TURIN, Archdiocese of. - At the time of its foundation the diocese of Turin comprised the whole territory between the dioceses of Ivrea, Asti, Acqui, Alba, Albenga and Embrun, from the Dora Riparia to the Po, as far as the Stura di Cuneo and the Tanaro valley.
Toward the end of the 6th century the Franks detached a part of the Susa Valley and the Maurienne, and the new diocese of St. John of Maurienne was founded. Subsequently Saluzzo (1511), Fossano (1592), Pinerolo (1749), Susa (1772), Cuneo (1817) and Asti (1817) were detached from Turin. Created a metropolitan church on 17 May 1515 with Ivrea and Mondovì as suffragans, it today has as suffragans Acqui, Asti, Alba, Mondovì, Cuneo, Saluzzo, Fossano, Pinerolo, Ivrea and Aosta.
It comprises 34 forane vicariates, 332 parishes and 1200 non-parochial churches, 150 municipalities of which 14 in the province of Cuneo, 5 in that of Asti, 130 in that of Turin. Population 1,100,000; diocesan priests 1085, extra-diocesan 50; male orders and congregations 26, female 61. Major seminary of philosophy and theology at Rivoli, near Turin; junior seminary at Giaveno; archiepiscopal boarding school at Bra. High schools, vocational and agricultural schools are run by the Jesuits, the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Salesians, the Rosminians, the Giuseppini del Murialdo; for girls by the Dominican Sisters, the Religious of the Sacred Heart, the Salesian Sisters, the Madri Pie, the Fedeli Compagne, the Sisters of St. Anne, of St. Joseph, etc.
I. HISTORY
"Augusta Taurinorum," perhaps arising on the same site as the pre-Roman Taurasia, capital of the Taurini, was in the Roman age the most important western subalpine city. In 69 A.D. it was partly burned in the civil war between Otho and Vitellius. Near T. in 312 Constantine won a victorious encounter with Maxentius.
Christianity entered there relatively late. A systematic evangelization began only after the middle of the 3rd century. The best modern criticism regards Sts. Solutor, Adventor and Octavius as martyrs of Turin, and the attribution of these saints to the Theban Legion (v. TEBEI, SANTI, MARTIRI), which later became prevalent, is late. At the end of the 4th century St. Maximus (v.) must be considered the first bishop. His great figure shows in T. the existence of a flourishing Christianity, even amid still numerous pagans. In those terrible years, in which the barbarian invasions of Italy begin, St. Maximus presides over the sorrowful situation. Under St. Maximus, between 397 and 401, a Council was held at T., convened at the request of the bishops of the Roman province of Gaul, who were at odds over the rights of their metropolitan see.
The list of bishops of the 5th-6th centuries is not complete. Victor in 494 went to Gaul with St. Epiphanius of Pavia to free the prisoners carried off by Gondebald, king of Burgundy, in one of his raids into upper Italy. Ursicinus (562-600) suffered imprisonment at the hands of the Lombards and saw the Maurienne and part of the Susa Valley taken away by the Franks, who made them autonomous dioceses, despite his protests and those of Gregory the Great. Under the Lombards T. formed a vast Duchy corresponding in large part to the ecclesiastical diocese and acquired the importance of a bulwark of the Kingdom against the Franks. The Carolingian government that followed was constituted by Frankish counts. Louis the Pious in 817-18 sent Bishop Claudius (v.), a man of wide, though not deep, erudition and of iconoclastic attitudes. Once the Carolingian imperial unity had vanished and the Kingdom of Italy had been re-formed, from the struggles between Guy of Spoleto and Berengar of Friuli emerged the dynasty of the Arduinici, which dominated the March of T. for a century and a half.
The marchional period, especially that of Olderic Manfred and his daughter Adelaide, was a period of recovery after the desolation of the 10th century. In this imposing work, alongside Olderic and Adelaide, the bishops Gezo and Landulf and in part also Cunibert find a place of great honor. In the 11th century, through the work of the aforesaid marquises and bishops, arose the abbeys of Caramagna, of S. Giusto di Susa, of S. Pietro di Savigliano, of Pinerolo, of S. Solutore, of Cavour, the provostry of Oulx, the cathedral of Chieri and the collegiate church of Testona. At the end of the marchional period the power of the bishop asserted itself, and alongside it the autonomy of the city. In 1159 a diploma of Frederick Barbarossa granted Bishop Charles full comital rights over the city and its contado. This did not prevent the consolidation of communal autonomy. At the beginning of the 13th century, Commune and bishop were still allies against the counts of Savoy. Then the bishop's power declined, the Commune and the Savoys struggled with varying fortunes, until after the brief Lordship over T. of the Angevins and of William VII of Montferrat, the Savoys prevailed.
