RAVELLO

RAVELLO. – Ancient diocese and town in the province of Salerno. Some consider R. to have been founded in the Gothic age, others during the period of the Duchy of Amalfi, of which it later became part; it was sacked by the Pisans in 1137; its most flourishing period was the 13th century, to which belong the artistic Palazzo Rufolo and several churches.

The diocese was established in 1087 by Pope Victor III, who consecrated its first bishop, Orso, a Benedictine monk. Urban II declared it immediately subject to the Holy See and consecrated the second bishop, Costantino Rogadeo. Subsequent bishops were G. Rufolo, P. Pironti, L. Rogadei, G. Allegri Ottano, F. Castaldi, A. Agnensi (later a cardinal), N. Campanile; in 1536 the cardinal Quignones served as its administrator; later, L. Beccadelli, P. De Curtis (a Theatine who became vicegerent of Rome under Clement VIII and died in Rome in 1629). In 1603, the said Pope united the see of R. with that of Scala, with bishops remaining directly subject as bishops of R. and as suffragans of Amalfi as bishops of Scala. The following served as heads of the two dioceses: F. Benni, M. Bonsi, O. Verme, C. Puccitelli, B. Pannicola, G. Sagezi, L. Di Capua, N. Rocco, G. Perimezzi, the last being S. Micci, who was transferred to Amalfi in 1804. Pius VII, with the bull *De ulteriori*, suppressed the two dioceses, uniting them with Amalfi.

The Cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed, has three naves divided by pillars; it was erected by Bishop Orso and transformed in the 18th century into its present state. The pulpit, executed by Niccolò da Foggia in 1272, depicts scenes from the life of Jonah; the bishop’s throne is contemporary. The 13th-century bell tower has paired windows; the bronze portal is by Barisano da Trani and bears the date 1179. Other notable churches include S. Giovanni in Toro (also with three naves), S. Agostino, S. Maria a Gradillo, l’Annunziata, S. Martino, and S. Antonio, which has an elegant cloister. In R. flourished the monasteries of S. Maria, SS. Trifone e Biagio (late 11th century) and the female monastery of S. Maria (mid-10th century). – See pl. XXIII.

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RAVELLO. – Ancient ambo with scenes relating to the prophet Jonah (12th century). Ravello, Cathedral.

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RAVELLO. – Ancient diocese and town in the province of Salerno. Some consider R. to have been founded in the Gothic age, others during the period of the Duchy of Amalfi, of which it later became part; it was sacked by the Pisans in 1137; its most flourishing period was the 13th century, to which belong the artistic Palazzo Rufolo and several churches.

The diocese was established in 1087 by Pope Victor III, who consecrated its first bishop, Orso, a Benedictine monk. Urban II declared it immediately subject to the Holy See and consecrated the second bishop, Costantino Rogadeo. Subsequent bishops were G. Rufolo, P. Pironti, L. Rogadei, G. Allegri Ottano, F. Castaldi, A. Agnensi (later a cardinal), N. Campanile; in 1536 the cardinal Quignones served as its administrator; later, L. Beccadelli, P. De Curtis (a Theatine who became vicegerent of Rome under Clement VIII and died in Rome in 1629). In 1603, the said Pope united the see of R. with that of Scala, with bishops remaining directly subject as bishops of R. and as suffragans of Amalfi as bishops of Scala. The following served as heads of the two dioceses: F. Benni, M. Bonsi, O. Verme, C. Puccitelli, B. Pannicola, G. Sagezi, L. Di Capua, N. Rocco, G. Perimezzi, the last being S. Micci, who was transferred to Amalfi in 1804. Pius VII, with the bull *De ulteriori*, suppressed the two dioceses, uniting them with Amalfi.

The Cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed, has three naves divided by pillars; it was erected by Bishop Orso and transformed in the 18th century into its present state. The pulpit, executed by Niccolò da Foggia in 1272, depicts scenes from the life of Jonah; the bishop’s throne is contemporary. The 13th-century bell tower has paired windows; the bronze portal is by Barisano da Trani and bears the date 1179. Other notable churches include S. Giovanni in Toro (also with three naves), S. Agostino, S. Maria a Gradillo, l’Annunziata, S. Martino, and S. Antonio, which has an elegant cloister. In R. flourished the monasteries of S. Maria, SS. Trifone e Biagio (late 11th century) and the female monastery of S. Maria (mid-10th century). – See pl. XXIII.

