ARMELLINI, MARIANO. - Archaeologist, b. in Rome on 17 Feb. 1852, d. 24 Feb. 1896. His love for Christian archaeology was kindled by the lectures he heard at the Collegio Romano from Fr. Francesco Tongiorgi, who carried on the distinguished traditions of the renowned Fr. Giuseppe Marchi and Giovanni Battista De Rossi. Later, De Rossi himself came to regard Armellini’s good dispositions with great affection, and thus was formed the group of the master’s followers: Armellini, Marucchi, and Stevenson, and, for a few years (since he died young), Raffaele Santambrogio.
Under De Rossi’s guidance, and after extensive reading of Bosio and explorations in the cemeteries, the young archaeologist was able to compile his first studies, beginning with the Scoperta d’un graffito storico del cimitero di Pretestato (Rome 1874). In 1875 he conducted his first investigation of a church: the oratory of the Archangel Gabriel and the Seven Domus of Villa Appia. In the supposed Coemeterium Ostrianum (the Coem. Maius), Armellini discovered what he believed to be the tomb of St Emerenziana (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 monograph Il Cimitero di S. Agnese (ibid.) and Le catacombe romane descritte (ibid.). To crown his studies on the catacombs, in 1893 there appeared the substantial volume Gli antichi cimiteri cristiani di Roma e d’Italia (ibid.), a synthesis of De Rossi’s work, to which it was dedicated. As regards churches, however, his first edition of Le Chiese di Roma dalle loro origini fino al sec. XVI (ibid.) had already appeared in 1887, followed by a second edition in 1891 (with the variant: dal sec. IV al XIX). The work was republished in 1942 under the editorship of C. Cecchelli. We may also recall his popular treatise Le lezioni popolari di archeologia cristiana (Rome 1883) and the more extensive Lezioni di archeologia cristiana (Rome 1898), published posthumously by his friend Giovanni Asproni. We should also remember his collaboration in and continuation of the Cronachetta mensuale di archeologia e storia and other minor studies on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Armellini, a man of upright character, of militant faith, and of extraordinary devotion to the Apostolic See, gave proof in the brief span of his life of learned industry, both in his writings and in his teaching (at the Apollinare Lyceum and other ecclesiastical institutions; among his pupils was also Pius XII). He was one of the founders of the Collegium Cultorum Martyrum (v. Roma). He died while commenting to the students of Propaganda Fide on the epitaph of Pope Fabian.