Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/94

104 folk's songs, which have lately been collected, and will shortly be published in a printed form. The whole company listened to him, and I could have sat and listened forever. It was enchanting! Visconti is a handsome, middle-aged gentleman, with fire in his eye, and a tone of high breeding in his appearance.

December 20th.—The Catacombs! I have to thank the kind management of my countrywoman, the lady of the Neapolitan Minister, Madame de Martino, for enabling me to see the Catacombs under the guidance of the celebrated archæologist, Cavaliere De Rossi, and enlightened by his edifying explanations.

Madame de Martino drove Jenny and myself to the entrance of the Catacombs outside the gate San Sebastiano. Here we were met by De Rossi—still a young man of Italian beauty and southern grace—accompanied by several learned men and antiquaries of various nations.

De Rossi is, at the present time, the most distinguished antiquarian of Rome, because he, two years ago, discovered the Christian catacomb of the first century, which was unknown, or had been forgotten ever since the fifth century, and he has arrived at this discovery by having, in the first place, discovered the so-called Calixti, (catacomb of Calixtus,) with the graves of Fabianus, Saint Cecilia, and many others of the ancient martys. This last mentioned catacomb, of which much is said in the writings of the oldest pilgrims of the sixth and seventh centuries, has been considered in latter times to exist in a totally different place to that in which De Rossi found it.