MARANGONI, GIOVANNI. — Priest and archaeologist, born at Valdagno di Vicenza ca. 1672, died at Rome on 5 February 1753. At Rome, he was Boldetti’s collaborator for approximately 40 years, succeeding him as custodian of the cemeteries and devoting himself especially to the search for the «Corpi Santi», while copying inscriptions and reproducing drawings. In 1720, together with Boldetti, he discovered the cemetery region of the Via Salaria, identified with the cemetery of S. Saturnino; in the pavement of the basilica of S. Agnese he rediscovered the original marble of the Damasian poem in honour of the martyr. He devoted himself to historical, biographical, and ascetical studies.
His collection of cemetery inscriptions and paintings, compiled in collaboration with Boldetti, was lost in the fire of 1737. His manuscript «De inventione corporum ss. Christi Martyrum Primi et Feliciani... in basilica S. Stephani in Monte Coelio Urbis nec non de illorum identitate ac translatione dissertatio...» is unpublished (cod. Vat. lat., 9456). He published: Acta s. Victorini episcopi amiterni et Martyris illustrata... Rome 1740; Delle memorie sacre e profane dell'uffito Flavio di Roma, there 1746; Istoria dell'antichissimo oratorio o cappella di S. Lorenzo del Patriarchio Lateranense comunemente appellato Sancta Sanctorum e della celebre immagine del S.mo Salvatore detta Acheropita, etc., there 1747; Chronologia Romanorum Pontificum superstes in pariete australi Basilicae Sancti Pauli Viae Ostiensis depicta..., there 1749, etc. Important is the Vita del card. Marc' Antonio Barbarigo, vescovo di Montefiascone e Corneto (ed. E. Chierichetti, Montefiascone 1930, with a biographical account of M., pp. xxviii-xlv).