Piedmont

PIEDMONT. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - It is the westernmost historic region of Italy (and therefore also includes its westernmost point, the Rocca Chardonnet; 6° 32' 59'' E. Greenw.), roughly comprised between the Alpine ridge, the Apennine ridge, the Scrivia valley and the Ticino valley.

The name (Pedemontium, or "at the foot of the mountains") does not express its character well: its territory, partly occupied by mountains or hills, lies for about 1/3 above 1300 m., and of the Po plain itself that remains enclosed within it, it possesses the highest part. It is also, among the Italian compartments, the most extensive (including the Val d'Aosta), and one of the most varied in landscape: the smaller regional units within it are numerous (Val di Susa, Canavese, Monferrato, Langhe, Ossola, Lomellina, besides the Val d'Aosta, which is now administratively separate from it).

On 9.5% of the Republic's surface area, P. gathers 8.1% of its population, concentrated above all in the fertile zones of the plain. Of this population more than 2/5 are devoted to agriculture, which allows a rich cereal production (the provinces of Vercelli and Novara alone provide 1/2 of the rice produced in Italy;

4/5 of Piedmontese rice is exported; 1/3 of Italian rye comes from P.) and an even more notable production of wine (Monferrato, Langhe, Colline del Po), likewise the object of flourishing export. The irrigated meadows of the plain and the mountain pastures favor livestock raising (cattle; production of meat, butter and cheeses), which is moreover prosperous even in the mountains. The scarcity of minerals is compensated by the abundance of water resources, which feed numerous power plants. P., which contributes 15% to Italian industrial production, is surpassed only by Lombardy. All industrial activities are represented there, from textiles (cotton mill at Turin; woolen mills at Biella), to iron and steel (Novi, Mondovi), from paper (Cuneo, Novara) and rubber (Turin) to automobiles, which have there the most grandiose Italian complex (Fiat).

The major inhabited centers arise for the most part in the heart of the valleys (Susa, Aosta, Varallo, Domodossola) or at their outlet on the piedmont edge (Cuneo, Mondovi, Saluzzo, Pinerolo, Ivrea, Biella: and especially Turin, which with ca. 800,000 inhabitants is today the fourth city of the Republic).

Giuseppe Caraci

II. HISTORY

At present the western zone of the Po plain is called P., bounded by the arc of the Alps and the Apennines to the north, west and south, while to the east the border with Lombardy is formed by the line represented by the course of the Ticino, the Po and the Tidone, corresponding to the complex of the domains of the House of Savoy, consecrated by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748.

The history of the region begins with the settling of the first populations in the Neolithic era, probably of those same populations that classical tradition used to call Ligurians, and which between the 5th and 3rd centuries B.C. underwent a profound intermixing owing to the appearance of certain Celtic tribes that settled in the plain of the Po and its tributaries. The subalpine region was conquered in the 2nd century B.C. by the Romans, who in the age of Augustus also occupied the Alpine valleys. The conquest was consolidated with the establishment of various colonies, Julia Derthona, Hasta Pompeja, Eporedia, Augusta Praetoria, Augusta Taurinorum, Augusta Bagienorum; the old Ligurian and Celtic centers were in turn organized into Roman municipia. From Mediolanum, from Placentia, from Genua stretches of roads were soon built leading to the Alpine passes, of the Alpis Poenina (Great St. Bernard), of the-

the Alpis Graia (Little St. Bernard), the Alpis Cottia (Mont Cenis and Mont Genèvre); Julia Derthona, Vercellae, Augusta Taurinorum were the principal centers of communication. In the Augustan organization the piedmont region formed the two regions of Transpadana (XI) and Liguria (IX); in the Constantinian arrangement of the 4th century it became part of the wider region of Liguria with Mediolanum as its capital. The rich epigraphic and monumental documentation and the toponymy, in which Latin suffixes prevail over Ligurian and Celtic ones, attest how deep Roman civilization was in the subalpine region. As regards Christianization, while it cannot be excluded that sporadic groups of Christians already existed in the pre-Diocletian age, it is to be believed that only in the age of Constantine did the spread of Christianity in the piedmont region take place: the oldest episcopate in the region is that of Vercelli, whose first bishop, Eusebius, extended his care also to the faithful of Novara, Ivrea, Aosta, Tortona, and Turin. In the last decades of the 4th century bishops appear also in the other principal cities, such as St. Gaudentius at Novara and St. Maximus at Turin. It is probable that, after the death of Theodosius (399), the new imperial government established at Milan with Honorius proceeded to a reorganization of the civil districts and that consequently there was a rearrangement of the dioceses, and that it was then that the dioceses of Turin, Ivrea, Aosta, Alba, and Acqui were erected through the work of St. Ambrose, or at least under his influence. Thus, at Turin, in 398 there was the assembly of a provincial Council of the archdiocese of Milan. The evangelization of the populations was at the beginning of the 5th century very rudimentary: from the sermons of St. Maximus it emerges what a mixture there was among the people between Christian beliefs and pagan beliefs. At the end of the imperial age in the piedmont region there were counted four dioceses south of the Po: Tortona, Asti, Alba, Acqui; five north of the river: Novara, Vercelli, Ivrea, Aosta, Turin. The most extensive diocese was that of Turin, which comprised the whole mountainous zone of the Cottian Alps, and in it Christian penetration occurred more slowly. The lists of bishops, as they are preserved by medieval-age catalogues, are not reliable for the most ancient age.

The Lombard invasion, in the second half of the 6th century, destroyed the Roman provincial organization. The invaders gathered under the authority of dukes only at Novara, Ivrea, Turin, Asti, and Tortona. The Byzantines retained possession of the Apennine zone, which was conquered only after 638 by Rothari. The organization of the dioceses, however, remained intact.

The Merovingian conquest, however, of the valleys of Aosta and Susa led to the consequence that the diocese of Aosta felt very greatly the influence of the Burgundian zone, although the bishops continued to take part in the provincial Synods of Milan. Instead, after the Frankish occupation, the Susa valley together with the Moriana valley, which had also been part of the diocese of Turin, was annexed to the diocese of Vienne, and at a later time the two valleys formed the diocese of Moriana. For piedmont religious life in the Lombard age, the first flourishing of Benedictine monasteries in various cities is to be noted: in the Frankish zone the abbey of Novalesa (v.) arose in 726.

