BRUZZA, LUIGI MARIA. - Barnabite, b. in Genoa on 15 March 1813, d. in Rome on 6 Nov. 1883. He taught Latin and Greek literature for 40 years in various colleges of his Order (Parma, Vercelli, Naples, Moncalieri) and in 1867 became assistant general of the Barnabites. An archaeologist and erudite historian of the antiquities of Vercelli, he was in correspondence and on friendly terms with the leading archaeologists of his time, above all with de Rossi, who together with him founded the Roman Society of Students of Christian Archaeology, and who wished him to be its first president until his death, while for his part B. was the moving spirit of the first jubilee celebrations (1882) in honor of the great archaeologist.
Besides a dozen or so pamphlets, mention should be made of the dissertations on the Tavole lusorie, largely unpublished, later used by Fr. Ferrua for his study on the Tavole lusorie sorite in Epigraphica, 8 (1946), pp. 53-73; furthermore the two volumes on Gaudenzio Ferrari and on the Artisti vercelesi, compiled by his confrere Fr. G. Colombo from the materials he had collected. His major works are: Iscrizioni antiche vercelesi (Rome 1874), proposed by Mommsen (CIL, V, 736) as a model of the genre and which earned him, among other things, the honorary citizenship of Vercelli. Each inscription there is illustrated by a commentary which at times gives rise to long digressions, and all are preceded by a highly erudite historical-topographical synthesis of the ancient vicissitudes of the city and its territory; Il Regesto Tiburtino (Rome 1880-86), the first essay of a broad historical-topographical commentary, left in draft, on the whole territory of Tibur and of the via Valeria; Le Iscrizioni sui marmi grezzi (Rome 1870, pp. 100) coming to the Emporium of Rome from every part of the Empire.
In Rome he occupied himself with predilection and singular acumen with the ancient private Instrumentum, especially Christian, giving many interesting samples of his research in the various periodicals and in the periodic meetings of the "students of Christian archaeology."