_La Roma Sotterrana Cristiana descritta ed illustrata_ dal Cav. G. B. de
Rossi. Publicata per ordine della Santità di N. S. Papa Pio IX.
Chromolithografia Ponteficia Roma, 1864. vol. 1.
_Christian Subterranean Rome, described and illustrated_ by Cav. G. B. de
Rossi. Published by order of His Holiness Pope Pius IX., vol. 1.
In 1861 Cavalier de Rossi published the first volume of his _Inscriptiones
Christianae Urbis Romae seculo VII. antiquiores_. On to-day we announce
the appearance of the first volume of his long expected work on
Subterranean Rome. In the introduction the author passes in review all
that has been done to explore the Catacombs, from the fourteenth century
to our day. Pomponius Laetus, Pauvinius, Ciacconius, and especially Bosio
and Bottari, claim his attention in turn. After a sketch of the results of
the labours undertaken in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Cav. de
Rossi shows what yet remains to be done, and what part of this he himself
proposes to accomplish.
The second part of the volume is entitled “Remarks on ancient Christian
Cemeteries in general, and on those of Rome in particular”: the whole is
divided into three parts. Part I. on the Christian Cemeteries in general,
treats of their antiquity, their divisions into subterranean and
non-subterranean, and the respective marks of each class. The author here
proves that even in the third century, when Christianity was persecuted to
the death, the Christian Cemeteries had a legal existence recognized by
the Emperors. Part II. is devoted to the documents which illustrate the
history and topography of the Catacombs, and embraces contemporary
documents, historical and liturgical treatises later than the fourth
century, lives of Pontiffs, etc. Part III. contains a general history of
the Roman Cemeteries, arranged in four periods: beginning respectively,
with the apostolic times; the third century; the peace of Constantine
(312); and the fifth century, A.D. 410. In the second century the
catacombs were of slow growth; in the third, their extent became most
remarkable; after Constantine, they began to be abandoned as places of
sepulture; with the fifth century set in their decay, leading to the
removal of the relics of the saints to the churches within the walls,
whither the sacrilegious hands of Goths and Lombards, who periodically
pillaged the Campagna, could not reach; finally, after the ninth century,
they were almost forgotten. Part IV. contains the analytical description
of the Christian Cemeteries. The Cemetery of Callixtus, the most ancient
and most celebrated of all, is described at length.