Monsignor Getano, a celebrated savant, born in 1742 at St Arcangelo, near Rimini, in the Papal States. He began his studies under Giovanni Bianchi, and in early youth devoted himself to natural philosophy. He then turned his attention to mathematics, Greek, Hebrew, and classic literature; and afterwards, at the suggestion of his intimate friend Zerardini, applied himself to the study of jurisprudence, and went to Ravenna, where he took his degrees in Roman and ecclesiastical law. He did not, however, feel disposed to practise that profession, his tastes tending rather to philosophical and antiquarian research. To obtain leisure for these studies, he went to Rome in 1764, took holy orders, and dedicated himself to archaeology. At that time the science of archaeology was at its height in Italy. The recent discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum had attracted the attention of princes as well as of the learned. Count Caylas had already classified the ancient monuments; Johann Winkelmann and the members of the Herculaneenses Society had with equal taste and learning illustrated them; Ennio Quirino Visconti, the Nestor of art critics, had made them popular. The civilized West now began to turn its attention to the East, the cradle of mankind; and some of the most learned men of the time at Rome were engaged in philological, antiquarian, and numismatic researches, directed mainly towards the most interesting fields of inquiry in Egypt and the Asiatic continent, when Marini resolved to enlist in their ranks, and share their reputation. He undertook to examine the ancient papyri, and among his many works, *I Popiri Diplomatici raccolti ed illustrati*, Roma, 1805, is that which principally entitles him to a high place among the savants of the eighteenth century. The first idea of this work belongs to Scipione Maffei; and though Zecardini had previously attempted it, the honour of having accomplished this arduous task belongs entirely to Marini. It contains 146 Latin, and a few Greek diplomas or charters, extracted from papyri which he collected in Italy, France, and Vienna. Among these may be found papal letters addressed to the exarchs of Ravenna, charters by the Emperor Valentinian, by Chlodovechus, by Dagobert and Clothaire, kings of the Franks, by King Astolph and Adalgiso, interspersed with many other public and private documents. "Learned men," he says, "know the wonder felt by the ancients when they saw papyri two or three centuries old, but among ours there are some which date back fourteen or fifteen centuries." The oldest in fact belongs to the year 444. They were in a most dilapidated condition, and their interpretation is a monument of patience, talent, and learning. The researches which accompany this work, especially on the cultivation, traffic, and general use of the papyrus in Italy until the close of the eleventh century, even after the introduction of parchment, are very interesting and valuable.

Marini's next most important work is *Gli Atti de' Fratelli Arelli*, Roma, 1795, 2 vols. 4to, in which he collected and illustrated all the inscriptions and monuments which relate to the *Collegium Fratrum Areallum*, an institution which, according to tradition, was coeval with the building of Rome, and founded, as Varro tells us, to propitiate the Divinity by public prayers, that the land might be rendered fertile (*sacra publica faciunt propter eas ut fruges ferant areae*); whence *Areales Fratres* or *Arvorum Sacerdotes*. This work is admirable for the acumen and learning displayed. The immediate cause of Marini's undertaking to investigate this subject was the discovery of two large marble tablets in the new sacristy of the Vatican chapel, which had been built by order of Pius VI. From these and various other inscriptions and monuments connected with that institution, he was enabled to find a clue to the ceremonies, rites, and fêtes; also the political connection of that remarkable body with the state, and hence to study their civil institutions, the duty of their municipal functionaries and provincial governors, to correct names, to determine the genealogy of many Roman families, &c., &c.; while discussions on ancient orthography, on the variation between the spelling and the pronunciation, the correction of old abbreviations in inscriptions, and the additions of new ones, find an appropriate place in this laborious and comprehensive work.

Marini's contributions to the scientific and literary history of Italy, to numismatics, to the elucidation of the Christian and pagan monuments, and of many unpublished documents in the Vatican, are all marked by the same sound criticism and unsolusive but deep erudition. The most important of his minor works is that on the inscriptions in the Albani villas and palaces.

He obtained a well-earned celebrity both in Italy and abroad, and had honours and high offices conferred on him by several popes. He was appointed keeper of the Biblioteca Vaticana and prefect of the secret archives of the Holy See, was elected a member of the Institute of France and of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, as well as of all the scientific, literary, and archaeological societies of Italy. He died at Paris on the 17th of May 1815, in his seventy-third year.