TARRA, GIULIO. – Priest, educator, and writer, born in Milan on 25 April 1832, died there on 10 June 1889.
Ordained a priest in 1855, he was appointed that same year as director of the Institute for Poor Deaf-Mutes of the Province of Milan, to which he dedicated all his energy and zeal, seeking to improve their condition and facilitate their education. To this end, he replaced the mimetic method of the Abbé de l’Épée—being the first in Italy to do so—with the pure oral method, which consists in teaching language through the spoken word and the teacher’s lips. He also devoted his refined and clear literary talent to the education of normal children through a series of works still largely worth reading and appreciating for their openly educational intent, even if at times they display an excessive moralizing tone: *Buoni esempi narrati ai fanciulli* (Milan 1871); *Dialoghi famigliari e scenici ad uso dei fanciulli* (Milan 1871); *Novelle e canti in famiglia* (ibid. 1877); *Serate liete, novelle e poesie dilettevoli, educative* (ibid. 1885); *Cento e una storiella al focolare di cosa* (ibid. 1896); but above all: *Letture graduate al fanciullo italiano* (3 vols., ibid. 1862) and *Racconti di una madre ai suoi figli* (ibid. 1862), where passages inspired by events of the Italian Risorgimento are particularly effective, foreshadowing *Cuore* by De Amicis. This book was awarded a prize at the 5th Italian Pedagogical Congress in 1861. For the education of the deaf-mute, noteworthy are: *Lettere ad un maestro dei sordomuti*, in *Dell’educazione dei sordomuti in Italia* (Siena 1872), and *Cenni storici e compendiosa esposizione del metodo seguito per l’educazione dei sordomuti* (Milan 1880).
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TARRAGONA, ARCHDIOCESE OF. – Mosaic tombstone of Optimus (4th century), from the Paleochristian necropolis of St. Fruitosus – Tarragona, Paleochristian Museum.
Tarragona, ancient *Tarraco*, was the capital of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis. It was occupied by the Moors in 714; passed to the Archduke of Austria at the death of Charles II and returned to Philip V under the Treaty of 14 March 1714. It endured a harsh siege by the French in 1813. The first known bishop of Tarragona is St. Fruitosus (q.v.), martyred in 259 together with his deacons Augurius and Eulogius (P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri, *Gli Atti di s. Fruitosus di T.*, in *Note agiografiche*, 8 [Studi e testi, 65], Vatican City 1935, pp. 129–99). The relics of St. Fruitosus were later taken to Italy by St. Prosper of Tarragona in 711.
The see of Tarragona was represented at the Council of Arles in 314 by the priest Probatius and the deacon Castorius; then by Imerius during the time of Damasus and Siricius; by Ascanius in 465; by John, who convened the first provincial synod in Tarragona on 6 November 516 and in 517 in Gerona; by Sergius, who attended the Council of Barcelona in 535 and that of Lérida in 546; then by Tranquillinus c. 560; by Artemius, who sent Stephen to the Third Council of Toledo and attended the provincial synods of Saragossa in 599 and Barcelona; by Eusebius (610–32), who attended the Council of Egara; by Audax (633–38), who attended the Fourth Council of Toledo, while Protasius (637–46) attended the sixth and seventh, also sending delegates to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Councils of Toledo; Verus attended the 16th and 17th. The Muslim invasion followed under his successor George. Louis the Pious briefly occupied the city; part of the territory passed to the diocese of Barcelona, while the metropolitan rank passed to Narbonne until 759. Berengarius of Roda, bishop of Vic, secured the reconquest of Tarragona in 1116 through Ramon Berenguer III the Great, and Pope Urban II granted him the pallium and appointed him archbishop of Tarragona; the same honor was conferred on his successor, St. Olegarius, bishop of Barcelona; he attended the Councils of Lateran (1123) and Clermont (1130) and died on 6 March 1137. He was succeeded by Gregory, formerly abbot of Cuxa; later came the archbishops Aspargo Barca, Pedro Zagarriga, Augustin (1576–86), A. Perez (1634–37), and F. de Armanay y Font (1785–1803).
