Giovanni Battista de Rossi
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Giovanni Battista (Carlo) de Rossi (23 February 1822 – 20 September 1894) was an
Life and works
Born in Rome, he was the son of Commendatore Camillo Luigi De Rossi and Marianna Marchesa Bruti, his wife, who had two sons, Giovanni and Michele Stefano. Two days after birth Giovanni was baptized in the parish church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. De Rossi showed an early interest in Christian antiquity. In 1838, in company with his parents, he visited Tuscany, where the innumerable treasures of art completely absorbed his attention.[1]
He studied philosophy the Collegio Romano from 1838 to 1840. He then studied jurisprudence from 1840 to 1844 at the Sapienza, where he was graduated with the degree of doctor utriusque juris ad honorem.[1]
In 1841, notwithstanding the protests of his anxious father, he visited, for the first time, under the guidance of the Jesuit Giuseppe Marchi, one of the then much neglected catacombs. Despite having a significant age gap, De Rossi and Marchi continued their studies in archaeology together and became known as the "inseparable friends" as a result. He devised a strategy for the systematic and critical gathering of all Christian inscriptions in 1843. During the summers of 1844-50 he visited the territory of the ancient Hernici in Latium and also Naples; in this way the knowledge he attained of the period of the Roman Republic was not purely theoretical.[1]
As soon as he had finished his studies De Rossi was appointed scriptor at the Vatican Library and bore this modest but honourable title, in which he took especial pride, all his life. Great credit is due him for his careful cataloguing of hundreds of Vatican manuscripts. The free use of the treasures of the Vatican Library and archives was a rich source of development for his intellectual powers, especially in the sense of breadth of interest. His official duties were not heavy, and he was able to carry on his private studies without hindrance.
He applied the sciences of
In 1849 he rediscovered the lost
In 1873, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.[4] In 1877 he became foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[5] In 1882, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.[6]
In 1888 de Rossi discovered that the
He died at Castel Gandolfo.
Major works
- Inscriptiones christianae Urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores (vol. I, Rome, 1861; part I of vol. II, Rome, 1888). His original plan was for 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 counterpart 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.
- Musaici delle chiese di Roma anteriori al secolo XV (Rome, 1872), a series of coloured 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.
- Bollandists' Acta Sanctorum. (Brussels, 1894).
References
- ^ a b c Baumgarten, Paul Maria. "Giovanni Battista de Rossi." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 30 November 2022
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Dizionario degli Artisti Italiani Viventi: pittori, scultori, e Architetti, by Angelo de Gubernatis. Tipe dei Successori Le Monnier, 1889, page 280-281.
- ^ Owen, W.B., Dictionary of National Biography, Supplement, Macmillan, 1920, p.26
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
- ^ "Giovanni Battista (Carlo) de Rossi (1822–1894)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
- ^ "American Antiquarian Society Members Directory". Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Giovanni Battista de Rossi". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
External links
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