MONDOVÌ, Diocese of. - Diocese and city of Piedmont. The diocese comprises 181 parishes (84 municipalities: 70 in the province of Cuneo and 14 in the province of Savona). Priests: 396, 50 regular; 10 male religious houses and 107 female. Population: 164,000; area: 2,159.65 sq km. It borders on the dioceses of Cuneo, Fossano, Alba, Acqui, Savona, Albenga, Ventimiglia. It has a major and a minor seminary. Patron: St. Donatus, bishop of Arezzo (feast: 7 August).
M., of communal origin, was erected into a diocese, almost as a bulwark of Romanity against the Western Schism, by Urban VI, with the bull Salvator Noster, dated at Perugia on 8 June 1388. At the same time it was adorned by the Pontiff with the title of city. The new diocese was carved out of that of Asti and made a suffragan of Milan. In 1515, with the elevation of Turin to a metropolitan see, it passed to this ecclesiastical province. It subsequently underwent territorial changes: in 1768 it received other parishes from Asti and from Alba; it was then reduced, through the establishment of the diocese of Cuneo (1817), but received vast areas from Alba. The bishop holds the title of count and is perpetual commendatory abbot of S. Dalmazzo. The Church of Mondovì numbers in its history distinguished figures, such as: Cardinal Michele Ghisleri (St. Pius V); the learned Cardinal Vincenzo Laureo (1566-1587); Michele Casati (1753-82), noted for the catechism that took its name from him; Tomaso Ghilardi (1843-73), a strenuous champion of the rights of the Church.
Among the men of Mondovì, worthy of mention are: Cardinal
Giovanni Bona (v.); the physicist G. B. Beccaria (v.) and his disciple Giovanni Francesco Cigna; the statesman Vincenzo Ferrero marquis of Ormea (1680-1745); the venerable G. B. Trona (1682-1750); Rosa Govone (1716-1776), foundress of the Institute of the Rosine; the abbot Domenico Soresi (1711-1788), man of letters and educator; the architect Francesco Gallo (1672-1750), who built in Piedmont many churches inspired by a sober Baroque, and finally certain figures and artists of the last century. In 1809 M. hosted the exiled Pius VII, who left moving testimonies of his passage.
Roman vestiges in the Mondovì area are scanty (worth noting are the remains of Augusta Bagiennorum near Benevagienna); medieval buildings are more frequent; fifteenth-century paintings are numerous, especially in country chapels. The best architectural works are of the eighteenth century.
M. rises in a dominant position, surrounded by the Langhe, by the plain and by the crown of the Alps. It is divided into two parts: in the upper part (Piazza) one notices: the tower of the Bressani and the Belvedere; the Cathedral by F. Gallo; the episcopal palace, with magnificent halls; the church of the Mission, formerly S. Francesco Saverio, by Giovenale Boetto, with paintings by Andrea Pozzo representing the preaching and the glory of the Saint; the Palazzo dei Gesuiti (today the Courthouse); S. Chiara, the Misericordia (F. Gallo) and the Piazza Maggiore, with arcades, still of medieval tone. The lower part (i Piani), more commercial, also has some buildings worthy of note: S. Filippo, by F. Gallo, and the SS. Pietro e Paolo (dome by Vittone and façade with the characteristic « moor »). The city had in the 15th century one of the first printing presses; from 1560 it was the seat of a university and St. Robert Bellarmine taught there; it thereafter always maintained a good tradition of studies and education. It possesses two libraries (that of the seminary and the civic one) and various archives. An authoritative local historian was, toward the end of the eighteenth century, the canon G. Grassi di S. Cristina. Numerous charitable institutes and various benevolent initiatives are the pride of M.
The religious history of the city in recent centuries is linked to the famous sanctuary, which arose around a venerated image of the Virgin through the work of Ascanio Vitozzi (begun in 1586) and was completed by Gallo (1729-33), with a great elliptical dome. In the immense pictorial field M. Bortoloni (1696-1750), successor to S. Galeotti, celebrated the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and F. Biella, continuator of G. Galli Bibiena, executed the framing. In the diocese there are numerous other venerated Marian sanctuaries, nor are churches of artistic value lacking.
Bibliography4 works
1788; id., Il corso del fiume Pesio, ivi 1788; G. Grassi, Memorie istoriche della Chiesa vescovile di Monteregale in Piemonte, Torino 1789; id., Notizie storiche dei santi protettori della città di Monteregale, Mondovì 1793; G. Casalis, Dizionario geografico-storico-s degli Stati di S. M. il re di Sardegna, X, Torino 1842, pp. 602-793; C. Danna e G. Chiechio, Storia artistica illustrata del Santuario di M., Torino 1891; E. Morozzo della Rocca, Le storie dell'antica città di Monteregale, Mondovì 1894-1907; M. Rossi, The Santuario of the Madonna di Vico, Londra 1907; trad. it., Milano 1914 (da usare con cautela); A. Michelotti, Storia di M., Mondovì 1920; L. Berra, Emanuele Filiberto e la città di M., in Lo Stato sabando al tempo di Emanuele Filiberto (Bibl. d. Soc. stor. subalp., 109), III, Torino 1928, pp. 89-170; id., I Gesuiti a M., in Comunicaz. della Soc. per gli studi stor. arch. e artist. della prov. di Cuneo, I (1929), pp. 79-98; id., I primordi del Santuario di M. e Carlo Emanuele I, in Carlo Emanuele I. Miscellanea (Bibl. Soc. stor. subalp., 120), I, Torino 1930, pp. 95-166; A. Bonino, Miscell. artistica della prov. di Cuneo, Cuneo 1935; N. Carboneri, Guida storica illustrata del monumentale Santuario di M., Torino 1937; A. Manno, Bibliografia storica degli Stati della monarchia di Savoia, X, ivi 1934, pp. 3-159; Nuove ricerche e nuovi studi sul santuario di M., a cura degli alunni delle Scuole Apostoliche, Borgo S. Dalmazzo 1950 (con amplissima bibl.).
Nino Carboneri