SETTELE, GIUSEPPE. — Archaeologist and canon of S. Pietro, born in Rome in 1770, died there in 1840. Against his father’s wishes, he devoted himself to study, especially mathematics and Christian archaeology.
He taught mathematics and astronomy at the University of Rome and Christian antiquities at the Roman Seminary, for which discipline he compiled the Trattato elementare di archeologia cristiana, which G. B. De Rossi knew in manuscript. He was visitor or custodian of the cemeteries, an office in which he took great care over the preservation of the inscriptions; he also continued the list of the bodies of saints that were extracted from the catacombs (Regestum, III, IV). He left a Diario, in which he recorded his studies, projects, and works undertaken or still to be undertaken. His publications include: Memoria sull'importanza dei monumenti che si trovano nei cemeterij degli antichi cristiani, in Atti della Pont. acc. rom. di arch., 1st series, 2 (1825), pp. 41–104; Illustrazione di un'antica iscrizione esistente nella chiesa di S. Silvestro in Capite, ibid., 3 (1829), pp. 229–266; Illustrazione di un antico monumento cristiano trovato nel cemeterio di Ciriaca, ibid., 4 (1831), pp. 23–50; Osservazioni sopra le lapidi pagane che si trovano nelle catacombe, ibid., 5 (1835), pp. 179–200; Illustrazione di due iscrizioni trovate nella basilica di S. Paolo nella Via Ostiense (Rome 1831). S.’s most important work consists of the new edition, with an appendix, of Sacrarum Vaticanae Basilicae cryptarum monumenta aeris tabulis incisa et a P. L. Dionysio commentaria illustrata, Rome 1840. S. was assisted in it by E. Sarti.