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**ENRICO JOSI**

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RAVELLO. – Ancient ambo with scenes relating to the prophet Jonah (12th century). Ravello, Cathedral.

The Theodorician kingdom came to a close in 526, when, at the death of the king, the struggle between the conquered and the conquerors raged most fiercely. R. was conquered by Belisario in the spring of 540. That year marked the beginning for the city of its third period of political power, which lasted until the 8th century; perhaps the most splendid of all. Justinian wished it to be the seat of his representative in Italy (v. EXARCHATE). After fluctuating fortunes, the city fell in 751 into the hands of Astolfo, and this was the end of Byzantine rule in Italy; however, after Astolfo was forced to abandon the Exarchate, the archbishops, strengthened by the special position they had acquired, posed as heirs and continuators of Byzantine rule, becoming the governors of the city and its territory. Their alliance with the local aristocracy gave rise to that numerous series of dukes who, in the name of the archbishop, dominated in Romagna in the 9th–11th centuries. Under the Ottonians, the archbishops became great feudal lords of the Empire, and the city enjoyed a new period of splendor and grandeur, also because it was often the residence of the Emperor, who had a palace there. From the archiepiscopal lordship arose the aristocratic Commune, which throughout the 12th century remained under the high authority of the archbishop. From the aristocratic Commune, the transition to the Signoria was brief; it was held by several celebrated families, such as the Anastagi and the Traversari, immortalized by Dante. The lordship of the latter ended in 1240 with the conquest of the city by Frederick II. Thirty-six years later, Rudolph of Hapsburg definitively ceded Romagna to the Pope, and R. thus became part of the domain of the Holy See. Meanwhile, the lordship of the Polentani arose, vicars of the Apostolic See but in fact independent governors. Guido Novello gave Dante Alighieri asylum and comfort within its walls. With Obizzo da Polenta, the family effectively became a vassal of the Venetian Republic, which from the early 15th century annually sent a podestà to R. Until, when Ostasio was relegated to the island of Candia, Venice openly and easily became mistress of the city. Venetian rule lasted until 1509 and was a pause in the rapid decline to which the city’s decline had greatly contributed, hastened by the sea’s retreat and the abandonment of harbor maintenance work. In 1509, by treaty, it was restored to Julius II. Three years later, besieged by the King of France and Alfonso d’Este, allies against the Pope and Spain, after a fierce battle named after R., on 12 April 1512 it was stormed and put to the torch. After this ruin, only in the first half of the 18th century did a happier note occur, when Cardinal Legate Giulio Alberoni diverted the Ronco and Montone rivers, which, united in a single channel, freed the city from their terrible embrace, a frequent cause of flooding. From him R. also received the new navigable canal and the port, which, from the name of the family of Clement XII, were and are called Corsini. By the Treaty of Tolentino (1797), Pius VI ceded it to the French, whose rule was most disastrous for the city, especially to its artistic heritage. It returned to the Pontiff in 1815 and was the seat of a legation. On 13 June 1859, after the Apostolic Delegate had left, a provisional governing committee was formed, a prelude to definitive union with the Kingdom of Italy.

The history of the Church of R. is very often bound up with the fortunes of the city. In 1756, at no great distance from the basilica of S. Apollinare in Classe, a sepulchral chest was unearthed, certainly used by Christians, which at a later time had been occupied by the chest (v.) of a basilica thought to be that of Bishop Probus. On the shaped tombs were found many reused classical inscriptions and three Christian epigraphs, two of which were still in their original positions: the stele of Antiphon and the marble of Flavius Anastasius (CIL, XI, 1, nos. 320 and 323). All of great antiquity. The first, with the depiction of the Good Shepherd, already illustrated by G. B. De Rossi (Bull. di arch. crist., 3rd ser., 4 [1879]), may be assigned to the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century; the second, later, to the 4th century. The stele with the Good Shepherd is of great importance because it is the earliest testimony to Christianity not only in Ravenna but in the entire surrounding region; it also confirms local tradition, which places the origins of Christianity and the first seat of the bishops of Ravenna at the Roman port of Classe: here, very probably, the numerous eastern element in Classe from the beginning must have brought and spread the faith. Today, however, it cannot be affirmed whether Apollinaris was the first evangelizer or rather the organizer of an already existing community, for tradition has surrounded the only martyr of the church of R. with a halo of legend. The first to speak of him is St. Peter Chrysologus (v.). But from his sermon (no. 128) one can only gather that he was the first bishop; that he died as a result of the torments he suffered; and that his body rests in the midst of the children of his church. Later, perhaps through the work of the Pseudo-Ambrose, author of the legend of SS. Vitalis and Ursicinus, a *passio* was composed in which Apollinaris is presented as a disciple of Peter, sent by him to R. to evangelize the great multitude of people dwelling there. Ravenna was moving toward glory and power, and its church had to prove itself superior to the Arianism that Theodoric had established there; hence the apostolicity of its founder was convenient. This was already known by the early 6th century, when documents and monuments clearly allude to II. At the Council of Serdica, Severus was present; between him and Apollinaris, ten other bishops had succeeded to the see of Classe and were buried there. Probus I, or, according to others, Probus II, is said to have erected the first cathedral on the sepulchral zone just mentioned; an extremely ancient basilica in its origins, which had its own baptistery. Of two other ancient cemetery zones there is certain knowledge: one where Eleucadius, the third bishop, was buried, and another where Severus was interred, about the middle of the 4th century. Perhaps a fourth, separate from that of Probus, is to be recognized in the very poor burial ground beneath the courtyard of the canons of the basilica of S. Apollinare, in which was the first tomb of the Saint and at whose margins the basilica arose, as has been demonstrated.

