Giovanni Battista de Rossi

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Giovanni Battista de Rossi (Rome, February 23, 1822–Castel Gandolfo 20 September 1894) was an Italian archaeologist, famous outside his field for his rediscovery of early Christian catacombs. He applied the sciences of archaeology and epigraphy and his thorough knowledge of the topography of Rome and the resources of the Vatican Library, where he was employed cataloguing manuscripts, to Early Christian sites and guided the development of a new field, Christian archeology. He travelled widely, knew all the museum collections intimately and was at the center of a network of professional friendships with all the European scholars of his fields.

In 1849 he rediscovered the lost Catacombs of Saint Callistus along the Via Appia Antica. The catacombs were opened in the early 3rd century, as the principal Christian cemetery in Rome, where nine 3rd-century popes were buried.

Major works

Inscriptiones christianae Urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores (vol. I, Rome, 1861; part I of vol. II, Rome, 1888). His original plan, a compendium of Christian inscriptions in the city of Rome of the first seven centuries. The series was continued after his death.
La Roma Sotterranea Cristiana (vol. I with an atlas of forty plates, Rome, 1864; vol. II with an atlas of sixty-two and A, B, C, D plates, Rome, 1867; vol. III with an atlas of fifty-two plates, Rome, 1877). The plates for the fourth volume were already at the printer when De Rossi died. A Christian couynterpart to an early classic of archaeology, Antonio Bosio's La Roma Sotterranea.
Bullettino di archeologia cristiana. Six series of monographs and communications, which appeared monthly (1863-69), then quarterly (1870-75), (1876-81), then annually (1882-89), (1889-94), each series meticulously indexed.
Mosaici delle chiese di Roma anteriori al secolo XV (Rome, 1872), a series of colored lithographs with text in French and Italian illustrating the Late Antique and medieval mosaics of Rome.
Codicum latinorum bibliothecae Vaticanae Rossi's manuscript indexes of the Latin codices are used as reference books in the Vatican Library.
Inscriptiones Urbis Romae latinae volume VI of Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (Berlin) of which Rossi was one of the leading editors.
Martyrologium Hieronymianum, edited with Louis Duchesne in vol. 1, November, of the Bollandists' Acta Sanctorum. (Brussels, 1894).

External links

[Catholic Encyclopedia 1908:] Giovanni Battista de Rossi
[Chris Nyborg: "Catacombe di San Callisto"]

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