ALBA, Diocese of. - City of Piedmont, capital of the Langhe, in the province of Cuneo, on a fertile plain at the confluence of the Cherasco stream with the Tanaro.
It is the ancient Alba Pompeia, so called in honor of Pompeius Strabo, who had Roman citizenship granted to it. It was a municipium of the Regio IX (cispadana) from Augustus to Diocletian; in the provincial reorganization of the Constantinian era it was included in the province of Liguria Marittima. It was the birthplace of the emperor Pertinax. Having expanded greatly through the aggregation of another municipium, it suffered severely from the Lombard invasion and around 640, while remaining an episcopal see, ceased to be the residence of the local administration, which was moved to Diano. The land of A. thus formed part of the comitatus of Diano until 1000, the time when the comitatus of Alba revived. Having risen again and flourished, A. soon came into conflict with Asti for political-territorial and economic reasons, with alternating fortunes ranging from the league concluded in 1204 to the treaty of 1223. Milan was arbiter in a war that arose between Genoa, Asti, the Marquis of Monferrato, and Chieri on one side and A., Alessandria, Tortona, and Turin on the other; in 1227 it imposed a peace that was short-lived because conflicts and wars immediately arose again. In 1238, with the restoration of imperial government, A. strengthened itself but succumbed again in a war brought against it by Asti, which forced it into a compromise peace in 1250. A. reached the zenith of its power during the war between Asti and the House of Savoy, concluding a commercial treaty with Genoa, but in 1258 it was again at war with Asti and in 1275, attacked once more, it had to resign itself to an alliance with its enemy.
After the fall of Provençal domination, the houses of Savoy, Acaia, Monferrato and Milan disputed these lands. A., which passed in 1347 to the Visconti, was first transferred under the dominion of the Monferrato, from these to the Palaeologi and the Gonzaga, and in 1631, by the Treaty of Cherasco, definitively incorporated into the States of Victor Amadeus of Savoy.
A. possesses an interesting cathedral, dedicated to St. Lawrence, an important building erected in Romanesque forms before the 10th century, enlarged in the Gothic-Lombard style in the 15th century at the initiative of Bishop Andrea Novelli, and consolidated in the last century by Arborio Mella. In the interior there is a fine terracotta bas-relief and a precious inlaid and carved choir stall, of the 15th century, attributed to Bernardo Fossato; there Girolamo Vida (v.) is buried, prose writer and Latin poet, for more than 30 years bishop of A. Also noteworthy is a Coronation by Macrino d'Alba (v.), preserved in the town hall.
The diocese probably arose in 397, like the neighboring ones of Acqui, Aosta, Ivrea and Turin, from the partitioning of the diocese of Milan. The evangelization of A. is legendary, attributed to St. Barnabas or to St. Dalmatius (250). Nothing proves that the Dionysius who begins a false series of bishops of A. (380) and who is said to have been bishop of Milan, exiled in 355 by the emperor Constantine, ever existed. The first prelate of whom there is certain memory is Lampadius, who attended the Council of Rome of 499, under the pontificate of Symmachus. Since A. had been destroyed by the Saracens in 966, Bishop Fulcardus resigned, and the diocese, by decision of the Roman Council of 969 and that of Milan, was united to that of Asti, but, it seems, for a short time (985-992). In 1803 A. was again incorporated into Asti and reestablished in 1817.
Among the most ancient monasteries it counts: the Benedictine abbey of S. Frontiano, the convent of S. Francesco, that of S. Domenico, founded around 1292 by the blessed Robaldo, a disciple of St. Dominic, the monasteries of S. Caterina, S. Chiara and S. Maria Maddalena, the latter founded by the blessed Margaret of Savoy, widow of Theodore, Marquis of Monferrato, whose body rests in the church itself.
The diocese is a suffragan of Turin; it has 80 municipalities in the province of Cuneo and 2 in that of Alessandria. There are 136 parishes, 270 diocesan priests and 70 regulars. The Catholic inhabitants number 143,186. - See Pl. XLVI.
Bibliography11 works
Noemi Crostarosa Scipioni