declared the city of C. independent and established the episcopal see there, to which he also annexed some parishes from the nearby Città di Castello, in 1325. That year coincides with the transition of the free commune to the lordship of the Casali and with the formation of the civic statutes. The first bishop was Rainerio Ubertini; later figures included Luca Grazio, an influential member of the Council of Florence (1438), Matteo Concini (1560) and Girolamo Gaddi (1562), who attended the Council of Trent.
The city was once renowned for illustrious names, such as Friar Elia of C. (v.), companion of St. Francis, Cardinals Egidio Boris and Silvio Passerini, and especially the popular St. Margaret (v. 1248–1277).
Santa Maria di Farneta, one of the largest and most famous Italian abbeys, flourishing in the 11th century but of uncertain origin, was located within the city’s territory and, after 1325, incorporated into the diocese. When it was suppressed by the Grand Duke’s government in the 18th century, its assets were assigned to the Chapter of the Cathedral.
C. possesses a large number of monumental sacred buildings, not to mention those of considerable importance that reflect its finest civic history of the past. The Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, preserves few traces of the ancient 11th-century parish church: the entire interior was renovated in the 15th century and later (by Giuliano da Sangallo); the bell tower is a 16th-century construction. In the other buildings, one may say that all periods of Christian architecture are worthily represented. A fine group of churches belongs to Gothic art: San Francesco, San Domenico, Sant’Antonio, Sant’Agostino. To the Renaissance: Santa Maria delle Grazie al Calcinio, with its luminous, harmonious dome, begun in 1485, a model of style; Santa Maria Nuova, with a central plan, from the mid-15th century. The art of the 17th century is represented by the churches of Santo Spirito and San Filippo. A famous sanctuary is the temple of St. Margaret, dedicated to the Cortonan saint, begun in the 13th century but rebuilt in the 17th.
The latter contains the ogival tomb of the saint, carved by Angelo and Francesco di Pietro (1362), Cortonan artists.
Notable for both quantity and quality are the works of sacred art. Among those mentioned are the paintings of the great Cortonan Luca Signorelli (1441–1523), whose works are today gathered in the church of the Gesù in C. in a singular picture gallery (Pinacoteca Signorelliana), and of the other Cortonan Pietro Berrettini or da Cortona (1596–1669), some of whose paintings are preserved in the Civic Pinacoteca (Palazzo Pretorio). Some archival material of interest is preserved in the Chapter Archive and in the Communal Library.
At present the diocese, over an area of 340 sq km, comprises 52 parishes, 61 diocesan priests, 38 regular clergy, and 32,861 inhabitants, of whom 32,847 are Catholic (1948). — See plates XXXV–XXXVI.