ORVIETO, DIOCESE OF
Orvieto, diocese and city in the province of Terni.
It has an area of 350 sq. km., with a population of 58,000 all Catholic, divided into 57 parishes with 55 diocesan priests and 15 regulars, one seminary, 6 male religious communities and 20 female ones.
The diocese is immediately subject to the Holy See.
I. HISTORY
It was probably the centre of Etruscan devotion, as attested by the large number of temples and tombs. The first preaching is attributed to St. Ansanus (late 3rd century); tradition, however, relates that the episcopal see of Bolsena was transferred to Orvieto because of Alaric’s invasion. In any case, the first known bishop is the sacristan of the 5th or 7th century who begins with: *In nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi*, and according to G. B. De Rossi there was a bishop who lived “ante episcopatum” for 40 years and as bishop (Bull. di arch. crist., 6 [1881], p. 117; CIL, XI, 2899). In 538 Belisarius conquered the city, which Procopius describes and calls, in the Greek manner, “Ourbentos.” In 605 Paul the Deacon records the arrival of the Lombards, which may have been earlier (late 6th century). We then hear of a Lombard count Farolfo (8th century) whose nephews were devoted to St. Romuald, their guest. But in the territory there were also non-Lombard feudal lords: Hugh of Tuscany (993) and Gerard (1004). The first recognition of mercantile “libertates” may date to 975: and this through the intervention of the bishop. With the donation of Tuscany to the Holy See (12th century) the popes must have had a certain predominance in Orvieto. It is certain that in 1137 mention was made of previous communal activities. In 1157 a pact was made that would serve as a model: Orvieto swears “lignum dominum” to the Pope, who purchases the “beneficium” of being personally hosted and defended, or in his successors or in persons of the Curia. And Orvieto gave proof of fidelity to the pact by successfully withstanding the siege of Henry VI (1189), who wished to punish the Orvietans for having subscribed in the person of Pepo Farnese to the Peace of Venice (1177). From then on the 13th century saw the State of Orvieto subjugate the contado Giulio, succeeded (1168) and Ilidibrandesco (1203) and extend as far as the sea (Ortobello: little Orvieto: Isola del Giglio), bordering on Siena, Perugia, Todi and the Patrimony of St. Peter. But it was precisely this proximity to the latter that created territorial disputes, which favoured heretical movements; Patarines with “corezzesi” appeared in the second half of the 12th century. Innocent III, at the request of the Orvietans, sent Peter Parenti as rector, but he was killed (1199). From then on legal persecutions against the “heretics” began. In 1249 the Inquisition, Dominican and then (1260) Franciscan, was functioning, also in relation to anti-Ghibelline policy.The preaching of St. Francis is probable only for the peripheral territory (1216); but Franciscanism took root immediately and in 1260, contemporaneously with Perugia, the Laudesi appeared, in whose mystical tradition is to be placed the Blessed Angiolina dei conti Montemarte. The Dominicans erected the first church to their founder (1233).
In the 13th century the city was a centre of theological studies, where St. Thomas Aquinas also taught (c. 1261–64), directed a school and a Third Order to which the humble Blessed Vanna belonged. Then (1259–60) the Servites of Mary and the Augustinians arrived, among the latter of whom the great theologian and prelate Ugolino d’Orvieto (d. 1371) distinguished himself.
Meanwhile the city expanded (perhaps a return) with large suburbs on the plain, and housed a population of about 30,000 people, including the famous families: Medici, Monaldeschi, Filippeschi, Ranieri, engaged in various activities and in overseas trade (treaties with Genoa; Dominican missionaries in Samarkand, 13th–14th centuries). Special relations with European countries were also due to the residence of the Curia with the consequent arrivals of ambassadors and sovereigns (England, France, Germany, etc.). On the other hand, important was the anti-French movement (1282) which anticipated the Sicilian Vespers.
The constitutional development was rapid. In the second half of the 12th century the consuls were joined by the rector or podestà: in 1250, contemporaneously with Florence, came the coup d’état of the captain of the people; from 1256 the conquest—favoured by the popes—of power by the guilds began, which in 1292 was complete. Also from 1292 is the cadastre, first or second in Europe. Boniface VIII predicted that Orvieto would be where statues would be erected to him and accepted the office of captain of the people (1297–98) and of podestà (1299).
In the early 14th century Orvieto’s exclusion from the dominion of the Tyrrhenian littoral and hinterland brought grave evils and internal strife. Economic decline worsened towards the middle of the century and equilibrium was not regained despite various attempts at lordships (1334–53). The arrival of Albornoz, who had at the head of his troops the Orvietan Count of Montemarte, marked the beginning (1354) of the third political phase with the personal lordship of the pope, Orvieto remaining excluded from the Patrimony of St. Peter (1368). Amidst the general confusion of the Schism there were not lacking nostalgias for ephemeral returns to a quasi-communal regime (Peace of Benano, 1389), nor sudden and brief attempts at local lordships supported by major foreign interests (Naples, Rome, Perugia, the antipope, etc.); until in 1448 Orvieto gave itself to Nicholas V almost in the form of 1368. After the internal peace blessed by the guest Pius II (1460) came the constitutional reorganization (1461) with power divided among nobles, middle class and people, with the help of the Pope against feudal abuses in the countryside. In this state, pacified and impoverished, Orvieto resisted Charles VIII twice (1494–95), while hosting Alexander VI, whose government exercised by the Duke of Valentinois was excellent. But more famous is the hospitality given to Clement VII (1527–28), who escaped the Sack of Rome; and from this period date, presumably, some honorary privileges of the bishop of Orvieto, followed by notable distinctions for the cathedral chapter.