As for Lombard political life, it seems that in the subalpine region the dukes, especially those of Turin, hinted at a true opposition against the kings of Ticino (Pavia). At the beginning of the 7th century, perhaps in the age of Liutprand, the kings had to replace the dukes, who tended toward autonomy, with gastalds, more reliable interpreters of their wishes. The collapse of the Lombard Kingdom, both in 754-56 and in 774, was immediately outlined, as soon as the Frankish invasion occurred, in the Alpine valleys.

With the conquest of Charlemagne, the Lombard dukes and gastalds having disappeared, the Frankish counts installed themselves in the piedmont cities, often bringing with them loyal groups of warriors. All the episcopal cities also became seats of counts. The piedmont counties, however, formed part of a great duchy of Neustria; once the Roman name of Liguria had fallen out of administrative use, the country was commonly called Longobardia Neustria. In the 10th century a large part of the region was politically comprised in the March of Ivrea; once this had broken up under Berengar II, so as to be limited by the course of the Po, south of the river, between the Po and the sea, the three marches of Turin (Arduinica), of Savona (Aleramica), and of Genoa (Obertenga) were formed. In the first half of the 11th century the margraves of Turin were hegemonic in the region; the marriage between Adelaide of Turin, heiress of the margrave Olderic Manfred, and Otto, son of Humbert Whitehand count of Savoy, marked the first attempt at unification of the lands of the two Alpine slopes. Between the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th, hegemony passed to the Aleramici of Savona; but then the marches disappeared through the division of the domains among the various family branches. The 12th century sees the formation of margraviates and counties with a predominantly patrimonial character.

Alongside the general term of Lombardy (= Lombards) the specific names of territories begin to appear: Lomellina, Canavese, Astese, and above all that of P., used from the 11th to the 12th century to indicate the high zone at the foot of the Cottian Alps, or the plateau sloping down from Cuneo toward Saluzzo and Pinerolo. In the region there appears a notable revival of economic and social life already in the 10th century. The defense against the raids of the Hungarians and the Saracens determines the construction of numerous castles which are not only a defense, but also centers of new economic and even commercial activities. Bishops and counts employ themselves there; proof of the new life are the numerous monasteries that arise; to the Cluniac activity corresponds Cistercian activity and then Carthusian activity; land reclamation and clearing of sterile lands, development of sheep-raising and wool production, progress of cultivation, form an undisputed merit of subalpine monasticism. Feudalism too carries out an important work in this field: the formation of the small feudalism of the milites secundi, who in the 11th and 12th centuries become true owners, albeit conditionally, of the lands, determines a new interest in agriculture, the sole support of life, war not being advantageous in so poor a country.

The formation of the feudal city lordships of the bishops provokes the communal movement. In Asti, Tortona, Alba, Turin, Ivrea, Vercelli, and Novara the local feudal elements organize themselves under the auspices of the bishops. From the struggles between the new communal organizations and the old feudal groups derive the attempts at coordination of the political forces of the piedmont region in the 13th century. At first, Frederick I, appealing especially to the feudal lineages, sought to bind the communal cities to an attempt at bureaucratic organization; then the Angevin counts Charles I and Charles II, making the P. between the Alps and the Tanaro their center, strove to bring all the cities of the plain into a single framework; then the marquises of Montferrat (v.), from William VII Aleramico to John II Palaeologus, endeavored to enlarge their domains so as to embrace the cities of the river valleys. Last, profiting from the experience and the failure of the others, the counts of Savoy set to work. Masters of the valleys of Aosta and Susa, claiming to reconstitute the ancient march of Turin, they strove to recover this important strategic center of the region. In 1248 Frederick II recognized these claims by granting the possession of Turin and Ivrea to the Savoys. For two centuries, from Amadeus IV to Amadeus VIII, the counts of Savoy, with arms and with diplomacy, took part in all the conflicts among the subalpine princes, the marquises of Saluzzo and of Montferrat, the Visconti of Milan, the Angevins of Nice and of Cuneo, and succeeded in asserting their hegemony, eliminating the Angevins from the Piedmontese region, restricting the area of the Visconti, and making vassals of the Palaeologi of Montferrat and the Aleramici of Saluzzo. If the Angevins had endowed the counts of P., Amadeus VIII created for his son the principality of P., gathering under this name all the Piedmontese Savoyard domains. The seat of the prince of P. is his tiny central Turin; here in the 15th century the University created by the Savoys to meet the needs of their State was organized; here too the Savoyard ducal Council on this side of the mountains was organized. Having forced the duke of Milan Filippo Maria to cede Vercelli and all his territory west of the Sesia, having forced the marquis of Montferrat to cede Chivasso and the surrounding domains, the duke of Savoy was master of the entire subalpine belt from Mondovì to Biella. The Visconti domains were restricted to the lower Tanaro valley alone, from Asti to Alessandria; the marquisates of Montferrat and of Saluzzo played at balance to save their existence. Savoyard policy in fact in the 15th century had as its minimum program the annexation of all the lands between the Alps and the Ticino: the concordant resistance of the kings of France and the dukes of Milan opposed it. Under the auspices of the ducal officials, the term P. expanded, under the somewhat "vague" form at first of "partes Pedemontis", and in the 15th century reached as far as Vercelli. In the Savoyard State the process of amalgamation of the various regional elements began, which is also a process of formation of the Piedmontese nation. While Saluzzo was tied to French policy and Montferrat to that of Milan, around the Savoys a tradition of autonomous Piedmontese life formed, which exercised its power of attraction on the elements still outside. This Piedmontese conception asserted itself also within the State against the Savoyard element. The Piedmontese communal bourgeoisies wanted the Savoyard State to have its base in them and no longer in the Savoyard feudal nobility.

During the conflict between France and Spain for predominance, under the French invasion, the Piedmontese state nuclei threatened to perish. The French program of annexing P. to France failed, however, with the Peace Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. The Savoyard State reappeared independent, but now the territories of Savoy were truly accessory domains, though glorious for their dynastic traditions. The Savoyard State was essentially Piedmontese: Charles Emmanuel I annexed the marquisate of Saluzzo to it with the Treaty of Lyon (1601). Victor Amadeus I annexed part of the marquisate of Montferrat to it with the Treaty of Cherasco (1631). Victor Amadeus II succeeded in absorbing all of Montferrat, in 1708, with the Treaty with the Empire against France in the War of the Spanish Succession; and at the same time he occupied the Valsesia, integrating the territory of Vercelli which Amadeus VIII had held only up to the foot of the Alps, just as with the annexation of Alessandria and of Valenza he succeeded in dominating the entire course of the Tanaro. The events of European politics in the following decades, the two great wars of succession of Poland and of Austria, made possible for Savoyard policy the resumption of Amadeus VIII's program of expansion east of the Sesia, in what was then still called Lombardy.