The excavations of 1949 revealed this layer. The importance of the Church of Ravenna begins when the imperial court settled in Ravenna, not before the end of the 4th century, but more likely at the beginning of the 5th. The emperor transferred his seat within the urban agglomeration of Ravenna and built the first intramural Basilica, which he called the Ursiana; the Church, with its clergy, however, long continued to enjoy particular autonomy. The new Basilica was built against the eastern side of the walls of the Roman hippodrome. In a small addition, perhaps the first expansion of the Roman city, arose the episcopal residence, the Tricoli, as through the centuries it was and is called the residence of the archbishops, which from then on, together with the Cathedral, remained and remains in the original place, near what was the Porta Sallustra, of which the episcopal palace incorporated one of the two cylindrical towers.

With St. Peter Chrysologus a new fact occurred. Around 430, by edict of the Christian emperors (Valentinian III) and decree of Blessed Peter (Celestine I), a group of churches in Emilia (Forum Livii, Faventia, Forum Cornelii, Bononia, Mutina, Vicus Habentinus), detached from the metropolitan jurisdiction of Milan, was constituted as a separate unit dependent on the bishop of Ravenna, who consecrated their prelates and presided over them with metropolitan authority; however, as bishop of Ravenna, he remained a suffragan of the Roman See. It was the first step, and Chrysologus was considered equal to the other metropolitans.

After Chrysologus, the figures of Neon and Ecclesius emerge, bishops of the Theodoric era. In 540, Victor witnessed the transfer of political jurisdiction from the Gothic Kingdom to Byzantine rule, and at his death a decisive event occurred in the history of the Church of Ravenna. Pope Vigilius was far from Rome; it was the beginning of the Three Chapters controversy, and Justinian wanted a man present who would give him full assurance. Therefore, when the name of the man (whose identity remains unknown) canonically elected by clergy and people to succeed Victor was presented to him, he set aside this electee. On the emperor’s proposal, Vigilius, in Patras d’Acaja, on 14 October 546, consecrated Maximian of Pola as bishop of Ravenna. Maximian conducted the struggle against the Three Chapters with tenacity and strength. An indefatigable builder, reorganizer, and reformer of his church, he is perhaps, with Chrysologus, the greatest of the successors of Apollinaris, the initiator of that power which, after him, often set the archbishops of Ravenna against Rome. He was succeeded by Agnellus, who was charged with purging the city and diocese of every trace of Arianism and consecrating the Arian temples to Catholic worship.

In the 7th century, the struggle with Rome perhaps reached its peak with Maurus, archbishop, who in 666 obtained from Emperor Constans the decree of autocephaly. Even if, in its essence, it was limited to metropolitan jurisdiction, as Zattoni maintains, it was always a bitter struggle, alternating between submission and rebellion, depending on the sitting bishop, which lasted for centuries and can only be understood and expressed in the testament of Maurus himself, of which the words inscribed on his tomb are an echo: *Liberavit ecclesiam suam de jugo Romanorum servitutis*.

