Vallombrosa

VALLOMBROSA. - Abbey of S. Maria Assunta of V., of the Vallombrosan Benedictine monks (v.). It is situated at about 1000 m. above sea level in the commune of Reggello, province of Florence, in the Pratomagno rainfall area, on the slope of the mountain of Secchiata in the Tuscan sub-Apennines.

Its abbess of S. Ilario in Alfiano (S. Ellero) granted a plot of land at the locality Acquabella to St. John Gualbert, who withdrew there with some companions in 1030; and only after the reclamation of the place, carried out by the monks who planted woods of firs, beeches, etc. there, does it change its name to V.

It arose at the beginning as a hermitage protected by palisades, with isolated wooden cells placed around a small church also of wood and franche; but it was immediately enlarged so much that Cardinal Umberto, on 9 July 1051, consecrated the tribune of the church, renovated between 1224 and 1230 by a magister Petrus at the time of Abbot Benigno, for the most part with means offered by Bishop Raimondo, at the time of the popes Honorius III and Gregory IX, as is read in the inscription placed on the facade of the church, a 17th-century copy from the original. The bell tower must be contemporary, while the monastery and the greater cloister with its annexes are from 1465.

The abbey made rapid progress, was enriched with donations and developed with other monasteries, as is learned from the privilege of Urban II of 6 April 1090 to the Universae Congregationi Vallis Umbrosanae, in which, besides the coenobium S. Maria, the monasteries "eiusdem religionis" are remembered, that is those of S. Fedele de Strumis in the diocese of Arezzo, those in the dioceses of Fiesole, Lucca, Florence, Pistoia, Faenza, Bologna. In the privilege of Paschal II of 9 February 1115 monasteries are remembered at Parma, Piacenza, Brescia, in those of Anastasius IV of 22 November 1153 and of Adrian IV of 5 December 1156 those of Siena, Volterra, Chiusi, Sardinia, Cremona, Reggio, Novara, Vercelli, Verona, Bergamo, Milan, Asti. Other monasteries are mentioned in the privilege of Alexander III of 14 February 1169; and again on 12 May 1186 by Pope Urban III under Abbot Terzo. It also had S. Mustiola di Turri, under Abbot Lotterio at the time of Celestine III on 14 April 1195 (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 17218).

In the 15th century its decline began. In 1530 it was set on fire by the troops of Charles V, but it managed to recover in the second half of the same century and in the following one, as is shown by the reconstructions of that time and the additions that were carried out between 1578 and 1590 and in 1609-10, after the fire, by F. Mazzaranga and Tonna della Via dei Bardi; the facade is the work of G. Silvani, begun in 1637; to him is also due the sacristy with the sacred furnishings on the upper floor. Further enlargements belong to the 18th century. The abbey was suppressed in the Napoleonic age; then the monks returned until 1866, the year in which it was again suppressed and occupied by the Forestry Institute.

Recently the monks have regained possession of part of the monastery. The central part of the abbey is given by the cloister or greater courtyard, with four corridors with cross vaults; a door leads into the transept of the church, whose facade is the work of Abbot T. Davanzati, from 1644. Above the triumphal arch is the statue of the Blessed Virgin; in a niche between the two doors is the statue of St. John Gualbert. The interior has a single nave with a ceiling of low arches; the decorative paintings are by G. Fabbrini (1750). In the presbytery eight columns support the dome, frescoed by the same painter in 1780. The 15th-century choir stalls, coming from the abbey of S. Pancrazio in Florence, are the work of Francesco da Poggibonsi. On the back wall above the altar is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, a work by Volterrano. In the transept is the chapel of St. John Gualbert of 1697; on the altar is the tabernacle containing the silver reliquary with enamels and precious stones, a work by F. Soliano of 1500; the chapel called of the Ten Blessed, erected in 1757, with atrium and choir, arose on the place where in 1600 the tombs of the first ten blessed of the Order were found. From here come the large panel by Perugino (1500), today in the Uffizi in Florence, representing at the top the Assumption and below St. Bernard degli Uberti, St. John Gualbert, St. Michael the Archangel and St. Anthony, as well as the two small panels with the portraits of the patron Abbot Milanesi and of the monk Baldassarre. Pope Pius XII with an apostolic letter of 18 November 1950 conferred the title and privileges of minor basilica on the church of S. Maria Assunta (AAS, 43 [1951], pp. 426-28).

To the north-east of the corridor of the greater courtyard is the abbot's quarter. The great corridor of the monks' dormitory was erected in 1609-10. The library was built by A. Parigi in 1584, but its manuscripts and books were removed at the suppression. There is the large painting representing the donation made by Matilda of Canossa to St. Bernard degli Uberti, executed by A. Mascagni in 1609. The fountain of St. John Gualbert is a Baroque construction of 1629, like the adjacent little chapel. The forest is the work of the monks and was cared for by them until 1866, when it passed to the state domain and to the forestry administration which occupies part of the present monastery; it was recalled by Ariosto and by Lamartine. The ancient guest-house inside the monastery has now been transformed into a hotel. The hermitage of the cells, or Paradisino, upstream on the left of the monastery, is the place occupied in the 11th century by some monks who took refuge there to live the eremitic life in small cells dug into the mountain. At present there remains an oratory erected in the 17th century in memory of the blessed Migliore da Valgiano of the 12th century. On the facade an inscription recalls the stay of Milton, who mentions V. in his Paradise Lost. From the oratory come the two panels with St. Michael the Archangel and St. John Gualbert, St. John the Baptist and St. Bernard degli Uberti, by Andrea del Sarto, today in the Uffizi Galleries in Florence.

The abbey Archive, besides at V., because of the residence of the abbots in various other monasteries, remained in part at those of S. Michele di Passignano, of Ripoli, of S. Trinita in Florence, of S. Michele di Forcoli at Pistoia, of S. Mercuriale di Forlì, of S. Lorenzo di Cutuboni, in part then also in the 19th century at Rome near S. Prassede, officiated by the same Vallombrosan monks, where however the Registrum was destroyed. One part is now in the State Archive in Florence (cf. Arch. stor. ital., 5th series, 32 [1903]), part in the National Library and part in the Laurentian.

Enrico Josi