Charles Emmanuel III, who truly aspired to the dominion of all Lombardy and who in 1734, having occupied Milan, assumed the title of duke of Milan, had to content himself with having, by the Treaty of Vienna (1738), Novara and its territory between Sesia and Ticino, and south of the Po, Tortona, and with the Treaty of Aachen (1748) he brought the border to Lake Maggiore, to the Ticino, and south of the Po to the Tidone, annexing the upper Novarese, the Vigevanasco, the Lomellina and the territory of Bobbio-Voghera (or Pavese beyond the Po). These territories too were now considered as belonging to P., and there is no doubt that their contribution to the Savoyard-Piedmontese State was, from 1748 to the wars of the Risorgimento, quite conspicuous. They were in fact rich and populous territories that played an important part in the very poor Piedmontese economy: the populations at first struggled to adapt to the Piedmontese regime after having been for so many centuries an integral part of the Lombard-Milanese organism. But the Savoyard dynasty, from the 16th to the 18th century, had devoted its greatest care to the organization of its State. The civil administration, the financial system, the army, culture, the Church, the University were the instruments with which the dynasty, having become truly native over seven centuries, shaped the Piedmontese unity that could make it possible to attend to a policy of greater ambitions. The Church, under the protection of the Savoyard princes, developed and organized itself so as to dominate the whole life of the country. The frameworks of the ecclesiastical organization received the greatest care of the government. The original dioceses had undergone few modifications in the Middle Ages to accommodate the modifications of the political order. At the end of the 12th century, after the founding of Alessandria, with territories taken from the neighboring dioceses, the diocese of Alessandria had been constituted; in 1388 the diocese of Mondovì had been erected, in 1474 that of Casale, in 1511 that of Saluzzo, in 1529 that of Vigevano, in 1592 that of Fossano. The 18th century saw the rise of the dioceses of Pinerolo (1748), of Biella (1772) and of Susa (1772); the last to be constituted was the diocese of Cuneo in 1817. A particular creation had been the bishopric of Bobbio through the work of an emperor, Henry II, in 1014. The princes of the Savoyard dynasty, while also displaying qualities of deep piety and high reverence toward religion, nevertheless always defended the rights of superiority of the civil authority over the Church, but never allowed their subjects to intervene polemically in discussions on the relations between the two powers. In P. the Church collaborated in the formation of the Piedmontese nation and of its independence: the bl. Sebastiano Valfrè in the great wars of the end of the 18th century urged the populations to military duty, showing how all should sacrifice themselves for the life of the Fatherland and of the prince who represented it.

In the 18th century a national consciousness reveals itself in P. The Piedmontese feel that they are a happy creation of the military and political efforts of their princes, but they also know that they have contributed powerfully, with the suf-

ments and the miseries of so many centuries, to constitute from so many different ethnic elements a true nation, just as from so many physically different regions there had been constituted what could appear as a regional unity. The Piedmontese nation had a soul of its own, a life full of aspirations to be something in the life of all the populations of the peninsula. Piedmont was conscious of being an Italian national value capable of summing up in itself the fruits of centuries of Italian spiritual activity. Thus Piedmontese intellectual life became ever more deeply imbued with Italianness; Turin was longed for no longer merely as the capital of Piedmont, but as the moral capital of Italy: people thought of a risorgimento in which the cultured class of Piedmont would be at the head of the whole Italian nation. The constitution of Piedmont both as a territorial unity and as a moral unity appeared even then not as an insurmountable point of arrival, but as a phase through which one was to reach a greater Italian territorial and moral unity. Municipalism thus appeared superseded in the spiritual travail of Piedmont in the 18th century: the Risorgimento of the 19th century was to solve the problem that the generation to which Vittorio Alfieri belonged had posed with the greatest clarity.

Francesco Cognasso

III. CONCILIAR REGION

It groups together the ecclesiastical provinces of Turin and Vercelli. The archdiocese of Turin, metropolitan, has as suffragans the bishoprics of Acqui, Alba, Aosta, Asti, Cuneo, Fossano, Ivrea, Mondovì, Pinerolo, Saluzzo and Susa. For ordinary appeals it has the court of second instance at Mondovì. To the ecclesiastical province of Vercelli belong, besides the metropolitan see, the dioceses of Alessandria, Biella, Casale Monferrato, Novara and Vigevano. Ordinary appeals go to the court of Novara, elevated to the second instance.

According to the Instruction of the S. Congr. of Bishops and Regulars, 24 Aug. 1889, which for Italy is not modified by can. 292 § 1, the bishops of the two provinces assemble each year under the presidency of the prelate of highest rank and seniority and hold the Episcopal Conference. In the decr. of the S. Congr. Consistorial, 15 Febr. 1919, the P. was expressly exempted from the obligation of holding the plenary regional Council, because in the two ecclesiastical provinces it did not seem difficult to be able to assemble the prescribed provincial councils. But in the subsequent circular of 22 March 1919, the bishops were granted the faculty, if they thought fit, of assembling a council of the whole region, with prior apostolic assent. In fact this faculty was made use of and the Piedmontese plenary Council was held in Oct. 1927.

By the motu proprio Qua Cura of 8 Dec. 1938, the regional ecclesiastical court was created at Turin with exclusive competence for cases of matrimonial nullity, which has its ordinary court of appeal at the Lombard regional court of Milan and receives appeals from the Ligurian regional court of Genoa. The functioning and procedures of this special court are regulated by the Normae of the S. Congr. of the Sacraments, 10 July 1940, as well as by the particular internal provisions approved by the bishops of the region.

Agostino Pugliese

IV. ART

1. Ancient age

While the documents of prehistory are numerous (rock engravings in the region of Monte Bego, Neolithic burial grounds in the Valley of Aosta (Montjovet) and of Susa (Vayes), pile dwellings of Trana, Mercurago, and necropolises of the Novara area: Ameno, Orta, Castelletto Ticino, Varallo Pombia, etc.), and of Roman civilization (Aosta [v.]: city walls, Porta Pretoria, triumphal arch, cryptoporticus; Susa: gate and circuit wall; Turin: grid plan, Porta Palatina, Porta Pretoria, theater; Acqui: aqueduct; Asti: walls and gate, bronzes; necropolises of Derthona, Pollentia, Libarna; bridges in the Valley of Aosta and roads), the testimonies of Christian art and of the early Middle Ages are relatively scarce. Although the region was evangelized by the bishops Syrus, Eusebius, Maximus and Gaudentius, and despite the enormous impulse they gave to culture and religion, very little remains from this period.