The 8th century, which saw the total destruction of Classe, holds a particular importance for the history of the Church of Ravenna. With the fall of the Exarchate, government, as has been said, centered in the hands of the archbishops. In this century, a monastic community can also be documented at the Classe basilica of St. Apollinaris. Toward the end of the century, Gratiosus, a characteristic bishop whose simplicity became proverbial, welcomed Charlemagne to Ravenna, who had come to strip the Palace of Theodoric of its marbles and finest ornaments to adorn his buildings in Aachen. Testimony to rebellions against Rome and anti-Roman sentiment in the 9th century is found in Agnellus (v.) with his *Liber pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis*. In the same century, the Benedictines established themselves at St. Vitalis and St. John the Evangelist, while in the following century they were also found at St. Apollinaris the New.

With the Ottonians, the importance of the See was reaffirmed. These were the years in which Romuald of the Honest, after his conversion, became a monk of Classe and carried out a vast reform within his monastery. These were the years in which the Saint retired to Pereo and began his hermitical reform. From this hermitage, situated about 15 km from the city, and whose church was one of the first dedicated to the martyr St. Adalbert of Prague, the first nucleus of Camaldolese missionaries set out, led by St. Bruno of Querfurt. The Church of Ravenna in the two-year period 998–999 was governed by that Gerbert of Aurillac, who was to ascend the papal throne under the name of Sylvester II.
After the year 1000, St. Stephen of Hungary founded within the territory of the diocese the abbey of St. Peter in Chains, to serve as a substitute for the churches of his nation, and whose church was consecrated by St. Gerard. In the first half of the 11th century, a bitter struggle took place between Ravenna and Milan for the right of precedence; the issue was resolved in 1047 in favor of Ravenna, by which its prelate was recognized the right to sit at the right hand of the Pope when the Emperor was absent, and at his left when he was present.

Then again, the latent antagonism with Rome openly flared up in the saddest episode, when its archbishop, Guibert, was elected antipope under the name of Clement III and dragged Ravenna into the schism. These were the years of the indefatigable work of St. Peter Damian, who died (Faenza, 1072) after a conciliatory mission between Rome and Ravenna. Loyalty to Rome led in the early years of the 12th century to the foundation of the Portuense canonical church, where the Order of Canons Regular had an important center of reform, and whose Rule spread throughout Italy and beyond. Its founder and reformer was Peter the Clerk, a figure intimately and affectionately linked to the history of Ravenna, often confused with St. Peter Damian due to the shared epithet of “the Sinner,” and who still today cannot be better identified.

Now, as the decline of the city began, so too the Church of Ravenna returned to the common fold. In the early centuries after the year 1000, however, it reached the height of its metropolitan extension, comprising all the dioceses of Emilia, from Piacenza to Rimini and beyond the Po as far as Adria.

In the 13th century, the figure of Archbishop Filippo emerged. A man of great energy, he was imprisoned by Ezzelino da Romano; a reformer and scourge of the widespread moral failings among clergy and people, in 1261 he introduced the Franciscan Minors to Ravenna, to whom he granted the ancient basilica of S. Pietro Maggiore. At the beginning of the following century, Raimaldo da Concorrezzo appeared, venerated as a blessed. He was the archbishop of Dante and died barely a month before the Poet (18 Aug. 1321).

The spirit of Catholic reform, already in the first half of the 16th century, found in Ravenna a prepared environment, which was likely influenced by the work of two women, the blessed Margherita da Russi and Gentile Giusti. Under the inspiration of the first, the venerable Girolamo Malucelli founded that congregation of the Regular Priests of the Good Jesus, which was among the very first families of regular clergy in the Church. It had purely local life and was suppressed in 1651 by a bull of Innocent X.
With the episcopate of Cardinal Giulio Feltrio della Rovere (1566–78), the series of reforming bishops began, in the spirit of the Council of Trent. In 1567, he founded the Seminary; he provided for the reform of the clergy of the Cathedral, suppressing the two Chapters of cardinal-canons and cantor-canons, to form a single Chapter of choral beneficiaries. With him, as attested by Giorgio Rossi, a contemporary historian, every surviving trace of non-Roman rites disappeared from the Ravenna liturgical books: the only certain testimony is that of the survival in Ravenna of prayers and rites in the Greek language, but this does not authorize the belief that the ancient Ravenna liturgy was in that language. Every epigraphic and documentary testimony assures us that in the 6th century the Latin language was the liturgical language of the church of Ravenna. Only later, with the affirmation of the Exarchate, did non-Latin customs and usages enter the liturgy. But it is certain that by 1454 the Roman Missal was in use in the Basilica Ursiana (a codex of that year is in the Ravenna chapter archive).

