TOMASSETTI, GIUSEPPE. - Historian of medieval Rome, b. in Rome on 4 April 1848 and d. there on 21 Jan. 1911. After completing his classical studies at the Collegio Romano and earning a degree in jurisprudence at the University of Rome, he began his historical investigations under the guidance of G. B. De Rossi, L. F. Bruzza, C. L. Visconti and G. Henzen.
He obtained the task of reorganizing the archives of certain patrician families, among others those of the Orsini and the Colonna, thereby deepening his knowledge of the disciplines of paleography and diplomatics. He extended his research to the State Archives and to those of the Chapters and Confraternities of Rome. A high-school teacher, he obtained the libera docenza in the history of Rome and of the Middle Ages at the University of Rome. In 1873 he published the monograph L'influenza degli Italiani sui loro conquistatori, notable for the original judgments expressed in it. There followed the studies: Il progresso delle colonie europee, La pace di Roma dell'a. 1188, Documenti feudali della provincia di Roma, Antichità della Sabina e della Campagna, Tavole per uso della scuola di epigrafia latina. T.'s major publication, the crowning achievement and fruit of thirty years' work, is the history of the Roman countryside, begun in 1892 with the illustration of the Via Nomentana and the Via Salaria in the volumes of the Archivio della Società di storia patria; he then passed on to the Via Appia, Latina, Aurelia and Casilina. T. had taken up A. Nibby's (v.) design, adopting the more rational system of traversing the consular roads. The work was conducted with a more rigorous critical method and with a greater abundance of information compared with previous works of the genre, and he entitled it: La campagna romana antica, medioevale e moderna. T. was able to edit vol. I (Introduzione generale) and vol. II (Vie Appia, Ardeatina, Aurelia), which appeared in 1910. Death prevented him from carrying the undertaking to completion. His son Dr. Francesco continued it, publishing in 1913 vol. III (Vie Cassia, Clodia, Flaminia, Tiberina, Labicana e Prenestina); a vol. IV (Via Latina) was issued in 1926. A special characteristic of G. T.'s work is the connection between antiquity and the Middle Ages; moreover, what he describes he had seen in continual excursions through the Roman countryside. T. was one of the most spirited founders of the Società Romana di storia patria, secretary of the Accademia di S. Luca and a member of the Pont. Accademia romana di archeologia and of the German Archaeological Institute. Of fertile versatility, of sound wit, of prodigious memory, T. was a remarkable teacher above all for his art of bringing to life with his words the men and things of the past. His firm religious faith sustained him throughout his life in the alternating vicissitudes of satisfactions and setbacks.