ITALIA SACRA. — 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. Opus singulare Provinciis XX. distinctum, in quo ecclesiarum origines, urbium conditiones, Principum donationes, recondita monumenta in lucem proferuntur, 9 vols. in-4°, Rome 1644–62. Normally, one resorts to the editio secunda, aucta et emendata (the title remained unchanged), edited by N. Coleti, 10 vols. in-fol., Venice 1717–22. This is a monumental work, which cost its author more than ten years of arduous labor, briefly outlined in the Praefatio ad lectorem. Ughelli gathered the immense material required both directly and through intermediaries; yet from several dioceses he did not receive even the slightest reply to his letters. He was generously encouraged and advised by Cardinal Carlo Emanuele Pio di Savoia, bishop of Albano, Porto and Ostia (cf. I, 2nd ed., col. 85), and Filippo Casoni, bishop of Borgo S. Donnino (cf. II, col. 71).
Following the geographers of his period, 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. Aemilia, III. Flaminia, IV. Picenum, V. Umbrisa Senorum with the metropolitan sees: Bologna; Ravenna; Fermo; Turin. — 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 dominum, XII. Patriaratus Venetiarum with the metropolitan sees: Aquileia; Grado; Venice; Zara. — VI (1659, 1720) — XIII. Campania Felix, XIV. Aprutium, XV. Provincia Hispinorum with the metropolitan sees: Naples, Capua, Sorrento; Chieti, Lanciano; Compsa. — VII (1659, 1721) — XVI. Luciania sive Basilicata, XVII. Apulia tum Daunia cum Pencetia, with the metropolitan sees: Acerenza and Matera, Amalfi, Salerno; Bari, Nazareth, Siponto, Trani. — VIII (1662, 1721) — XVIII. Samnium with the metropolitan sees: Benevento. — IX (1662, 1721) — XIX. Provincia Soleruitana, XX. Calabria with the metropolitan sees: Brindisi, Taranto, Otranto; Cosenza, Reggio, Rossano, S. Severina (in the original edition there follows the anonymous De Rebus Frederici Imperatoris, p. 751 ff.; and a brief appendix to the preceding volumes, p. 889 ff.). — X (1722) — Appendix in qua praeter Anecdota Ughelliana antiquati Italiae episcopatus supplementa quaedam et correctiones ad novem praecedentia volumina et multiplices indices generales proferuntur.
The Anecdota contain various important chronicles (of Fossa Nova, Pisa, S. Sofia di Benevento, etc.), the De rebus Frederici and the Menologium Graecorum iussu Basilii iumoris. The author dealt with neither Sicily nor Sardinia. Sicily already had its Sicilia Sacra by Abbot R. Pirri (Notitiae Sicilensium Ecclesiarum, 3 vols., Palermo 1630–49), which inspired Ughelli in his work; Sardinia later received, a century afterwards, through the work of the Conventual A. F. Mattei, its Sardinia sacra seu de episcopis Sardis historia, 1 vol., Rome 1758.
Each province has its brief historical account with a list of the metropolitan sees; each metropolitan see and its suffragan sees are provided with a general summary historical account, followed by the episcopal catalogue with very brief biographical notes, often accompanied by documents, coats of arms, seals or monograms. Each volume is furnished with the following indexes: of saintly bishops; of bishops arranged chronologically; of the names and surnames of bishops; and of subjects. The final volume contains the chronological index of the published documents.
Despite the author’s immense erudition, the work was not free from omissions, inaccuracies in the transcription of documents, and errors, further aggravated by the negligence of the Roman publisher Mascardi. Various scholars (in the eighteenth and nineteenth 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 intended to comprise 4 vols., but only the first appeared, devoted to Latium and the immediately subject sees). Greater success, though still far from perfect, was achieved by the editio secunda, aucta et emendata, edited by the Venetian priest Niccolò Coleti and published by his brother Sebastiano; Coleti’s additions are in italics, placed within parentheses and quotation marks, and sometimes preceded by the word additio. At the beginning of the individual volumes, Coleti indicates those who generously assisted him. Benedict XIV had promoted a third edition of the I.S.: for this purpose Father Nivardo del Riccio published its program in 1763, and Cardinal Valenti sent the Ordinaries of Italy a circular on the matter, but nothing further came of II. Nor did the Notae ed additiones ad Italiam Sacram by the Conventuals Giacinto Sbaraglia (d. 1763) and Stefano Rinaldi (d. 1822) ever appear; their manuscripts are preserved in the archive of the Order at SS. Ananoli (Rome). The same applies to the edition being prepared in 1796 by the Jesuit Domenico Coleti, Niccolò’s nephew. Ughelli’s I. S. was not improved by the 21 vols. of the Venetian priest Giuseppe Cappelletti, Le Chiese d'Italia dalla loro origine
sino ai nostri giorni (Venice 1844–71; it was issued in fascicles, the last appearing in 1871), because the author lacked a serious historical-critical formation. Cappelletti arranged the episcopal sees by states: the Papal States (I–VII, 1844–48); Italian Austria (VIII–XII, 1851–57); Italian Sardinia (XIII–XIV, 1857–58); the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, Guastalla, Modena and 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).
First-rate contributions toward a new I. S., in addition to many local monographs composed with rigorous critical aims, are those of L. Duchesne (v.), F. Savio (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 that remained incomplete; the author declares in the preface [p. XII]: «io prendo l'Ughelli, ed. del Coleti, per base delle mie ricerche, né punto mi estendo a ripetere ciò che parmi sia stato trattato con esattezza da lui»), Eubel (his episcopal lists begin with 1198 and currently extend to 1667), and F. Lanzoni (a highly valuable critical study of Italian episcopal lists up to 604). Despite its defects, Ughelli’s I.S., which in its time served as a model for the brothers of Ste-Marthe in their Gallia Christiana, remains an indispensable working tool for many dioceses; certainly, a new I.S., as Muratori already wrote, «riuscirebbe di decoro alle nostre Chiese» (Epistolario di L. Muratori, ed. M. Campori, X, Modena 1906, p. 4384).