MACERATA, DIOCESI DI

MACERATA, DIOCESI di - Loggia del popolo o dei Mercanti (1504-1505). Su disegno di Cassiano del Fabriano.
MACERATA, DIOCESI di - Loggia del popolo o dei Mercanti (1504-1505). Su disegno di Cassiano del Fabriano.

The territory of the single parish contains S. Maria di Fia-stra, once the most important abbey in Italy after Farfa, founded by Guarnieri III, Marquis of Ancona, and entrusted by him to the Cistercians in 1141; only the church remains, displaying pre-Romanesque stylistic features.

Pollenza. (pop. 3000, with three parishes); believed to have derived from the ancient city called Pollentia by the Romans, which was destroyed before the year 1000 and later revived through the efforts of a Frenchman named Milone, after whom it was called Monte Milone. It has a fine collegiate church with notable works of art; important is the portal of the church of S. Antonio, dating to 1377. In the territory of Pollenza stands the ancient abbey of Rambona, founded by Ageltrude, daughter of Arechi, Duke of Benevento, wife of Guido, and mother of Emperor Lambert in the 9th century. Of the ancient church, three apses and the crypt remain, of exceptional historical and archaeological importance; this crypt, now restored, is divided into five small naves by columns of various materials and shapes, with highly interesting capitals. It preserves the body of St. Amico the Abbot. The ivory diptych now in the Vatican’s Christian Museum, depicting the Crucifixion, the Virgin and Child, and various saints, dates from the time of the abbey’s foundation and belonged to II.

BIBL.: P. Compagnoni, La Reggia Picena, Macerata 1661; Ughelli, II, cols. 720-72; O. Turchi, De Ecclesiae Camerunensis pontificibus, Roma 1762; M. Catalani, De Ecclesia Firmana eiusque episcopi, Fermo 1783; M. Leopardi, Serie dei vescovi di Recanati, Recanati 1826; Cappelletti, III, pp. 665-703; G. Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, XL, pp. 235-319; XLI, pp. 5-92; I. Vogel, De Ecclesiis Recinetis et Laurenta earumque episcopis commentarius historicus, Recanati 1859; Bullarium Romanum, VIII, Torino 1863, n. LXXVII, p. 817; IX, 1856, n. CXL, pp. 18-90, 91-94, appendix, n. XLVIII, p. 358; R. Foglietti, Conferenze sulla storia medievale dell’attuale territorio maceratese, Torino 1885; P. Fr. Kehr, Italia Pontificia, IV, Berlin 1909, pp. 114, 126-28; anon., Notizie importanti in pubblicazione della cattedrale di M., Macerata 1932; M. Leopardi, Annali di Recanati, 2 voll., Varese 1945; O. Gentili, M. sacra, Recanati 1947.