The cathedral was built between 1171 and 1331 on the hill where once stood the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and later a mosque. It is one of the finest examples of Gothic art; its robust Romanesque apse resembles a fortress. In the early 13th century, under the direction of Brother Bernardo (d. 1256), construction continued in Gothic style; later, flamboyant Gothic, Plateresque, and Churrigueresque styles were added to the side chapels, constructed between the 16th and 18th centuries. It measures 104 m in length; the nave is 30 m wide, with a transept of 45 x 15 m, surmounted by an octagonal dome 28 m high. The Romanesque bell tower at the base was completed in the 14th century and, though unfinished, reaches 65.40 m in height. The Gothic façade is accessed by a broad staircase. The portal, begun in 1278 by Master Bartolomeo, known as the Norman, features the Virgin among the Apostles; additional statues were added later by Giacomo Castalls (1475); the artistic doors date to 1510. The two arms of the transept are illuminated by two rose windows with artistic stained glass from 1574, much restored.
Within the cathedral is the tomb of James I of Aragon, known as the Conqueror (d. 1276). The choir stalls are in the late Gothic style of the 15th century; the two ambons date to the 13th century. Above the high altar is a large marble altarpiece carved by P. G. de Valfogona and G. de la Mota in 1426, depicting scenes from the life of St. Thecla and statues of the Blessed Virgin. In the right transept are the artistic chapels of St. Thomas Aquinas, with the venerated image of the Christ of Health (1508) and polychrome statues of the Madonna and St. John; the chapels of St. Luke and St. Olegarius in Romanesque style; those of St. Roch and St. Sebastian in Baroque style. In the left transept is the *Capilla de los Sastres* (Chapel of the Tailors), erected by Archbishop Pedro de Clasquet (1358–80), who is buried there; the Chapel of the Most Holy Sacrament, built by Pedro Blay in 1586 with a dome; and the minor chapels of St. Barbara and SS. Cosmas and Damian. In the right nave is the baptistery in the Chapel of the Virgins in Gothic style (1341); the tomb of Cardinal Cervantes de Gaeta (d. 1575); the Gothic chapel of St. Michael (1360), those of St. Thecla, patroness of Tarragona (1760–75), of St. Francis from the late 16th century, and another of the Holy Family.
**TARRAGONA, ARCHDIOCESE OF** – *The Sacrifice of Isaac*, detail from the sarcophagus of Eleutherius (5th century), from the Paleochristian necropolis of St. Fruitosus – Tarragona, Paleochristian Museum.
In the left nave, the Chapel of St. Francis contains the tombs of Archbishops Teres (d. 1603) and López Peláez (d. 1918); the Chapel of Montserrat in late Gothic style, built by Cardinal Pedro de Cardona, who is buried there (d. 1530); it also contains the tomb of Archbishop Costa y Borrás (d. 1864). In the similarly styled Chapel of St. Thomas is the tomb of Archbishop Félix y Solans (d. 1870); the artistic altarpiece is by M. Ortoneda and comes from Solivella.
The cloister is accessed through a Romanesque portal, as are the ambulatories with light ribbed vaults, decorated and sculpted capitals; some represent the *procesión de las ratas* (the procession of the rats burying the cats). On the south side are fragments of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and an Arab arch with an inscription from the year 349 of the Hegira (i.e., 960 A.D.), which belonged to the mihrab gate of the ancient mosque. Further on is the chapel called the *Corpus Christi*, formerly of the Chapter, now a section of the Diocesan Museum, containing altarpieces from the 14th–15th centuries, paintings, liturgical goldsmith work, etc.; on the north side of the cloister is the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene; further on are remains of the Roman *arx*, the chapels of *N. Señora del Claustro*, with a statue of the Blessed Virgin from the 14th century much venerated, of St. Thecla (1535), and of *N. Señora de las Nieves*.