In these centuries relations with the Curia were transformed, thanks to many cardinals, prelates, jurists and artists from Orvieto who imposed themselves in Rome. Also of some importance is the colony of Orvieto in Paris (17th century) with a group of painters and musicians and the famous “marchands d’Ovietan” licensed by the kings of France themselves. At the Savoy court at that time Ascanio Vitozzi distinguished himself as a military and civil architect.
The effects of the Catholic Reformation were not long in coming. In 1566 the seminary was founded; in 1588 the Doctrinarians; in 1621 the Jesuits opened schools and colleges. In 1794 the Carissimi arrived, the only ones to resist the Napoleonic storm. In 1564 the government was more equitably divided between nobles and commoners and in this state it was reconfirmed in 1755, so that the Jacobin invasion could not presume to teach anything. Indeed it provoked a popular uprising (1798). The last episode of the Church-State struggle in Orvieto was Napoleon’s persecution of Bishop Lambruschini (1800), in a sense repeated with the imprisonment of Bishop Vespignani during the Roman Republic (1849).
(1) R. Raffaelli Armoni e Morotti, *Orvieto, Diocesi di - Etruscan fresco: the myth of Persephone - Orvieto, Etruscan tomb of the Escana.*
II. Principal Monuments
### Cathedral
On the site of the ancient cathedral, already ruinous by the end of the 12th century, and on the area of the chapter church of St. Costanzo, the new cathedral was erected with the previous dedication (St. Mary Assumed) at the initiative of Bishop Francesco, with the first stone blessed by Nicholas IV (1290). From 1321 the *Opera del Duomo*, which had existed before 1285, assumed the legal form of a semi-state institution, enriched over the centuries and then plundered (1876) by the eversive laws. The construction of the building took place in five phases. First, following the model of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, an oratory for eucharistic worship was built, with bas-reliefs and two portals (c. 1275–1280), later reused. Then came the construction (1290) of a grand Romanesque cathedral with three naves. In the third period (c. 1300–1305), the structure was transformed in a Gothicizing style with a cross-vaulted transept, a square apse, and the most original façade. Here the name of L. Maitani predominated, followed by A. and N. Pisano and Orcagna, to say nothing of others. The pictorial decoration (apse, Chapel of the Corporal) was entrusted to Ugolino di Ilario and his local school (mid-14th century).
The fourth period—completion and decoration—began with the Chapel of the Corporal (mid-14th century), continued with the crypt (late 14th century), with the New Chapel frescoed by Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli and Signorelli, with the completion of the façade, and with the decoration (demolished in the 19th century) of the interior (16th century). In this fifth phase, I. Scalza, a sculptor and architect superior to his fame, stood out among Sammicheli, S. Mosca, B. da Montelupo, and others.
Notable celebrations in the cathedral include: the feast of the Blessed Virgin Assumed (14 Aug., evening), linked to the Majesty of the Panel (Madonna and Child, late 12th century), and to a later processional machine (16th century) with traces of a previous cult of the *acheiropoieton* of the Lateran; Pentecost, with a liturgical drama transformed in the 14th–19th centuries (feast of the *Palombella*); and the feast of the Most Holy Corporal, in the special chapel and in the public Corpus Christi procession (feast of the Most Holy Corporal), connected with the miracle of Bolsena.
During the sojourn (1262–64) of Urban IV in Orvieto, from which he issued the bull *Transiturus* (1264) to extend to the whole Church Corpus Christi (v.), it happened that in the hands of a priest, a pilgrim en route to Bolsena, the consecrated Host dripped blood with figures upon the Corporal. An immediate inquiry was made by the Pope and Bishop Giacomo. The eucharistic relics, with the documents indicating the miracle, remained in Orvieto. The cult, already mentioned in a document of 1208, developed first in a small oratory (late 13th century), where from about 1338 to 1360 stood the admirable reliquary of Ugolino di Vieri (1338); then in the present chapel. A sacred representation of the miracle began around 1325, later expanded (1338?) by the Dominicans. The eucharistic procession, desired by the State since at least 1337, is the first of its kind.
### St. Andrew
On the site of an Etruscan metallurgical center (furnace, washing tables, etc.) and a temple restored in Roman times, the second Orvietan church arose in the 6th century, restored several times (10th–11th, 12th centuries), enriched with a dodecagonal tower (11th–12th centuries; rebuilt in the 20th), enlarged and restored (14th–16th centuries) as it now appears. Here Honorius III crowned Peter of Artois, King of Jerusalem (1217), and Martin IV was crowned (1281). Certainly the church served many state functions over the centuries, being connected with the cult of Christ the King (10th–17th centuries), venerated in an aedicule on the façade (demolished 1928), before which the oaths of fidelity of the subject lands were repeated (12th–17th centuries) during the *feriae Augusti* (14 Aug., evening). The procession, now Marian, continues.
