GARRUCCI, RAFFAELE – Jesuit, born in Naples on 23 January 1812, died in Rome on 23 May 1885. An illustrious philologist and archaeologist, especially an epigraphist and numismatist, and, in the field of Christian antiquities, one of the most deserving scholars. He entered the Society of Jesus at a very young age; having completed his literary and theological formation and then devoted several years to teaching the humanities, as well as archaeology and the Hebrew language, he was subsequently able to dedicate himself more freely to classical literature, biblical studies, patristics, the Oriental languages, and antiquities of every kind, including Etruscan, Egyptian, and Phoenician antiquities. He had begun his philosophical studies at the Collegio Romano (1830), and returned there to complete his archaeological formation under the guidance of Fr. Marchi (1846), from that time forming a close friendship with G. B. De Rossi, who was younger than he; he later resided there in full maturity as a writer on archaeology, from 1858 until its closure after 1870. He travelled extensively in Italy and Europe, visiting museums, searching for manuscripts, and making drawings, casts, and photographs. His frequent excursions to even the more inaccessible places of 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.
Of a strong scholarly temperament, perceptive and ingenious, at once persevering and methodical, he may have appeared unsociable, or an excessively ambitious and presumptuous autodidact, highly dynamic, sensitive, lively, and disinclined to renounce the proper freedom of investigation and criticism; he had frequent disputes with colleagues and friends, among them G. Heusen and T. Mommsen, who nevertheless acknowledged his profound learning. But in the face of hostility and even excessive denigration, he behaved, in the judgment of impartial observers, with dignity and moderation, forgiving and forgetting, without failing in his customary generosity of collaboration even toward those who had bitterly opposed him, provided that he might contribute to the advancement of the common science.
A kind of defamatory legend, fostered by tendentious and superficial writers, sought to envelop and distort the historical figure of G.; and, having found no foothold for attacking his reputation as an exemplary priest and religious (indeed, those who lived with him for a long time bore suitable witness to his exquisite delicacy of conscience), it instead indulged in various efforts to disparage him in his qualities as a scholar. But to dispel entirely any attempt of this kind, it is enough to examine without preconceptions the works he published, the judgments expressed about him by competent and impartial authorities, and the many serious inconsistencies of his adversaries and accusers.
G.’s publications appeared without interruption for more than 40 years (1844–85); among major and minor works, they amount to approximately 120 in Sommervogel (III, cols. 1237–46), more than half of them articles in authoritative periodicals or academic dissertations, in Rome, Naples, Paris, and London; more often, from 1856 onward, in La Civ. Cott. They cover the following subjects: a) classical and pagan archaeology; b) Jewish epigraphy; c) Christian archaeology.
The first group includes: 1) approximately 20 works on ancient cities, roads, necropolises, and coins of central and southern Italy, particularly of Latium and Campania, with inscriptions in the Latin, Faliscan, Oscan, and Phoenician languages; 2) several others dealing more specifically with the topography and earliest history of important centres, such as Salerno (1844, 1851), Rieti (1854), Venafro (1874), and Isernia (1848, 1877). 3) The ancient lead objects (figured and inscribed: coins, tesserae, seals, etc.) in the collection of Cardinal Lud. Altieri (2nd ed., Rome, Naples 1847–48), with subsequent additions. Another expanded edition of Inscribed lead objects V. in Dissertaz. di var. argom. (II, 1856, pp. 73–149). 