VATICAN MUSEUMS - CHIARAMONTI MUSEUM (Inscriptions' Gallery)

Galleria Lapidaria

Collection begun by Clement XIV Ganganelli (1769/74), enriched by Pius VI Braschi (1775/99) and Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23)

4,125 inscriptions in all: on the left pagan, on the right Christian

In the Gallery there are also tombstones, sarcophagi and various fragments

It is possible to visit the gallery only on request

The Vatican Museums have a Department for the epigraphic collection which received great impetus since 1978, thanks to the newly appointed Director of the Vatican Museums Carlo Pietrangeli, also an expert scholar of epigraphy

The scientific expertise of the Department for the epigraphic collection extends to all the epigraphic rich heritage of over 15,000 inscriptions, mostly on stone in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, collected and preserved by the Holy See since the seventeenth century until today

This rich heritage has been given to the Vatican Museums, and distributed in part on the premises, and in part in the basilicas of St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and in extra-territorial buildings: Villa Giorgina in Via Po headquarters of the Apostolic Nuncio (Vatican Embassy) in Italy, Chancellery Palace, Palace of the Propaganda Fide, Villa Barberini in Castel Gandolfo

At the end of the gallery behind the gate “Perspective” 1814 by Angelo Toselli with an optical illusion of a painted loggia