MONZA. — City of Lombardy (diocese of Milan), which was of great importance in the time of the Lombards, who enriched it with monuments.
The church of S. Giovanni Battista, known as the Duomo, was erected by Queen Teodolinda in 595. It was rebuilt in the 13th century, restored in 1577, and repainted in 1739; the façade is the work of Matteo di Campione and his pupils (1369–98). In the chapel, where Teodolinda and Agilulfo are buried, the iron crown is preserved, so called because, according to tradition, it was forged with a nail from the Cross of Our Lord, found by s. Elena. In the main chapel, the antependium of embossed sheets of gilded silver with gems and enamels was executed by the Milanese goldsmith Borgino del Pozzo between 1350 and 1357; it depicts the Baptism of G. Cristo, the symbols of the Evangelists, and episodes from the life of s. Giovanni Battista.
The treasure preserved in an adjoining octagonal room was first carried away in 1324 and taken to the papal court at Avignon; it returned in 1344; the French sent it to Paris in 1799, whence it returned in 1815. It includes: the so-called “embroidery of the Madonna,” which is instead an Eastern textile of the 6th or 7th century; the so-called “veil of the Madonna,” in Eastern silk, dating from the 11th century; a dish of gilded silver depicting a hen and seven chicks, attributed by some to the age of Teodolinda and by others to the 12th or 13th century; two parchment fragments of a letter from s. Gregorio Magno (590–604); the votive cross in gold and gems of Agilulfo, belonging to his crown, stolen in Paris in 1805; the Cross,
known as that of Berengario, belonging to Teodolinda’s crown; a cover for a Gospel book, and another for a sacramentary, in openwork ivory and silver sheets (9th century). More important is the “gold binding of Teodolinda,” as the inscription engraved upon it attests: a diptych of gold sheets encrusted with precious stones, pearls, and cameos, the work of a learned Byzantine goldsmith; some identified it as the “theca persica” sent by Gregorio Magno to Teodolinda for the Baptism of her son Adoloaldo, while others consider it to be an encolpion. A processional cross of gold and silver sheets, with episodes from the life of Gesù Cristo and the Baptist, and with a medallion of the Madonna with the Child and Teodolinda kneeling at its center; donated by Teodolinda herself, it was remade in 1487 and 1615.
There are also three ivory diptychs: the first is consular, but the two figures of the personage were subsequently transformed, one into King David and the other into s. Gregorio; the second seems to represent Stilicone with his wife Serena and their son (late 4th century); the third, known as “of the poet and the muse,” is a work of the late 4th century; K. Weitzmann and S. Schultz propose identifying the poet as Claudio Claudiano (Zur Bestimmung des Dichters auf dem Musendipitychon von M., in Jahrbuch des deutschen archäologischen Instituts, 49 [1934], pp. 128–38). Two collections of ampoules are also preserved (v.), one consisting of 28 glass vials that contained oils taken from the sanctuaries of the Roman martyrs and brought between 590 and 604 by a certain Giovanni to Queen Teodolinda, with identifying labels on each individual vial and a summary note (v. INDEX OLEORUM); the second group consists of 16 metal ampoules (an alloy of tin and lead) that contained oils or earth from the sanctuaries of Palestine; they are decorated with representations reproducing those sanctuaries (late 7th century). The Chapter Library is particularly valuable for its manuscripts and incunabula.