Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/791

 CHRISTIAN

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CHRISTIAN

The work of De Rossi which best reveals his im- mense learning and the scientific manner in which his investigations were carried out is his "Roma Sotterranea" (Rome, 18G4-77, 3 vols., fol.). The time that has elapsed since the publication of the last volume of this truly magnum opus has con- firmed in the main the theories of its author. on the civil and religious conditions of the primitive Chris- tians, and on the symbolic character of early Christian art. In 18(53 he began the publication of his " Bullet- tino d'archeologia cristiana", a periodical almost as indispensable to the student of Christian archaeology as the "Roma Sotterranea". De Rossi left at his death a school of archaeologists, trained in his scien- tific methods, and capable of continuing his work. The three earliest of his disciples, Armellini, Steven- son, and Marucchi, have published numerous works giving the results of their own investigations, or popularizing the general results of Christian archaeolo- gical discoveries, besides continuing the publication of the Bullettino under the title " Nuovo Bullettino d'archeologia cristiana". A publicist who accom- plished considerable work of permanent value in the domain of Christian archaeology was the Jesuit Garrucci. His most important publication was a "History of Christian Art", in six volumes, which contains five hundred tables of illustrations. Many of these, however, have been found inaccurate and must be used with caution. His text also has been in a great measure superseded by that of recent writers. The best results achieved since the death of De Rossi are attributable to a young German priest, whose love for archaeological studies drew him to Rome nearly two decades ago: Mgr. Joseph Wilpert. Wilpert has devoted himself in a special manner to the study of early Christian painting, a department of archaeology to which De Rossi was unable to give the attention the subject deserved. In 1889 Wilpert published his "Principienfragen der christlichen Archaologie", a brochure defending the principles of interpretation of the Roman school of archaeologists against the attacks of German non-Catholic authors. In 1892 appeared his study on "Die Gottgeweihten Jungfrauen", a valuable contribution on the origins of the religious life. In 1S95 he published his "Fractio Panis," wherein he describes the cycle of sacred representations in the crypt of St. Priscilla, known as the "Capella Greca", and shows their relation to the principal scene depicted in that chapel, the eucharistic, or sacred-banquet, scene of the apse, which he appropriately named "fractio panis, the Breaking of Bread. The signification of Orantes (praying) figures so frequently depicted on early Christian tombs was first satisfactorily ex- plained by this writer in his "Cyclus christologischer Gemalde" (1891). His greatest work is his "Male- reien der Katakomben Roms" (Freiburg, 1903). It consists of two folio volumes, one of plates re- producing more than six hundred catacomb frescoes, half of them in colours; the other of text, in which the author, after laying down his principles of in- terpretation, classifies and describes the various cycles of the cemeterial paintings and interprets their symbolical meaning. Another German priest resident in Rome, Mcr. de Waal, the founder and editor of the "Romische Quartalschrift", has written extensively on archaeological subjects; one of his best known works is a description, with illustrations, of the sarcophagus of Junius Has. us (Home, 1900). The impetus given to the study of early Christian monuments by the discoveries and publications of De Rossi was immediately felt in every country of Europe. Two Enirlisli priests, Xortheote and Brown- low, were among the first to appreciate (lie im- portance of his work, which they popularized in their excellent "Roma Sotterranea" (London, 1869; second edition, 1878). Dr. Northcote also published

a useful work on early Christian inscriptions under the title "Epitaphs of the Catacombs" (London, 1878). The former of these works was translated into French by Allard; Kraus's "Roma Sotterranea" was partly a translation of Northcote and Brownlow, and partly an original work. Smith and Cheetham's "Dictionary of Christian Antiquities" (London, 1875-80) is an evidence of the influence on English Protestants of the Roman explorations, and the recently published manual of Lowrie, "Monuments of the Early Church" (New York, 1901), bears witness to the intelligent interest of American Protestants in the most recent results of Christian archaeological studies. Among the first in France to be influenced by the archaeological revival of De Rossi was the Abb<5 Martigny, who in 1865 pub- lished his, for that time, remarkable "Dictionnaire des antiquites chrefiennes" (third edition, Paris, 1889). Perret's "Catacombes de Rome" (Paris, 1851-55) is a pretentious work of little value; his illustrations are inaccurate, and his text unreliable. Desbassayns de Richemont's "Catacombes de Rome" appeared in 1870, and in the following year Allard's translation of Northcote and Brownlow. These works did good service as popular manuals, but original investigations of great importance were carried on by another French archaeologist, Edmond Le Blant. The first volume of Le Blant's "In- scriptions chreriennes de la Gaule" appeared in 1856, the second in 1S65, the third in 1892. These were followed by two volumes on the Christian sarcophagi of Aries and of France (Paris, 1878-86), and various studies on Christian epigraphy. At the present time (1906) a highly useful and excellent work in course of publication, is Cabrol and Leclercq's "Diction- naire d'arche'ologie et de liturgie" (since 1903). The discoveries of Count de Vogii6 in Central Syria ["La Syrie Centrale" (Paris, 1865)], and in the Holy Land ["Les eglises de la Terre Sainte" (Paris, I860)] were of great importance for the history of early Christian architecture. The writings of Pere De- lattre and of Stephen Gsell are indispensable for the study of the Christian monuments of North Africa. In Germany Professor Franz Xaver Krans did more, probably, than any other writer to popu- larize the results of Christian archaeological studies. Besides his "Roma Sotterranea" Kraus edited the excellent "Real-Encyklopiidie der christlichen Alter- thiimer" (Freiburg, 1882-86, 2 vols.), and published (Freiburg, 1896-97), an (unfinished) history of Chris- tian art in three volumes, of which only the first concerns Christian archaeology. It is the most complete general work on this subject that has yet appeared. Kraus also published in two volumes (Freiburg, 1890-94), a collection of early Christian inscriptions from the Rhineland, besides a number of monographs of an archa>ological character. Among German Protestant archaeologists may be mentioned Victor Schultze, uhose studies on the catacombs of Naples and Syracuse, and "Archaologie der altchristlichcn Kunst " (Munich, 1895) are of importance. Of contemporary German writers on the monuments of Christian antiquity space will not permit more than the mention of a few of the princi- pal: Midler, Ficker, Krumbacher.Strzygowski, Kirsch, Kaufmann, and Baumstark.

II LrrEBARl Sim i,, i- -The knowledge of early Christian society derived from the study of the oldest

existing Christian monuments has thrown light on many obscurities in the Church's early history, as it was known from the literature that has come down

to us from the first age of Christianity. It is equally true that the study of Christian monuments would be impossible apart from the study of the various literary sources of Christian antiquity. Christian literature and Christian monuments supplement one another. First among the literary sources indis-