Christian Archaeology

• DATABASE: see Category:Christian Archaeology (subject)

Overview

16th century

The Augustinian monk, Onofrio Panvinio is credited for opening the field of Christian Archaeology in the 16th century with the publication of two important works, one on the cemeteries and burial rituals of the early Christians (De ritu sepeliendi mortuos apud veteres Christianos et eorundem coemeteriis (1568 Panvinio), book, and one on the basilicas of Rome (De praecipuis urbis Romae sanctioribusque basilicis (1570 Panvinio), book).

A few year later (on May 31, 1578), some laborers accidentally rediscovered on the Via Salaria an ancient subterranean Christian cemetery containing inscriptions and frescoes. Among the first to visit the site and recognize the importance of the find were the ecclesiastical historian Baronius, a Spanish Dominican, Alfonso Ciacconio, and two Flemish laymen, Philip de Winghe and Jean l'Heureux.

17th century

The first to begin the systematic exploration of the ancient Roman cemeteries or catacombs, was Antonio Bosio, who devoted his entire life to this task, from 1593 at the age of eighteen to his death in 1629. Three years after his death, the results of his investigations and studies were made known to the world; see Roma sotterranea (1632 Bosio), book, followed by translations in Latin and German.

18th century

Little advance was made in the exploration of the Roman catacombs during the 18th century. Fabretti, in his collection of inscriptions published in 1699, devoted only one chapter (viii) to Christian inscriptions. In 1716 Filippo Buonarroti published a pioneering study on cemeterial glasses; while the work of Boldetti, who held the office of custodian of the catacombs, added only a little to what previously known. The eighteenth century will be remembered for the destruction of Christian monuments than for the labors of its archaeologists. Under the direction of Boldetti numerous inscriptions were removed from the places where they were originally erected, and scattered through various Roman churches, without any clear indication of the localities from which they were taken. These inscriptions were afterwards collected by Benedict XIV (1740-58) in the Christian Museum of the Vatican, of which he was founder. Many invaluable frescoes, also, were injured or destroyed during the eighteenth century. It would be natural to expect that the establishment of a department in connection with the Vatican Library for the collection of Christian inscriptions and other relics of the early Church would arouse the curiosity of Roman antiquarians. Such is not the fact, however. For several years after the death of Benedict XIV no one took any interest in the catacombs in view of later occurrences it was, perhaps, as well that this was the case. About 1780, Seroux d'Agincourt visited several of the ancient cemeteries, and copied for publication in his "Histoire de Part par les monuments" (Paris, 1823), a number of catacomb frescoes. But M. d'Agincourt was not always satisfied with copies. Following the example of other explorers in the same field, he was too often desirous of obtaining the original paintings, and their inaugurated a more systematic destruction of monuments than any of his predecessors.

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With the first half of the nineteenth century began a new epoch in archaeological studies. The work of M. Raoul Rochette "Discours sur l'origine etc. des types qui constituent l'art du Christianisme" (Paris, 1834), and his "Tableau des Catacombes de Rome" (Paris, 1837) had themerit of arousing interest in the Christian monuments of Rome, although his conclusions were not at all convincing. In Italy, Sarti, Settele, Pasquini, De Minicis, Valentini, Manara, Cordero, and others produced works of minor importance on the subterranean-cemeterial monuments, the Christian sarcophagi, and the early basilicas of their country. The honour of inaugurating really important work, however, belongs to the Jesuit Father Marchi. Marchi was the first to demonstrate the essential difference between the arenaria, or sand-pits in the vicinity of Rome, and the galleries of the catacombs. In 1841 he published the first volume of what he intended to be an exhaustive work on early Christian art, for various reasons he was unable to complete the undertaking. But Marchi had associated with him, from the time he began to devote particular attention to the Christian monuments of Rome (1841), a young man, not yet twenty years of age, who was destined to take up the work of Bosio and elevate Christian archaeology to the dignity of a science. This was Giovanni Battista De Rossi (1822-94). The important work undertaken by De Rossi was and that results of the greatest interest and importance for the history of the early Church might be obtained by systematic investigations carried out on scientific principles. No one was better qualified than himself to execute his plans, a fact recognized by Pope Pius IX, who commissioned him to begin the work destined to be so fruitful in results.

