DE ROSSI, MICHELE STEFANO. — Geologist, born in Rome on 30 Oct. 1834 and died at Rocca di Papa on 23 Oct. 1898, he was the inseparable companion in the explorations of his brother Giovanni Battista (q.v.) for whom he drew plans and sections even of the most remote and dangerous parts of the Roman catacombs.
Well versed in the natural sciences and particularly in geology, he applied this knowledge to the study of cemeteries, thus offering in the appendices to the three volumes of his brother’s Roma sotterranea a truly positive contribution with his Analisi geologica ed architettonica del cimitero di Callisto (Rome 1867). With this work he sealed the demonstration of Fr. G. Marchi (q.v.) on the entirely Christian origin of the catacombs, making known their extent, studying the laws and limits of the excavations and in particular establishing with technical arguments the chronology of a part of the cemetery of Callixtus. Among his articles in this field we note the two published in Rome in the Atti dell’Accademia dei nuovi Lincei: Dell’ampiezza delle romane catacombe e d’una macchina iconografica ed ortografica per rilevarne le piante ed i livelli (1860) and Quale metodo tecnico adoperarono i fossori per dirigere l’escavazione nel labirinto dei cimiteri suburbani di Roma, 33 (1880), pp. 418-26.