BRESCELLO. - An ancient city of Gallia Transpadana, mentioned by Suetonius, Tacitus, Ptolemy, Plutarch, and Pliny, now a small agricultural hamlet 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 the year 603 it was burned by the Byzantines to hinder the advance of the Lombards. After this massacre the bishopric disappears. Affò and other Parmesan scholars thought that at that time the bishop of B. transferred his residence to Parma, where the first historically certain bishop is Urban 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 pieve with a baptistery remained there, subject to Parma; even in the 15th century the bishop of Parma had estates there, and in 1516 Cardinal Bishop Farnese carried out a pastoral visit (cf. L'Eco della Curia di Parma, 1932). In the 10th century a Benedictine abbey succeeded the bishopric, under the title of a mysterious St Genesius the Martyr, built by Attone of Canossa and his wife Hildegard, great-grandparents of Countess Matilda. The abbey enjoyed 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 due to commendation, which dispersed its goods and paralyzed monastic life.