GIUSEPPE SETTELE. — Archaeologist, canon of St Peter’s, born in Rome in 1770, died there in 1840. Against his father’s wishes, he devoted himself especially to the study of 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, known to G. B. De Rossi in manuscript form. He served as inspector or conservator of cemeteries, in which capacity he took great care to preserve inscriptions; he also continued the list of holy bodies that were being exhumed from the catacombs (Regestum, III–IV). He left a Diary in which he records his studies, projects and works undertaken and to be undertaken. Among his publications are: Memoria sull’importanza dei monumenti che si trovano nei cemeterij degli antichi cristiani, in Atti della Pont. acc. rom. di arch., 1ª serie, 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). The most important work of S. is the new edition, with appendix, of Sacrarum Vaticanae Basilicae cryptarum monumenta aeris tabulis incisa et a P. L. Dionysio commentariis illustrata, Rome 1840, to which he was assisted by E. Sarti.