GARRUCCI, RAFFAELE. – Jesuit, born in Naples on 23 January 1812, died in Rome on 23 May 1885. A distinguished philologist and archaeologist, particularly in epigraphy and numismatics, and one of the most meritorious figures in the field of Christian antiquity. He entered the Society of Jesus at a young age; after completing his literary and theological training, and having spent several years teaching humanities, archaeology, and Hebrew, he was then able to devote himself more freely to classical literature, biblical studies, patristics, Oriental languages, and antiquities of every kind, including Etruscan, Egyptian, and Phoenician. He began his philosophical studies at the Collegio Romano (1830), returned there in 1846 to complete his archaeological training under Father Marchi, forming a close friendship at that time with G. B. De Rossi, who was younger than him; he then resided there during his full maturity as a writer on archaeology, from 1858 until its closure after 1870. He traveled extensively in Italy and Europe, visiting museums, searching for manuscripts, making drawings, casts, and photographs. His frequent excursions to even remote locations in southern Italy gave rise to unfounded suspicions that he was propagating liberal ideas, and in 1853 he was expelled from the Kingdom of Naples by royal decree.
A strong scholar with a keen and brilliant mind, persevering and methodical, he could appear unsociable, overly ambitious, and presumptuous as a self-taught man, highly dynamic, sensitive, lively, and disinclined to renounce his just freedom of inquiry and criticism; he had frequent clashes with colleagues and friends, including G. Heuzon and T. Mommsen, who nonetheless recognized his profound erudition. Yet, faced with hostility and even excessive denigration, he behaved, in the judgment of impartial observers, with dignity and moderation, forgiving and forgetting, without abandoning his customary generosity in collaboration even toward those who had apparently opposed him, as long as it contributed to the advancement of their common science.
A kind of denigratory legend, fostered by biased and superficial writers, sought to obscure and distort the historical figure of G., and having found no grounds to undermine his reputation as an exemplary priest and religious (those who lived with him for a long time bore witness to his exquisite delicacy of conscience), they instead indulged in various ways in disparaging his qualities as a scholar. But to dispel any such attempt entirely, it is enough to examine without prejudice the works he published, the judgments of competent and impartial critics, and the many and serious inconsistencies of his adversaries and accusers.
G.’s publications followed one another without interruption for over 40 years (1844–85); among major and minor works, as listed in Sommervogel (III, cols. 1237–46), they number about 120, more than half of which are articles in authoritative journals or academic dissertations, published in Rome, Naples, Paris, and London; more often, from 1856 onward, in La Civiltà Cattolica. Their subjects include: a) classical and pagan archaeology; b) Jewish epigraphy; c) Christian archaeology.
To the first group belong: 1) about 20 works on ancient cities, roads, necropolises, and coins of central and southern Italy, particularly of Latium and Campania, with inscriptions in Latin, Oscan, Etruscan, and Phoenician; 2) several others deal in greater detail with the topography and most ancient history of important centers, such as Salerno (1844, 1851), Rieti (1854), Venafro (1874), Isernia (1848, 1877); 3) I piombi antichi (figurati e scritti: monete, tessere, sigilli, ecc.) della collezione del card. Lud. Altieri (2nd ed., Rome, Naples 1847–48) with subsequent additions. Another expanded edition of Piombi scritti is in Dissertazioni di vari argomenti (II, 1856, pp. 73–149). 4) Classis Praetoriae Misenensis... (1852), on the Roman fleet at Misenum, with 255 ancient inscriptions; 5) Graffiti di Pompei disegnati e interpretati (Brussels, Paris 1854–56); a fundamental work for the study of ancient Latin linguistics and grammar and for the reading of ancient inscriptions; 6) Tre sepolcri pagani in un ipogeo della Via Appia (ou Les mystères de syncrétisme phrygien) in two main editions (Naples, Paris 1852–56), the second, more extensive, in Mélanges d’archéologie by Cahier and Martin (IV, pp. 1–47). A third revised edition appears at the end of Storia dell’archeologia cristiana (VI [1880], pl. 493 ff., p. 171 ff.). 