With della Rovere, the Acts of the Holy Visitation to the diocese began, which continued during the pontificate of his successor, Cristoforo Boncompagni (1578–1604), during which a modest female congregation arose in Ravenna, in the spirit of St. Philip Neri: the tertiaries living in community, founded by Sister Adriana Tavella, a community that still exists today. With Pietro Aldobrandini, the work of reform continued vigorously, and the acts of his visitations provide for the first time a complete overview. However, at the same time, the first mutilations of metropolitan jurisdiction began, with the detachment of Bologna, which was then constituted as a metropolitan see with churches already subject to Ravenna.

The revolutionary French laws annihilated, at the end of the 18th century, all religious communities that had formed over the centuries. Eleven male religious families were suppressed. Among them were the great abbeys that had played such a large part in the life of Ravenna. That of the Black Benedictines of S. Vitale disappeared after almost a thousand years of existence. So too did that formed in the shadow of the Placcidian basilica of S. Giovanni Evangelista, in which in 1459 the commendatory cardinal Bessarion had introduced the Canons Regular, and in which he ended his days on 18 Nov. 1472. The Classense abbey, a center of culture, met the same fate. From S. Apollinare in Classe, the Camaldolese monks had moved into the city in 1515. Likewise, following a decision of the Venetian Republic at the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuense canonical house, erected as an abbey in 1566, had moved from its ancient seat on the Adriatic shore into the city. It was the only one of the four that, after the restoration, was reopened and had a meager existence until the eversive laws of the Kingdom of Italy. Among the numerous female communities, the Benedictine monastery of S. Andrea Maggiore and the Dominican one of S. Stefano de Ulivi, within whose walls Beatrice, Dante’s daughter, had been a nun, ceased their centuries-old existence through the work of the French.

The Napoleonic storm found as archbishop a man of broad views and a great heart: Antonio II Codronchi. His attitude toward the new monarch may be debated: a sworn bishop, great almoner of the court, knight of the Iron Crown, present at the baptism of the King of Rome, he seemed to some entirely loyal to the Emperor. Yet in the 40 years of his episcopate (1785–1826) he carried out multifaceted, sagacious, prudent, and constructive work. He saved from ruin and profanation almost all the conventual churches of historical and artistic importance, transferring parish seats there. With his own funds, he purchased the cloisters of the former abbey of S. Giovanni Evangelista and transferred there the old hospital of S. Maria delle Croci, which he endowed with numerous revenues.

He was succeeded by the Roman C. Falconieri-Mellini, who from his youth had been a friend of Pius IX, whom he welcomed to Ravenna on his last journey to the Legations. Created cardinal in 1834, he died on 22 Aug. 1859; a few months earlier, the papal government had ceased in Ravenna. From then began the period of the most blatant anticlericalism and the secularization of Romagna. After the disorientation of the early years, even among the clergy, recovery was promising from the very beginning of our century. In 1904, the Milanese Pasquale Morganti became archbishop, a typical figure of the contemporary episcopate. Author of ascetical writings for the clergy (*Sic orabitis*, *Vos dixi amicos*), in suffering and humiliation he prepared the rebirth of the diocese. His government concluded with the truly worthy celebration of the Catholics in honor of Dante on the sixth centenary of the Poet’s death (1921).

**Monuments.** – Of Roman Ravenna, whose extent and shape are known with precision, some remains survive of the walls with which it was already enclosed in 43 AD and meager in-situ remains of the Porta Aurea, opened then by the emperor Claudius. In the National Museum are the two panels and some other marble elements of the same gate; classical stelae, the Augustan frieze, and little more. Of the port of Classe, no trace remains above ground. Nor is anything left of the buildings that formed the *castrum classis*.

With the disappearance of the imperial palaces, the civil buildings of the Theodoric, exarchal, and Ottonian eras, Ravenna is today renowned throughout the world for a singular group of Paleochristian monuments. Before the 5th century, only the memory remains of the oldest classical cathedral, built outside the walls of the *castrum classis*, whose form and precise location are unknown; the only fixed architectural point is the quadriporticus, which did not appear before the Maximian era.

