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Text before trowel: Antonio Bosio’s Roma sotterranea revisited1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Simon Ditchfield
Simon Ditchfield*
Affiliation:
University of York
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Extract

Before returning home to his royal master, the ambassador of Poland went to say farewell to the reigning Pope, Pius V. They met in St Peter’s Square, where the ambassador asked for a relic to take back with him to Poland. In reply, the pontiff bent down and took earth from the square with both his hands and placed it in a handkerchief, before handing it to the understandably bemused Pole with the reassurance that this was no ordinary earth but that mixed with the blood of Christian martyrs (nobis notum omnino erat, Vaticanum pulverem Martyrum sanguine plenum esse). The earth then proceeded to bleed, staining the handkerchief to the wonder and amazement of all present.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 33: The Church Retrospective , 1997 , pp. 343 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1997

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Footnotes

1

The writing of this paper was greatly facilitated by the assistance of Dott. Giorgio Finocchiaro of the Biblioteca Vallicella, Rome. I am extremely grateful for his help in guiding me through the tangled erudition of le carte bosiane.

References

2 This trial was to ascertain a candidate for canonization’s sanctity in specie, and represented the second stage of the judicial process (after the processus inquisitionis et informatwnis). Reference to the miracle (witnessed by one person directly, and four indirectly) may be found in the report made to Urban VIII by the Auditors of the Rota in 1629, which is excerpted in ActaSS. Maii I (Antwerp, 1680), pp. 714–17(at p. 715E).

3 Martyrologium romanum ad novam kalendarii rationem et ecclesiasticae historiae veritatem restitutum … accesserunt notationes atque tractatio de martyrologio romano auctore C. Baronio … secunda editio ab ipso auctore … aucta (Antwerp, 1589), cf. edns of 1586 and 1598; Gallonio, A., Trattato de gli Istrumenti di Martire e delle varie maniere di martorirare usate da’Centili contro Cristiani (Rome, 1591)Google Scholar; Bosio, A., Historia B. Caeciliae virginis Valeriani, Tiburti et Maximi martyrum necnon Urbani et Lucii Pontificum et mart, vitae atque Paschales papae I literae de eorundem sanctorum corporum inventione et in urbem translatione (Rome, 1600)Google Scholar.

4 The papal brief is dated 6 Oct. 1634. The only monograph wholly dedicated to Bosio is A. Valeri’s dated but still useful Cenni biografici di Antonio Bosio (Rome, 1900), whose appendix contains, inter alia, an inventory of Bosio’s library (pp. 84–110). I am indebted to Dott. Finocchiaro for making available to me a xerox of this rare work. Cf. N. Parise’s article in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 13 (Rome, 1971), pp. 257–9, and G. Ferretto, Note storico-bibliografiche di archaeologia cristiana (Rome, 1942), pp. 140–61.

5 Leclercq, H., Manuel d’archéologie chrétienne depuis íes origines jusqu’au VIII siècìe, 2 vols (Paris, 1907), 1, p. 3 Google Scholar.

6 The most important figure in the history of Christian archaeology in Rome between Bosio and De Rossi (which was characterized for the most part by apathy and sloth) was the latter’s teacher, the Jesuit Giuseppe Marchi (1795-1860), whose work shifted interest decisively towards the corridors and structure of the catacombs themselves and away from the use of the latter primarily as evidence for the life and liturgy of the early Christians. This was reflected in the title to volume one of his classic study which was focused on the catacombs of S. Agnese: Monumenti delle arti cristiane primitive netta metropoli del cristianesimo: I – architettura della Roma sotterranea cristiana (Rome, 1844).

7 ‘Si dette a far vite eremitica, nutrendosi di cose grosse. Et io li ho inteso dir più volte, dal padre, che era stato tre giorni intieri senza pigliar cibo alcuno, et che per suo letto era la terra nuda’, G. Incisa della Rocchetta and N. Vian, eds, Il primo processo per San Filippo Nero (hereafter Il primo processo), 4 vols (Vatican City, 1957–63), 1, p. 173, testimony dated 7 Sept. 1595.

8 ‘Ho inteso dire, che, nel principio, che venne il beato Filippo a Roma … faceva una vita mezza eremitica, andando alle chiese …’, Il primo processo, 3, p. 277, testimony dated 8 June 1610.

