Antonio Bosio (c. 1575-1576 – 1629) was an Italian scholar, the first systematic explorer of subterranean Rome (the "Columbus of the Catacombs"), author of Roma Sotterranea and first urban spelunker.
Bosio was born in Malta.
Sent as a boy to the care of his uncle, who was representative at the Holy See of the Knights of Malta, he studied literature, philosophy, and jurisprudence, but at the age of eighteen he gave up his legal studies, went to Ro...
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Antonio Bosio (c. 1575-1576 – 1629) was an Italian scholar, the first systematic explorer of subterranean Rome (the "Columbus of the Catacombs"), author of Roma Sotterranea and first urban spelunker.
Bosio was born in Malta.
Sent as a boy to the care of his uncle, who was representative at the Holy See of the Knights of Malta, he studied literature, philosophy, and jurisprudence, but at the age of eighteen he gave up his legal studies, went to Rome and for the remainder of his life his time was devoted to archaeological work in the Roman catacombs.
The accidental discovery in 1578 of an ancient subterranean cemetery on the Via Salaria had attracted general attention in Rome. Few, however, realized the importance of the discovery, and with the exception of three foreign scholars, Alfonso Chacon, the antiquarian Philips van Winghe (1560–1592) from Leuven and Jean L'Heureux (alias Macarius), no one seriously thought of pursuing further investigations. Bosio began the systematic...
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