MARANGONI, GIOVANNI. - Priest, archaeologist, b. at Valdagno di Vicenza ca. 1672, d. at Rome on 5 February 1753. In Rome he was for about 40 years a collaborator of Boldetti, whom he succeeded as custodian of the cemeteries, devoting himself especially to the search for the "Holy Bodies," and copying inscriptions and redoing drawings. In 1720, with Boldetti, he discovered the cemetery region of the Via Salaria, identified with the cemetery of St. Saturninus; in the pavement of the basilica of St. Agnes he found the original marble of the Damasan poem in honor of the martyr. He occupied himself with historical, biographical and ascetical studies.
His collection of cemetery inscriptions and paintings, 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 is unpublished (cod.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, ibid. 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., ibid. 1747; Chronologia Romanorum Pontificum superstes in pariete australi Basilicae Sancti Pauli Viae Ostiensis depicta..., ibid. 1749, etc. Important is the Vita del card. Marc' Antonio Barbarigo, vescovo di Montefiascone e Corneto (ed. E. Chierichetti, Montefiascone 1930, with a biographical notice of M., pp. xxviii-xlv).
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Carlo Carletti