities in the harbour of Livorno.
