Giuseppe Marchi

Giuseppe Marchi ( born February 22, 1795 in Tolmezzo in Udine, † February 10, 1860 in Rome ) was an Italian archaeologist and Jesuit. He is considered a pioneer of Christian archeology.

Life

Marchi was after joining the Jesuit order in 1815 first professor in the religious schools of Terni, Reggio Emilia and Modena. 1833 to 1838 he worked in the Roman Jesuit college first as a librarian, and finally from 1839 to 1860 as director of the Museum Kircherianum. 1842/43 he was involved in the establishment of the Gregorian Etruscan Museum at the Vatican.

Pope Gregory XVI. appointed him curator of the cemeteries in Rome. He began working in this capacity, the systematic exploration of the Roman catacombs and discovered in 1845, the grave of the Martyr Hyacinthus, the only one to date was previously completely untouched martyrs grave.

Marchi was a teacher and mentor of the famous Christian archaeologist Giovanni Battista de Rossi. He began an elaborate work of early Christian archeology, of which really did not finish only the first volume of the catacombs of Rome. His great iconographic collection he bequeathed to his pupil Raffaele Garrucci.

Publications (selection)

• Monumenti delle arti cristiane primitive. Volume I: Architettura della Roma cimiteriale sotterranea cristiana, Rome 1844.