GROSSI-GONDI, Felice. - Jesuit, man of letters, and archaeologist, born in Rome on 16 Sept. 1860, died there on 31 March 1923. He entered the Society of Jesus on 13 Sept. 1881, and after completing his theological studies, he obtained a degree in letters from the University of Rome. He taught Italian and classical literature at the Istituto Massimo in Rome and at the Collegio di Mondragone (Frascati); from 1914 onwards, he taught Christian archaeology at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
He had already devoted himself to classical antiquities, particularly through a comprehensive historical-epigraphic study (his thesis) on the Comites in the Roman era (from the end of the Republic to the mid-6th century): their gradual development during the Empire marked the slow transformation of the entire civil and military order, though Mommsen himself had only partially addressed the subject. E. De Ruggiero included G.-G.’s study in his Dizionario epigrafico di antichità romane. He had also investigated the ancient topography and monuments of the Tuscan and suburban territory, which he partly illustrated in the Bullettino della Commissione archeologica comunale di Roma (1898–1916), partly in the Civiltà Cattolica (published separately: La villeggiatura tuscana di M. T. Cicerone, Rome 1905), and completed in two volumes: La villa dei Quintili e la villa di Mondragone (ibid. 1901) and Il Tuscolano nell’età classica (ibid. 1908). Subsidiary questions on the history of art were expounded in the manual Sulle soglie dell’arte (Rome 1912; 2nd ed., posthumous, Turin 1925). On Christian archaeology, he wrote articles on contemporary topics and others for the Civiltà Cattolica, Römische Quartalschrift, N. bull. di archeologia cristiana, Atti della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, and elsewhere; some were republished in pamphlets with extensive additions. The principal ones include: Leggenda e storia di Costantino nell’arte; La battaglia ad Saxa Rubra; L’arco di Costantino (2nd ed., Rome 1913); Scoperta e S. Sebastiano sull’Appia; Tomba, spoglie, altare di S. Sebastiano; Il «Refrigerium» ad Catacumbas. Origine della basilica e del monastero (ibid. 1915–19); Catacombe tuscolane; Iscrizione agiografica in S. Prassede; S. Fabiano papa e martire: tomba e spoglie (2nd ed., ibid. 1916); La Dormitio B. Mariae V.; Scoperte archeologiche del I e II ventennio del sec. XX; Chiese di Roma dopo il 1870; Stef. Ant. Morcelli e la sua Africa cristiana (Chiari 1921); S. Callisto papa e martire; Iscrizione eucaristica in S. Lorenzo (1922), etc.
A synthesis of all Christian archaeology, according to the findings of the leading archaeologists of the “Roman school,” especially Bosio, Marchi, De Rossi, Garrucci, and Wilpert, was presented in the manual I monumenti cristiani dei primi sei secoli (Rome, 2 vols.: I, monumenti iconografici e architettonici [1923]; II, Trattato di epigrafia cristiana latina e greca del mondo romano occidentale [1920]); this was preceded by the volume: Principi e problemi di critica agiografica. Atti e spoglie dei Martiri (ibid. 1919). Meanwhile, he was preparing other works.
He was a member of the Accademia di religione cattolica of the Arcadia, the Società di cultori di archeologia cristiana, the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, and the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology.