Tarquini held the chair of canon law at the Roman College, and he attracted notice by his explanations of sacred scripture at the Gesu. Besides his published works, he contributed many articles to reviews, notably to the
Civiltà Cattolica. It is principally as a canonist that he achieved fame. His first work on the law of the Church to bring him into international celebrity was that on the Regium Placet, or
Exequatur, for
Papal Bulls (Rome, 1851), which was translated into German, Spanish, and French. This treatise has generally been published as an appendix to his main work on canon law:
Juris ecclesiastici publici institutiones (Rome, 1862), which has gone through many editions. The work was translated into French (Brussels, 1868). Other works on canon law are his treatise on the French
Concordat of 1801 (Rome, 1871), and a disquisition on the
Pauline privilege (published posthumously in 1888). Though best known as a canonist, Tarquini was also an archaeologist of no mean repute, especially on matters relating to the ancient
Etruscans. His earliest archaeological treatise is
Breve commento di antiche iscrizioni appartenenti alla citta di Fermo (1847). He began the Etruscan series of his works specifically with ''Dichiarazione dell' epigrafe del lampadario di Cortona
(1862), which was soon followed by a more general treatise: Dizzertazioni intorno ad alcuni monumenti etruschi
(Rome, 1862). The Civilta Cattolica'' of 1857 and 1858 contains many of Tarquini's articles on Etruscan antiquities, the most noted being:
Origini italiche e principalmente etruschi rivelate dei nomi geografici (Ser. 3, Vol. VI);
I misteri della lingua etrusca (Vol. VIII);
Iscrizioni etrusche in monumenti autofoni (Vol. IX);
Di vasi etruschi divinatorii (Vol. X);
Iscrizione etrusca di Perugia (Vol. XI); and
Sopra il semitismo della lingua etrusca (Ser. 4, Vol. VII). He also wrote an Etruscan grammar and a dictionary of the Etruscan language. Other archaeological treatises are
Della iscrizione della cattedra Alessandrina di San Marco (1868), and ''De L'origine des pheniciens et leur identite avec les Pasteurs qui envahirent l'Egypte'' (1870). Tarquini was a member of the Roman
Pontifical Academy of Archaeology and of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Science of
Lucca. He was also president of the historical and archaeological sections of the Accademia dei Quiriti. He was raised to the cardinalate by
Pius IX with the diaconal title of St. Nicholas at the Tullian Prison on 22 December, 1873. He died from pulmonary disease on 15 February 1874. ==References==