STEFANO ANTONIO MORCELLI. — Archaeologist and epigraphist, b. at Chiari (Brescia) 17 Jan. 1737, d. there 19 Jan. 1822. Entering the Jesuits in 1753, he taught literary subjects in the Colleges of Arezzo, Ragusa, Fermo and in the Roman College, where he established in the Kircherian Museum an Academy of Archaeology. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus (1773), he became librarian to Cardinal Albani and in 1791 provost of Chiari, having refused the bishopric of Ragusa. Upon the restoration of the Society (1814), he was readmitted, remaining with the permission of Pius VII in his post at Chiari.
He won great renown as an epigraphist through his wide classical learning and his straightforward Latin style, even when treating modern matters, in a series of important works: *De stylo inscriptionum latinarum* (Rome 1781), which made him the founder of epigraphic science; to this he added as commentary: *Inscriptiones commentariis subiectae* (ibid. 1783), in which the most notable feature is the attempt to draw up the *fasti* of the various Christian centuries, written in the manner of the Capitoline *fasti* (separate ed. *Fasti christiani*, Turin 1868). To these works, in their 2nd ed. expanded into 4 vols. (Padua 1818-23, ed. F. Caldani, G. Furlanetto, F. Federici), he added a fifth published before the others: *Παραγγεῖον inscriptionum novissimarum* (ibid. 1818). To these must be added two special lexica: P. Schiano, *Lexicon epigraphicum morellianum* (3 vols., Bologna 1835-38); A. Gambarini, *Lexicon epigraphicum morellianum vocibus italicis digestum* (ibid. 1843).
He also wrote: *Μηχανολογον τῶν συγγενέων ἐφημερίων ἀρχιερεῖς*, sive *Kalendarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae* (2 vols., Rome 1788); *Africa christiana* (3 vols., Brescia 1816-17); *Opuscoli ascetici* (3 vols., Brescia 1819; 2nd ed. 1823).