Even the economic situation of the bishopric had worsened by the end of the 13th century. On the other hand, the pastoral activity of Bishop Godfrey of Montanaro (1254-1300) appears noteworthy, despite the long controversies with the Savoys and the abbots of S. Michele della Chiusa and his legation to Constantinople. Equally worthy of note is the activity of Bishop Guy II (1319-48) and of his successors John of Rivalta (1364-1411), Aymon (1411-38) and Ludovico of Romagnano (1438-68). From the reports of the pastoral visitations and synodal acts they appear as excellent prelates. John of Rivalta and Ludovico of Romagnano concerned themselves in a particular way and with some fruit with the conversion of the Waldensians (v.), with whom Bishop James I had already had to concern himself as early as 1209. Under Ludovico of Romagnano, on 6 June 1453, the famous Eucharistic miracle of T. took place. Two soldiers of the troops of Ludovico, duke of Savoy, garrisoned at Exilles, while their companions were plundering the town, entered the Church, and, having opened the tabernacle, stole the silver ostensorium that contained the consecrated Host. Having gone down to Susa, they sold the stolen goods to some merchants, who loaded it, in a sack, on the back of a mule and reached T. There, in front of the church of S. Silvestro, the mule balked, and there was no way to make it advance. Blows were of no avail to move it, but only to make the sack fall to the ground, which opened and scattered the booty around. The ostensorium, however, hovered in the air; it opened of itself and left the Host suspended on high, radiating light all around. The bishop, Ludovico of Romagnano, having been informed, hastened in procession, raised a chalice toward the Host, praying Jesus to descend and remain with his people. The Host indeed descended and was carried in triumph into the Cathedral. On the site of the triumph an aedicula was first erected, then in 1598 the splendid basilica of Corpus Domini (cf. G.M. Sanna Solaro, Il miracolo di T., Turin 1894). Ludovico, the last of the Savoy-Achaea, founded the University at T. (1405; bull of the antipope Benedict XIII of 24 Oct.), confirmed by imperial privilege in 1412 and by Pope Eugene IV in 1448, and in 1505 Erasmus of Rotterdam received there his degree in theology. Among the preachers in the region in the 15th century, St. Vincent Ferrer (1402) and St. Bernardino of Siena (1436) are to be remembered.
At the end of the century (1498) the bishop Cardinal Domenico Della Rovere built the present Cathedral (v. illustration at v. MEO DEL CAPRINO). Leo X on 17 May 1515 erected the church of T. into a metropolitan see, separating it from Milan. Meanwhile the situation of T. and of Piedmont had become terrible, battered by the war between Francis I and Charles V. In 1536 the French entered T., plundered, destroyed four borghi and twelve churches. Duke Charles III of Savoy died far away in 1553.
Protestant infiltrations are notable especially in the valleys from Pinerolo to the Val Po, the Val Varaita, Val Maira, Val Stura. At T. the decurions of the city, even under French domination, intervened with strong determination to block the advance of heresy; as early as 1522 the city assigned a stipend to a master who would read St. Paul, in 1542 this reading was extended to four parishes and to the Duomo, and in 1563 the Company of St. Paul was formed, with members of all classes, for the defense of the faith and for charity. The pastoral situation of the diocese was difficult. Msgr. Filippo De Mari, vicar of Cardinal Cibo, archbishop, tells us so in the report of his visitation (1545-46). He found parish priests ignorant and incapable of preaching, negligent, idle, lacking books. He considers it unnecessary to make new synodal constitutions, but rather to make known the old ones, fallen into total oblivion "also through the negligence of some of our predecessors."