There are three main groups of Paleochristian monuments in Ravenna, corresponding to three specific periods of life and political development, whose evaluation must take this into account. The 5th century begins with the construction of the new intramural Basilica of Bishop Orso and the adjoining baptistery. With five naves and 56 marble columns, it endured until the threshold of the contemporary age. Demolished in 1733, only the drawings made at the time remain, which art historians and critics have placed too much faith in. Indeed, nothing certain can now be said about its original features, as it had undergone numerous alterations by the 18th century, not least that of the 10th century, which added the crypt, still extant beneath the apse of the present 18th-century Basilica, which preserves the width and title of the ancient one. The Baptistery, fortunately, has come down to us intact. Built from its foundations by Orso, it presents the splendid mosaic decoration added by Bishop Leo in the second half of the 5th century. With an octagonal plan and four alternating apses on its sides, it now appears disproportionate, especially internally, due to a burial of about 3 meters.

After the Orsian complex comes the Honorian-Placidian one. To this belongs that singular group of buildings which the historian Agnellus calls “monasteria,” now unfortunately lost for centuries. The only surviving example is the small sacellum, erroneously still called the “Mausoleum of Galla Placidia” (q.v.). Of S. Lorenzo in Cesarea, erected by Honorius and already mentioned by St. Augustine, nothing remains. Reduced to minimal terms and, moreover, with its above-ground portion already rebuilt before the year 1000, stands the palatine basilica of S. Croce, which took its name and form from the cross. Nearby, at a depth of several meters, beautiful mosaic floors still lie underground. In better condition is the Placidian basilica of S. Giovanni Evangelista, erected by the Augusta following a vow made during a storm at sea as she returned from the East to Ravenna in 424. With a basilican plan and an apse flanked by two pastoforia, it now appears much altered (also due to severe damage in the last war) and lacking its mosaic complex, described by Agnellus.

In Classe, nothing remains of the grand Basilica Petriana, erected by Chrysolorus, nor of its tetragonal baptistery; nor is the form of this, which was the second cathedral of the Classican Church, known—it arose within the intramural precinct of the *castrum* when the see had already been transferred to Ravenna for several decades.

For the second period, we must await the reign of Theodoric. The Goth wished perhaps to emulate the ancient emperors and ensure that “his” Ravenna had nothing to envy to its predecessor. It was a period of a few decades, but sacred buildings multiplied: all in brick. For the Catholic Church of Ravenna, however, it was a period of stagnation: the only monument is the chapel of the episcopal palace. A characteristic three-story building in the shape of a Greek cross, with this architectural element common to the three main rooms. On the upper floor is the *monasterium S. Andreae* of Tricoli, preceded by a small atrium. It was built by Peter II (494–519). Of the Arian complex, the ancient Palatine Basilica survives—a three-aisled basilica dedicated to the name of Jesus and today known as S. Apollinare Nuovo. Bereft of all ornamentation, the smaller Arian Anastasis basilica (church of the Holy Spirit) still stands, with its adjoining baptistery, which repeats the form of the Ursian one. Solemn and powerful, almost a Roman work, where once stood the northern suburb with the dwellings, churches, and episcopal residences of the Goths, stands the “Rotunda,” the mausoleum of the King—a unique building among the ancient ones not made of brick, surmounted by the immense monolith of Itria stone weighing 300,000 kg.

More sumptuous is the Byzantine phase. Linked to this is the name of Julian the Banker, a still mysterious figure in his attributions but intimately tied to the major monuments of the second quarter of the 6th century. With him, the Ravenna basilicas transmitted the name of Maximian, who in the early years of Byzantine rule governed the church of Ravenna. The basilica of S. Vitale, with its central plan, differs from all others in Ravenna; the other contemporary one, S. Apollinare in Classe, reaches the apogee of the triumph of the founder of the Ravenna Church. Others of this period have vanished: S. Stefano Maggiore, S. Andrea Maggiore, S. Michele in Africisco. Others have reached us more or less transformed: S. Maria Maggiore, S. Agata Maggiore, SS. Giovanni e Paolo. But the surviving ones were and are of S. Apollinare Nuovo, with the upper evangelical scenes, the solemn Enthroned Virgin, the depiction of the cities of Ravenna and Classe, the figures of the Prophets between the windows, and the Enthroned Christ (though largely restored). Also those of the Archiepiscopal Chapel, with the *clipei* of the saints (perhaps those of the ancient Ravenna canon), possess a calmness of color and beauty of form that will not be seen later. Notably interesting here are the oldest surviving image of St. Cecilia in Christian art; the head of St. Paul and the characteristic head of St. Andrew. While the figure of the warrior Christ in the atrium recalls the oldest stucco of the nearby baptistery.

