PETRIANO, MUSEUM. - It was a special building where for some time the principal sacred and profane monuments were suitably arranged, saved after the demolition of the ancient Constantinian Basilica or brought to light during the excavations carried out to lay the foundations of the new basilica of St. Peter and subsequently placed in the Vatican Grottoes. The initiative was taken by Msgr. G. De Bisogno, treasurer of the Rev. Fabbrica di S. Pietro. Approved by Benedict XV, the construction work was completed at the beginning of the pontificate of Pius XI, so that in 1925 the new Museum was already ready to receive its first visitors.
In the 14 rooms into which it was distributed, there found place, besides the aforesaid monuments, also various relics relating both to the old and to the new Basilica, such as drawings, plans and models, among which notable are the wooden model, devised by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and commissioned in 1539 by his pupil Antonio Labacco on the order of Paul III; the model, also of wood, of Michelangelo's dome, ordered by Paul IV (1556-59); and the clay model from which one could see how the ancient Basilica looked, with its adjoining buildings before the 16th century. A lively curiosity was also aroused by the models of the so-called bridges in the air, devised by Niccolò Zabaglia (1674-1755), an ingenious unlettered sampietrino, and employed for restoration work on the elevated parts of the building.
Among the various artistic monuments exhibited in the M. P., the tomb of Sixtus IV was especially admired, a valuable bronze work by Antonio Pollaiolo, completed in 1493 and signed by the master; having passed from the old into the new Basilica, it had lastly been placed in the Chapel of the Sacrament. Other famous artists present in the Museum were Mino da Fiesole, whose remains of the tomb of Paul II were admired; Melozzo da Forlì, with a fragment of fresco depicting the head of St. Peter; Giotto, with an angel, a remnant of the celebrated mosaic of the Navicella, still existing above the middle entrance of the portico; Camuccini, with the incredulity of St. Thomas, etc. Notable, finally, among the more ancient monuments, is the sarcophagus of the consul Sextus Petronius Probus (371 A.D.) and of his wife Anicia Faltonia Proba, which until 1649 had been used as the base of the baptismal font; it came from the mausoleum of the Anicii, which was ordered demolished in 1450 by Nicholas V, when work on the new Basilica was begun.
Used during the war period as an office for the search for prisoners of war, the M. P. no longer exists at present, only a few objects remaining there out of all the precious material, which for the most part has been placed anew in the Vatican Grottoes.
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