Fabretti, RAFFAELE

Fabretti, RAFFAELE, Italian antiquary and archaeologist, was born at Urbino in 1618. Although he devoted himself to law, he was also attracted at an early period to antiquarian studies by the classical remains of Rome. Under Pope Alexander VII. he became papal treasurer, and subsequently was appointed chancellor to the papal embassy at Madrid. After a residence of thirteen years in Spain he accompanied the legate Bonelli to Rome, where shortly afterwards he became keeper of the papal archives of the castle of St Angelo. His principal works, De Aquis et Aquæductibus Veteris Romæ (4 vols. 1680, reprinted with notes and additions in 1688), Syntagma de Columnâ Trajani (Rome, 1683), works on the aqueducts of Rome and the column of Trajan, preceded his Inscriptionum Antiquarum Explanatio (1699). His collection of inscriptions, &c. is deposited in the ducal palace of Urbino. Fabretti died at Rome in 1700.