MONTEPULCIANO, DIOCESE OF. – A city and diocese in the province of Siena, situated on the Mons Politianus which divides the Val di Chiana from the Val d'Orcia. It has an area of 163.85 km² with a population of 20,000, all Catholic. It comprises 19 parishes served by 34 diocesan priests and 7 religious; it has a seminary, 3 male religious communities and 8 female religious communities (Ann. Pont., 1951, p. 276).
Montepulciano was inhabited as early as the Etruscan period. The name Castellum Policianum appears in a document from 715. Montepulciano was long contested by Arezzo, Siena, and Florence. Ecclesiastically, it was under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Arezzo until 1476, when Sixtus IV exempted it from that jurisdiction, elevating it to a collegiate church. Pius IV, with the bull *Ecclesiarum utilitati* of 4 November 1561, established the Diocese of Montepulciano as immediately subject to the Holy See. The first administrator was Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of Montepulciano, who resigned the following year when the first bishop, Monsignor Spinello Benci (d. 1569), was appointed; other bishops included 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), and C. Samuelli (1843). Among its notable sons are the Dominican saint Agnes (v.), Poliziano (v.), Pope Marcellus II (v.), and St. Robert Bellarmine (v.).
The most flourishing period of Montepulciano was from the 14th to the 18th century; during this time an academy was established by Niccolò IV, later known as the Accademia degli Intriganti. In this period, churches and monumental palaces were built.
The Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of Mary, houses a relic of St. Charles, known as the *S. Maria Assunta*. It was built according to a design by Ippolito Scalza from 1532 to 1617; it has three naves divided by pillars, and at the high altar is a triptych with the Assumption by Taddeo di Bartolo (1401). Michelangelo created the monument to Monsignor B. Aragazzi, secretary to Martin V, though it is now dismantled. The bell tower, unfinished, dates from the 15th century.
Other notable churches include: Santa Maria dei Servi, with an interior by Andrea Pozzo and a Baroque façade; Santa Margherita in Sasso, now Santa Francesco, dates from the 13th century and retains fragments of the pulpit of St. Bernardino of Siena; Sant'Agostino has a façade partly by Michelozzo; Santa Maria delle Grazie was designed by Vignola; the Church of the Gesù had an attached Jesuit college, now the episcopal seminary; outside Porta al Prato stands the Church of Sant'Agnese da Montepulciano, dating from the 14th century; and San Biagio, in the shape of a Greek cross with a dome, was built by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder in 1518 and resembles Santa Maria della Consolazione in Todi.
Notable palaces include: the Gothic Palazzo Neri Orselli; Palazzo Mazzì del Monte, later Cantucci, Paolini, and Corvini, by Antonio Sangallo the Elder; Palazzo Tarugi by Vignola; Palazzo Ricci by Baldassarre Peruzzi; and the communal palace from the late 14th century, which houses the civic museum. The museum contains works from San Pietro, located in the territory of San Pietro, and its presence is attested by a work of G. B. Pelori (1533). See pl. XCIV.