In S. Vitale, in Classe, in Julian’s masterpieces, drawing yields to color. Gold and chromatic splendor reign so sovereignly that drawing defects appear negligible. And yet even in these two basilicas the hand of the artists is always guided by a preordained concept that is not an end in itself. Thus in S. Vitale for the two great historical panels of Justinian and Theodora and in the depictions of the sacrifices. Thus in S. Apollinare in Classe, where the figure of the saintly bishop stands sovereign in the dominant concept of the Good Shepherd, of which Christ, transfigured and depicted at the center of the great jeweled cross, is the type and example, and Apollinaris the imitator.

Ravenna is, par excellence, the city of mosaics, of the most beautiful mosaics that can strike the human eye with their color. But even in evaluating this prerogative, there are contrasts and disagreements. Certainly closer to the spirit of Rome and to that which animated the mosaicists of Naples and Milan are those of our 5th century, especially the Placidian depictions of the Good Shepherd and of St. Lawrence in the Mausoleum. Already a prelude to a new spirit are those of the Theodoric period: a new spirit that fully manifests itself in the mosaics of the mid-6th century and, almost more so, in the two processions of saints and martyrs with which Agnellus, successor of Maximian, decorated the walls of S. Apollinare Nuovo when he consecrated the Arian palatine church to Catholic worship and the name of St. Martin of Tours.

An art that endured through the centuries among the Ravenna mosaicists; that later could produce some replacement or restoration depictions; that spread along the upper Adriatic and in Ravenna gave its final products, not unworthy of the past, in the great cycle of the restored Ursian Basilica in the time of Archbishop Geremia (1112). This depiction is now known only through 18th-century drawings and the remains left by the destroyers (the Orant Virgin and heads of saints in the Archiepiscopal Museum).

Besides the mosaics, Ravenna has a distinctive collection of sculptures, the most important pieces of which consist of a singular number of Greek marble sarcophagi. Iconographically, these differ from the paleo-Christian sarcophagi of Rome. While there have been and will continue to be discussions about the mosaics and basilicas, the disagreements and theories are no less pronounced regarding the sculptures. There is no secure reference point for the sarcophagi. Even the pieces that can be dated are not of such a nature as to be useful for comparison. From those reused Roman-pagan sarcophagi to the simple Christian ones, with Christ enthroned or standing, giving the law, to others adorned with small aediculae but always featuring human figures, one moves to those cases where symbolism dominates and is the only element present, up to the latest examples, certainly from the 8th century, of rough, almost childlike workmanship. They are scattered throughout Ravenna: in its basilicas, amid the greenery of the Dantesque area and the meadow surrounding S. Vitale; a few specimens are in the National Museum.

In S. Vitale, there is the so-called Isaac Sarcophagus, where funerary themes are still visible; in Bracciforte, the grand sarcophagus, once presumed to be the tomb of the prophet Elisha, where Christ enthroned tramples a lion and a dragon, while on the sides are two Marian scenes: the Visitation and the Annunciation. At Porto fuori, a fragment from the ruins of the Basilica, the beautiful Sarcophagus of Peter the Penitent, and in S. Francesco, two aedicula-adorned sarcophagi that rank among the most important. In the Metropolitan Cathedral, a group of four sarcophagi (one hidden within the high altar), including two very large and richly decorated ones. In S. Apollinare in Classe, the most significant group, among which is the so-called Theodore Sarcophagus, which, in its ornamentation, closely resembles another sarcophagus in minute details.

V. RAVENNA, ARCIDIOCESI DI

Of all these monuments of sacred architecture, in which brick is the sole building material—so simple yet sometimes so dynamic in the interplay of masses and external curtains—much has been and continues to be written. Rome or the East? Rome or Byzantium? Who could ever resolve this dilemma? However, it must always be remembered in their evaluation that they arose in a city that maintained continuous contacts with the East. It is often repeated that certain structural peculiarities give them a primacy they do not possess. Characteristics of Ravenna’s churches include the polygonal apse externally and vaulted to the east; the use of the pulvinus, which is constant even in buildings known only through graphic documentation (Ursiana). But these features do not first appear in Ravenna. It is more readily accepted, and with less controversy, that the prothesis and diaconicon, even if not originally Ravenna’s, and the ardica or quadriportico, are typical of Ravenna’s sacred architecture. Yet even here, generalization has been excessive. The two pastophoria are found only in a limited number of basilicas (S. Giovanni Evangelista, S. Vitale, S. Apollinare in Classe, among those known to us). The construction of the first is linked to the return of the Empress of the East; the other two date to a period when Byzantium already dominated, even though both were commissioned by bishops prior to Belisario’s occupation: Ecclesio and Ursicino. They are absent in all others, both earlier and later. Similarly, the ardica, whose existence before the basilicas cannot be proven before the time of Maximian.

