Armellini, Mariano

ARMELLINI, MARIANO. - Archaeologist, born in Rome on 17 February 1852, died on 24 February 1896. His love for Christian archaeology came from the lectures he heard at the Collegio Romano from Fr. Francesco Tongiorgi, who followed the lofty traditions of the distinguished Fr. Giuseppe Marchi and of Giovanni Battista De Rossi. Later it was De Rossi himself who regarded the A.'s good dispositions with great affection; thus was formed the group of the master's followers, namely the A., Marucchi and Stevenson, and, for not many years (for he soon died), Raffaele Santambrogio.

At De Rossi's school, and after long readings of Bosio and explorations of the cemeteries, the young archaeologist was able to put together his first studies, begun with the Scoperta d'un graffito storico del cemeterio di Pretestato (Rome 1874). From 1875 comes the first investigation of a church: the oratory of the archangel Gabriel and of the Seven Sleepers on the Via Appia. In the supposed Ostrian Cemetery (the Comm. Maius) the A. discovered what he believed to be the tomb of St. Emerentiana (Scoperta della cripta di S. Emerenziana e di una memoria relativa alla cattedra di S. Pietro nel cimitero Ostriano, Rome 1877). Then came, in 1880, the important monographs Il Cimitero di S. Agnese (ibid.) and Le catacombe romane descritte (ibid.). To crown his studies on the catacombs there appeared, in 1893, the large volume on Gli antichi cimiteri cristiani di Roma e d'Italia (ibid.), the synthesis of De Rossi's work, and it was dedicated to him. But, as regards the churches, already in 1887 the first edition of the work Le Chiese di Roma dalle loro origini fino al sec. XVI (ibid.) appeared, which had a second edition in 1891 (with the variant: dal sec. IV al XIX). The work was republished in 1942, edited by C. Cecchelli. Let us also recall the popularizing little treatise Le lezioni popolari di archeologia cristiana (Rome 1883) and the more voluminous Lezioni di archeologia cristiana (Rome 1898), collected posthumously by his friend Giovanni Asproni. We must also recall his collaboration on and continuation of the Cronochetta mensuale di archeologia e storia and other minor studies on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The A., a man of most upright morals, of combative faith, of extraordinary attachment to the Apostolic See, gave in the brief course of his life proofs of learned industriousness, both in his writings and in his teaching (at the lyceum of the Apollinare and in other ecclesiastical institutes; among his pupils was also Pius XII). He was one of the founders of the Collegium Cultorum Martyrum (v. ROMA). He died while he was commenting to the students of Propaganda Fide on the epitaph of Pope Fabian.

Carlo Cecchelli