HÜLSEN, CHRISTIAN. – Protestant archaeologist and epigrapher, b. at Charlottenburg on 29 November 1858, d. at Florence on 19 January 1935. A disciple of Th. Mommsen, he was one of his collaborators on the edition of the Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum.
From 1887 he was first secretary of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. His scholarly activity testifies to his predilection for Rome, its monuments, its churches, and the works of the Renaissance. He lived almost always in Italy, for more than twenty years in Rome and, after 1909, in Florence, except for a brief period in Heidelberg.
A list of his writings was provided by A. M. Colini (v. BIBLICA). Among these, first and foremost should be recalled the volume supplementing H. Jordan, Topographie der Stadt Rom im Altertum (I, III, Berlin 1907); his volume Das Forum Romanum (ibid. 1904), which went through several editions and was translated into Italian, French, and English; the study on Die römischen Skizzenbücher von Marten van Heemskerk im königlichen Kupferstichkabinett zu Berlin (ibid. 1916), and that on Das Skizzenbuch des Giannantonio Dosio im staatlichen Kupferstichkabinett zu Berlin (ibid. 1933); his studies on architects, such as Il libro di Giuliano da Sangallo, cod. Vat. Barb. lat. 448 (Leipzig 1910); and, moreover, the Saggio di bibliografia ragionata delle piante iconografiche e prospettiche di Roma dal 1551 al 1748 (Florence 1933). Leaving aside the work of the topographer and epigrapher, C. H. should be remembered here especially for his publications concerning the Christian monuments of Rome. In collaboration with Th. Kiepert he published the Codex urbis Romae topographicus, with the appended Nomenclator topographicus (2nd ed., Berlin 1912), in which all the ancient churches of Rome are listed. Among his other writings are: La pianta di Roma dell'anonimo Einsiedlense, in Dissertazioni della Pont. Accademia romana di archeologia, 2nd series, 9 (1907), pp. 379–424; Il fondatore della basilica di S. Andrea sull'Esquilino, in Nuovo bullettino di arch. crist., 5 (1899), pp. 171–76; Die Basilica des Iunius Bassus und die Kirche S. Andrea cata Barbara auf dem Esquilin, in Festschrift
für J. Schlosser (Berlin 1926), pp. 53–67; Osservazioni sulla biografia di Leone III nel Liber pontificalis, in Rendiconti della Pont. Accademia romana di archeologia, 2nd series, 1 (1923); Die Kirchen des heiligen Caesarius in Rom, in Miscellanea F. Ehrle (Studi e Testi, 38), Rome 1924, pp. 377–403.
But his fundamental work is Le Chiese di Roma (Florence 1927), published through the munificence of Pope Pius XI, to whom the author dedicated it with gratitude after thirty years of research.
As a profound connoisseur of the topography of the Urbs throughout the centuries, C. H.’s work is historical and topographical in character; he investigates the genuine form of the names and the exact location of the sanctuaries, as well as their chronology from the ancient tituli to the fourteenth century. Of fundamental importance are the chapters devoted to the ancient catalogues of the churches of Rome from the seventh to the sixteenth century; to the information drawn from the Libri anniversariorum; and to the codices in various European libraries containing information concerning urban churches.