The Ravenna mosaic complexes also follow chronologically the different construction phases and reflect the influences of individual periods. The oldest belong to the most ancient period and are more restrained in composition and chromaticism: those of the mausoleum known as Galla Placidia and the Baptistery of the Ursiana. The Theodoric period includes the compositions of the Arian Baptistery, most of those in S. Apollinare Nuovo, and the great archiepiscopal chapel. The Justinianic period includes the mosaics of S. Vitale, S. Apollinare in Classe, and the Archiepiscopal Chapel. The last great flourishing of Ravenna’s art is marked by the mosaics of Archbishop Geremia.

The ciborium and the episcopal throne of Maximian, a most unique and rare piece, are also securely attributed to the 6th century. Other sculptures include the two ambones of the 6th century: the mutilated one from the Cathedral, bearing the name of Archbishop Agnellus (d. 569), and the front part of that from SS. Giovanni e Paolo, from the last years of the century. The concept guiding the two artists is the same, but how different the execution! Panels depict animals, from fish to angels and birds.

Until 1000–1100, Ravenna’s art continued not only with its mosaics but also with sacred buildings, more widely disseminated in the countryside, all following a general plan with naves divided not by columns but by pillars, often with projecting buttresses. This is what has been called Deutero-Byzantine or Proto-Romanesque architecture, whose earliest products are the bell towers, which began to appear around 900 alongside the ancient basilicas and new churches. These towers, so characteristic in their cylindrical form—the most common—give Ravenna a distinctive note.

After the final splendor of Archbishop Geremia’s mosaics and the construction of the rural basilicas, Ravenna’s great artistic mission had ended. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the religious orders, in their newly built or transformed churches, produced some fine examples of Italian Gothic, such as the pictorial cycles of S. Francesco, S. Maria in Porto fuori, and S. Chiara (the first two almost entirely lost). However, these were foreign master builders. The color masters of the Rimini school, followers of Giotto, held sway in Romagna. The 15th century, Venetian in influence, left in Ravenna some simple and pleasant civil buildings, such as the small palace in Piazza Maggiore, built with granite columns from the destroyed Basilica Gothicorum, whose capitals bear the monogram of Theodoric. Pietro Lombardo worked for the city with the two columns in Piazza, topped by the blessing statue of S. Apollinare, and the marble tomb of Dante. The 16th century left imposing new monastic complexes in S. Maria in Porto in the city, with the new Basilica, the loggia of the garden, and the truly admirable cloister. Likewise, the grand cloisters of S. Vitale and the urban monastery of Classe, full of elegance. In sculpture, Tullio Lombardi created his masterpiece for Ravenna with the recumbent statue of Guidarello Guidarelli. Through the munificence of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, in the early 1600s, the Chapel of the Most Holy Sacrament arose, almost an annex to the ancient Ursiana, one of the most beautiful in Romagna, designed by Maderno and decorated by Guido Reni. In the two preceding centuries, some Ravenna painters, good but not outstanding, spread their works in the city’s churches: Niccolò Rondinelli, of the 15th century, and Luca Longhi, of the 16th. The 18th century was disastrous, as ancient churches were poorly transformed and many things that might have been saved were condemned to the pickaxe. In compensation, the new Cathedral was built, and by Camillo Morigia, an architect of no small merit, the imposing facade of S. Maria in Porto and the current sepulchral tempietto of Dante were completed. The 19th century preserved only constructions, while the 20th seems intent on transforming the face of the old city, even as the consolidation of ancient monuments remains a concern for citizens and government. There have been restorations, not always praiseworthy, and work continues on the detachment and cleaning of mosaic complexes.

### III. DISTINGUISHED FIGURES
Ravenna has often welcomed famous men within its walls, yet few of its sons have risen above mediocrity, and only a few have achieved fame and glory.

Fortunato Veneziano, though born in the Marca Trevigiana, received his cultural and educational formation in Ravenna; he might almost be called a Ravenna native. In the 9th century, Andrea Agnello, already mentioned as the author of the *Liber Pontificalis* (q.v.). Then Guido, better known as the Anonymous or the Geographer of Ravenna. Around the year 1000, towering figures dominate: the three Ravenna saints—Romualdo, Guido Strambiati, abbot of Pomposa, and Pietro—