CAPRI. – Island in the Gulf of Naples, with an area of 10.36 sq. km., called Capreae by Virgil (Aen., VII, 735), Ovid (Met., XV, 709), and Pliny (Nat. hist., III, 6, 822). The ancient town was closer to the Marina Grande than the present one. At the time of Pope Gregorio I (590–604), it depended on the bishop of Sorrento. Dating from approximately that period is the only Christian inscription so far known, that of a Geladinus sector (CIL, X, 1, 6810).
The first certain bishop is Giovanni, consecrated in 987 by Leone, archbishop of Amalfi, at the order of Pope Giovanni XV, immune tamen a iure cathedratus (Ughelli, VII, p. 353).
It remained under the archbishop of Amalfi until 1818, when the diocese was united with Sorrento.
The oldest church of C. is that of S. Costanzo (11th century), with a central plan; the Cathedral, dedicated to S. Stefano, was rebuilt in 1683 and is now collegiate. The monastery of S. Stefano, whose abbot at that time was Savino, is known as early as 591; it is still mentioned in the time of Gregorio II (719–29). The Certosa of S. Giacomo was erected between 1371 and 1374 by Count Giacomo Arcucci, secretary to Giovanna I d’Angiò; suppressed in 1808, it was reopened on 23 September 1936 by the Lateran Canons Regular, to serve as a center of religious and cultural life.