With Cardinal Archbishop Gerolamo Della Revere (1564-92) and Emmanuel Philibert came the rebirth of the Church and of the State in Turin and Piedmont. Famous is Cardinal Gerolamo's disputation with the heretics at Caraglio, with Emmanuel Philibert present. Of enormous importance was his visitation in the valleys and the fruits obtained. Fundamental are the Constitutions of his Synod (19 April 1575), in which he reminds the priests that he had founded the Seminary (1567) according to the prescriptions of the Council of Trent (introduced into the State in 1562). With Emmanuel Philibert, Turin definitively became the capital of the Savoyard State. The duke transferred there the relic of the Holy Shroud (1578). Charles Emmanuel I and Archbishop Carlo Broglia (1592-1617) worthily continued the work of reconstruction. The pastoral visitations, the six diocesan synods, the Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries sent regularly into the valleys by this great archbishop, together with the assistance and energy of Charles Emmanuel, restored to the diocese and to Piedmont the unity of the faith and zeal for the care of souls in the priests. On these examples the pastoral action of the archbishops of Turin continued throughout the whole 17th century, which saw the establishment in the city of the Oratory of St. Philip (1649) and of the Missionaries of St. Vincent (1654). From the Oratory of St. Philip came Bl. Sebastiano Valfrè, counselor of the dukes and comfort of the people during the terrible siege of Turin in 1706.
The victory of 1706 opened the way to a new great development in Turin and Piedmont. The city that in the communal-seigneurial period had barely 6,000 inhabitants and 30,000 in 1570, rose to 90,000 toward the end of the 18th century. Outside the old ring of bastions the city expanded, following the eurhythmic regularity of the old Roman colony. With the French Revolution the State and Church of Turin entered a new phase of life and difficulties. The archbishop and cardinal Gaetano Costa and King Victor Amadeus died in 1796. They were succeeded by Archbishop Carlo Buronzo del Signore and King Charles Emmanuel IV, both of great piety and not of great courage. Moreover, the events were greater than they were. The royal government sought to cope with the extremely difficult economic and military situation through taxes, loans, and suppressions of ecclesiastical property agreed upon with Rome. But meanwhile France simply annexed Piedmont (1798) and introduced the methods and legislation of the French Republic. A brief change of scene came with the arrival of the Austro-Russians under Suvorov (1799) and then, after the victory of Marengo (1800), a new provisional French government.
Once the metropolitan Seminary was suppressed, through a long series of acts against ecclesiastical bodies, matters arrived at the general suppression (17 July 1802) of the monastic Orders and religious Congregations. Piedmont became a French province (11 Sept. 1802); the Piedmontese dioceses were reduced to Turin, Saluzzo, Acqui, Asti, Alessandria, Vercelli, Ivrea, Mondovì. Ecclesiastical life nevertheless had a temporary improvement after Napoleon's imperial coronation and with the arrival in Turin of the new archbishop Giacinto Della Torre (1804-14). Even if at times his expressions were excessively laudatory toward Napoleon, it is certain that in the 10 years of his episcopate he knew how to obtain with dignity, in every circumstance, the maximum possible for his clergy and his people. He reopened and set back in order, also spiritually, the Seminary of Turin, opened the Gymnasial Seminary of Giaveno, reestablished the monthly conferences on morals, encouraged spiritual exercises among the clergy, and obtained exemption from military service for clerics. He died on 8 April 1814, and on 25 April the annexation to France was over. Victor Emmanuel I was in Turin on 20 May. Legislation returned as it had been in 1770, with the modifications made by the royal government up to 23 June 1800. Despite the good will of the Holy See and of the King, not all the religious orders could be restored.
Meanwhile, on 17 July 1817 Pius VII reorganized the situation of the dioceses of Piedmont, with the two metropolitan sees of Turin and Vercelli. With Turin remained Acqui, Asti, Ivrea, Mondovì, Saluzzo, Alba, Cuneo, Fossano, Pinerolo, Susa. The episcopal jurisdiction of the ancient abbeys remained suppressed, even though the abbeys were reconstituted. The uprisings of 1821 marked the times, even if the ten years of Charles Felix seemed years of definitive settlement in the ecclesiastical and civil sphere. The charitable institutions were recomposed and the religious bodies for the most part reestablished. St. Giuseppe B. Cottolengo (v.) began his marvelous work. Approval was given to the erection of the ecclesiastical Convitto (v.) of St. Francis of Assisi for practical morals, where St. Giuseppe Cafasso (v.) and St. John Bosco (v.) would be found as teacher and pupil. In 1831 Archbishop Chiaverotti and Charles Felix died. With Msgr. Franzoni and Charles Albert there opened for Turin and its diocese the properly so-called era of the Risorgimento, which would lead both of them to die in exile. The events of this period are better known, because by then they were of national interest. Msgr. Franzoni did not have a mentality and temperament suited to winning strong sympathies; nevertheless his trial and his deportation to Fenestrelle constitute shameful pages of the Piedmontese government (1850). The Apostolic Nuncio left Piedmont after the approval of the abolition of the ecclesiastical forum (Apr. 1850). Relations with the Holy See were severed only in 1855, after the approval with amendments of the law suppressing the Religious Orders (22 May 1855). Msgr. Franzoni died in exile in 1852.
