The Christian Catacombs of Rome: History, Decoration, Inscriptions

Vincenzo Fiocchi Nicolai, Fabrizio Bisconti and Danilo Mazzoleni are archaeologists and epigraphists specializing in early Christian Rome, and this Schnell und Steiner volume is their scholarly survey of the history, decoration and inscriptions of the Roman catacombs. Its strength is that all three authors work directly with the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, giving the book direct access to the excavated material and inscriptions it describes rather than relying on secondhand reports. Its limit is that as a survey volume it moves broadly across many catacombs and centuries, so a claim needing a detailed reading of one specific catacomb's iconography or a single disputed inscription is better served by a focused specialist study of that particular site.