ITALY SACRED. - Title UGHELLI (v.), abbot of SS. Vincenzo e Anastasio ad Aquas Salvias (Rome), to his history of the Italian episcopal sees: *Italia Sacra sive de episcopis Italiae et Insularum adiacentium, rebusque ab iis praeclare gestis, deducta serie ad nostram usque aetatem*. A singular work divided into 20 provinces, in which the origins of churches, the foundations of cities, the donations of princes, and obscure monuments are brought to light, 9 vols. in-4°, Rome 1644-62. The second edition, enlarged and corrected (with the title unchanged), is normally used, prepared by N. COLETI, 10 vols. in-6°, Venice 1717-22. It is a monumental work that cost the author more than 10 years of arduous labor, briefly outlined in the *Praefatio ad lectorem*. Ughelli gathered the immense material required both directly and through intermediaries; however, from several dioceses he did not even receive any response to his letters. He received generous encouragement and advice from Cardinal CARLO EMANUELE PIO DI SAVOIA, bishop of Albano, Porto, and Ostia (cf. I, 2nd ed., col. 8g), and Filippo Casoni, bishop of Borgo S. Donnino (cf. II, col. 71).
Following the geographers of the time, he divided Italy into 20 provinces with the adjacent islands and arranged them in the following order:
I (1644, 1717) -
I. Latium with the sees immediately subject to the Holy See
II (1647, 1717) - II. Amelia, III. Flaminia, IV. Picenum,V. Umbria Senonum with the metropolitan sees: Bologna; Ravenna; Fermo; Urbino
III (1647, 1718) -VI. Hetruria with the metropolitan sees: Florence, Pisa, Siena
IV (1652, 1719) - VII. Insubria, VIII. Liguria,IX. Pedemontium with the metropolitan sees: Milan; Genoa; Turin
V (1653, 1720) - X. Forum Iulii, XI. Venetorum dominium,XII. Patriarchatus Venetiarum with the metropolitan sees: Aquileia; Grado; Venice; Zara
VI (1659, 1720) - XIII. Campania Felix, XIV. Aprutium,XV. Provincia Hirpiorum with the metropolitan sees: Naples, Capua, Sorrento; Chieti, Lanciano; Compsa
VII (1659, 1721) - XVI. Lucania sive Basilicata,XVII. Apulia tum Daunia cum Peucetia, with the metropolitan sees: Acerenza and Matera, Amalfi, Salerno; Bari, Nazareth, Siponto, Trani
VIII (1662, 1721) -XVIII. Samnium with the metropolitan see: Benevento
IX (1662, 1721) - XIX. Provincia Salernitana, XX. Calabria with the metropolitan sees: Brindisi, Taranto, Otranto; Cosenza, Reggio, Rossano, S. Severina (in the original edition, followed by the anonymous *De Rebus Frederici Imperatoris*, p. 751 ff.); and a brief appendix to the preceding volumes, p. 889 ff.). - X (1722) - Appendix containing, besides the *Anecdota Ughelliana*, some supplements and corrections to the nine preceding volumes, as well as various general indices.The *Anecdota* include various important chronicles (of Fossa Nova, of Pisa, of S. Sofia of Benevento, etc.), the *De rebus Frederici* and the *Menologium Graecorum iussu Basilii iunioris*. The author did not treat Sicily or Sardinia. Sicily already had its *Sicilia Sacra* by Abbot R. Pirri (*Notitiae Siciliense Ecclesiarum*, 3 vols., Palermo 1630-49), which inspired Ughelli in his work; Sardinia later received, a century afterward, through the efforts of the Conventual A. F. Mattei, its *Sardinia sacra seu de episcopis Sardis historia*, 1 vol., Rome 1758.
Each province has its brief historical notice with a list of metropolitan sees; each metropolitan see and its suffragan sees are provided with a summary general historical notice followed by a catalogue of bishops with very brief biographical notes, often accompanied by documents, coats of arms, seals, or monograms. Each volume is equipped with the following indices: of saintly bishops; of bishops arranged chronologically; of bishops' names and surnames; and of subjects. The last volume contains a chronological index of the published documents.
Despite the immense erudition of the author, the work is not free from omissions, inaccuracies in the transcription of documents, and errors, aggravated by the carelessness of the Roman publisher Mascardi. Various scholars (18th-19th centuries) attempted to remedy these defects, but with limited success. The first was the Cistercian abbot Giulio Ambrogio Lucenti with his *Italia Sacra R.mi P. D. F. Ughelli abbatis Cisterciensis restricta, aucta, veritati magis commendata*... in-fol., Rome 1704 (which was to comprise 4 volumes, but only the first appeared, dedicated to Latium and the sees immediately subject to it). Greater success, though still far from perfect, was achieved by the second edition, enlarged and corrected, prepared by the Venetian priest Niccolò Coleti, published by his brother Sebastiano; Coleti's additions are in italics, placed in parentheses and quotation marks, sometimes preceded by the word *additio*. Coleti indicates at the beginning of each volume those who generously assisted him. Benedict XIV had promoted a third edition of the *I.S.*: for this purpose, Fr. Nivardo del Riccio published the program in 1763, and Cardinal Valentin sent a circular to the ordinaries of Italy regarding it, but nothing came of it; likewise unpublished were the *Notae ad additiones ad Italiam Sacram* by the Conventuals Giacinto Sbarglia (d. 1763) and Stefano Rinaldi (d. 1822), whose manuscripts are preserved in the archive of the Order at SS. Apostoli (Rome), nor the edition prepared in 1796 by the Jesuit Domenico Coleti, nephew of Niccolò. The *I.S.* of Ughelli was not improved by the 21 volumes of the Venetian priest Giuseppe Cappelletti, *Le Chiese d'Italia dalla loro origine sino ai nostri giorni* (Venice 1844-71; published in fascicles, the last in 1871), because the author lacked serious historical-critical training. Cappelletti arranged the episcopal sees by states: Pontifical (I-VII, 1844-48); Augustinian Italy (VIII-XII, 1851-57); Sardinian Italy (XIII-XIV, 1857-58); the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, Guastalla, Modena, Lucca, and Corsica (XV, 1859); the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (XVI-XVIII, 1861-64); the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with Rhodes and Malta (XIX-XXI, 1864-71).
Contributions of primary importance toward a new *I.S.*, in addition to many local monographs prepared with rigorous critical intent, are those of L. DUCHESNE (v.), of F. SAVINO (*Gli antichi vescovi d'Italia dalle origini al 1300 descritti per regioni*, I. Il Piemonte, Turin 1899; II-IV. La Lombardia, Florence 1913, Bergamo 1932, a work of great value, left incomplete; the author himself declares in the preface (p. XII): «I take Ughelli, Coleti edition, as the basis of my research, and I do not extend myself to repeat what seems to me to have been treated accurately by him»), of Eubel (his episcopal lists begin with 1198 and currently extend to 1667); of F. LANZONI (a critical study of great value on the Italian episcopal lists up to 604). Despite its defects, the *I.S.* of Ughelli, which in his time served as a model to the Ste-Marthe brothers for their *Gallia Christiana*, remains an indispensable working tool for many dioceses; certainly, as Muratori already wrote, a new *I.S.* «would be a credit to our Churches» (*Epistolario di L. Muratori*, ed. M. Càmperi, X, Modena 1906, p. 4384).