The ancient convent of St. Francis was partly converted into a government office and partly into a school; the Jesuit College was used as a barracks, as were the convents of the Mercedarians and Carmelites, which were also turned to military use. Near the Diocesan Museum are the Diocesan Archives and the Chapter Hall, with a 15th-century tapestry known as *de la Buena Vida*, Renaissance altarpieces, sacred furnishings, missals and antiphonaries, and 52 tapestries from the 15th–16th centuries. On the ruins...
the deceased were placed in a pit in the ground inside a wooden coffin, later covered with fragments of amphorae and earth. In other cases, the pit in the ground was lined with tiles or slabs, or with stones and mud, or stones and lime; sometimes the covering was made with imbrices arranged in two slopes (like a capuchin’s cowl); very common was burial inside whole amphorae from which the narrow end had been removed, or with pieces of amphora joined with lime; some pit graves were lined inside with white or red plaster and covered either with slabs or tiles arranged in a double slope, or with slabs of stone or marble laid horizontally. Many are the sarcophagi in stone or marble; some are carved with pagan subjects, others simply with a smoothed front; some sarcophagi were obtained by hollowing out blocks from earlier buildings; some lead sarcophagi have also been found. All sarcophagi were buried; some tombs had on the surface of the ground a small mound rising above, consisting of a rubble layer of 2 x 1 m with sloping side walls to prevent water infiltration. The surface of this layer was smoothed and decorated in white or red; in some tombs the mound reached dimensions of 3.50 x 3 m with a high step of 0.35 m. Near such mounds were collected bones of domestic animals, oysters, and remains of other foodstuffs, as well as fragments of glass and pottery vessels. One tomb, moreover, has a table in the form of a *cline*, as in some tombs in Rome and at Isola Sacra. In some tombs a marble inscription was fixed in the mound; in the richer ones there were mosaic decorations and epitaphs; one shows a toga-clad figure, one the Good Shepherd, one a floral and geometric theme. The corpse was often placed on a layer of quicklime; traces of garments and gold threads, needles, bone and metal buttons have been found. Two larger cells were built with large stone blocks in a quadrilateral shape, with a groin vault and three small arches inside.
Much funerary equipment has been found, such as pottery vessels, lamps, and even an articulated ivory doll.
The basilica discovered in this cemetery had three naves, with a semicircular apse; beneath its pavement were arranged tombs; in the material used for construction, fragments of Christian inscriptions were identified; one of the side walls was built over a row of sarcophagi. The elements provided by the excavation make it possible to recognize in this structure the basilica erected after the devastation of 409 over the tombs of the martyrs of Tarragona of 259, namely Bishop St. Fructuosus (v.) and his deacons Augurius and Eulogius. Around their tombs the cemetery area subsequently developed.
Epigraphic collections have preserved the epitaphs of the bishops John and Sergius of the 6th century (G. B. De Rossi, *Inscriptiones christianae*, II, Rome 1888, p. 294). The epitaph of a priest Euticius of the “civitas Albitana” near Tarragona is also known. The inscription of a Marturia with 4 and 6 contains the date of the year 393 and the acclamation “vivas cum beatos”; that of a Pientia with the date of the year 415 and a scratched cross; that of a “vir honoratus Aventinus” gives the dates of the years 421 and 461; two others offer the dates of the years 471 and 503 respectively. Among the formulas are remembered those: “in sanctorum sede quiescis; sancta Christi in sede quiescis,” and “sperans resurrectionem a Domino.”
Among the ancient monasteries are remembered that of St. Creus, founded by Ramon Berengario IV for the Cistercians and abandoned in 1885; the monumental entrance gate leads to a courtyard with the fountain called of St. Bernard; to the right is the Abbey Palace and a small cloister from 1625. The church, divided by pillars into three naves, was begun in 1174 in Romanesque style and finished in Gothic style in 1211. Many kings of the Catalan dynasty were buried there, including Peter II (1285), James II (1377) and his wife Blanche of Anjou, the Italian admiral Roger of Lauria (1304), etc. To the south of the church is the great cloister (1304–41) in ogival style where many Catalan nobles were buried; the chapter hall has three naves and contains tombs of abbots; above it is the dormitory of the novices; beside it are storerooms and the ancient cloister (1153) in Romanesque style and other monastic buildings. At St. Creus the knightly Order of Montesa was founded in 1316.
