BRUZZA, LUIGI MARIA. - Barnabite, b. at Genoa on 15 March 1813, d. at 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 learned historian of the antiquities of Vercelli, he was in correspondence and friendship with the leading archaeologists of his time, especially with de Rossi, with whom he founded the Roman Society of Christian Archaeology Students, and wished him to be its first president until his death, while Bruzza himself was the driving force behind the first jubilee honours (1882) in honour of the great archaeologist.
Besides dozens of pamphlets, mention should be made of his dissertations on the Tavole lusorie, largely unpublished, later used by Fr. Ferrua for his study on the Tavole lusorie in Epigraphica, 8 (1946), pp. 53-73; also the two volumes on Gaudenzio Ferrari and the Vercelli artists compiled by his confrere Fr. G. Colombo from materials he had collected. His major works are: Iscrizioni antiche vercellesi (Rome 1874), proposed by Mommsen (CIL, V, 736) as a model of its kind and which earned him, among other things, honorary citizenship of Vercelli. Each inscription is illustrated by a commentary that sometimes leads to lengthy digressions, and all are preceded by a most erudite historical-topographical synthesis of the ancient events of the city and its territory; Il Regesto Tiburtino (Rome 1880-86), the first attempt at a wide-ranging historical-topographical commentary, left in draft form, of the whole Tiburtine territory and the Via Valeria; Le Iscrizioni sui marmi grezzi (Rome 1870, pp. 109) from the Emporium of Rome, coming from all parts of the Empire.
At Rome he devoted himself with particular predilection and keen insight to ancient, especially Christian, private instrumenta, giving many interesting samples of his researches in various periodicals and in the periodic meetings of the “cultori dell’archeologia cristiana.”