VICENZA, DIOCESI DI

VICENZA, DIOCESE OF. - The city, crossed by the Bacchiglione and Retrone rivers, which divide the center from the ancient Berga (Berica), is the capital of a vast province (2,722.36 sq km), extending for the most part over the region of hills and Prealps, and is the seat of a bishopric, suffragan of Venice. The boundaries of the province reflect the numerous changes that have occurred at various times, especially after the year 1000, while those of the diocese essentially mirror the territorial district of the Lombard Duchy. The diocese (2,151 sq km) comprises 308 parishes with 702 secular priests, 194 regulars, and 602,000 faithful.

I. HISTORY

The earliest inhabitants of the Vicentino area, of whom some information survives, were the Euganeans, perhaps mingled with groups of Italic peoples, on which light has been shed by the discovery of the pile-dwellings at Finno and the necropolis at Angrano in the Bassanese area. Between the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 7th century BC, the Euganeans, overcome by the Veneti, an Illyrian people with its principal center at Atheste (Este), were driven back into the mountains where, probably, they formed the 34 *oppida* of the Euganean tribes mentioned by Cato, cited by Pliny (*Nat. hist.*, III, 24). The Veneti, who were probably the founders of Vicenza, had to withstand the continuous pressure of the Etruscans first and then of the Gauls. In the first half of the 3rd century BC, the Romans occupied the small territory and Vicenza, as a municipality (modicae municipio vires, says Tacitus), was annexed to the Menenia tribe. Archaeology has enabled a fairly reliable reconstruction of the *civitas* and *urbs*, equipped, especially in Imperial times, with palaces with mosaic floors, aqueducts, bridges, the Berga theater, and governed by *quattuorviri iure dicundo* with its collegia, including that of the *Centonarii*.

The first Christian community began to organize itself, from the 4th century onward, around the tomb of SS. Felix and Fortunatus (v.), natives of Vicenza according to tradition, who were martyred at Aquileia. An inscription, attributed by G. B. De Rossi to the Constantinian period, and the fruitful excavations carried out, have demonstrated the existence of a chapel in the first half of the 4th century and of a large basilica at the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century, when, very probably, Vicenza became a suffragan diocese of Aquileia; but Oronzius (590), the first certain bishop, appears only during the Three Chapters controversy. Under the Lombards, Vicenza was the seat of one of the 36 duchies; but there is a complete lack of information about the bishops of the Lombard period, and it is only from the 8th–9th century that the regular succession of bishops is known: Reginald (808), Andrew (820), and Franco, who took part in the Council of Mantua (827). After the general ecclesiastical decline that accompanied the decline of the Carolingian Empire, Bishop Rodulf (967), having rebuilt the church and monastery of S. Felice, destroyed by the Hungarians (899), also attempted a reform in Vicenza along the lines of Raterius of Verona and Atto I of Vercelli. Since a diploma by which Bishop Jerome, with a privilege of Otto III (1001), would have been invested with the county over the city and territory, hitherto held by the Counts, is false, perhaps the chronicle of Paglierini (15th century) may be closer to the truth, which suggests that such a comital investiture occurred in the last decades of the 11th century, i.e., during the Investiture Controversy, in which Bishop Ezzelino favored imperial policy. In any case, it is certain that his successor, Torengo, who held "the rule of the city" and had many citizens opposed to him, had to sustain a long struggle that ended only when the bishop resigned himself to relinquishing that authority which belonged to the Vicentines. This was the beginning of a painful and endless chain of civil wars in the Commune, where in 1122 the consulate was already established (the first election of a foreign podestà dates to 1175) against the rights of the bishop and against the feudal nobility in general.

In the struggle to defend ecclesiastical rights, two great bishops met their deaths: the Blessed C. Cacciafronte (1179–84) and Pistore (1184–1203). Once the storm of Ezzelino’s tyranny had passed—“qui bona quasi potentium omnium nequiter publicavit”—the conflict between the Commune and the bishop over the tithe on crops flared up again. The Blessed Bartolomeo da Breganze asserted himself through his extraordinary personal qualities, but under his successor B. Nicelli the situation worsened, and neither the severe decrees of the provincial council convoked by Patriarch Raimondo in 1282, nor excommunications and interdicts on the city, nor the influence of the Blessed R. Concorreggi, nor even a lengthy trial conducted at the Roman Curia between the Commune and the bishop could spare the latter from the near-total ruin of the Church’s rich patrimony. Nor can it be claimed that the motive behind so many struggles—often degenerating into acts of genuine hatred and bloodshed against the clergy, tacitly encouraged by unjust statutes (a mere fine of a few soldi for killing a priest)—was the poor religious life of the ecclesiastics. Bishop Sperandio (1315–21) sought to remedy inevitable failings with his Statuta Synodalia (still unpublished), which reproduced the constitutions issued at the provincial councils of Aquileia under Patriarchs Raimondo and Ottobono, aimed at reforming the morals of clergy and people. Meanwhile, the beneficial influence exerted among the populace by the Franciscans and Dominicans had grown. This reformist movement, which had already taken root, gave rise in the 15th century to a veritable nursery of confraternities, in whose climate one of the pioneers of the holy cause was formed: St. Gaetano Thiene (v.).

