Giovanni Giustino Ciampini

Giovanni Giustino Ciampini (born April 13, 1633 in Rome ; † July 12, 1698 ibid) was an Italian clergyman, historian and Christian archaeologist .

Giovanni Giustino Ciampini studied law at the University of Rome . In 1657 he became laureato in utroque iure at the University of Macerata . After a short time he switched his interests to archeology. To this end, he moved to the Apostolic Chancellery in Rome as magister brevium gratiæ . In his career in the Curia he reached the office of prelate . Ciampini's work fell during the Counter Reformation , which directly influenced his work. This included his involvement in the beginnings of Christian archeology.

His main work on Christian archeology appeared in two parts, the first in 1690 and the second in 1699, a year after his death. The questions asked at that time are now largely out of date, the archaeological and historical texts were largely tendentious. Nevertheless, the work is still of importance beyond the history of the subject because the illustrations often show works that are lost today. The work was based on the antiquarian compilations of Onofrio Panvinio and Antonio Bosio , with Ciampini limited to the monuments above ground. For the first time he offered a compilation of the late antique-early Christian mosaics and paintings in Rome, which he compared with the works of Ravenna , Constantinople , Capua and other places. The work also contained numerous floor plans and elevations of church buildings. According to Ciampini, the majority of the monuments treated came from the Constantinian period , but the attributed pieces also include works dating back to the High Middle Ages . Nevertheless, the work had a great influence, in 1747 the publisher Carlo Giannini brought out a new edition. In another work he devoted himself to the church buildings he considered to be Constantinian. He also included the interpretation of the furnishings in the descriptions, which were often distorted by a counter-Reformation interpretation. In addition to his focus on history and art archeology, Ciampini also dealt with theology and the natural sciences. In 1671 he founded the Academy for Church History ( Accademia Ecclesiastica ) in Rome, and in 1679 another Academy of Sciences in Rome ( Accademia di fisica e meccanica ), which was under the patronage of Christina of Sweden . In 1691 he became a member of the Accademia dell'Arcadia . He was buried in the Church of San Lorenzo in Damaso .

The city of Ciampino developed from an estate Ciampinis and thus got the name.

Publications

• Vetera Monimenta: In quibus praecipuè Musiva Opera Sacrarum, Profanarumque Aedium Structura, Ac nonnulli antiqui Ritus Dißertationibus, Iconibusque illustrantur. 2 volumes, Rome 1690–1699 ( full text ).
• De Sacris Ædificiis A Constantino Magno Constructis. Synopsis Historica . Rome 1693 ( full text ).

literature

• Silvia Grassi Fiorentino:  Campini, Giovanni Giustino. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 25:  Chinzer – Cirni. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1981.
• Simona Barberini: Giovanni Giustino Ciampini / Joannes Justinus Ciampinus. In: Stefan Heid, Martin Dennert (Hrsg.): Personal Lexicon for Christian Archeology. Researchers and personalities from the 16th to the 21st century . Volume 1, Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7954-2620-0 , pp. 314-316.
• Sebastian Ristow : Ciampini, Giovanni Giustino. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 232 f.