7) I segni delle lapici latine volgarmene detti accenti (Rome 1857, pp. XV–51); prefaced by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres of Paris; 8) I monumenti del Museo Lateranense (2 vols. in-fol., Rome 1862, pp. 123 and 21 plates); 9) Disertazioni di vari argomenti (2 vols., ibid. 1864–65), containing revisions or additions to previous works and new studies, as well as interesting corrections—numerous and not insignificant—of Mommsen, Ritschl, Detlefsen, Cavedoni, etc.; and written attestations of approval by Borghesi and others; 10) Sylloge inscriptionum Latinarum aevi Romanae reipublicae plenissima (Turin 1875, pp. 255); includes all inscriptions prior to Augustus; with later additions published in 1877 and 1881; 11) Le monete dell’Italia antica (1858) illustrates the coinage of all Italian cities from their origins until Augustus. 12) Important articles include: Il Cracufuso blasfemo del Palatino, discovered and illustrated; Le iscrizioni di P. Sulpicio Quirinio e il casinismo della Siria e della Giudea; L’anno 1851 dell’Impero di Tiberio Cesare; Nuovi studi sull’anno della morte di Erode il Grande; Bassorilievo rappresentante il clipeo di Achille secondo la descrizione di Omero; Origine dell’oro, argento e bronzo monetato in Etruria; Scavi a Vico e Preneste; Ciste prenestine; Pitture Vulcenti recate nel Museo Torlonia; Statue ed epigrafi di Simone Saccone e di Simon Mago; La necropoli dell’Esquilino in Roma; Il Tempio di Giove Capitolino sulla rupe Tarpea; Origine e vicende del Museo Kircheriano; etc.
As regards Jewish epigraphy, G. was justly regarded as its true founder and published: 1) Il cimitero degli antichi ebrei, scoperto nella Vigna Randanini sulla Via Appia (2 vols., Rome 1862, 1865); 2) Monete delle due rivolte giudaiche (1865); 3) Il Cimitero di Venosa di Puglia (1882).
On Christian Archaeology:
1) *Decorated Glassware with Gold Figures* (3 editions: 1858, 1864, 1874); the third edition is part of vol. III, plates 1862–23 of *Storia dell’arte cristiana*;
2) *Appresso*. In the first two editions of *Vetri*, a critical examination of Constantinian numismatics with Christian symbols, issued by various mints of the Empire, is added.
3) Notes and illustrations to the edition of the *Liguglypta* of Meccaris (J. L’Heureux, d. 1614), comprising early Christian paintings and sculptures. G. succeeded in locating the manuscript in Paris; published (1856).
4) *Mélange d’épigraphie ancienne* (Paris 1856 ff.); on two Greek inscriptions of Abercius of Hieropolis.
5) *Storia dell’arte cristiana dei primi otto secoli*, accompanied by all monuments of painting and sculpture (6 vols., Prato 1873–87, with over 600 plates). Vol. I contains a general theory on the nature and characteristics of Christian art and an extensive essay on the systematic chronology of principal works. The remaining five volumes examine funerary sculpture and painting, non-funerary paintings, museums, and sculpture, including over two thousand subjects such as decorated glassware, lamps, ivories, bronzes, enamels, etc. Taken as a whole, this work remains unsurpassed for the breadth of its scope. The work was begun in 1856 in collaboration with Fr. A. Martin, who soon died, and G. continued it alone, partly using the drawings, duly revised, of the deceased colleague; he also received from Fr. Marchi the excellent drawings that Marchi had prepared for two of his own volumes on early Christian sculpture and painting.
6) Various articles on individual monuments with early Christian symbols; also *Frammenti della Cattedra di S. Pietro* (in *The Archaeologia*, London 1870); *Il cimitero di S. Gennaro a Napoli*; *Una croce graffita in Pompei*, etc.
From 1851 onward G. was elected a member of the Accademia degli Erociani, the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, and the principal other academies and antiquarian societies of Italy and Europe.