Main description (English)

When the difficult publication process of Roma sotterranea, Antonio Bosio’s seminal book on the Roman catacombs, had come to completion early in 1635 the necessity of publishing a Latin edition of the book which would reach an international audience was soon expressed. It was Bosio’s posthumous editor Giovanni Severano, who by the end of 1635 provided the first Latin version of the text. The present article draws attention to the fact that Severano’s manuscript was, at least in parts, read and commented upon by one of the major Roman scholars of the day, Francesco Barberini’s librarian Lucas Holstenius. In December of 1638 he left his notes in Severano’s manuscript, Vallicelliana G. 38, and wrote a brief commentary on it which is preserved in the Vatican codex Barb. lat. 3071. Since Paolo Aringhi, in charge of this same Latin version after Severano’s death, also used the Vallicelliana manuscript for his own Roma subterranea of 1651, most of Holstenius’s annotations were printed in Aringhi’s book. Holstenius’s notes demonstrate a far better command of the Greek language and a knowledge of sources certainly broader than Severano’s. Whenever possible he prefers not to rely on hagiographic, but on more ‘objective’ historical material. Two specific catacomb problems are addressed, the Vatican tropaion mentioned in the early third century and the so-called vasi di sangue. A more general concern he brings up is the Protestant accusation of the increasing paganization of catholic liturgy and worship, which Holstenius recommends to reject with a strategic argument rarely heard of in contemporary Rome.