BRESCELLO. — An ancient city of Gallia Transpadana, mentioned by Suetonius, Tacitus, Ptolemy, Plutarch, and Pliny; now a small agricultural village in the province of Reggio Emilia, on the right bank of the Po. It belongs to the diocese of Guastalla, but in the 4th–5th centuries it was the seat of a bishopric which in 451 (under Bishop Cyprian) was subject to the metropolitan of Milan and around 480 passed under the jurisdiction of Ravenna. Already devastated by the barbarians, in September 603 it was burned by the Byzantines in order to oppose the advance of the Lombards. After this massacre the bishopric disappears. Affò and other Parmesan scholars thought that the bishop then transferred his residence from B. to Parma, where the first historically certain bishop is Urbanus in 680; but Lanzoni does not believe this (Le diocesi d'Italia, pp. 806–807), and instead holds that the territory of the devastated diocese was divided between Parma and Reggio.
A parish church with its baptistery remained there, subject to Parma; even in the 15th century the bishop of Parma had property there, and in 1516 Bishop Cardinal Farnese conducted a pastoral visitation there (cf. L'Eco della Curia di Parma, 1932). In the 10th century the bishopric was succeeded by a Benedictine abbey, under the title of a mysterious martyr, s. Genesio, built by Attone of Canossa and his wife Ildegarda, great-grandparents of Countess Matilde. The abbey received privileges and exemptions from the lords of Canossa and from Popes Paschal II (1106), Innocent II (1132), and Anastasius IV (1153), but declined in the 15th century because of the commendam, which dissipated its assets and paralyzed monastic life.