PESARINI, SANTI. — Historian and archaeologist, born at S. Piero in Bagno on 8 January 1853, died in Rome on 10 March 1922.
He was a profound connoisseur of the churches of Rome and its catacombs, an expert in reading the manuscripts of Onofrio Panvinio and Pompeo Ugonio, whose transcriptions he provided to G. Wilpert and G. Biasiotti; he collaborated with Fr. F. Grossi Gondi and was one of the founders of the periodical *Studi romani*, where he wrote a notable *Contribution to the History of the Basilica of S. Lorenzo on the Via Tiburtina* (*Studi romani*, 1 [1913], pp. 37-52). He also wrote, together with G. Biasiotti, *Paintings of the 12th Century Discovered in the Basilica of S. Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome* (*ibid.*, 1 [1913], pp. 244-74), in which he highlighted the great rebuilding of the Basilica under the works of Cardinal Gerard Caccianemici from 1123 to 1144, before he became Pope Lucius II; and also *The Basilica of S. Paolo on the Via Ostiense before the Innovations of the 16th Century* (*ibid.*, pp. 386-427), based on the description made by Onofrio Panvinio, identified in the MSS Vat. lat. 6780 and 6781; furthermore, the study on a variant in the text of the *Liber Pontificalis* (for *annum circuli* or *super amnem Circi*?) found in the biography of Hadrian I (772-95) regarding S. Maria in Cosmedin (*ibid.*, 2 [1914], pp. 411-14). He was a member of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, a member of the Artistic Association among the Cultors of Architecture, and a corresponding member of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, where his work *A New Page in the History of the Basilica of S. Paolo on the Via Ostiense* appeared (*in Dissertations of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, Acts, 2nd series, 13 [1918], pp. 193-226*), in which he highlighted the rebuilding of the central nave and roof of the Basilica by Leo I after the earthquake of 443; of historical character was his investigation *Where Did Paschal II Really Born?* (Forti 1920). Posthumous are his *Studies on Some Christian Basilicas of Rome*, namely on *The Sepulchral Crypt of S. Pancrazio and its Basilica on the Via Aurelia*; on *The Open Confessions in the Roman Basilicas*; and on *The Ancient High Altar of S. Prassede* (*Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana*, 28 [1922], p. 71). His notes are preserved in MS Vat. lat. 13129 of the Vatican Library.