### St. Juvenal (1004?)
From the popular voice called “the ancient cathedral,” though no document confirms this. It is a true repository of late medieval sacred painting (12th–15th centuries). St. Lawrence and the Arari (12th century). So called because the altar is an Etruscan area. Well-restored in the 20th century, Baroque decorations were removed.
### St. Dominic (1233)
The first church dedicated to the saint. Partially demolished (14th century) for structural reasons, in 1933 it was reduced to the transept alone. Notable features: the tomb of De Braye by Arnolfo di Cambio (1282); the wooden crucifix (13th century) praised by St. Thomas Aquinas for the Office of Corpus Christi; the cathedra, the biretta, and the psalter of the Aquinate. The door (14th century) was brought here (1933) from the ruined rural church of S. Spirito degli Armeni, as attested by the inscription in Armenian characters.
### St. Francis (1240)
Built in Gothic forms with a dome-tiburio, for the Friars Minor first resident in the destroyed hermitage of S. Pietro in Vetere; around 1260 a brotherhood of *laudesi* arose here, later (1323) reduced to a brotherhood of flagellant actors, who competed with many similar sodalities. In 1272 Gregory X celebrated the funeral of Henry of England here; in 1297 Boniface VIII canonized St. Louis, King of France, here.
### Hospital of St. Mary of the Star (1179)
The last remaining of many hospitals of former times; altered by the eversive laws (19th century).
### Papal Palace or “Soliano” (from the papal throne)
Enlarged by Urban IV (1262–64), under Boniface VIII (1297) as amends, the State of Orvieto began the great consistory hall and the external staircase. It was to be the official residence of the popes, who lodged in the episcopal palace, also a papal construction. Unused after the Avignon exile, in 1330 it passed to the use of the *Opera del Duomo*, and only in 1493, under Alexander VI, did it fulfill its function; yet even in the time of Paul III the city had not finished the works begun in the 13th century. Between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, it was wrongly considered municipal property and thus of the *Opera del Duomo*. Restored in the 19th century with arbitrary additions, it housed the Museum of the *Opera del Duomo*.
### Episcopal Palace
In its present form it preserves traces of the 9th–10th centuries, though the construction is from the 13th century, due to the residence of nearly all the popes of that time, who gave money and the title of Apostolic to the *Fabrica*, because it was to extend as far as the true Papal Palace. The governor took up residence there in the name of Nicholas V. In 1503 the building was divided between government and bishop, though reunited during papal sojourns (Alexander VI, Clement VII, Paul III up to Gregory XVI).
### Communal Palace
Notable for being united with the church of St. Andrew. Built (13th century) on the site of a “court,” restored and enlarged (13th century) it became the seat of the consuls, then the lodging of the podestà. Completed by L. Maitani and decorated (14th century) with frescoes now almost vanished. Designed by Sangallo (1532), the building received an entirely new façade from I. Scalza (1573–81), who had planned to double the length of the façade. On the ground floor was opened the first or second *Monte di Pietà* (15th century). The archive is extremely rich.
ORVIETO, PIECES OF — The oldest act (24 Apr. 1208) relating to the veneration of the Orvietans for the Corporal: cf. Lazzarini, cited in bibliography. — Orvieto, Archivio storico comunale.
BIBL.:
Lazzarini, *Il miracolo di Bolsena e il Duomo di Orvieto*, Orvieto 1930.
ORVIETO — ORZECHOWSKI STANISLAW
Late and sumptuous Orvietan Renaissance, of which notable examples are also the Palazzi Febei-Piccolomini, Viti-Durazzo and Buzi, now the Mercedarian College. The devastated Palazzo Alberi al Corso, with its still evident medieval complex (13th century) crowned by splendid triforium windows, would merit restoration as an example of the merchant-court palace of the Middle Ages. The famous Pozzo di S. Patrizio was dug at the behest of Clement VII (1527-28) during his stay. It is a bold work by A. Sangallo the Younger. The nearby Rocca Albornoziana was originally the work of the Orvietan condottiero Ugolino di Montemarte (1364), destroyed (1390), rebuilt (1450-57), demolished and reduced to a garden (19th century). It is now being carefully reconstructed by Bonelli. The “Mancinelli” Theatre (1842-68), an extremely elegant work by V. BISIGNANO, frescoed by L. Bazzani, A. Angelini and the Orvietan C. Fracassini, to whom is owed the curtain, his first work after his controversial post-academic reappraisal. The Etruscan tombs of the necropolis near the city (e.g., at “Crocifisso del Tufo”) are, contrary to custom, not of noble families but of individuals from various lucumonies (Chiusi, Tarquinia, etc.). Those on the Settecamini plateau, however, are frescoed and of noble families. Etruscan families: Velusi, Hesena, Numena, and those Spurena from whom sprang the haruspex who forewarned Caesar of the Ides of March. — Cf. pls. XXV-XXVI.