Jewish Antiquities in Eighteenth Century Rome: The Corpus Inscriptionum Judaicarum 1.1

The inscription CIJ 1.1, a child���s funerary epitaph in Greek, was first published by Father Antonio Lupi, S. J. in his Dissertatio ed animadversiones ad nuper inventum Severae Martyris epitaphium, Palermo, 1734, p. 140. As noted by Father Antonio Ferrua, S.J., all known copies of the inscription up to the present time depend on Lupi���s edition. The inscription itself ���disappears��� after the mid-eighteenth century, but is included in nearly all the studies and collections of Jewish inscriptions in Rome following the recovery of a number of examples from the Monteverde catacomb in 1748. The neutrality of the text of CIJ 1, 1 may be workshop influenced: today we see that what Winkelmann���s described as an ���urn of poor workmanship��� is, in fact, a small marble sarcophagus, more or less intact. The front of this container is decorated with human and animal figures flanking a large rectangular tablet at center that contains the epitaph. Although an exceptional iconographic and epigraphic find, and still conserved within the Palazzo Rondinini (or Rondanini) in Rome, the sarcophagus has attracted little attention and study until very recently. Several theories present themselves. That most likely is that the sarcophagus is a fantastic creation of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, perhaps incorporating a ���real��� or authentic inscription (or a fake one with obvious ���mistakes���); another ���Jewish��� piece, CIJ 1.380/JIWE 2.557, of unknown provenance, is known to have existed in multiple copies at this time.42 The sarcophagus���s irregularities in cut and decoration also favor a modern origin, as does Winkelmann���s bland description, possibly made before the piece was ���improved upon��� by one of Rome���s many artisans to fetch a higher price. On the other hand, if ancient, it may not be ���Jewish��� at all, but rather created for a non-Jewish client. The title archon, although commonly used for Jewish individuals in Rome, was never in itself exclusive to Jews, and could refer to a leader of one of the many other communities in Rome at the time, including the Mithraic sect. 43 Long ignored or missing until the mid-twentieth century, the sarcophagus needs to be examined more closely to determine its authenticity and relationship to the collection and study of Jewish antiquities in eighteenth-century Rome.
Lecture delivered by invitation to Prof. Danilo Mazzoleni's seminar on Ancient Christian Epigraphy at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology in Rome, and published in ICS Varia (2010)