BOSIO, ANTONIO

BOSIO, ANTONIO. – Eminent archaeologist, born in Malta in 1575, died in Rome in 1629. He came to Rome at a very young age, studied there under the Jesuits, and then succeeded his uncle in the office of procurator of the Order of Malta, which he held until his death. A friend of Giacomino, Ugonio, De Winghe, and Macario, and a disciple of St. Filippo Neri, he was by his own inclination drawn to an enthusiastic study of Christian antiquities, especially the catacombs. He made his first visit to the cemetery of Domitilla with Ugonio in 1593; thereafter he progressively examined almost all the others insofar as they were then accessible. He did not undertake excavations, but contented himself with tracing the galleries through collapses or accessible skylights, making at most use of the assistance of a digger. He often brought with him a painter who reproduced the paintings (Angelo Santini, known as il Tocca-fondo; the names Antonius Bosius and Angelo Tocca-fondo occur written innumerable times in the cubicula of the catacombs), and above all pen and paper, in order to record diligently whatever he found, having set himself from the outset the goal of producing a systematic illustration of the ancient Christian cemeteries of the city. For this purpose he carefully read all the writings of the Fathers, extracting whatever served his aim. Although he made use of the index of Guglielmo di Malmesbury, he only rarely succeeded in identifying the cemeteries he explored; nevertheless, De Rossi was able to call him the true Columbus of subterranean Rome. Indeed, he rediscovered, explored, and described for us, at least in part, almost all the Roman catacombs; he carefully distinguished what he had learned from books from what he had seen himself; he proceeded with sound topographical order, cemetery by cemetery, attempting to identify each one and reporting both what the ancients had transmitted concerning them and what could still be seen there in his own day. He accompanied all these historical-topographical notices with a complete treatise on the ancient burials of Christians in general, and especially on those of Rome and of the holy martyrs. This part is naturally now outdated (although the extent of the work accomplished by B. and the excellence of his method continue to arouse our admiration); his description of what he personally saw, however, remains an invaluable source for the study of the catacombs. Such is the value of his Roma sotterranea, published posthumously in Rome in 1634 through the efforts SEVERIANO (v.), in a sumptuous folio volume adorned with numerous plans of cemeteries, sections of crypts, reproductions of paintings (he had also inherited the copies already made by De Winghe; these, however, constitute the least accurate and weakest part of his work), and transcriptions of inscriptions, which give the book its lasting value and power of suggestion. B.’s greatness can be understood by considering that, until De Rossi (v.), his work was not only unsurpassed but not even substantially continued. The fascination and powerful voice that arose from his book caused it to become a kind of arena for polemics between Protestants and Catholics in the controversy over the practices of the primitive Church. In 1600 B. published the pamphlet Historia passionis b. Caceline virginis on the occasion of the discovery of the relics of the Saint, concerning which he left an interesting account.