The most notable surviving monuments of architecture are the baptistery of Novara of the 5th century (v. NOVARA, II. Monuments), and the churches of S. Maria di Naula at Piane Sesia and S. Massimo at Collegno, whose foundations are preserved beneath the Romanesque construction: the baptistery of Settimo Vittone (7th century), the church of S. Giovanni at Asti, erroneously believed to be a crypt, the crypt of S. Secondo in the same city, S. Michele in Clivolo at Borgo d'Ale, S. Orso of Aosta (beginning of the 9th century). The decorative material is found walled into later buildings at Castelvecchio di Testona, at Vezzolano, at S. Orso of Aosta, in the cloister of the cathedral of Novara, or reused in more recent constructions, or collected and preserved in museums. Lombard funerary slabs are found at S. Pietro di Avigliana. Testimonies of painting prior to the 9th century are lacking, and those from the 9th to the beginning of the 11th are extremely rare: the fragments of the apse of S. Michele in Clivolo at Borgo d'Ale, deriving from the art of Trier, those of S. Maria di Castelvecchio at Mongrando, now in the Museum of Biella, which have connections with the current of Tours, the Histories of the Apostles in the attic of S. Orso of Aosta, close to the models of S. Giovanni of Münster of 998, the fragments of the Last Judgment at S. Quintino di Spigno linked, like the fragments of S. Costanzo di Dronero, to the style of Corbie, the apse of S. Ferreolo at Grosso, dependent on the miniature painting of Regensburg. Two consular ivory diptychs of the 5th century exist in the cathedrals of Novara and Aosta (v.). Numerous codices of the early Middle Ages are preserved in the capitular Libraries of Vercelli, Novara, Aosta, Ivrea, and many are collected in the National Library of Turin, among which some Irish ones from the monastery of Bobbio are extremely precious. In P. there existed in the early Middle Ages at least two important scriptoria, one at Vercelli (v.), the other at Ivrea (v.). A very rare Oriental work of the early Middle Ages is the foot of the reliquary of St. Margaret in rock crystal of the cathedral of Casale, and precious for its ornaments is the ivory casket with bronze applications of the 9th century in the cathedral of Ivrea.

2. Romanesque period

From the end of the 10th century to the 13th, in the Romanesque period, architecture established itself in P. with original characteristics and resonances that went beyond the region. The architectural renewal found in P. proceeds parallel to that which occurs in Lombard art, but the introduction of the vaulted roof, unlike the latter, is found only in small constructions or in the side aisles and crypts, while the use of visible trusses almost always continues. The originality of the Romanesque churches is given by the narrow and tall naves, by the very deep apse, by the vertical sense of space, which is brought out especially in the interior. A verticalism that persists from the paleo-Christian era, still preeminent in the baptistery of Novara, in the church of S. Lorenzo of Settimo Vittone of the 8th century and in S. Michele in Clivolo at Borgo d'Ale, and which endures in the greatest Romanesque constructions (e.g., the abbey of Vezzolano, the cathedral of Aosta and the sagra of S. Michele), a typical expression of the northern character.

From the end of the 10th century are the abbey of S. Quintino di Spigno, consecrated in 991, and the cathedral of Ivrea founded around 969. To the same years dates the erection of the church and bell tower of S. Andrea at Turin; of 1006 is the tower of S. Benigno of Fruttuaria, of 1037 the fabric

(by courtesy of Dr. N. Gabrielli)
PIEDMONT - Facade of the Palazzo Cravetta. Arch. E. Negri di Sanfront (late 16th century) - Savigliano.

of the cathedral of Acqui with a crypt of five naves; from the beginning of the same century, S. Pietro of the same city, S. Giustina of Sezzè, the duomo of Susa, S. Martino of Ciriè.

The exterior is almost always formed of exposed masonry and with the material found in situ: squared green and gray stone in the Alpine valleys or cobblestones (e.g., the sacro monte of S. Michele), brick in the plain (e.g., the duomo of Novara), tufa (e.g., S. Lorenzo of Montiglio), or brick alternating with tufa in the Monferrato (e.g., S. Maria of Vezzolano), with beautiful polychrome effects. But the most important monuments of this period are the base and the apse of the sacro monte of S. Michele, the atrium of the duomo of Casale with its very bold vaults, S. Maria of Vezzolano built on the ruins of a Carolingian church. Among the bell towers, massive in their ponderous bulk, one recalls those of S. Benigno of Fruttuaria and of S. Stefano of Biella, of S. Orso of Aosta. Sculpture, an integral element of Romanesque architecture, runs along the architrave or the archivolts of the portals, on the ambos (the splendid one of the Isola di S. Giulio in black stone with the symbols of the Evangelists stylized in strong relief), in the capitals, now with essentially ornamental motifs (S. Fede of Cavagnolo, S. Lorenzo of Montiglio), now with figurations symbolic (facade of S. Maria di Vezzolano, entrance door to the church of the sagra of S. Michele), now with motifs drawn from the Old Testament or from the liturgy (cloister of S. Orso di Aosta of 1133, inner narthex of the abbey of Vezzolano, already completed in 1189). The windows of the apses, too, sometimes have splendid high-relief sculptures framing them. Very remarkable is the decoration of the so-called Gate of the Zodiac at the sagra of S. Michele, executed by Niccolò, author of the right portal of S. Zeno in Verona. Of high quality are also the reliefs of the lunettes of S. Andrea di Vercelli, attributed to a follower of Benedetto Antelami. The documentation of the painting of this period is very rich; the most important cycles are found at S. Michele di Oleggio, at S. Siro di Novara, at S. Tommaso di Briga Novarese, at S. Giovanni di Piobesi. The very rich treasures of the churches of Piedmont were dispersed over the centuries, but some record of the ancient splendor is still preserved: at S. Gaudenzio di Novara the ivory diptych of the 11th century, in the Cathedral of the same city the gilded copper binding of Evangeliary no. I, in the Treasury of Vercelli the beautiful binding for the evangeliary of S. Eusebio, in gold and silver, precious stones and enamels of the 11th century, at the Novalesa the casket of St. Eldrado in sheet metal of embossed silver, at S. Stefano Belbo the silver cross. Furthermore, the great Crucifixes in embossed silver and copper foil of the cathedrals of Vercelli and Casale from the 11th century; the bronze knockers of the cathedral of Susa and of the church of Sannazzaro Sesia, the Limousin and Rhenish enamels of the reliquaries of Villanova Baltea, Vercelli, or decorating the choir stalls of S. Sebastiano in Biella or collected in the Museums of Vercelli and Turin.