This period of harsh relations between State and Church, far from marking a standstill, represents one of the most dynamic ages in the life of the diocese of Turin. The names of Cottolengo (d. 1842), of Giuseppe Cafasso (d. 1860), of Don Bosco then in full activity in his oratories and founder in 1869 of the Salesian Congregation, of Murialdo and of the Collegio Artigianelli begun in 1850, of Margotti, first director of the Armonia and then founder (1863) of the Unità Cattolica; and, among the laity, of Solaro della Margarita, of Cesare Balbo, Federico Sclopis, Silvio Pellico, Giuseppe Manno, Pier Alessandro Paravia, Tommaso Vallauri, Carlo Promis, of the marchioness Giulia di Barolo, are known. But in the field of the Catholic press, of the education of youth, of assistance and of charity there is a wonderful flowering of other men and collateral works. The twelve years of the episcopate of Msgr. Castaldi (1871-83) are most important for disciplining and giving increment to all this fervor of works. He preserved the catechism in the schools; once the theological faculties in our Universities were dissolved (1873), he obtained the erection of the theological faculty (1874) and the juridical faculty (1883) in the seminary. With the Piedmontese Society of Catholic Interests and the Catholic Workers' Union he anticipated Catholic Action and modern social action.
In the 19th and 20th centuries the construction of new churches and parishes went hand in hand with the demographic and building growth of the city. T. rose from 90,000 inhabitants in 1800 to 700,000 in 1939. From 1850 to 1880, 11 large new churches arose. From then to the present, some thirty new parishes and outlying churches have been completed: several others are under construction. In 1949-50 the new monumental Major Seminary at Rivoli also came into use, the long and laborious work of Cardinal Maurilio Fossati, the current archbishop of T. In these last fifty years the legacy of Msgr. Castaldi has been preserved and developed in every direction, even through the two great wars, during which the prudence and charity of the cardinal archbishops Richelmi and M. Fossati had ample opportunity to manifest themselves.
II. ANCIENT ABBEYS OF THE DIOCESE OF TURIN
1) Abbey of S. Michele della Chiusa (Sagra di S. Michele, [v.]), founded in the 10th century. 2) Abbey of S. Pietro della Novalesa, founded in 726. At the beginning of the 10th century the monks fled before the Saracens, betaking themselves to Breme (v.) and to the priory of S. Andrea di T. 3) Abbey of S. Dalmazzo di Pedona. A Lombard foundation between 600 and 625 on the site of the martyrdom of St. Dalmazzo, of great religious and agricultural importance for the region. Destroyed likewise in the 10th century by the Saracens and abandoned by the monks, it was rebuilt around 1160 and reached its greatest splendor in the mid-13th century; after the mid-14th century it languished, and it was united to the mensa of the diocese of Mondovì in the mid-15th century (now the diocese of Cuneo). 4) Abbey of Pagno, founded by Astolfo and subject to the Novalesa in 825 by the emperor Lothair, so that those monks might with the revenues of Pagno provide for the Hospice of the Moncenisio. It followed the fate of the Novalesa and was subject to Breme. In the mid-18th century it was incorporated into the episcopal mensa of Saluzzo. 5) Abbey of S. Costanzo del Villar; it arose near Dronero through the work of the Lombard kings, at the beginning of the 8th century. Laid waste in the time of the Saracens, it recovered in the 11th century especially through the work of the marquises of Saluzzo and of Busca and attained notable religious and patrimonial importance. Given in commendam in the 11th century, it survived until the French Revolution. The ancient church of S. Costanzo on the mount and the present parish of Villar S. Costanzo with the crypt beneath are of great interest for architecture from the 8th to the 13th century (now the diocese of Saluzzo). 5) Abbey of S. Giusto di Susa; founded in 1029 by Olderico Manfredi and his wife Berta and largely endowed by them, after a period of prosperity it declined religiously and economically as early as the 13th century. In 1581 the Lateran Canons Regular succeeded the Benedictines. In 1772 the church of S. Giusto became a cathedral and the abbatial mensa, episcopal. 6) The Provostry of Oulx arose in the middle of the 11th century and as head of a Congregation of Canons Regular presided over many churches in Italy and France. It became a commendam from the 15th century, was suppressed in 1748 by Benedict XIV and united to the new diocese of Pinerolo then erected (now the diocese of Susa). 