GATTI, GIUSEPPE. - Born in Rome on 23 Nov. 1838, died in Oriolo Romano on 12 Sept. 1914; an archaeologist highly versed in classical and Christian epigraphy, the topography of Rome, and Roman law. He obtained his degree ad praesium in jurisprudence. He had ties of friendship with G. Heuzen and T. Mommsen, and collaborated on vol. VI of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, but above all he was on friendly terms with G. B. De Rossi, whose principal collaborator he was for over thirty years and who entrusted him with the task of continuing the work of the Inscriptiones Christianae Urbis Romae septima saecula antiquiores. But only after his death did a supplementary fascicle appear, covering up to the year 395, because G. was absorbed by the teaching of Roman law at the Accademia storico giuridica and by his offices as director of the Museo nazionale romano and of the excavations of Rome, and later as superintendent of excavations and discoveries of antiquities in Rome and its province.
He was also director of the Bullettino della commissione archeologica comunale, in which, besides numerous articles, he began in 1887 together with G. B. De Rossi a Miscellanea di notizie bibliografiche e critiche per la topografia e la storia dei monumenti di Roma. He was a national fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei, a member of the P. Commissione di archeologia sacra and, from 1900 until his death, president of the P. Accademia romana di archeologia.
Among his writings may be recalled: Della utilità che lo studio del diritto romano può trarre dall'epigrafia (in Studi e documenti di storia e diritto, 1885, pp. 3-25); La badia di Ferentillo (in Rassegna italiana, 1885, pp. 337-48); Il tradimento di Giuda negli antichi monumenti cristiani (in Bullettino della Commissione archeol. comunale di Roma, 3rd series, 15 [1887], pp. 205-14); L'epitafio di « Ioannes exigua » vescovo di ignoto sede nel secolo sesto (ibid., 16 [1888], pp. 79-82); Di un nuovo monumento epigrafico relativo alla basilica di S. Clemente (ibid., 17 [1889], pp. 467-74); Iscrizione salomiana (in Römische Quartalschrift, 6 [1892], pp. 261-74); Di un frammento marmoreo col nome del martire Genesio (in Bull. arch. rom., 5th series, 32 [1904], pp. 325-30); Capselle reliquarie cristiane e misure romane di capacità (ibid., 33 [1905], pp. 316-28). Notable is the work Gli statuti dei mercanti di Roma dal sec. XIII al XVI (Rome 1885).
Bibliography
Enrico Josi