Pesaro, Diocese of

PESARO, Diocese of. - Capital city of the province of the same name and a suffragan diocese of Urbino.

It extends over 287 sq km with a population of 77,700 inhabitants, of whom 77,500 are Catholics. It has 44 parishes served by 80 diocesan priests and 37 regulars, 1 seminary, 7 male religious communities and 15 female (Ann. Pont., 1952, p. 311).

The earliest Christian records of P. date back to the 4th century: a Christian inscription is dated to this time (CIL, XI, II, 6473-75); in all probability the episcopal see also belongs to the same period, although only an unchecked tradition has assigned to the city a bishop Heraclianus of the 4th century whose see is unknown. The first certain bishop, Germanus, is from the 5th century (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 739). The account of St. Terentius (BHL, 8007), who from Pannonia settled in P., where he is said to have suffered martyrdom on 24 September 247 under Decius and to have been buried in the Cathedral, which immediately afterwards is said to have been dedicated to him, is entirely legendary. The martyr Terentius, conflated in the three figures of the martyr of Luni (24 September), of P. (24 September) and of Todi (27 September), constituting one and the same person, whose history nevertheless remains unknown, was much later the titular of the cathedral of P. and considered bishop of the city (9th century). Some indications would suggest that the primitive cathedral stood outside the walls, on the Flaminia, in the place where the monastery of S. Decenzio was later built, which belonged to the Cluniac monks in the 12th century, and where today the suburban church of the same name (of the cemetery) is located; a passio of the martyrs Decentius and Germanus (BHL, 2115) seems embroidered upon the historical figure of bishop Germanus, who was certainly venerated in that monastic temple from 1256 and had been buried there, as bishops were, according to the ancient custom, near their respective cathedral church, since antiquity. In any case the document has no value as regards what it narrates about the two persons given as martyrs at P. in the persecution of Galerius (306-11). In the later series of bishops are found: Felix, to whom Pope Gregory the Great addressed a letter (596; Epist. 6, 44, in MGH, Epist., ed. P. Ewald and L. M. Hartmann, I, Leipzig 1887-91, fasc. 1, p. 419); Cardinal Ascanio Sforza who was administrator of the diocese (1489-91); Giacomo Simonetta (1528-38), canonist, created cardinal by Paul III, member of the cardinalatial commission for the reform of the Curia (20 April 1537) and legate to the Council that was to open at Vicenza (20 March 1538); his nephew Ludovico (1538-61), present at the first convocation of the Council of Trent at the first session of 21 June 1546; Giulio, finally, brother of the latter (1561-76), who was present at the last convocation and signed the acts of the last session 143rd. He celebrated synods at P. and founded the Seminary. His successors devoted themselves to this institution with growing zeal: Rocco M. Barsanti (1779-84), who began the reconstruction of the Seminary building, and G. M. Lavini who brought it to completion and inaugurated it in 1788: the poet-painter of P., Can. G. A. Lazzarini, had contributed to the work with his artistic talent. The diocese of P. has been a suffragan of Urbino since the 16th century.

P. was a city of the Pentapolis and was part of the Papal State in its first constitution (754-56). Because of the continuous struggles between the emperors of the West and of the East and the popes, P. detached itself from it first under the rule of a count, then with a communal government (11th-12th centuries). It was subjected to the lordship of the Malatesta who held it as vicars of the Holy See. Then came the Sforza: Alessandro received its investiture from Nicholas V and was lord of the city for a long time (1447-73). His nephew Giovanni married Lucrezia Borgia who made her solemn entry into P. on 8 June 1494. The city was occupied by Duke Valentino (28 October 1500) who established there the lordship of the Borgias (1500-1503) and then passed to Fr. M. Della Rovere who was invested with it by Julius II with a bull of 20 February 1513; amid wars and devastations there followed the lordship of the Medici under Leo X (1513-21) and, again, of the Della Rovere with Fr. Maria who obtained its investiture with a bull of 25 March 1523.

On the death of Fr. Maria II on 28 April 1631 the city with the principality returned to the Holy See.

Monasteries. - The most important was S. Tommaso in Foglia (iuxta Aposellam), Benedictine, known because Pope Clement II died there on 9 October 1047. Of the Abbey of S. Tommaso, today Apsella (Montelabate), very little remains: the building, reduced to a farm, preserves scanty monumental elements of the Romanesque construction, some perhaps from the 9th century (A. degli Abati-Olivieri, Memorie della Badia di S. Tommaso in Foglia, Pesaro 1778).

Monuments. - Cathedral: dedicated to St. Mary (privilege of Celestine III, 12 May 1197 in the Capitular Archive) it was under the protection of the Holy See. A complete restoration was carried out in 1865 by bishop Clemente Fares: the apse enlarged, the roof renewed, the dome built, the new chapel of St. Terentius erected (architect Carducci); the temple was consecrated anew by C. Bonaiuti in 1903.

S. Decenzio: the hypothesis of a paleo-Christian basilica does not have sufficient decisive elements in its favor. The construction is Romanesque, but has undergone radical restorations: the work, carried out with a certain classical dignity, can be assigned to the 9th century. Of the other churches, of the many that P. counted, the most important are: S. Francesco (today of the Servi) built at the expense of Pandolfo Malatesta; S. Giovanni, a construction of grandiose lines, the work of the architects Gerolamo and Bartolomeo Genga, begun in 1543 at the wish of Duke Guidobaldo II; S. Ubaldo, built in fulfillment of a vow by Duke Fr. Maria II della Rovere, for the birth of his son Federico Ubaldo (16 May 1605). Other churches belong to the Baroque period: Nome di Dio, S. Maria Maddalena, originally from the 13th century, renovated on a design by Vanvitelli (1700-73), S. Rocco, S. Lucia, etc.

In the Treasury of the Cathedral is kept an ivory pyx with carved figures around it: the raising of the daughter of Jairus, and the blind man healed: it is assigned to the 6th century. In the episcopal palace is preserved the so-called Christian nymphaeum, coming from Ginestreto, from the 7th century. In the Civic Museum, housed in the Palazzo del governo (Ducal Palace, 15th century) there is a rich collection of panels (group of primitives, etc.), an altarpiece: Coronation of Mary by G. Bellini (1467), various works by painters of Pesaro: Simone Cantarini (1612-48), G. A. Lazzarini (1710-1801) and a conspicuous collection of ceramics, with examples of local production. Also to be noted is the small Mosca Museum, in the palace of the same name, donated in 1882 to the Municipality by the marchioness Vittoria Toschi-Mosca. The Library, founded by Annibale degli Abati Olivieri (1708-89), possesses a notable quantity of manuscript memoirs and compilations that partly make up for the loss of the archival material; it has an attached Museum. The archival material of the Curia has perished; in the Capitular Archive some parchments of the 11th-12th centuries are preserved.

Serafino Prete