7) Abbey of S. Mauro and of Pulcherada; earlier than the raids of the Saracens by whom it was destroyed, it was restored in the 11th century and was a regular abbey until 1503; then it was given in commendam. Suppressed by Pius VII in 1803 (diocese of T., from which it is a few km. distant). 8) Abbey of S. Pietro di Savigliano, founded in 1028, sustained long disputes with the abbot of the Chiusa who claimed to have jurisdiction there. In the 13th century it was under the abbots of Fruttuaria; in 1450 aggregated to S. Giustina of Padua. The eight Benedictines who were still there in 1855 were struck by the law of suppression (diocese of T.). 9) Abbey of S. Solutore in T.: founded by bishop Gezone ca. 1006, it was endowed with many goods by the bishops of T., by Olderico Manfredi and Adelaide. Bishop Giacomo I in 1210 imposed a new statute for its monastic life. In 1536 it was destroyed through the work of the French. 10) Abbey of S. Giacomo di Stura, founded a few kilometers from T. in 1146 and given to the Vallombrosans to keep there a hospice for pilgrims and a hospital for lepers. Fallen into ruin in the 14th century because of the continuous wars between the Monferrato and the Savoy, its rich goods were incorporated in 1420 into the episcopal mensa of T. 11) The regular Provostry, later abbey of Rivalta, founded in 1096 by the abbot of S. Maria di Pinerolo, passed under the provostry of Oulx and then under the protection of the Holy See in 1207; in 1265, having declined, it passed under the dependence of the Cistercian abbey of Staffarda. Suppressed in 1770, its goods were united to the archiepiscopal mensa of T. 12) Abbey of Cavour; the document with which Landolfo bishop of T. in 1037 founded the abbey of Cavour is of the greatest interest for knowledge of the sorrowful situation from which the Church of Turin was rising again. Cavour too flourished with the help and protection of the bishops of T. and of countess Adelaide. With the 14th century it declined. From the commendam it passed through alternating vicissitudes until the suppression of the last century. 13) Abbey of S. Maria di Pinerolo, founded in 1064 by countess Adelaide and munificently endowed. Subject directly to the Holy See. Its monks depended, however, on the abbey of the Chiusa. Commendam in 1433; it passed to the Reformed Cistercians in 1590. At the General Chapter of 1622 St. Francis de Sales presided. Suppressed in 1748 by Benedict XVI who erected Pinerolo into a bishopric.
The female abbeys of Caramagna and Rifreddo, the latter now in the territory of the diocese of Saluzzo. The Benedictine female abbey of Caramagna was founded by Olderico Manfredi and his wife Berta in 1028. Many were the possessions with which they endowed it and its religious life was always in difficulty, at least from the end of the 12th century. With the 13th century there is also economic decline. The other Benedictine female abbey at Rifreddo was founded by the marquises of Saluzzo in 1220. It adopted the Cistercian rule very early. For Rifreddo too the end of the 13th century marks the end of expansion and the beginning of efforts to preserve a large part of its goods, which it managed to do for centuries still.
The Cistercian abbeys of Staffarda and Casanova, founded respectively in 1131 and 1142, represent two model abbeys, a dynamic element in Piedmontese religious and agricultural life in the 12th-13th centuries. In the 15th century both were in commendam (Staffarda, where the very beautiful abbatial church, now parochial, still stands, is now subject to the diocese of Saluzzo; Casanova is in the diocese of T.).
III. MONUMENTS
T., in the forefront of Italian cities in urban planning and building, is less rich artistically. From the Roman age only the Porta Palatina remains, an imposing brick construction from the age of Augustus, along with traces of the Roman theater. From the age of the marquises of T. there remain the magnificent Romanesque bell tower of the Consolata (10th-11th centuries) and the east side of Palazzo Madama. Gothic art is represented by the church of S. Domenico; the Renaissance by the beautiful cathedral of S. Giovanni, owed to Cardinal Domenico Della Rovere of the noble family of the Vinovo near T., from which some of the city's greatest bishops came. The contractor was Meo del Caprino (Amedeo De Francisco da Setignano); the architect Baccio de' Pintelli. Begun in 1491, finished in 1498. Among the painters who worked in T. were Gian Martino Spanzotti (frescoes in S. Domenico) and Defendente Ferrari (altarpieces of Sts. Crispin and Crispinian in the Cathedral).