Floor mosaics were notably widespread, almost always on a white background with black marble tesserae, rarely enlivened with red or green tones. The most considerable examples are in the presbytery of the cathedral of Aosta with the representations of the rivers of Paradise (12th century). Also important are the fragments from the church of S. Maria Maggiore, now in the Museo civico of Vercelli, and those of the cathedral of Casale. Others are found in the presbytery of the cathedral of Novara, in the Museo civico of Turin and in the Seminary of Ivrea.

3. The Gothic

Gothic forms penetrated very early into architecture, establishing themselves already at the beginning of the 13th century (interior and sides of S. Andrea in Vercelli) and persisting until the end of the 15th century (cathedral of Saluzzo, 1491-1501).

Pointed arches are frequently used in the constructions, together with slender clusters of columns. For a short time depressed arches appear at Asti and Alba as evidence of the Angevin domination. The rectilinear plan in the apse is rarely used (S. Maria of Casanova, S. Maria of Rivalta Scrivia, S. Francesco of Cassine), whereas the polygonal radiating one is frequent (S. Francesco of Susa, S. Antonio of Ranverso, S. Giovanni of Saluzzo, S. Domenico of Chieri and of Alba, S. Secondo of Asti).

In the facades the use of the slender gable terminating below the roof predominates. The height is approximately that of the Romanesque churches; it is rarely such as to require the use of flying buttresses (S. Andrea in Vercelli, abbey of Staffarda, apse of S. Giovanni of Saluzzo). In this period many Romanesque churches that had exposed trusses were covered with vaults (cathedral of Casale, 13th century; S. Orso and cathedral of Aosta, 15th century), lowering the original height of the buildings, which preserve in the attic the ancient windows and the pictorial decorations.

The decoration is sober and is limited to interlaced small arches; only toward the middle of the 15th century does the flourishing of ornaments begin in the friezes, in the jambs of the windows (apse of S. Giovanni of Saluzzo in green stone and facade of the parish church of Chivasso, with complicated tracery with depictions of saints within aedicules). The bell towers, always very tall and pierced by two-and three-light windows, end with agile pyramidal spires, sometimes in glazed terracotta, flanked by slender pinnacles: typical are those of S. Domenico of Rivoli and of S. Giovanni in Saluzzo.

Civil building had very great development: numerous houses along the main streets, almost always provided with porticoes; fortified houses and castles arose in every inhabited center. In the Valley of Aosta, in that of Susa, in Monferrato, in the Langhe, castles and towers are still frequent, some truncated, others still of considerable height (Asti, Alba). Among the houses, the one called "della ferrata" at Avigliana, that of the princes of Acsia at Pinerolo, that of the Conte Verde at Rivoli, are significant for the overabundance of ornaments, numerous throughout the region. Castles imposing for their mass in the Val d'Aosta (Fénis, Issogne, Verrès, Introd, Graines, Ussel) and in Monferrato (Montiglio, Montemagno, Lerma, Cremolino, Montaldeo, Tagliolo, Silvano d'Orba, Gaglianico in the Biellese). Characteristic are the Piedmontese ricetti, some still in good condition (Busano, Candelo, Salassa, Oglianico).

Gothic sculpture has left few works in marble or stone, excluding the baptismal fonts and some reliefs and tomb slabs at Casale, Asti, Vercelli, Turin; of high quality is the group of the Virgin with the Child on the facade of the cathedral of Chieri. A great number of polychrome wooden carvings and statues, many of which are found in the Val d'Ossola, of Susa and above all at Aosta; others are collected in the Musei civici of Turin, Vercelli, Asti. Among the Crucifixes, mention is made of those of Fénis, of Challant St-Victor, of the S. Trinità of Casale, of the Museo civico of Turin. Noteworthy are the stalls of the cathedral of Chieri with motifs drawn from the local flora, others with ornaments and geometric interlaces (cathedral of Susa, S. Giovanni of Saluzzo); others with complicated reliefs and tracery with fantastic figurations (abbey of Staffarda), others representing saints and prophets (cathedral of Aosta, S. Orso in the same city); finally those carved by Baldino Surso of Pavia in 1477 for S. Giovanni d'Asti.

Interesting fragments of 14th-century Gothic painting of Lombard derivation are found at S. Andrea of Montiglio, in the chapel of the Baptist at S. Francesco of Cassine, in the cloister of Vezzolano; others with French elements at Arnaz, in the Val d'Aosta, others of Emilian derivation at S. Pietro of Avigliana and at S. Antonio of Ranverso, besides various paintings by Barnaba da Modena at Tortona, Alba, Turin. In the first half of the 15th century the Gothic style dominates with Lombard influences in the Novarese, Vercellese and Alessandrino areas (Cassine, casa Zoppi, art of Bonifacio Bombo), in the other localities the French influence prevails: Turin, Susa, Aosta (e.g., the Deposition by G. Beltrami of Pinerolo in the church of S. Giovanni of Piobesi, of 1414).

The most important current is the one that links back to the style of Giacomo Jaquerio, which differs from the French in its colder and more silvery colors (presbytery and sacristy of S. Antonio of Ranverso, Crucifixion and saints of the castle of Fénis, apse of S. Pietro of Pianezza, baronial hall of the castle of Manta).

Very beautiful are the stained-glass windows of the cathedral and of S. Orso of Aosta, from the end of the 15th century, in part the work of local artists. Distinguished masterpieces of Gothic goldsmithing decorate the treasures of the churches. The oldest is the reliquary of S. Andrea from the workshop of Ugo Oignies (cathedral of Chieri); furthermore numerous chalices (Aosta, Alba) and reliquary arms (Aosta, Chieri, Casale, Vercelli), the shrine of S. Grato by Giovanni di Malines (Aosta, Cathedral), the silver statues of the Virgin and of S. Giuliano (cathedral of Chieri), by Flemish goldsmiths of the second half of the 15th century, the reliquary donated by Anne of Alençon to the cathedral of Casale, by a French artist.

