NICOLAI, NICOLA MARIA. — Archaeologist and historian of the Roman Campagna, b. in Rome on 14 September 1756, d. there on 18 January 1833. He began his career as a lawyer; he then rose through the highest ranks of the prelature; he was a voting member 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 Pontificia Accademia romana di archeologia, in whose Proceedings (1st series, vols. I–V) he published various historical monographs on places once inhabited in the Agro romano, since his activity was particularly concerned with financial administration and with the agrarian and provisioning conditions of Rome and the Roman Campagna. His studies on this subject still constitute a basis for knowledge of the literature on the same topic, to such an extent that N. is regarded as the foremost of the writers on the Roman Campagna. As an archaeologist, N. wrote: Della basilica di S. Paolo (Rome 1815), important for its detailed description of the ancient Basilica, not yet destroyed by fire; De Vaticana Basilica divi Petri ac de eiusdem privilegiis libri quattuor cum appendice (there 1817). Of all N.’s numerous writings on economic and agrarian subjects, the most important are the three volumes of Memorie, leggi ed osservazioni sulla campagna e sull'annona di Roma, there 1820–25; volume IV, unpublished, was issued by Canaletti Gaudenti in 1947.