The work of De Rossi which best reveals his immense learning and the scientific manner in which his investigations were carried out is his "Roma Sotterranea" (Rome, 1864-77, 3 vols., fol.). The time that has elapsed since the publication of the last volume of this truly magnum opus has confirmed in the main the theories of its author on the civil and religious conditions of the primitive Christians, and on the symbolic character of early Christian art. In 1863 he began the publication of his "Bullettino d'archeologia cristiana", a periodical almost as indispensable to the student of Christian archaeology as the "Roma Sotterranea". De Rossi left at his death a school of archaeologists, trained in his scientific methods, and capable of continuing his work. The three earliest of his disciples, Armellini, Stevenson, and Marucchi, have published numerous works giving the results of their own investigations, or popularizing the general results of Christian archaeological discoveries, besides continuing the publication of the Bullettino under the title "Nuovo Bullettino d'archeologia cristiana". A publicist who accomplished considerable work of permanent value in the domain of Christian archaeology was the Jesuit Garrucci. His most important publication was a "History of Christian Art" in six volumes, which contains five hundred tables of illustrations. Many of these, however, have been found inaccurate and must be used with caution. His text also has been in a great measure superseded by that of recent writers. The best results achieved since the death of De Rossi are attributable to a young German priest whose love for archaeological studies drew him to Rome nearly two decades ago: Mgr. Joseph Wilpert. Wilpert has devoted himself in a special manner to the study of early Christian painting, a department of archaeology to which De Rossi was unable to give the attention the subject deserved. In 1889 Wilpert published his "Principienfragen der christlichen Archaologie", a brochure defending the principles of interpretation of the Roman school of archeologists against the attacks of German non-Catholic authors. In 1892 appeared his study on "Die Gottgeweihten Jungfrauen", a valuable contribution on the origins of the religious life. In 1895 he published his "Fractio Panis," wherein he describes the cycle of sacred representations in the crypt of St. Priscilla, known as the "Capella Greca", and shows their relation to the principal scene depicted in that chapel, the eucharistic, or sacred-banquet, scene of the apse which he appropriately named "fractio panis", the Breaking of Bread. The signification of Orantes (praying) figures so frequently depicted on early Christian tombs was first satisfactorily explained by this writer in his "Cyclus christologischer Gemalde" (1891). His greatest work is his "Malereign der Katakomben Roms" (Freiburg, 1903). It consists of two folio volumes, one of plates reproducing more than six hundred catacomb frescoes, half of them in colours; the other of text, in which the author, after laying down his principles of interpretation, classifies and describes the various cycles of thecemeterial paintings and interprets their symbolical meaning. Another German priest resident in Rome, Mgr. de Waal, the founder and editor of the "Romische Quartalschrift", has written extensively on archaeological subjects; one of his best known works is a description, with illustrations, of thesarcophagus of Junius Bassus (Rodney 1900).

The impetus given to the study of early Christian monuments by the discoveries and publications of De Rossi was immediately felt in every country of Europe. Two English priests, Northcote and Brownlow, were among the first to appreciate the importance of his work, which they popularized in their excellent "Roma Sotterranea" (London, 1869; second edition, 1878). Dr. Northcote also published a useful work on early Christian inscriptions under the title "Epitaphs of the Catacombs" (London, 1878). The former of these works was translated into French by Allard; Kraus's "Roma Sotterranea" was partly a translation of Northcote and Brownlow, and partly an original work. Smith and Cheetham's "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities" (London 1875-80) is an evidence of the influence on English Protestants of the Roman explorations, and the recently published manual of Lowrie, "Monuments of the Early Church" (New York, 1901), bears witness to the intelligent interest of American Protestants in the most recent results of Christian archaeological studies. Among the first in France to be influenced by the archaeological revival of De Rossi was the Abbé Martigny, who in 1865 published his, for that time, remarkable "Dictionnaire des antiquités chrétiennes" (third edition. Paris, 1889). Perret's "Catacombes de Rome" (Paris, 1851-55) is a pretentious work of little value; his illustrations are inaccurate, and his text unreliableDeshassayns de Richemont's "Catacombes de Rome" appeared in 1870, and in the following year Allard's translation of Northcote and Brownlow. These works did good service as popular manuals, but original investigations of great importance were carried on by another French archaeologist, Edmond Le Blant. The first volume of Le Blant's "Inscriptions chrétiennes de la Gaule" appeared in 1856, the second in 1865, the third in 1892. These were followed by two volumes on the Christian sarcophagi of Arles and of France (Paris, 1878-86), and various studies on Christian epigraphy. At the present time (1906) a highly useful and excellent work in course of publication, is Cabrol and Leclercq's "Dictionnaire d'archéologie et de liturgie" (since 1903). The discoveries of Count de Vogüé in Central Syria ["La Syrie Centrale" (Paris, 1865)], and in the Holy Land ["Les eglises de la Terre Sainte" (Paris, 1860)] were of great importance for thehistory of early Christian architecture. The writings of Pere Delattre and of Stephen Gsell are indispensable for the study of the Christian monuments of North Africa. In Germany Professor Franz Xaver Kraus did more, probably, than any other writer to popularize the results of Christian archaeological studies. Besides his "Roma Sotterranea "Kraus edited the excellent "Real-Encyklopadie der christlichen Alterthumer" (Freiburg 1882-86, 2 vols.), and published (Freiburg, 1896-97), an (unfinished)history of Christian art in three volume), of which only the first concerns Christian archaeology. It is the most complete general work on this subject that has yet appeared.Kraus also published in two volumes (Freiburg, 1890-94), a collection of early Christian inscriptions from the Rhineland, besides a number of monographs of an archaeological character. Among German Protestant archaeologists may be mentioned Victor Schultze, whose studies on the catacombs of Naples and Syracuse, and "Archaologie der altchristlichen Kunst" (Munich, 1895) are of importance. Of contemporary German writers on the monuments of Christian antiquity space will not permit more than the mention of a few of the principal: Muller, Ficker, Krumbacher, Strzygowski, Kirsch, Kaufmann, and Baumstark. Literary sources