The Orvietan architect Ascanio Vitozzi, under Charles Emmanuel I, began the systematic expansion of the city toward the south, designing piazza Castello and via Nuova (now via Roma). The architects Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte continued the work (the Palazzo Reale is by Amedeo). Guarini exercised his virtuosity in S. Lorenzo, in the overly fanciful chapel of the Holy Shroud and in the Palazzo Carignano and the Palazzo dell'Accademia delle Scienze. Juvarra, under Victor Amadeus II, did not separate architectural activity from urban planning. His are the military quarters (1728), the splendid church of the Carmine, the Seminary, the west facades of Palazzo Madama, the great church of S. Filippo, the basilica of Superga, etc. Juvarra's art had a wide following, especially through the work of Vittone and Benedetto Alfieri (Teatro Regio and Teatro Carignano). With the French Revolution the best architectural era may be considered closed.
In the diocese: highly notable from the Romanesque era are the Sacra di S. Michele (v.) and the church of S. Pietro in Avigliana. A few kilometers from Avigliana is the Gothic church of S. Antonio di Ranverso (1188), one of the principal medieval monuments of Piedmont, distinguished also for the frescoes of Giacomo Iacquerio (15th century), while still at Avigliana (S. Giovanni) are works by Defendente Ferrari (polyptych of 1511). At Pecetto, in the church of S. Sebastiano, are 15th-century frescoes by the Piedmontese Jacobino Longo, an example of 15th-century art in the Piedmontese countryside. At Chieri, important are the church of S. Domenico of the 14th century and the grandiose Gothic cathedral of 1405 with a 13th-century baptistery.
Important for art in Piedmont (v.): the Academy of Fine Arts with its attached art collection; the Pinacoteca of T., highly notable especially for its copious collection of paintings of the Flemish school; the Museum of Antiquities gathers, along with works documenting the spread of Roman art in the Piedmontese valleys, one of the world's richest collections of Egyptian antiquities; the Museo civico, fundamental for the study of Piedmontese art in its various historical periods, contains vast collections of carved wood of the 14th-15th centuries, of glass, ceramics, and fabrics of the 17th-18th centuries, and some important works of Piedmontese painting of the 15th-16th centuries; the Armeria Reale, founded by Charles Albert, is one of the most important in Europe.
IV. ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES
The State Archive is a precious repository, formerly the Savoy archive, then the State archive from 1850, with an attached library valuable for its manuscripts and incunabula. The archiepiscopal archive is also very rich, reorganized and better arranged in 1934. Among the libraries: the National University Library (560,000 vols., 2,500 mss., 1,600 incunabula; 10,000 prints, 500 Italian periodicals, 250 foreign). The Civic Library: with 180,000 volumes, temporarily transferred to Palazzo Carignano. The Royal Library: 150,000 volumes, 4,000 mss. including precious illuminated codices, rare incunabula, drawings and manuscripts by Leonardo da Vinci, among them his celebrated self-portrait. The Seminary Library, founded in 1752, valuable for theological-juridical subjects and works of Piedmontese interest.
Bibliography32 works
Francesco Gosso
V. PONTIFICAL SALESIAN ATHENAEUM
Founded in T[urin] through the work of the fourth successor of St. John Bosco, Fr. Pietro Ricaldone, the Salesian Athenaeum was approved by the Holy See on 3 May 1940. Alongside the three traditional ecclesiastical faculties of philosophy, theology and canon law, it has a Higher Institute of pedagogy whose object is the study of pedagogical problems in the light of Christian doctrine and of the specific Salesian educational tradition.
Annexed to the Faculty of philosophy are the Institutes of social sciences, of physics and mathematics, of biology, of anthropology and ethnology, of experimental psychology. The latter, while they integrate the study of philosophy, are also at the service of the Institute of pedagogy, which, on a par with theoretical studies, pursues experimental research, especially at the time of vocational guidance. For this purpose the psychology laboratory has been greatly developed.
Among the publications of the Athenaeum, besides those of the individual professors, mention should be made of the Collana pedagogica d. Bosco, which appears in three series: theoretical works, historical works, specialized treatises.
The journal of the Athenaeum is Salesianum (since 1939), to which is annexed a Biblioteca that reached vol. XX in 1952. The journal is also the organ of the Centro internazionale di studi sindonologici.
To the students of the Athenaeum, who come from more than thirty nations in which the Salesian work is developed, there were conferred between 1940 and 1952 approximately one hundred degrees, five hundred licentiates in the various faculties, besides the specialization diplomas of the various institutes. - See plates XXXI-XXXII.
