Le iscrizioni reimpiegate nella chiesa di S. Maria in Castello a Tarquinia, olim Corneto: un censimento topografico

This paper summarizes the findings of a painstaking, decade-long inquiry into the reuse of ancient inscriptions in the interior decorations of the church of S. Maria in Castello in Tarquinia (formerly Corneto). A grand total of 123 inscriptions was found, of whom 43 previously unpublished; approximately one out of every four published ones comes with an improved reading. The topographical survey provides further confirmation of Giovanni Battista De Rossi’s statement that the inscriptions reused in the Cosmatesque pavement were mostly extracted from a Christian cemetery in Rome, whereas materials of different provenance, arguably local were used in later phases, i.e. in the steps between naves, in the ambo, in the ciborium.