Lombard are the beautiful Cross donated in 1466 by Card. Teodoro Paleologo to the same cathedral; the ostensorium by the Ostini brothers, Milanese, to the cathedral of Asti in 1466.

Among the illuminated codices, mention is made of the Statuti of Turin, of Bolognese derivation, and the Malabaila codex, besides those of the Aosta Valley (Aosta, Cathedral and S. Orso) influenced by Jaquerio.

4. The Renaissance

The Renaissance penetrated late into Piedmont; Lombard forms at the end of the 15th century became established, for example, at Alba, Biella, Novara, Vercelli, and at the beginning of the 16th century, for example, at Revello, at Saluzzo (Casa Cavassa) and at Aosta, where the portal of the Cathedral is inspired by the Bramantesque forms of Lombardy. Among the most notable buildings one may recall the interior of S. Sebastiano in Biella, the parish church of Roccaverano, built on a design by Bramante, the Bramantesque sanctuary of the Pietà at Canobbio and that of the Madonna di Campagna at Pallanza and of S. Croce di Boscomarengo. Of interest are the military constructions, the fortress of Casale, erected in 1469, and the citadel of Turin, built by Francesco Paciotto of Urbino. The cathedral of Turin (v.) has in its interior a verticalism that is still frankly Gothic. In the second half of the 16th century Pellegrino Tibaldi worked at Turin and at Novara in the churches of the SS. Martiri and of S. Gaudenzio. Sculpture in stone and in marble is of clearly Lombard derivation: the portal of S. Domenico in Casale by the followers of Amadeo, the lunette on the facade of the collegiate church of Arona by Mantegazza, the altar of the Nativity in the ambulatory of the cathedral of Saluzzo, the monument of Galeazzo Cavassa by Benedetto Briosco and the statues of the apse in the church of S. Giovanni, the mausoleum of Ludovico II of Saluzzo, in the same city. Antonio Carlone is the author of the altar of S. Teonesto in the cathedral of Alba, and Lombards are likewise the authors of the altar of S. Evasio in the cathedral of Casale and of the terracotta sculptures of the facade of the cathedral of Aosta. The Veronese Matteo Sammicheli worked a great deal in Piedmont: altars and funerary monuments of his are found at Saluzzo, in the cathedral of Turin and at S. Domenico in Casale. Very beautiful are the Michelangelesque sculptures of the mausoleum of Pius V at Bosco Marengo.

Painting assimilated stylistic elements from the neighbouring regions and from those with which commercial relations were more frequent, adapting them to the local environment. In the last decades of the 15th century there is a still Gothicizing current with German and Flemish influences, of which there remain, besides works by Defendente Ferrari, the last exponent still active in 1530, various others by anonymous masters of superior quality (the Master of the Disputa Fontana, the Master of the Magdalene, etc.). Contemporary with these are Martino Spanzotti, Gaudenzio Ferrari, Macrino d'Alba, Gandolfino d'Asti, Girolamo Giovenone, all perfectly up to date with the new stylizations of the Renaissance through the Lombard masters. The most important cycle of Piedmontese painting of the late 15th century is that of the castle of Issogne, where all the varieties of the Piedmontese style of that period are present. The most notable personalities are Martino Spanzotti and Gaudenzio Ferrari (v.), who left in the frescoes of S. Bernardino in Ivrea, the former, and in those of Varallo (S. Maria delle Grazie, Sacro Monte) and of Vercelli (S. Cristoforo), the latter, the masterpieces of 16th-century Piedmontese painting. In the second half of the century the sanctuary of S. Croce at Bosco Marengo was enriched with Florentine sculptures and with paintings by Giorgio Vasari and other Tuscan masters. Very beautiful examples of vestments in cut-velvet, in gold brocade with raised pile and polychrome embroidery, are preserved in the treasuries of the cathedrals of Aosta, Asti, Biella, Casale, Novara, Vercelli, those in relief of the Valdostan sacred vestments being typical. Notable for their quality are the 16th-century goldsmiths' works, among which the processional cross in silver of Bishop Ferreri at Vercelli and the silver pastoral staff of the same bishop by the goldsmith Gian Galeazzo Cambi of Cremona of 1520, the cross of the cathedral of Asti by the goldsmith Feta of Cremona of 1505.

Among the furnishings one may recall the choir stalls and the lectern of S. Sebastiano and S. Girolamo in Biella of 1523, the seats of the chapter hall of S. Giovanni in Saluzzo and of the sacristy of the cathedral of Chieri of 1530, the door of the parish church of Revello, that of the parish house of Villanova

Solaro of 1520. Of 1590 is the door of the Ospedale Maggiore of Vercelli by Giovanni Sali, now in the Museo civico of Vercelli.

At the end of the 16th century the architect Ascanio Vittozzi of Orvieto, called by the Savoys for the construction of new fortifications, drew up the first master plan of Turin, giving the design not only of the present layout of Piazza Castello, of Via Roma and of the facades of the related buildings, but also providing for the first expansion of the city, still enclosed within the by then too narrow circuit of the Roman walls.

5. The modern age

The first master plan of the centre of Turin was to serve as an example for European urban planning. The uniformity of the designs for the houses of one and the same square and of one and the same street gives harmony to the whole and a character of absolute originality to the city. But Vittozzi did not limit himself to these urbanistic problems; he gave the design for the churches of the Corpus Domini, of the S.ma Trinità and of the Cappuccini, the latter two with a central plan, like the project for the sanctuary of Vicoforte, and the church of the cemetery of Cavaglià. Vittozzi's work was continued by his followers, among whom Carlo di Castellamonte, author of the project for Piazza S. Carlo, of the Certosa di Collegno, of the Castle of Venaria, of the Palazzo Taffini in Savigliano. He had as assistants and continuators his son Amedeo, author, among other things, of the Palazzo reale begun in 1646, of the Castello del Valentino, of the hospital of S. Giovanni, and Maurizio Valperga, collaborator in the arrangement of Piazza S. Carlo and of S. Teresa. Also to be remembered are Negri di Sanfront, Lanfranchi, Baroncelli, Bertola, Garoe and Ricca.

On Lake Orta Richini created for the Milanese, who had taken refuge there to escape the contagion of the plague, the beautiful church of S. Rocco at Miasino, and at Arona the sanctuary of S. Carlo and the Seminary. Elegant are the architectures designed by Galeazzo Alessi for the S. Monte of Varallo and those of the Lombard architects for the S. Monte of Orta. At Casale Sebastiano Guala made his mark in the majestic church of S. Filippo with a central plan and in the adjoining monastery, at S. Stefano and in some chapels at the S. Monte of Crea.

