Stevenson, Henry, Senior (Stevenson W. F. Maddock)

STEVENSON, HENRY, senior (STEVENSON W. F. MADDOCK). - Philologist and writer of the Vatican Library, b. at Camberwell (London) on 28 July 1818, d. at Rome on 19 Apr. 1890.

A doctor of philosophy of the University of Berlin after studies completed in Paris, Geneva and Erlangen, a teacher in Switzerland and Germany, almost disinherited by his father for his religious opinions, he converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1854 with the help of Msgr. Mermillod, whose journal Annales catholiques, of Geneva, had him as a contributor. In 1865 he moved permanently to Rome. He assisted Card. G. B. Pitra (v.) with the revision and edition of the various Greek liturgical books. A writer of the Vatican Library for the Greek language in 1879, he described the Greek Palatine and Regina codices and prepared the catalogue of the Greek Urbinati codices: Codd. manuscr. Palatini graeci Biblioth. Vat. descripti, Rome 1885; Codd. manuscr. graeci Reginae Suecorum et Pii PP. II... descripti, ibid. 1888. He also wrote Du rythme dans l'hymnographie de l'Eglise grecque, ibid. 1876; Theod. Prodromi Commentarios in carmina sacra melodorum Cosmae Hierosolym. et Ioannis Damasceni... Primum edidit, ibid. 1888.

HENRY, junior. - Son of the preceding, archaeologist, writer of the Vatican Library, b. at Geneva on 11 Apr. 1854, d. at Rome on 15 Aug. 1898. He was the most esteemed of the Roman disciples of G. R. De Rossi. He was part of the original nucleus of the Society of Students of Christian Archaeology (1875); one of the four founders of the College of the Cultors of the Martyrs (1879), whose lex collegii he drafted 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], p. 74 ff.). To him is due the discovery of the crypt of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter, whose illustration he was preparing when he was struck down 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 index cards and his notes for the churches of Rome, the cemeteries, topography, profane and Christian antiquity, are preserved together with letters received in the codices Vat. Lat. 10547-10587 (cf. M. Vattasso - H. Carusi, Codices Vat. Lat. 10301-10700, Rome 1920, pp. 290-313) of the Vatican Library, of which he became a writer for the Greek language in 1882 and curator of the numismatic cabinet in 1894. His other publications are: 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., ibid. 1886, 1889, 1891); Statuti delle Arti dei merciai e della lana di Roma (ibid. 1893); (with Fr. Ehrle) Gli affreschi del Pinturicchio nell'appartamento Borgia del Palazzo Apost. Vat. riprodotti in fototipia e accompagnati da un commentario (ibid. 1897). He also treated 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).

Augusto Pelzer