NICOLAI, NICOLA MARIA. — Archaeologist and historian of the Roman countryside, born in Rome on 14 Sept. 1756, died there on 18 Jan. 1833. He began his career in the legal profession; later he rose to the highest ranks of the prelature, serving as votante of the Segnatura di Grazia and Auditor General of the Apostolic Camera.
He was president of the Accademia dei Lincei and, succeeding Canova, of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, in whose Atti (1st series, vols. I–V) he published various historical monographs on places once inhabited in the Roman countryside, since his activity was particularly devoted to financial administration and to the agrarian and grain-supply conditions of Rome and its countryside. His studies on this subject remain a foundation for knowledge of the literature on the same topic, so much so that N. is judged “prince of the writers on the Roman countryside.” As an archaeologist, he wrote: Della basilica di S. Paolo (Rome 1815), important for its detailed description of the ancient basilica, not yet destroyed by the fire; De Vaticana Basilica di Petri ac de eiusdem privilegiis libri quattuor cum appendice (ibid. 1817). Of all his numerous writings of an economic and agrarian character, the most important are the three volumes of Memorie, leggi ed osservazioni sulla campagna e sull’annona di Roma (ibid. 1820–25); the fourth volume, unpublished, was published by Canletti Gaudenti in 1947.
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NICOLAI NICOLA MARIA — NICOLE PIERRE 1860