Abstract

The Presence of Absence. Catacombs, Mummies, Urns – the Exploration of the Underground as an Archive of History

This article re-examines the antiquarian exploration of the subterranean world as an archive of history. It shows that the epistemology of the antiquarian historiography is far more complex than was assumed in Early Modern historiography. This thesis is demonstrated by case studies drawn from the 16th to the early 18th century extending from different editions of Antonio Bosio’s “Roma sotterranea“ and the works of Thomas Browne up until Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’ “Protogaea“ and the natural historians of the early 18th century and then, finally, back to Bosio’s epochal work on Roman catacombs. It can be seen that the engravings he had planned for the publication of “Roma sotterranea“ showed the subterranean graves empty and without images of historical scenes. Yet, the orthodox Oratorians who published Bosio’s work posthumously refilled the catacombs with relics of martyrs and praying pilgrims. While Bosio resisted the temptation of the subterranean relics to re-materialize the past, the Oratorians used these relics as a material stage to evoke their interpretation of the early Christian history. Bosio’s approach to the subterranean world of the past could be relevant to con temporary discussions in historiography: it helps to withstand the temptation to overcome radical constructivism with a new materialism implied by some interpretations of the “material turn“.