Excerpt from Monuments of Early Christian Art: Sculptures and Catacomb Paintings, Illustrative Notes, Collected in Order to Promote the Reproduction of Remains of Art Belonging to the Early Centuries of the Christian Era

In our own time much has been done to throw fresh light upon the Christian monuments of the first centuries, the attention of archaeologists having been again strongly directed to the history of the Catacombs. Under the auspices of Pius the Ninth, and mainly under the direction of the well known investigator of subterranean Rome, Giovanni Battista de' Rossi, new excavations have been carried on, which have led to important results, the most important, in fact, since the days of Bosio. The Christian Museum in the Lateran Palace has likewise been founded by Pope Pius the Ninth and this collection, systematically arranged by the late Father Giuseppe Marchi, forms now a centre of sacred antiquities to which we have first to turn in order to study the characteristics of early Christian' art. It contains the most complete series of Christian sculptures, for those have been removed to it which were formerly in the Vatican.

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