### Abbey of the Most Holy Trinity of Cava de’ Tirreni
Abbazia nullius, immediately subject to the Holy See. Over an area of 180 km², it comprises 21,000 inhabitants, all Catholic, distributed across 17 parishes served by 27 diocesan priests and 31 regular clergy; it has a seminary, 2 male and 10 female religious communities (Ann. Pont. 1932, p. 645). Founded in 1010 by St. Alferius (q.v.), a nobleman of Salerno, within and near a grotto, Cava became exceedingly powerful through a religious congregation, the Benedictine Order of Cava, which spread the principles of the great Cluniac reform.
Lombard and Norman princes, as well as Popes Gregory VII, Lucius III, and Innocent III, granted the abbots exceptional privileges that contributed to its remarkable development (at its height, it had jurisdiction over as many as 29 abbeys and 91 priories, extending as far as Sicily). In 1394, the monastery was elevated to episcopal dignity, but in 1465 the abbey and the bishopric were given in commendam, and the Congregation began a rapid decline, culminating in its complete extinction. In 1496, the commendatory abbot Oliviero Carafa entrusted the abbey to the reformed Congregation of St. Justina of Padua, and from then on the monks were united with the Cassinese Congregation. In 1517, the episcopal see was restored, though no longer united with the abbey (q.V. CAVA and SARNO). From the late 16th century, it began to welcome young scholars, and after 1860 it became the seat of a diocesan seminary and a college.
In the second half of the 18th century, the church and parts of the convent were expanded and rebuilt following the collapse of an overhanging rock that destroyed parts of the abbey, including the library. However, significant remains survive from the original constructions of the 11th and 12th centuries. The crypt, adorned with interesting 14th-century frescoes and scattered with tombs, features a plaque commemorating the antipope Theodoric (under the name Sylvester III), who was confined there by Paschal II and died in the abbey (1020). Adjacent to the crypt is the chapel of St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre (1280). The small cloister houses Roman and medieval marbles and 15th-century bas-reliefs; the Pinacoteca contains paintings, engravings, prints, and a valuable collection of Lombard and Norman coins.
The monastery boasts, in addition to the three saints whom a pious biographer designates as Alferius’s immediate successors—Leo, Peter I, and Costabile—the blessed abbots Simeon, Falcon, Marino, Benincasa, Peter II, Balsamo, Leonard, and Leo (1124–95); it also hosted illustrious figures such as Torquato Tasso, Gaetano Filangieri, and Pietro Giannone, and was led by distinguished abbots including Sangrino, Mansi, and De Blasi. Suppressed as a monastic community following the law of July 7, 1866, it was declared a national monument (August 7) and entrusted to the temporary custody of the abbot.
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### The Scriptorium and Library. The Archive
The Abbey of the Most Holy Trinity of Cava de’ Tirreni was one of the most active centers for the dissemination of Beneventan script. Although Lowe tends to circumscribe its importance within rather narrow limits, the surviving examples attest to such perfection, even within a few decades of the monastery’s foundation, as to postulate the existence of a flourishing school that maintained a tenacious tradition, offering examples of this script at its best even at the end of the 13th century (ms. Cav. 19, from 1280). Magnificent examples also remain from the Gothic period, such as the manuscripts written by Guido (ms. Cav. 25 and 26, from 1316–31), notable also for their miniatures; it is recorded that Abbot Mainiero (1351–52) summoned Tuscan miniaturists to the Cava scriptorium. Among the scribes of this center, Giovanni Capanuso should also be remembered for ms. Cav. 24 (1295), and Rainaldo, who compiled a compendium of the Bible (early 14th century), now lost. The fact that the remaining codices from this center are not very numerous (the original Cava manuscript of the *Liber Pontificalis*, cod. Vat. lat. 3746, is now excluded; the attribution of the *Imitation of Christ*, Paris, Bibl. nat., lat. 13599, remains controversial) is not sufficient to diminish its importance, especially since many exemplars may have been lost in the collapse of the 18th century.
The Library today contains some parchment and paper codices, not very numerous but of considerable significance; the most notable pieces, however, such as the famous 9th-century Bible, were not produced at Cava. It also holds 120 incunabula.
The Archive, extremely rich, includes documents that flowed into the abbey as safeguards of its extensive properties or were entrusted to it as a secure place, away from the continual conflicts that agitated the surrounding territory for centuries. It thus contains documents dating well before the foundation of the abbey itself and of great interest for the history of the Lombard and Norman ages. The eight large volumes published so far of the *Codex diplomaticus Cavensis* contain only a small part of them. — See plate CXXI.
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