DISCOVERY AND SUBSEQUENT HISTORY

The catacomb beneath the estate belonging to Ignace Randanini in the angle between the Via Appia Antica and Via Appia Pignatelli was first investigated by the owner in 1857 (Marucchi (1903), p.214). The ‘official’ excavations began on 1st May 1859, starting from the Via Appia Pignatelli entrance and clearing the eastern part of the main gallery as far as the first light-well. Further excavations in 1862 revealed the rest of the catacomb, and showed that there was another entrance near the Via Appia Antica. Garrucci was responsible for the work, but unfortunately published no detailed account of how it progressed. He refers ((1862), pp.64-6) to the discovery of the lower level (East-West Gall.C and beyond) on 18th May 1862. His publication of the inscriptions was also inadequate, with few details of the plaques and almost no information about findspots. Some inscriptions were copied by C.L. Visconti in 1862-3, and his copies were preserved in de Rossi's ms. which Frey used.

Many plaques which were found on the floor were fixed to the walls in the 1860s; cf. no.325, which was moved at least once. Marucchi ((1903), p.214) visited the catacomb in 1884 and recorded the positions of the inscriptions then. Frey (1928) studied the catacomb in the 1920s when it was owned by Marchese Alberto di Roccagiovine, and noted that many inscriptions were no longer where Marucchi had recorded them. The current positions of many are completely different from those recorded by Marucchi.