WINGHE, PHILIPS van. - Archaeologist and artist, b. in Louvain in 1560, d. in Florence in Aug. 1592.
He studied under the guidance of his learned maternal uncle A. Morillon. Already in 1586 he was traveling to Paris; in 1579 he was in Rome, favorably received for his talent by Cesare Baronio, Alfonso Ciacconio, Giovanni Macario (Jean l'Heureux) and others. His notebook, formerly belonging to the Library of the Bollandists, was sold in Antwerp in 1825; it then passed into the Royal Library of Brussels (nos. 17872-73). From it, it emerges that W. collected the inscriptions in the churches of Rome relating to dedications, translations of relics, altars, ciboria; many of them are today lost and known only through W.'s transcriptions.
In 1590 he penetrated into the cemeteries of Priscilla and of the Giordani, in which he traced his name on the walls; he also visited the cemeteries of Domitilla and in catacumbas, of which he made a plan. Besides in Rome, he transcribed Latin and Greek inscriptions, pagan, ancient Christian and medieval, also in Paris, Gubbio, Ostia, Naples and Tivoli. He had a quick and sure vision, was a critical observer, an exact topographer, had an artistic and scientific eye, a skilled draftsman, a most faithful copyist. In this sense, therefore, the overly summary judgment formulated by H. Leclercq must be corrected,
(Manuel d'archéologie chrétienne, I, Paris 1907, p. 3), because every time a copy by W. could be compared with the original, his exactness was confirmed.
Highly valuable are W.'s copies depicted in the cemetery of the Giordani, as Wilpert demonstrated as early as 1891 and as was later confirmed by the rediscovery of the cemetery in 1921. Likewise for the inscriptions v. A. Silvagni, Inscr. Christ. Urbis. Romae, nova series, I, Rome 1922, pp. 45-46.
Bibliography3 works
Enrico Josi