SICARDO, Bishop of Cremona. - From a Cremonese family (Casellanus or Casalenus, or rather de Casalaschitz [cf. A. Cavalcabò, La famiglia del vescovo S., in Boll. stor. cremonese, 1 (1931), pp. 145-48]), born around 1155, died at Cremona on 8 June 1215.
He studied at Bologna; then, it seems, at the cathedral school of Mainz. He became a subdeacon in 1183, was ordained a priest shortly afterwards, and two years later was elected bishop of Cremona. A predominant figure in his city's disputes against Brescia and Milan over the possession of Crema, he obtained from Frederick I the independence of Cremona; in 1186 he went to Germany to obtain the reconstruction of the « Castrum Manfredi », the first stronghold of a system of fortifications to which he gave particular impetus; in 1203, while the Fourth Crusade was under way, he followed Cardinal Pietro di Capua, papal legate, to Armenia and then to Constantinople. Having returned home in 1205, he intervened with an arbitration in the internal struggles of Cremona (1210). In 1212 he received Frederick II in the city and in return obtained from him the confirmation of the privileges over Cremona.
His literary output manifested itself in various fields. Lost are a youthful Libes mythologiarum (cf. the prologue of the Chronica and the Summa ad C. 26 q. I), the Acta et obitus s. Homoboni Cremonensis, a Tractatus de humilitate, Chronicorum libri diversi and a Historia Romanorum Pontificum. Preserved, on the other hand, are a Chronica universalis, the first example in Italy of a treatment « ab origine mundi », a Summa canonum and a treatise on liturgy, Mitrale. The Chronica, drafted first down to the events of 1201 and continued after his return from the East down to 1213, draws on the Bible, on St. Jerome, on Prosper of Aquitaine, Orosius, Isidore, Bede and above all on Paul the Deacon and on the Pantheon of Gottfried of Viterbo: but its most vital part, largely used by Salimbene, is that relating to the events closest to the author, so much so as to constitute one of the most important sources for the history of the Fourth Crusade. The Summa canonum, whose attribution to S. has been doubted without any foundation, drafted at Mainz between 1179 and 1181, is characteristic for its abundance of synoptic tables and tabular distinctions: it shows the influence of the school of Simon Anglicus. The closing section, written at a later time, is known as Apologia Sichardi, because it contains a defense of the work against malicious detractors. The Mitrale, in § II, is, for the vastness of its subject matter and the clarity of its exposition, among the most important liturgical treatises of the Middle Ages: it deals with buildings and sacred furnishings (I, I), with the Orders and vestments (I, II), with the Holy Mass (I, III), with the liturgical year and the Sunday and feast-day Offices (II, IV-VIII), with the sanctoral (I, IX). Its main sources are Amalarius of Metz and the Gemma animae of Honorius of Autun. From the Mitrale G. Durand (v.) drew extensively for his Rationale.
Bibliography11 works
Biographie des Sicardus v. C., in Zeitschrift d. Savigny Stiftung z. Rechtsgesch., Kan. Abt., 23 (1936), pp. 476-78; id., Repertorium der Kanonistik (Studi e testi, 71). Città del Vaticano 1937, see index; id., Reflexion sur les Brocards des glossateurs, in Mél. 7, de Ghellinck, II, Gembloux 1931, pp. 783-88; S. Mochi Onory, Fonti canonistiche dell'idea moderna dello Stato (Publ. dell'Univ. catt. del S. Cuore, nuova serie, XXXVIII), Milano (1931), see analytical index.