Garrucci, Raffaele

GARRUCCI, RAFFAELE - Jesuit, b. in Naples on 23 Jan. 1812, d. in Rome on 23 May 1885. A distinguished philologist and archaeologist, especially an epigrapher and numismatist, and, in the field of Christian antiquities, among the most deserving. He entered the Society of Jesus at a very young age; having completed his literary and theological formation, and then having been assigned for several years to humanistic teaching, as well as to archaeology and the Hebrew language, he was afterwards able to devote himself even more freely to the classical humanities, to biblical studies, to patristics, to the Oriental languages and to antiquities of every kind, including Etruscan, Egyptian and Phoenician. He had begun his philosophical studies at the Collegio Romano (1830), and he returned there to complete his archaeological formation under the guidance of Fr. Marchi (1846), forming from that time a friendship with G. B. De Rossi, who was younger than he; and he then resided there in his full maturity as a writer on archaeology, from 1858 until its closure after 1870. He traveled a great deal in Italy and in Europe, visiting museums, seeking out manuscripts, making drawings, casts and photographs. His frequent excursions to even inaccessible localities of southern Italy gave rise to unfounded suspicions that he was spreading liberal ideas, and in 1853 by royal decree he was expelled from the Kingdom of Naples.

Of a sturdy scholarly temperament, perspicacious and ingenious, at once persevering and methodical, he could seem unsociable, or too ambitious and presumptuous a self-taught man, very dynamic, touchy, lively, and not inclined to renounce the just freedom of inquiry and criticism; he had frequent clashes 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 men, with dignity and moderation, forgiving and forgetting, without failing in his customary generosity of collaboration even toward those who had bitterly opposed him, if only it contributed to the profit of common science.

A kind of denigratory legend, fomented by tendentious and superficial writers, sought to envelop and deform the historical figure of G., and having found no foothold by which to tarnish his reputation as an exemplary priest and religious (indeed, those who lived long with him gave fitting testimony to his exquisite delicacy of conscience), it gave free rein instead to disparaging him in various ways in his qualities as a scholar. But to dispel completely any attempt of this kind it is enough to peruse without preconceptions the works he published, the judgments given about them by impartial experts, and the many and serious inconsistencies of his adversaries and accusers.

The publications of G. followed one another without interruption for over 40 years (1844-85); between major and minor ones, in Sommervogel (III, coll. 1237-46), they amount to about 120, of which more than half are articles in authoritative periodicals, or academic dissertations, in Rome, Naples, Paris, London; more often, from 1856, in La Civ. Cott. They comprise subjects: a) of classical and pagan archaeology; b) of Jewish epigraphy; c) of Christian archaeology.

To the first group belong: 1) about 20, on ancient cities, roads, necropolises, coins of central and southern Italy, particularly of Latium and Campania, with inscriptions in the Latin, Faliscan, Oscan and Phoenician languages; 2) several others treat more particularly the topography and most ancient history of the more important centers, such as Salerno (1844, 1851), Rieti (1854), Venafro (1874), Isernia (1848, 1877). 3) I piombi antichi (figured and inscribed: coins, tokens, seals, etc.) of the collection of Cardinal Lud. Altieri (2nd ed., Rome, Naples 1847-48) with subsequent additions. Another enlarged ed. of Piombi scritti see 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 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 (o Les mystères du syncrétisme phrygien) in 2 principal eds. (Naples, Paris 1852-56); of which the second, more extensive, in Mélanges d'archéol., by Cahier and Maryin (IV, pp. 1-47). A 3rd revised ed. is at the end of the Storia dell'arch. crisi. (VI [1880], add. pl. 493, add. p. 171); 7) I segni delle lapidi latine volgarmente detti accenti (Rome 1857, of pp. XV-51); awarded a prize 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 pls. 21); 9) Dissertazioni di vario argomento (2 vols., ibid. 1864-65), they contain revisions or additions to previous works and new studies, as well as interesting rectifications and corrections, not a few and not slight, of Mommsen, Ritschl, Detlefsen, Cavedoni, etc.; and attestations of assent written to him by Borghesi and others; 10) Sylloge inscript. Latinarum nevi Romanæ reipub. plenissima (Turin 1875, pp. 256); it comprises all the inscriptions earlier than Augustus; with subsequent additions published in 1877 and 1881; 11) Le monete dell'Italia antica (1885) illustrates the coinage of all the Italian cities from their origins down to Augustus. 12) More important articles: Il Crocifisso blasfemo del Palatino, discovered and illustrated; Le iscrizioni di P. Sulpicio Quirino e il censimento della Siria e della Giudea; L'anno 15ª dell'Impero di Tiberio Cesare: Nuovi studi sull'anno della morte di Erode il Grande; Basserilievo rappresentante il elippo di Achille secondo le descrizione di Giusto; Origine dell'oro, orgento e bronzo monetato in Etruria; Scavi a Velo e Preneste; Ciste preestime; Pitture Vulcani recate nel Museo Torlonia; Statue ed epigrafi di Semone Sanco 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.

Of Jewish epigraphy G. was deservedly called the true founder - and he published: 1) Il cimitero degli antichi obesi, scoperto nella Pigna Bonadani sulla Via Appia (2nd ed., Rome 1862, 1865); 2) Monte delle due rivolte giudaiche (1865); 3) Il Cimitero di Venosa di Puglia (1882).

On Christian archaeology: 1) Vetri ornati con figure in oro (3 editions, 1858, 1864, 1874; of which the third is the part of vol. III, plates 168-20, of the history of Christian art: see below). 2) In the first two editions of the Vetri there is added a critical examination of Constantinian numismatics with signs of Christianity, issued by the various mints of the Empire. 3) Notes and illustrations to the edition of the «Hagioglyphs» of Mecarius (J. L'Heureux, d. 1614), paleochristian paintings and sculptures. G. succeeded in tracking down the manuscript in Paris and in publishing it (1856). 4) Mélanges d'épigraphie ancienne (Paris 1856 ff.); on the two Greek inscriptions of Abercius and of Petronius. 5) Storia dell'arte cristiana dei primi otto secoli, accompanied by all the monuments of painting and sculpture (6 vols., Prato 1873-81, with over 600 plates). In vol. I there is a general theory concerning the nature and the characters of Christian art and an extensive essay of systematic chronology of the principal works. In the other five are examined the cemetery sculptures and paintings, the paintings, the mosaics and the non-cemetery sculptures, comprising in all over two thousand subjects, among which are also the gilded glasses, the lamps, the ivories, the bronzes, the enamels, etc. On the whole it is a work not yet surpassed for the vastness of its field. The work had been begun as early as 1856 in collaboration with Fr. A. Martin, who died very soon, and G. continued it alone, making use in part of the drawings, duly revised, of his deceased colleague, and having also received from Fr. Marchi «the excellent drawings that he had been preparing» for two of his volumes on early Christian sculpture and painting. 6) Various articles on individual monuments with primitive Christian symbols; furthermore Frammenti della Cattedra di S. Pietro (in The Archeologia, London 1870); Il cimitero di S. Gennaro a Napoli; Una croce graffita in Pompei, etc.

From 1851 onward, G. was appointed a member of the Accademia degli Ercolani, of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, and of the principal other academies or societies of antiquarians in Italy and Europe.

Romano Fausti