The monastery of St. Mary of Poblet was established in 1153 by the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berengario IV, who donated it to the Cistercians; its name, however, comes from an hermit who lived there about 1120. The monastery became one of the most sumptuous and wealthy in Spain thanks to the endowments received from the kings of Aragon, who built a palace there and were buried there. In 1835 the monastery was sacked and burned, but it was restored and returned to the Cistercians in 1940. They now occupy the part called “de las Casas nuevas.” Beyond the “Monks’ Park” one reaches a courtyard where to the right is the Gothic chapel of St. George (1442); then, through the royal door, one enters another courtyard with the remains of the guesthouse, the hospital, the palace, and the ruined church of St. Catherine. One then comes to the “Puerta dorada” (1480–99): there are fragments of frescoes relating to the history of the abbey. The church has a Baroque façade with statues of the Virgin, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, between columns of diaspore, and hexagonal towers at the corners. The interior has three naves, built by Alfonso II of Aragon in the 12th century; the high altar, donated by Charles V, in alabaster is the work of Damian Forment (1520). There are mausoleums of the kings Alfonso II, John I and II, James I the Conqueror, Peter the Ceremonious, and Ferdinand of Antequera. Behind the apse is the Romanesque cloister; also the cloister of St. Stephen (13th century) leads to a series of vaulted halls.
The library of Peter of Aragon was partly transferred to Tarragona. In the chapter hall are the tombs of the abbots. The palace, begun in 1397 by King Martin, remains unfinished.
Vilanova de Escornalbou is an ancient monastery of the Augustinians founded in 1162 and built on the ruins of a Roman fortress on the Mola, at 700 m. above sea level; ruined in 1835, it was redeemed in 1911. A Romanesque portal leads into an ogival Romanesque church (1165–1240) with an attached Romanesque cloister and monastic buildings, which also contain an art collection and a rich library.
The ruins of the famous Carthusian monastery of Scala Dei stand near Villelas, on the slopes of the Sierra de Nonstrant; Scala Dei was the mother house of almost all the Carthusian monasteries in Spain and Portugal; it was founded by Alfonso I in 1163 and Peter II established the priory there; the remains of two cloisters and monks' cells can be admired there, along with a triple portal, the hermitage known as that of St Anthony, the Correria, the Grange of Bon Repos, and the chapel of La Piedad. The surviving library is in the Seminary of T. — See plate CXXVII.
educated in Venice at the school of Fra' Sebastiano da Rovigno. The former is responsible for the magnificent woodwork in the choir of the Olivetan monastery of Monteoliveto (1505) and in the church of Santa Maria in Organo in Verona; the latter for that on the doors of San Pietro in Perugia (1535) and the stalls of San Domenico in Bologna (1541-49).
Noteworthy among the decorative resources of these masters, who carried pictorial virtuosity to the highest degree, are their views of buildings and streets with panoramic intent, where an attempt is made to obey the laws of both aerial and linear perspective. Also remarkable for their complex figurative style are the woodcarvings executed in the choir of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo (c. 1530), on cartoons by the painter Lorenzo Lotto, by Gian Francesco Capodiferro of Lovere, a pupil of Fra' Damiano da Bergamo. With the advent of Mannerism, inlay work in hard stones replaced woodcarving in private furnishings, while ecclesiastical furnishings became burdened with heavy projections, certainly incompatible with the linear polychromies of the Renaissance.
Only in the Rococo period did woodcarving flourish again, mainly in France, thanks to the great cabinetmakers André-Charles Boulle, Charles Cressent, Riesener and others, who knew how to use the most precious woods, together with metals and tortoiseshell, for surface inlays rich in chromatic refinements and capricious arabesques. In Italy, Venetian cabinetmakers were influenced by them. Towards the end of that century and in the first decades of the nineteenth century, after the minute craftsmanship of the Piedmontese Pietro Pifetti, the Lombard Giuseppe and Carlo Francesco Maggiolini, of European fame, left their mark with their restrained ornamentation for furniture featuring landscape and floral motifs. In the last century, sporadic woodcarvers limited themselves to copying the figurative repertoire of past times, and a certain revival of taste was recorded in the last few decades along with advances in xylographic art, as evidenced by the panels with neo-Renaissance motifs prepared by Edoardo Del Neri for the Casa Madre dei Mutilati in Rome. — See plate CXXVIII.