Catacomb Explorations in Italy and Malta in the 16th and 17th centuries

Chiara Cecalupo completed her Ph.D in “Museology and History of Christian Archaeology” at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology (Rome), received a BA and a MA in Museology at University of Pisa. She is teacher assistant for “History of collections and museums” at University of Pisa and independent contractor of the Institute of Ancient Mediterranean of Italian National Research Centre. Her researches and publications focus on the history of archaeology and archaeological collections especially in 16th , 17th and early 18th century.

 

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Sponsored by the Alfred Mizzi Foundation. The lecture will focus on the general rediscovery of Christian catacombs in Rome, Sicily and Malta in 16th and 17th century. The 16th century is a very important moment for the rediscovery of Christian catacombs in Rome: after decades of ecclesiastical studies about ancient Christianity and the accidental re-opening of the Catacomb of Via Anapo in 1587, Roman scholars and ecclesiastics start a general campaign of catacombs explorations throughout the city of Rome. This leads to the publication of the first work about roman catacombs, the famous Roma Sotterranea by the Maltese Antonio Bosio, who is generally considered in Europe the father of Christian Archaeology. In the lecture we will see how Roman catacombs huge explorations and Bosio’s work have a great resonance in European culture, and lead scholars of the 17th century to feel deep interest in Christian catacombs even in other Mediterranean regions. This can be easily seen in travellers’ descriptions of Sicilian catacombs and, most of all, in the figure and the work of Giovan Francesco Abela. In the lecture, it will be offered an account of Abela’s relations with Roman scholars and politicians in order to read the rediscovery of Maltese Christian catacombs in a wider historical horizon.

 

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