9 ‘… che dieci anni era stato nelle grotte di S. Sebastiano, dove viveva di pane e di radiche d’herbe’, Il primo processo, 1, p. 133, testimony dated l Sept. 1595.

10 ‘… a fare molte penitenze’, Il primo processo, 3, p. 178, testimony dated 7 May 1610.

11 See II primo processo, 1, p. 248.

12 See Severano, G., Memorie sacre delle sette chiese di Roma (Rome, 1630), pp. 453–4 Google Scholar of the Rome 1675 edn. Borromeo, who regarded the catacombs as pietate stimulante, also restored his titular basilica of S. Prassade which involved the rearranging of many of the relics of the 2,000 martyrs whom Pope Paschal I had brought to that church from the catacombs for safekeeping in the ninth century. In the absence of catacombs per se in Milan, Borromeo also used to keep nocturnal vigils in the crypt of the cathedral there. I am grateful to Anthony Wright for this last item of information.

13 G. Martin, Roma sancta (1581), ed. G. B. Parks (Rome, 1969), p. 7.

14 Ibid., p. 44. The final quotation (given by Martin in the original Latin) is taken from Prudentius, Peristephanon, bk II, lines 541–44. The translation is that of the Loeb edition by H.J. Thompson (2, p. 141).

15 W. W. Meyer, ‘The Church and the Catacombs: British responses to the evidence of the Roman catacombs, 1578–1900’ (Cambridge University Ph.D. thesis, 1985), p. 28. I am grateful to Dr Judith Champ for having drawn my attention to this useful study.

16 Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana [hereafter BVR], Cod. Q. 46, fol. 34, reprinted in H. Lammer, De Caesaris Baronii literarum commercio diatriba (Freibourg im Breisgau, 1903), p. 38. Cf. Pastor, L. von, History of the Popes, 19 (London, 1952), p. 171 Google Scholar.

17 For an excellent survey of the fortuna of the Roman catacombs down to the fifteenth century see J. Osborne, ‘The Roman catacombs in the Middle Ages’, Papers of the British School at Rome, 53 (1985), pp. 278–328.

18 Panciroli, O., Tesori nascosti dell’alma città di Roma (Rome, 1600), p. 18 Google Scholar of Rome 1625 edn. Cf. A. Bosio, Historia passionis B. Caeciliae virginis…, pp. 65–6.

19 Severano, G., Memorie sacre delle sette chiese di Roma (Rome, 1630), p. 419 Google Scholar.

20 Ugonio, P., Historie delle stationi di Roma (Rome, 1588)Google Scholar, sig. tt 4r-v.

21 They were, apart from S. Sebastiano, those of Pope Julius I (near the church of S. Valentino) on the via Flaminia; of Balbina or S. Marco between the via Appia and Ardeatina; and that of Cyriaces, next to the basilica of S. Lorenzo fuori le mura. Fremiotti believes that these are not references to the catacombs Panvinio had visited but only to those which were then open to the public. See P. Fremiotti, La Riforma cattolica del secolo decimosesto e gli studi di Archaeologia cristiana (Rome, 1926), p. 34. For an extensive treatment of Panvinio’s contribution to Christian archaeology see ibid., pp. 26–41.

22 BVR, Cod. G. 31, fols 94–246. A list of the chapter titles to this section is given in L. Spigno, ‘Della Roma sotterranea del Bosio e della sua biografia’, Rivista di archeologia cristiana, 52 (1976), pp. 277–301 (at pp. 278–9). For the fullest available discussion of G. 31 see this article and an earlier one by Spigno: ‘Considerazioni sul manoscritto vallicelliano G. 31 e la Roma sotterranea di Antonio Bosio’, ibid., 51 (1975), pp. 281–311. Cf. Rossi, G. B. De, Roma sotterranea cristiana, 3 vols (Rome, 1864-77), 1, pp. 33–5 Google Scholar; but see now G. Finocchiaro, ‘La Roma sotterranea e la Congregazione dell’Oratorio. Inediti e lacune del manoscritto vallicelliano G. 31’, in B. Tellini Santoni and A. Manodoro, eds, Messer Filippo Neri, santo: l’apostolo di Roma, a catalogue of the exhibition held at the Vallicelliana Library, 24 May-30 Sept. 1995 (Rome, 1995), pp. 189–93. I am indebted to Dott. Finocchiaro for having drawn my attention to Spigno’s articles and for kindly sending me a copy of the catalogue.

