WINGHE, PHILIPS Van. — Archaeologist and artist, born in Leuven in 1560, died in Florence in Aug. 1592.
He studied under the guidance of his learned maternal uncle A. Morillon. As early as 1586 he was travelling to Paris; in 1579 he was in Rome, where he was benevolently received for his talent by Cesare Baronio, Alfonso Ciacconio, Giovanni Macario (Jean l'Heureux), and others. His notebook, formerly belonging to the Bollandist Library, was sold in Antwerp in 1825; it then passed to the Royal Library of Brussels (nos. 17872–73). It shows that W. collected the inscriptions in the churches of Rome relating to dedications, translations of relics, altars, and ciboria; many of these are now lost and known only through W.'s transcriptions.
In 1590 he entered the cemeteries of Priscilla and the Giordani, on whose walls he traced his name; he also visited the cemeteries of Domitilla and in catacumbas, of which he recorded the plan. In addition to Rome, he transcribed pagan, ancient Christian, and medieval Latin and Greek inscriptions in Paris, Gubbio, Ostia, Naples, and Tivoli. He had a quick and assured perception, was a critical observer and an exact topographer, possessed an artistic and scientific eye, and was a skilled draughtsman and an exceptionally faithful copyist. H. Leclercq's overly summary judgment must therefore be corrected in this regard,
(Manuel d'archéologie chrétienne, I, Paris 1907, p. 3), since whenever it has been possible to compare one of W.'s copies with the original, its accuracy has been confirmed.
The copies made by W. in the cemetery of the Giordani are particularly valuable, as Wilpert demonstrated as early as 1891 and as was later confirmed by the discovery of the cemetery in 1921. Thus, for the inscriptions V. A. Silvagni, Inscr. Christ. Urbis. Romae, nova series, I, Rome 1922, pp. 45–46.