In the urbanistic arrangement of the city the Piedmontese architects knew how to align the facades with a harmonious sense of horizontality and uniformity (for example, Via Po), in the overall composition of the blocks, while the openings continued to be laid out with a vertical criterion of space and with a rhythm between solids and voids much more compressed than in central Italy, in response to requirements corresponding to the typically Piedmontese temperament and aesthetic needs.

When Guarini arrived in Piedmont in 1668, he brought his bold innovations, with deeply cleft ground plans, domes with intricately interwoven arches, and effects of light and shadow far more pronounced and violent than those used by local architects (the façade and grand staircases of the Palazzo Carignano, the church of S. Lorenzo and the chapel of the Holy Shroud). He gave free rein to his fancy in the decoration of windows, pilasters and capitals, and favored brick or dark stone. Guarini brought Piedmontese architecture of the seventeenth century to its close. Meanwhile, various Lombard and Luganese sculptors were working in Turin. Sculpture was still bound to the Mannerist formulas of the late sixteenth century in Tommaso Carlone; it sought luministic effects in the stuccoes of Alessandro Casella and of Somasso at the Valentino and at the Palazzo Carignano, and it took on broad and bombastic forms in the works of Dionigi Bussola at Casale (Misericordia) and at the Sacro Monte of Orta, and in those of the Tabacchetti brothers at Varallo and at Crea. Painting presents no works of exceptional importance and oriented itself toward Caravaggesque luminism in Antonio d'Enrico, called il Tanzio, of Varallo, who is the most notable personality of the Piedmontese seventeenth century, in Niccolò Musso of Casale, in Giovanni Molineri of Savigliano, and in the more modest Crosio of Trino. Another group followed in the footsteps of the Bolognese, especially of Guercino; among these are distinguished the Brambilla, Maccagno and Bartolomeo Caravoglia. In Turin, Francesco del Cairo and Morazzone are in the service of the Savoy Court, where foreigners also gather: Giovanni Claret, Claude Dauphin, Giovanni Miel and many portrait painters who came from France. But the quality is never high. Works by the Moncalvo mannerists proliferate, especially in the Asti area and in Monferrato.

Among the decorators, besides the Frenchman Andrea Pozzo, who worked at the SS. Martiri in Turin (interior facade) and at the Missione in Mondovì, mention should be made of the Recchi of Como, of Bianchi Isidoro with his sons Pompeo and Francesco, and of the Fea brothers of Saluzzo. In this period interest in furniture and interior decoration grows more pronounced, giving rise to typically local forms and geometric motifs. The artisan workshops begin to develop greatly, where cabinetmakers, joiners, cabinetmakers, gilders and stucco workers, among whom the Botto of Savigliano stand out, work busily on interiors: ceilings, floors, baseboards, doors and furniture of the new Royal Palace.

Intense work is also done in the churches, building new furniture and furnishings: among the countless examples, mention may be made of the cupboards of the sacristy of the SS. Martiri, of S. Francesco di Paola and S. Domenico in Turin; those of Ponzano Monferrato (now in the Museo civico of Turin) and of S. Domenico in Rivoli, the confessionals of S. Teresa and S. Francesco di Paola in Turin, of S. Filippo and S. Evasio in Casale Monferrato.

In 1714, Filippo Juvara (v.) went to Turin, summoned by Victor Amadeus II, and there he soon imposed his creative personality, endowed with exceptional qualities in the facade and the grand staircase of Palazzo Madama, in the church of the Carmine, in the imposing and scenographic courtyard of the sanctuary of Oropa, countering the heavy seventeenth-century luminism with the luminosity of an airy architecture that gives lightness and grandeur to the structural design. Juvara creates in Turin the new European eighteenth-century architecture. A very dense array of architects who have left works in every locality of Piedmont swarms around him, drawing on his art: Francesco Martinez, Nicolai di Robilant, Aliaudi di Tavigliano, Planteri, Michela, Borra, Quarini, Rana. Some of them have original touches and well-defined personalities. Among these are Benedetto Alfieri; the Monregalese Gallo, who left his masterpiece in the elliptical dome of the sanctuary of Vicoforte; the Casalese Scapitta at S. Caterina in Casale and in the parish church of Murisengo. Bernardo Vittone is the most important figure after Juvara, original in the articulated plan of his churches, especially in the bizarre domes, for example, at S. Maria di Piazza in Turin, at S. Michele di Rivarolo, in the parish church of Borgo d'Ale. With the architect

O. Magnocavallo, who favored Palladian forms and who died in 1787, Neoclassicism is already under way, and it will triumph fully in the first half of the nineteenth century in Turin in the noble quarter, to the right of Piazza Vittorio Veneto, with buildings designed by Bonsignore, Caronesi, Talucchi and Antonelli. In Casale, Vercelli and Novara the Neoclassical forms imposed themselves through the sober dignity of their proportions. Eighteenth-century sculpture is predominantly subordinate to architecture and displays decorative characteristics.

Polychrome wooden sculpture is very widespread, and among its many artists it counts some truly remarkable ones: S. Clemente, C. Plura, the Botto, Perucca, already pervaded by the fragile eighteenth-century grace. Ladatte, a famous goldsmith and bronze worker, excels for his refined grace and excellent technique (the clock and the bronzes in the Royal Palace, the putti of the church of the Carmine, the stag that surmounts the central pavilion of the Palazzina di Stupinigi). With Bernero and the Collino brothers, the last exponents of eighteenth-century Piedmontese sculpture, they begin with agile and lively forms only to end in Neoclassicism. Among the Piedmontese goldsmiths and silversmiths, much appreciated also abroad, mention should be made of Boucheron, who executed among other things a chiseled silver lamp donated by the Queen of Spain to the sanctuary of the Madonna dei Fori in Bra. Painting too, like sculpture, has a predominantly decorative function and is subordinate to architecture; it runs riot in covering vaults and walls, and in decorating the great altarpieces in the churches. Numerous fresco painters were called for these decorations, among them the Venetians Crosato, Lorenzi, Bortoloni, Bellotto, Ricci and Nogari; the Romans Valeriani, Trevisani, Maratta, Conca; the Neapolitans Solimena, Giacinto, De Mura and the Lombards Legnanino in Turin and Carlo Carlone in Asti. The two Piedmontese painters who stand out among the others are C. Beaumont, linked to Neapolitan and French forms, working at the court of Turin, and P. F. Guala in Casale and in Monferrato, closer to Bolognese and Lombard models. To these are added the landscapes of V. A. Cignaroli, the still lifes of the Rapous and of the Gili, the bambocciate of Olivero and Graneri. Among the portrait painters, Guala links himself to painting of touch. Grassi of Casale and Clementina derive from French art.

