JESI. — City and diocese in the province of Ancona. It has 73,000 inhabitants, of whom 62,000 are Catholics; 27 parishes with 69 diocesan priests, one seminary, 1 men’s religious house, and 21 women’s religious houses (Annuario Pontificio, 1951). Patron saint: St. Septimius, bishop (22 September).
HISTORY. – Of Umbrian origin, it took its name from the river Aesa; it was a Roman colony; it suffered the plundering of the Goths and Lombards; in 756 it was included among the donations made by Pippin to Pope Stefano II. The counts of J. were successively, in the 11th century, Attone, Alberico, Ugone, and Gozo; after the middle of the 12th century the Commune arose, with 4 consuls and schools of the arts; the motto «Respublica Aesina libertas ecclesiastica» explains very well the origin of the Commune itself, which emerged from the enfranchisement granted by the ecclesiastics—bishop and monks of the flourishing abbeys established in the territory (C. Annibaldi, Jesi e la sua costituzione a Comune, in Studia Picena, 1 [1923], pp. 66-71). The «Memoriale Civitatis Aesii et antiquitatum suarum» begins in the year 1114.
The Republic of J. had as subjects the castles of Serradeconti, Montalboddo, Barbaro, and Monteno. It fought against Guelph Ancona. In 1259 J. was placed under interdict and deprived of its bishop by Alexander IV. Cardinal E. d'Albornoz removed it from the rule of the Malatesta. J. was among the great cities in the Egidian Constitutions of 1357. Captured by Francesco Sforza, it returned in 1447 to the Church, against which it attempted to rebel in 1486. It was plundered in 1517 by the soldiers of the duke of Urbino, Francesco della Rovere. In 1528 Clement VII granted J. the privilege of a mint. In 1580 a chair of philosophy and one of law were founded; Sixtus V exempted J. from the jurisdiction of the legate of the Marches and granted it a separate government presided over by a prelate.
Christianity penetrated J. at a very early date, and its first bishop was s. Settimo. A s. Floriano, venerated in J. on 4 May, could, according to Lanzoni, be the martyr Floriano venerated in Noricum near Lauriana (Lorch). The bishops of J. also included Cardinals Camillo Borghese (1597, later Paul V), Tiberio Cenci (1621), Alderano Cibo (1656-71), P. M. Petrucci (1681-96), and G. B. Caprara (1800-1802), who concluded the Concordat with Napoleon; he was succeeded by A. M. Odescalchi, deported by the French in 1809. The diocese is immediately subject to the Holy See.
The original cathedral was dedicated to the Most Holy Savior; it was then dedicated to S. Nicola. Bishop Severino began the new cathedral in 1237, dedicating it to S. Settimio; it was rebuilt in 1469 and reconstructed by D. Barrigioni (1732-41); the façade dates from 1889. The interior has a single nave in the form of a Latin cross, with a dome (C. Annibaldi, La cattedrale jesina e i suoi rinnovamenti, Jesi 1925). Other noteworthy churches are: S. Marco, founded by the Benedictines in the 13th century, with three naves divided by octagonal pillars; S. Giovanni Battista, dating from the end of the 17th century; and the monastery of S. Benedetto de Castello Plano, annexed by Callistus III to the episcopal mensa.
A few kilometers from J. stood the Benedictine abbey of S. Maria «Molearum», with a church from the 9th century, transformed in the 17th century and subsequently restored to its original lines, today called the church of «Le Moje»; and the abbey of S. Elena (P. Zampetti, La Chiesa abbaziale di S. Elena nei dintorni di J., Ancona 1940).
Natives of J. were the erudite mons. Angelo Colocci (1467-1540), secretary to Leo X and Clement VII; and the musician G. B. Pergolesi (v.).
In honor of Clement XII, the Clementine Arch was erected in 1734. In 1472 Federico dei Conti di Verona printed the Divina Commedia in J. The Picture Gallery is rich in panels by Lorenzo Lotto (the Annunciation; the Vaticination; the Deposition; the Virgin with the Child, S. Giuseppe, and s. Girolamo; S. Francesco and s. Chiara; the Stories of s. Lucia).
The Municipal Library, with the library of the marquises Pianetti attached to it, is housed in the former church of S. Floriano.