PESARINI, SANTI. - Historian and archaeologist, b. at S. Piero in Bagno on 8 Jan. 1853, d. in Rome on 10 March 1922.
He was a profound connoisseur of the churches of Rome and of their catalogues, an expert in reading the manuscripts of Onofrio Panvinio and Pompeo Ugonio, of which he provided transcriptions to G. Wilpert and G. Biasiotti; he was a collaborator of Fr. F. Grossi Gondi and one of the founders of the periodical Studi romani, where he wrote a notable Contributo alla storia della basilica di S. Lorenzo sulla Via Tiburtina (Studi romani, 1 [1913], pp. 37-52). He also wrote, together with G. Biasiotti, Pitture del XII sec. scoperte nella basilica di S. Croce in Gerusalemme a Roma, ibid., 1 (1913), pp. 244-74, in which he brought out the grandiose rebuilding of the Basilica through the works of the cardinal titular Gerardo Caccianemici from 1123 to 1144, before he became Pope Lucius II; and then La basilica di S. Paolo sulla Via Ostiense prima delle innovazioni del sec. XVI (ibid., pp. 386-427) on the basis of the description made of it by Onofrio Panvinio, identified by the P. in the codices Vat. lat. 6780 and 6781; furthermore the study, concerning a variant in the text of the Liber Pontificalis (per annum circuli or rather super amnem Circi?) that occurs in the biography of Adrian I (772-95) with regard to S. Maria in Cosmedin (ibid., 2 [1914], pp. 411-14). He was a member of the Pont. Commission of Sacred Archaeology, a member of the Artistic Association among the Cultivators of Architecture, and a corresponding member of the Pont. Roman Academy of Archaeology, where his writing Una pagina nuova nella storia della basilica di S. Paolo sulla Via Ostiense appeared (in Dissert. della Pont. Accad. rom. di arch., Atti, 2nd series, 13 [1918], pp. 193-226), in which he brought to light the rebuilding of the central nave and the roof of the Basilica through the work of Leo I, after the earthquake of 443; his investigation Dove nacque veramente Pasquale II (Forlì 1920) is of a historical character. Posthumous are his Studi sopra alcune basiliche cristiane di Roma, that is on La cripta sepolcrale di S. Pancrazio e la sua basilica sulla Via Aurelia; on Le confessioni aperte nelle basiliche romane and on L'antico altar maggiore di S. Prassede (Nuovo bull. arch. crist., 28 [1922], p. 71). His note cards are preserved in cod. Vat. lat. 13129 of the Vatican Library.