4) Classis Proctoriae Missenensis (1852), on the Roman fleet of Misenum, with 255 ancient inscriptions; 5) Graffiti of Pompeii drawn and interpreted (Brussels, Paris 1854–56); a fundamental work for the study of ancient Latin linguistics and grammar and for the reading of ancient inscriptions; 6) Three pagan tombs in a hypogeum on the Via Appia (or Les mystères du syncrétisme phrygien) in 2 principal editions (Naples, Paris 1852–56); of which the second, more extensive, appeared in Mélanges d’archéol., by Cahier and Maryin (IV, pp. 1–47). A revised 3rd edition is at the end of the Storia dell’arch. crisi. (VI [1880], supplementary plate 493, supplementary p. 171); 7) The marks on Latin tombstones commonly called accents (Rome 1857, pp. XV–51); awarded a prize by the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres of Paris; 8) The monuments of the Lateran Museum (2 vols. in folio, Rome 1862, pp. 123 and 21 plates); 9) Dissertations on various subjects (2 vols., ibid. 1864–65), containing revisions or additions to earlier works and new studies, as well as interesting corrections and emendations, many of them substantial, of Mommsen, Ritschl, Detlefsen, Cavedoni, etc.; and statements of agreement sent to him by Borghesi and others; 10) Sylloge inscript. Latinarum nevi Romanæ reipub. plenissima (Turin 1875, p. 256); it includes all inscriptions prior to Augustus, with subsequent additions published in 1877 and 1881; 11) The coins of ancient Italy (1885) illustrates the coinage of all the Italian cities from its origins to Augustus. 12) More important articles: The blasphemous Crucifix of the Palatine, discovered and illustrated; The inscriptions of P. Sulpicius Quirinus and the census of Syria and Judaea; The 15th year of the Empire of Tiberius Caesar: New studies on the year of the death of Herod the Great; Bas-relief representing the hippus of Achilles according to the descriptions of Giusto; The origin of coined gold, silver, and bronze in Etruria; Excavations at Veii and Praeneste; Praenestine cistae; Vulcan paintings brought to the Torlonia Museum; Statues and inscriptions of Semone Sanco and Simon Magus; The necropolis of the Esquiline in Rome; The Temple of Capitoline Jupiter on the Tarpeian Rock; The origin and vicissitudes of the Kircherian Museum, etc.
In Jewish epigraphy G. was rightly called its true founder – and he published: 1) The cemetery of the ancient Jews, discovered in the Pigna Bonadani on the Via Appia (2nd ed., Rome 1862, 1865); 2) The mountain of the two Jewish revolts (1865); 3) The cemetery of Venosa in Apulia (1882).
Di archeologia cristiana: 1) Vetri ornati con figure in oro (3 edd. 1858, 1864, 1874; di cui la terza la parte del vol. III, tavv. 168-20) della storia dell'arte cristiana: V. appresso). 2) Nelle due prime edizioni dei Vetri è aggiunto un esame critico della numismatica contantiniana con segni di cristianesimo, emessa dalle varie secche dell'Impero. 3) Note e illustrazioni alla edizione degli «Hagioglyphs» del Mecarius (J. L'Heureux, m. nel 1614), pitture e sculture paleocristiane. Il G. riuscì a rintracciarne il manoscritto a Parigi e a pubblicarlo (1856). 4) Mélanges d'épigraphie ancienne (Parigi 1856 sg.); sulle due iscrizioni greche di Abercio e di Petronio. 5) Storia dell'arte cristiana dei primi otto secoli, corredata di tutti i monumenti di pittura e scultura (6 voll., Prato 1873-81, con oltre 600 tavv.). Nel vol. I è una teorica generale circa la natura e i caratteri dell'arte cristiana e un ampio saggio di cronologia sistematica delle opere principali. Negli altri cinque sono presi in esame le sculture e le pitture cimiteriali, le pitture, i musaici e le sculture non cimiteriali, comprendendo in tutto oltre duemila soggetti tra i quali anche i vetri durati, le lampade, gli averi, i bronzi, gli smelti, ecc. In complesso si tratta di un'opera non ancora superata per la vastità del suo campo. L'opera era stata iniziata fin dal 1856 in collaborazione con il p. A. Martin, il quale ben presto morì, e il G. la continuò da solo, servendosi in parte dei disegni, debitamente riveduti, del collega defunto, a avendo anche ricevuto dal p. Marchi «gli eccellenti disegni che egli era venuto preparando» per due suoi volumi sulla scultura e sulla pittura cristiana primitiva. 6) Articoli vari su singoli monumenti con primitivi simboli cristiani; inoltre Frammenti della Cattedra di S. Pietro (in The Archeologia, Londra 1870); Il cimitero di S. Gennaro a Napoli; Una croce graffita in Pompei, ecc.
Il G. dal 1851 in poi fu nominato socio dell'Accademia degli Ercolani, della Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia e delle principali altre accademie, o società degli antiquari d'Italia e d'Europa.
Documenti inediti sull'azione innovatrice del p. G. Marchi, in Rendiconti della Font. Arcad. romana di archeologia, 19 (1942-1943), pp. 105-79 (in specie p. 128 e n. 27). Romano Fausti