MONTEPULCIANO, DIOCESE OF. - City and diocese in the province of Siena, on the Mons Politianus which divides the Val di Chiana from the Val d'Orcia. It has an area of 163.85 sq km with a population of 20,000 inhabitants, all Catholics. It has 19 parishes served by 34 diocesan priests and 7 regulars; it has a seminary, 3 male religious communities and 8 female ones (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 276).
M. was inhabited as early as the Etruscan age. The name Castellum Policianum appears in a document of 715. M. was long contested by Arezzo, by Siena and by Florence. Ecclesiastically it was dependent on the diocese of Arezzo until 1476; then Sixtus IV exempted it from that jurisdiction, raising it to a collegiate church. Pius IV, with the bull Ecclesiarum utilitati of 4 November 1561, created the diocese of M. immediately subject to the Holy See. Its first administrator was Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of M., who resigned the following year, in which the first bishop was appointed, Msgr. Spinello Benci (d. 1569); other bishops were Sinolfo Benci (1597-99), S. Tarugi (1600-1607), R. Ubaldini (1607-15), later a cardinal, A. Stufa (1622-40), the learned T. de Talenti (1646), A. Cervini (1663), P. Francesi (1737), P. Magnoni (1747), P. Franzesi (1757), P. Coletti (1802), I. Nicolai (1829), C. Samuelli (1843). St. Agnes (v.), the Dominican saint, Angelo Brogini known as il Poliziano (v.), Pope Marcellus II (v.), and St. Robert Bellarmine (v.) were born at M.
The most flourishing period of M. was that from the 14th to the 18th century; there flourished an Academy instituted by Nicholas IV which later took the name of the Intriganti. In that period monumental churches and palaces arose.
The Cathedral dedicated to Mary Most Holy Assumed was erected on a design by Ippolito Scalza from 1532 to 1617; it has three naves divided by pillars; at the high altar is the triptych with the Assumption by Taddeo di Bartolo (1401). Michelozzo erected there the monument to Msgr. B. Aragazzi, secretary of Martin V, today however dismembered. The bell tower, unfinished, is of the 15th century.
Other churches of artistic interest are: S. Maria dei Servi, interior by Andrea Pozzo with a Baroque facade; S. Margherita in Sasso, today S. Francesco, is of the 13th century; on the outside are the remains of the pulpit of St. Bernardine of Siena; S. Agostino with a facade partly by Michelozzo; S. Maria delle Grazie by Vignola; the church of the Gesù had annexed to it a college of the Jesuits, today the episcopal seminary; outside Porta al Prato the Church of S. Agnese da M. of the 14th century; with a Greek cross and dome is S. Biagio, built by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder in 1518, which recalls S. Maria della Consolazione in Todi.
Sumptuous palaces are: the Gothic one of Neri Orselli; Mazzi del Monte, later Cantucci, Paolini and Corvini by Antonio Sangallo the Elder; the Palazzo Tarugi is by Vignola; the Palazzo Ricci is by Baldassarre Peruzzi; the Palazzo comunale of the end of the 14th century contains the Museo civico, rich in works by Spinello Aretino, Girolamo di Benvenuto, Margaritone, Sodoma etc.; among the terracottas an altar by Luca della Robbia and works by Andrea della Robbia; furthermore a series of precious illuminated choir books. - See plate XCV.
(Int. Alinari)
Bibliography4 works
Enrico Josi