1375

VICENZA, DIOCESE OF — The remains of an earlier church discovered beneath the floor of the Duomo, damaged by the bombings of 1944 — Vicenza.

This reform, officially begun under Bishop Matteo Priuli (1565–79), who had attended the Council of Trent and is credited with founding the Seminary, reached full realization under his successors Michele Priuli and the two Delfino, whose work is attested by numerous pastoral-visitation records. The political upheavals of the last century found on the Vicentine see the bishops Marco Zaguri and Giuseppe Cappellari; the latter’s name is particularly linked to the construction of the present-day Seminary. Monsignor Ferdinando Rodolfi, bishop from 1911 to 1943, left a wide reputation for his multifaceted pastoral activity during the First World War, for the construction of many churches, for the development of liturgical reform and sacred music, for the Seminary, for assistance to emigrants, and for Catholic Action.

II. ART

Of particular historical and artistic importance is the monumental complex of S. Felice, which scholars attribute to a period between 310–270 and 460–70. An initial modest church was built between 330 and 350, of which a large part of the votive mosaic pavement still remains. This was followed between 350 and the early years of the 5th century by a great basilica (almost 90 m in length) with an atrium, narthex, grand entrance, columns of Greek and Eastern marble, mosaics, frescoes, etc. It was destroyed, as affirmed by the anonymous biographer of Bishop Teodorico of Metz and the chronicler Sigebert of Gembloux, by the Hungarians in the year 899. Rebuilt by Bishop Rodolfo in the last decades of the 10th century, and partly after the earthquake of 1117, it largely resisted all subsequent renovations. In recent years it has been almost completely restored and freed from its Baroque encrustations.

No small surprise was occasioned for scholars by excavations beneath the floor of the Duomo, recently risen from the ruins of the recent war. It became certain that a classical-era building had once stood there. Indeed, the remains of two Roman structures emerged, lying respectively 1.35 m and 0.85 m below the bases of the pillars of the 8th-century church; the more recent of the two displays features of a public building (perhaps a basilica or market). At 20 cm below the bases of the aforementioned pillars, a mosaic with a Christian votive inscription was found, though its dating is disputed. In any case, it seems established that between the 4th and 6th centuries a church arose here, and the secondary dedication to St. Euphemia, still preserved, would point to the 5th–6th century as the likely date of construction. The sacred building was rebuilt around the 8th century, and the dedication to St. Mary, if it did not already exist, suggests as the most probable date for this construction the period immediately following the end of the Schism of Aquileia and the full conversion of the Lombards to Catholicism.

In the 14th century, four Gothic-style churches arose in Vicenza: S. Lorenzo, S. Corona, S. Michele, and S. Bartolomeo, of which only the first two remain. Built on the ruins of one of the city’s earliest chapels, granted by the Canons to the Franciscans in 1280, S. Lorenzo, with its magnificent portal and artistic funerary monuments, was justly called the Holy Cross of Vicenza. S. Corona was constructed in 1260 by Bishop B. Bartolomeo, known as da Breganze, to house the relic of the Crown of Thorns of the Saviour, which the Blessed received as a gift from St. Louis IX of France.

The church of S. Agostino in the parish of S. Felice, with notable frescoes from the Emilian school, belongs to the 14th century. Its origins, however, are certainly older and, with every likelihood, contemporary with those small early churches that arose in the territory between the 8th and 10th centuries and of which substantial remains are still preserved: S. Martino di Ponte del Marchese, S. Zeno di Costa-bissara, S. Maria in Favrega, S. Michele di Caldogno, S. Giorgio di Angarano, S. Benedetto and S. Vito of Marostica, S. Bartolomeo sul Brenta, S. Niccolò di Pianezze, S. Martino di Schio, S. Martino di Brogliano, S. Filippo e Giacomo di Longara, S. Giustina di Sossano, S. Vito di Loverino, S. Maria Etiopissa of Polegge, S. Silvestro and S. Giorgio of Vicenza. Of the ancient parish churches, S. Maria in Colle of Bassano del Grappa still retains some elements of its original construction, where in the late 1300s the beautiful church of S. Francesco also arose, recently restored to its original state.

The church of S. Rocco (1485) is inspired by the Renaissance style of Lorenzo da Bologna and, perhaps, of Rocco da Vicenza. Palladio (q.v.) did not leave great religious monuments in Vicenza as he did in other cities; nonetheless, his original and modern interpretation of classical architecture, substantially followed by Scamozzi (1548–1616) and others until the 19th century, exerted a great influence even in religious art.

The Paduan architect Frigimelica (1653–1732) gave Vicenza the beautiful church of S. Gaetano, which is not at all out of place beside the Ca’ d’Oro. Also worthy of representing its era is the church of the Filippini, a work by G. Massari and O. Calderari (1730–1804).

