FONDI, Diocese of. - The diocese of F. was in the present province of Latina, and also included the territories of Campodimele, Lenola, Sperlonga and Monticelli.
A very ancient city of the Aurunci, which became a Roman municipium in 188 B.C., F. was important in the Middle Ages and already in the 5th century formed part of the territory of the Church. Destroyed by the Saracens (344), in 1266 it was conquered by Manfred. In the 14th century it had passed to the Caetani, and became the center of their power. Indeed, with the favor of Onorato I Caetani, on Sept. 20, 1378 the French cardinals were able to attach the antipope Clement VI to F. While not excluding that in the 3rd century a Christian community existed at F., given the scant reliability of those codices of the Liber Pontificalis which have a bishop of Fondi consecrated by Pope Anterus (235-36), and there being no certainty that the martyr Magnus was a local bishop, the first certain prelate is Vitalis, who took part in the Synods from 487 to 502. In the episcopal series mention should be made of St. Andrew, of whom St. Gregory I speaks (Dial., 3, 7) and Gennaro Vincenzo Tortora, with whom that series closed, since Pius VII, on June 27, 1818, united the diocese of F. to the neighboring one of Gaeta.
F. still preserves the walls of the 1st century B.C. with a polygonal stretch; the ancient Appian Way, crossing it from east to west, constitutes its decumanus. Noteworthy are the former cathedral of S. Pietro with an ambo and bishop's throne of Campanian art of the 12th to 13th centuries; the bell tower of S. Maria, the interior of S. Francesco and the cloister of S. Domenico of the 14th century; the collegiate church of S. Maria, the portal of S. Francesco; the fortress and the feudal palace of the 15th century. - See plate XCIV.
Bibliography6 works
(far. Dis. fot. sic.)
FONDI, DIOCESE of - Pulpit of the church of S. Pietro, by Giovanni di Nicola (11th century).
Val di Pesa 1917; P. Kehr, Ital. Pontif., VIII, Berlino 1923, pp. 93-97; Lanzoni, I, pp. 159-63; M. Ingualice, L. Mattei, Censoli, P. Sella, Rationes decimarum Italiae nel sec. XIII-XIV. Campania, Città del Vaticano 1942, pp. 1-5.
Alberto Galetti