STEVENSON, HENRY, senior (STEVENSON W. F. MADDOCK). – Philologist and writer of the Vatican Library, b. at Camberwell (London) on 28 July 1818, d. in Rome on 19 April 1890.
Doctor of philosophy of the University of Berlin after completing his studies in Paris, Geneva, and Erlangen, and a teacher in Switzerland and Germany, he was almost disinherited by his father because of his religious opinions; in 1854, with the help of Mgr. Mermillod, he converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism. Mermillod’s Geneva periodical Annales catholiques had him as a contributor. In 1865 he moved permanently to Rome. He assisted Cardinal G. B. PETRA (v.) in the revision and publication of the various Greek liturgical books. Appointed writer of the Vatican Library for the Greek language in 1879, he described the Greek Palatine and Reginensis codices and prepared the catalogue of the Greek Urbino codices: Codd. manuscr. Palatini graeci Biblioth. Vat. descripti, Rome 1885; Codd. manuscr. graeci Reginae Suecorum et Pii PP. II... descripti, there 1888. He also wrote Du rythme dans l'hymnographie de l'Eglise grecque, there 1876; Theod. Prodromi Commentarios in carmina sacra melodorum Cosmae Hierosolym. et Ioannis Damasceni... Primum edidit, there 1888.
HENRY, junior. – Son of the preceding, archaeologist and writer of the Vatican Library, b. in Geneva on 11 April 1854, d. in Rome on 15 August 1898. He was the most esteemed of the Roman disciples of G. R. De Rossi. He belonged to the original nucleus of the Society of Students of Christian Archaeology (1875); he was one of the four founders of the College of Students of the Martyrs (1879), for which he composed its lex collegii in elegant Latin, and of the Nuovo Bulletino di archeologia cristiana (1895). He made and illustrated various discoveries in the Roman catacombs: Cubicolo con graffiti storici nel cimitero di Ciriaca (in N. Bull. arch. crist., 1 [1895], pp. 74 ff.). To him is due the discovery of the crypt of SS. Marcellinus and Peter, whose illustration he was preparing when he was struck by death; his material was used by O. Marucchi: La cripta storica dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino recentemente scoperta sulla Via Labicana (in N. Bull. arch. crist., 4 [1898], pp. 137–92).
His records and notes concerning the churches of Rome, the cemeteries, topography, and profane and Christian antiquity, together with letters received, are preserved in codices Vat. Lat. 10547–10587 (cf. M. Vattasso - H. Carusi, Codices Vat. Lat. 10301-10700, Rome 1920, pp. 290–313) of the Vatican Library, where he became a writer for the Greek language in 1882 and curator of the numismatic cabinet in 1894. His other publications include: Il cimitero di Zotico... descritto e illustrato (Modena 1876); Scoperta della basilica di S. Sinforosa e dei suoi sette figli (Rome 1878); Inventario dei libri stampati Palatino-Vaticani (3 vols., there 1886, 1889, 1891); Statuti delle Arti dei merciai e della lana di Roma (there 1893); (with Fr. Ehrle) Gli affreschi del Pinturicchio nell'appartamento Borgia del Palazzo Apost. Vat. riprodotti in fototipia e accompagnati da un commentario (there 1897). He also dealt with Di un insigne pavimento in musaico esprimente la geografia dei luoghi santi (in N. Bull. arch. crist., 3 [1897], pp. 45–102); Osservaz. sulla topografia della Via Ostiense e sul cimitero ove fu sepolto l'apostolo s. Paolo (ibid., 3 [1897], pp. 282–321); L'area di Lucina sulla Via Ostiense (ibid., 4 [1898], pp. 60–76).