[116] A short account of the principal of these Itineraries is given on pp. [227–8].
[118] Allard translates these lines: “Si vous voulez savoir, ici reposent amoncelés les ossements d’un grand nombre des saints; ces vénérables tombeaux gardent les corps des élus dont le royaume des cieux a tiré à lui les âmes sublimes.” “Des polyandres, ou tombes consacrées à des centaines, peut-être à des milliers de corps, s’ouvraient en plusieurs parties des catacombes. Ces tombes étaient toujours anonymes, remplies de martyrs—‘quorum nomina scit Omnipotens’ selon l’expression du Pope Pascal.” ... “M. De Rossi croit reconnaître dans une fosse profonde qui s’ouvre sous la niche profonde à gauche de l’autel dans la chapelle Papale ... le polyandre célèbre où reposaient, selon d’anciens documents, une multitude innombrable de martyrs enterrés ‘ad sanctam Cæciliam.’” (See Allard, Rome Souteraine (Northcote & Brownlow), Cimetière de Calliste, 216–18; and see too note on p. [218].)
[119] Dean Stanley of Westminster.
[120] It was in the year of grace 1578 that some workmen digging out sand in a vineyard about a mile from Rome on the Via Salaria came upon the gallery of a subterranean cemetery, with dim paintings and many ancient inscriptions upon the walls.
This striking discovery excited much curiosity at the time, and the world of Rome, recalling to mind the long-forgotten story of the Catacombs, became suddenly conscious that beneath its suburbs lay a vast unexplored City of the Dead.
[121] Refer here to pp. [289–297], “Crypt of S. Cecilia.”
[122] Several additional discoveries of historic crypts have been made since this computation was made.
[123] Other tombs of the famous martyr-sons of Felicitas have since been identified, and much knowledge of this incident in early Christian history has been brought to light.
[124] The tomb of S. Peter and its surroundings will be described at length in Appendix II., which follows the section treating of the “Catacombs,” where is related the thrilling story of what was discovered when the excavations required for the support of the great bronze canopy of Bernini over the tomb of S. Peter were made in A.D. 1626, in the pontificate of Urban VIII. (Appendix II., S. Peter, pp. [279–88].)