23 G. 31, fols. 94r-5r. Cf. the transcription given in Finocchiaro, ‘La Roma sotterranea e la Congregazione dell’Oratorio’, pp. 192–3.

24 G. 31, fol. 94v. Cf. Richards, J., Consul of God: the Life and Times of Gregory the Great (London, 1980), pp. 244–5 Google Scholar.

25 Bosio identified Jewish influence, for example, in several aspects of early Christian burial practice, including the practice of saying prayers for the dead (G. 36, fols 218v and 240r).

26 E.g. in relation to his account of the early history of the sacrament of confession, G. 31, fol. 101r-v.

27 G. 31, fols 195r-6r.

28 The relevant sections of G. 31 which were crossed out by Severano are fols 271r-385r (on St Peter’s) and fols 541v-71r (on St Paul’s).

29 See in a letter from Bosio to Giacomo Crescenzi of 28 Feb. 1629 in Cod. G. 20, fol. 221r. Bosio’s death on 7 Sept. the same year prevented him from carrying out his intention of removing the surplus material.

30 G. 31, fol. 286r-v.

31 ‘Fu per alcun tempo usato di dare in appalto le oblazioni della confessione di S. Pietro e quello che le comprava si obligava et era tenuto di dare le sudette cose e fare le spesi soliti. … da essa Sacra Confessione si pagavono fin gli stipendi de’ministri di giustitia’. Ibid., fols 283v-4r.

32 This part of Roma sotterranea was put together by Severano using, for the most part, material which Bosio had collected (Codd. G. 3 and G. 4).

33 For a summary list of the contents to H. 1–20 see A. Poncelet, Catalogus codicum hagiographkorum latinorum bibliothecarum romanarum praeter quam vaticanae (Brussels, 1909), pp. 400–43. H. 24 consists of an index to some of the additional hagiographical manuscripts Bosio consulted. They include nine from the Vatican; four from St Peter’s; two from St John Lateran; two from S. Cecilia in Trastevere; one from S. Maria ad Martyres (the Pantheon) as well as twenty-one from the Codd. H series in the Vallicelliana.

34 Bosio’s notes are entitled, Acta et vitae sanctorum, antiqua monumenta sacra et profana, itemque adversaria variae eruditionis pro illustrando opere de sacris coemeteriis (BVR, Codd. G3 and G4). In C. 4 there is a colour drawing of Pope Leo I’s body and coffin taken from Giacomo Grimaldi’s famous description of the excavations involved in building the new St Peter’s (p. 1164) and the depiction of a ferocious-looking pair of forceps also found under the basilica (p. 1492).

35 See Fremiotti, La Riforma cattolica, pp. 81–3.

36 Bosio, Roma sotterranea, p. 127. Cf. Ferretto, Note storico-bibliografiche di archaeologia cristiana, p. 141.

37 C. Cecchelli, Il Cenacolo filippino e l’archeologia cristiana (Spoleto, 1938), pp. 22–3.

38 C. Baronio, Annales ecclesiastici, 12 vols (Antwerp, 1597–1609: 1st edn, Rome, 1588–1607), 2, ad an. 130, n. 2, p. 81 (emphasis added). Cf. ibid., 1, ad an. 57, n. 112, and 2, ad an. 226, nn. 8 and 12. The catacomb referred to erroneously by Baronio as Priscilla was in fact that of the Giordani.

39 BVR, G. 6, the relevant image may be found on fol. 9r. Cf. T. Buser, ‘Jerome Nadal and early Jesuit art in Rome’, Art Bulletin, 58 (1976), pp. 431–2, where it is discussed and illustrated.

40 A. Bosio, Roma sotterranea, p. 579.

41 Haskell, F., History and its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the Past (New Haven and London, 1993), p. 123 Google Scholar. For a fuller discussion of Baronio, Bosio, and the confessional interpretation of visual evidence from the catacombs, see also pp. 102–10.

42 R. Krautheimer, ‘A Christian triumph of 1597’, in D. Fraser et al., Essays in the History of Art Presented to Rudolf Wittkower (London, 1967), pp. 174–8. For a much fuller account of the scholarship Baronio brought to bear on the project, see now A. Herz, ‘Cardinal Cesare Baronio’s restoration of Ss. Nereo ed Achilleo and S. Cesareo de’Appia’, Art Bulletin, 70 (1988), pp. 590–620.