Painting displays particularly elegant and vaporous forms in Valsesia and on Lake Orta, where artists of notable talent, not yet fully appreciated, have left splendid frescoes for freshness of color and originality of composition: C. Borsetti of Alagna and F. Gianoli of Campertogno, Zanatta and the great Cantalupi of Miasino, who echoes Venetian vaporousness and the models of Piazzetta. The decoration of interiors creates masterpieces of elegance in some rooms of the Royal Palace of Turin (the Queen's apartment), in the Palazzina di Stupinigi and in the salons of the Accademia Filarmonica of Turin, in the palace of the counts Fossati di Bellino in Asti, in those of the Gozzani di S. Giorgio and Treville in Casale. One of the Piedmontese characteristics of this period is the mirror facing of walls and ceilings: the most beautiful examples are in the Palazzo Carignano, in the Royal Palace, in the Gallery of Mirrors at the Accademia Filarmonica. Among the cabinetmakers, mention may be made of Primotti, Piffetti, Bonzanigo and Tanadei. In this period arise the famous ceramic factories of Vinovo and Turin, the tapestry manufactory at the Royal Palace, which lasted about eighty years with cartoons by renowned masters, and the crystal factory of Chiusa Pesio.

Painting, which at the end of the eighteenth century had produced worthy scene painters, among them Bernardino Galliari and Luigi Vacca, and good miniaturists, among them Ramelli and Lavj, dies out at the beginning of the nineteenth century; it holds its own worthily in an ornamental function, where it attains, in the decorations of the Palazzo Magnocavallo, of the Galliari brothers in Casale and of the Villa di Pollenzo by Palagio Palagi, a value of style.

Typical embroideries of the Piedmontese eighteenth century are the small stitch used in the coverings of « canapé » sofas, armchairs and chairs together with the « bandera », an embroidery in polychrome wool on a white canvas ground.

Among the carvings, mention may be made of the choir of S. Secondo in Asti of 1714, the furniture of the sacristy of the church of the archbishopric of Turin, the stalls of the cathedral of the same city executed by the carver Stroppiana in 1742, the choir lofts and the organ of the cathedral of Asti of 1770 by Bartolomeo Varale da Moncalvo, the stalls of the cathedral of S. Antonio in Casale, the pulpit of S. Domenico in the same city and the splendid furniture of the sacristy of the cathedral of Vercelli. Among eighteenth-century goldsmith work, notable is the monstrance of the cathedral of Asti, by the goldsmith G. A. Groppa, of 1770.

The sculptors of the early nineteenth century, G. Spalla, A. San Giorgio, and G. Bogliani, moved toward Neoclassical models. Among them all stands out Marocchetti, the most interesting figure in Piedmont in this period, who left his masterpieces in the equestrian monuments to Charles Albert and to Emmanuel Philibert in Turin. In the second half of the century the sculptors Vela and Tabacchi distinguished themselves, and painting was renewed with Antonio Fontanesi and his followers Delleani, Calderini, etc., and with the Rivara school of Pitarra, Avondo, and Reycend. At the beginning of the twentieth century rational architecture established itself in the Fiat works at the Lingotto and recently in the beautiful Olivetti plants at Ivrea. In Turin, in 1919, an avant-garde renewal of painting began on the initiative of Casorati, continued later in 1930, on a broader basis, by Chessa, Menzio, Levi, Paolucci, Galante, and Boswell.

Noemi Gabrielli

V. FOLKLORE

Popular tradition has, obviously, been better preserved in the various Alpine valleys, but some important urban centers have also remained faithful to ancient customs, especially for the great calendar festivals.

A very important folkloric fact is the survival, in several villages of Piedmont, of the abbazie, that is, of youth associations whose formation dates back to the Middle Ages and whose principal function is currently that of organizing traditional festivals, especially for Carnival and May Day. Among the oldest forms preserved through such associations is the sword dance, which is still performed in various villages and under different names: the ba' cubert of Fenestrelle, the lachero of Rocca Grimalda (Alessandria) and the spadoni of St. George (Turin), of St. Vincent, and of Venaus in the Susa Valley: in these dances the ancient propitiatory meaning for the fertility of the fields is still clearly recognizable. To the action of the abbazie or of similar youth associations is also due the fact that in various cities of Piedmont Carnival has preserved many of its traditional aspects: the carnival of Ivrea is still famous, at the center of which stands the figure of the miller's wife, queen of the festival, and which gives rise to the battle of the oranges, taking place, during the procession, with extreme violence. In some villages of Monferrato, again during carnival, the festival of the pitù, that is, of the turkey, is preserved, from which, by horsemen in competition, the head is torn off; the revelry closes with the testament of the pitù, a traditional form of townsfolk satire. In Asti the palio has also been restored, reviving a custom that dated back to the 13th century. Some religious festivities also present characteristic aspects: in the Biellese, sacred dramas are still performed, such as the Pastore Gelindo for Christmas, the Passione for Holy Week and the Giudizio Universale in summer; these are compositions of Baroque or Arcadian taste, but performed by villagers, and with the participation of all the people in the spectacle.

The popular art of the P. reveals its characteristics especially in wooden objects, carved by shepherds or local craftsmen; they are stools for eating, cradles, distaffs, yarn winders, nuptial chests and also statuettes of saints, which bear the imprint of an innate taste, a little rough but intensely expressive: among the ornamental motifs there is also found that very ancient one of the solar wheel; particular attention, again among wooden objects, deserves the grolla, that is, the Aosta Valley wine cup, which takes its name from the mystic Graal and which serves for the traditional drinking à la ronde in groups of friends.

The heritage of popular literature is also rich, both in legends with a historical or sacred basis, or relating to magicians, witches, phantoms, "wild men", etc., and in popular songs, in which epic-lyric songs prevail, as attested by the very important collection published by Costantino Nigra. Finally, besides those already mentioned, the popular dances are to be remembered, such as the corenta and the manfrina or monferrina, the latter having spread even far from its center of origin. - See plates LXXXVII-LXXXIX.

Paolo Toschi