Among the principal monuments of sculpture, besides the portal of S. Lorenzo (14th century), are the altar of S. Giovanni in S. Corona, the portal of the former church of S. Marcello, and the statues by the Albanese brothers (16th century) and by Orazio Marinati of Bassano (18th century). The beautiful Madonnas by Bartolomeo Montagna, Veronese, Tiepolo, and the paintings by Battista da Vicenza, Giovanni Buonconsiglio, Tintoretto, Fogliano, and Francesco Maffei, to recall the most representative names, still adorn the churches of the city or are found in the civic museum. Of the highest value are the 14th-century mural paintings of S. Agostino, the frescoes of the church of S. Rocco, the fresco of the beheading of St. Paul by Montagna in S. Lorenzo, as well as the Tiepolo frescoes in the various villas of the Vicenza area.

Among the many works adorning the temple of S. Corona, particular mention should be made of: the altarpiece of the Baptism of Christ by Giambellino, the St. Mary Magdalene by Mantegna, and the Adoration of the Magi by Veronese.

The confraternity of S. Nicola erected (16th century) the oratory of S. Nicola, transformed (mid-17th century) into a true pictorial gallery by F. Maffei and G. Carpioni, who also worked in the other gallery of 17th-century Vicentine painting: the church of S. Giacomo.

Music also boasts a glorious tradition, and in the musical chapel of the Cathedral, documented since the beginning of the 16th century, pre-Niccolò Vicentino (Nicolaus de Vicentinis), inventor of an enriched archicembalo, and pre-Leon Leoni, whose sacred and madrigal compositions still await the patient work of the musicologist.

Among cultural resources, besides the civic library and the museum with its attached picture gallery of about 400 paintings, the Seminary Library with about 35,000 volumes and precious incunabula deserves mention, as do the Chapter Archive and the Curia Archive with a collection of feudal codices from the 12th to the 19th centuries. Notable is the flourishing art of printing in 15th-century Vicenza, where in 1476, under the care of the printer L. Achates of Basel, the second edition of the Vulgate was published, with the text drawn directly from manuscripts.

III. SANTUARY OF MONTE BERICO

The first church, in Gothic style, of which the façade still survives, was opened on 25 August 1428, following two apparitions of the Virgin to the woman Vincenza Pasini. A project for enlargement presented by Palladio in 1576 came to nothing, and the architect C. Borella built the present Baroque basilica between 1687 and 1702. The temple, with the venerated image of the Madonna attributed to the sculptor Antonino da Venezia, with canvases by Bartolomeo Montagna and Veronese (in the attic convent of the Servants of Mary), and with its three façades adorned with frescoes and statues of the Virgin, is a place of great devotion.

IV. ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGES

In the first half of the 13th century, the Dominican friar Bl. John of Vicenza (c. 1200–c. 1260), better known as John of Schio, carried out a reforming and pacifying mission in the cities of northern and central Italy. The reform movement began at the assembly of 23 August 1233 at Paquara, near Verona, where, before a great multitude of ecclesiastics and laity, peace was sworn between most of the communes of northern and central Italy. Although its success was short-lived, this peace movement responded to a genuine need felt by populations exhausted by so much hatred and discord.

Antonio Loschi, born in Vicenza (d. 1441), a skilled Latinist and writer, secretary, notary, and abbreviator of the Curia from 1406 until his death, was particularly dear to Popes Alexander V (Pietro Filargi, formerly bishop of Vicenza) and John XXIII, who wished him to serve as a notary at the Council of Constance. Among those who made a name for themselves in Rome between 1450 and 1550 were: Leonardo Nogarola (1476), created protonotary apostolic by Sixtus IV, philosopher and theologian; the nuncios Lionello Chieregato of Concordia (q.v.), familiar of Cardinal Marco Barbo; mania (v.); Girolamo Bencucci (1481-1533), commonly known as Girolamo da Schio, secretary to Cardinal Regino and later bishop of Vaison, apostolic nuncio to Barcelona (1527-1530) and to the Diet of Augsburg (1530); Girolamo Gualdo (1492-1566), apostolic protonotary and founder of the new Gualdo (see V. Fama). Among the Jesuits of Vicenza, the great naturalist Father Luigi Sodiro (1836-1909) enjoyed fame; he was a missionary in Ecuador for thirty years, where he was appointed by the President of the Republic, García Moreno, as professor of botany at the University of Quito. His studies on the vascular cryptogams of Quito and on the Ecuadorian flora made him renowned among the most eminent scholars, so much so that in 1898 the French botanist C. De Candolle published a work entitled: *Piperaceae Sodirianae*. In recent times, the ecclesiastical as well as civil history of V. has had two passionate devotees in the two librarians of the city library: D. Bortolan (1850-1928) and S. Rumor (1862-1929). — See pl. CXLI.

Giovanni Mantese