The Abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone is a large complex of Benedictine order monastic buildings, including a church and cloisters, located in the town of San Benedetto Po, Province of Mantua, Region of Lombardy, Italy. The complex, now belonging to the city, houses offices, a museum, and is open to visitors.
The abbey was founded in 1007 by Tedald, count of Canossa, the paternal grandfather of Matilda of Canossa, countess of Tuscany, with a grant to the Benedictine monks, of half his land lying between the rivers Po and Lirone, prompting the title "in Polirone". Polirone was the monastery most closely associated with his granddaughter, Matilda, who granted estates and dependencies. Boniface III, Margrave of Tuscany made further grants and commissioned a larger church, housing the remains of the hermit, Simeon of Polirone (died 1016). [1] In 1077 the community passed into the reformed Benedictines under the Abbey of Cluny. At the time of the Gregorian reforms, the abbot was one of the principal proponents of the papacy in the Investiture Conflict. [2]
From 1115 until 1632, the abbey church housed thearca raised on eight columns housing the mortal remains of Matilda of Canossa, who had selected Polirone as her memorial place, rather than the ancestral mortuary church of Canossa. [3] For centuries, she was accorded almost the veneration of a founding patron saint at Polirone. [4] Her body was transferred to the Basilica of St. Peter, Rome, in 1632.
Polirone was one of the richest abbeys of northern Italy. In the 15th century, Guido Gonzaga, abbot in commendam , rebuilt the church in late Gothic style. The abbey church was rebuilt again to Renaissance style designs of Giulio Romano, in 1539-44, [5] but some floor mosaics and sculptural details survive from the earlier church. The wall and vaults were extensively frescoed, by Antonio da Correggio and Antonio Begarelli, among others. Funding for reconstruction was posthumously granted by two main donors: Lucrezia Pico della Mirandola, sister of the humanist Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, greeted by the monastic community as a "new Matilda"; [6] and Cesare d'Arsago. Thirty-one figures by Antonio Begarelli of Modena were provided for the church, [7] and Paolo Veronese painted three altarpieces in 1562. [8]
In 1797, the abbey was secularized by Napoleonic rulers. Three cloisters, the free-standing great refectory (1478–79), the "new" infirmary (1584), and the abbey church are still present, and open to visitors. The contents of the library were added to the Library of Mantua.
Three themed itineraries of the monastery, offered since the millennium celebration of 2007, concentrate on aspects of the cloistered life at Polirone: "Land and daily bread", "Herbs and monks", and "Prayer and reading".
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a monastic religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedict. They are also sometimes called the Black Monks, in reference to the colour of their religious habits. They were founded in 529 by Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century monk who laid the foundations of Benedictine monasticism through the formulation of his Rule.
Matilda of Tuscany, also referred to as la Gran Contessa, was a member of the House of Canossa in the second half of the eleventh century. Matilda was one of the most important governing figures of the Italian Middle Ages. She reigned in a period of constant battles, political intrigues and Roman-Catholic excommunications, and was able to demonstrate an innate and skilled strategic leadership capacity in both military and diplomatic matters.
The Badìa Fiorentina is an abbey and church now home to the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem situated on the Via del Proconsolo in the centre of Florence, Italy. Dante supposedly grew up across the street in what is now called the 'Casa di Dante', rebuilt in 1910 as a museum to Dante. He would have heard the monks singing the Mass and the Offices here in Latin Gregorian chant, as he famously recounts in his Commedia: "Florence, within her ancient walls embraced, Whence nones and terce still ring to all the town, Abode aforetime, peaceful, temperate, chaste." In 1373, Boccaccio delivered his famous lectures on Dante's Divine Comedy in the subsidiary chapel of Santo Stefano, just next to the north entrance of the Badia's church.
Cluny Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter.
Anselm of Lucca, born Anselm of Baggio, was a medieval bishop of Lucca in Italy and a prominent figure in the Investiture Controversy amid the fighting in central Italy between Matilda, countess of Tuscany, and Emperor Henry IV. His uncle Anselm preceded him as bishop of Lucca before being elected to the papacy as Pope Alexander II and so he is sometimes distinguished as Anselm the Younger or Anselm II.
Altopascio is a comune in the Province of Lucca in the Tuscany region of Italy with a population of 15,572.
Boniface III, son of Tedald of Canossa and the father of Matilda of Tuscany, was the most powerful north Italian prince of his age. By inheritance he was count of Brescia, Canossa, Ferrara, Florence, Lucca, Mantua, Modena, Pisa, Pistoia, Parma, Reggio, and Verona from 1007 and, by appointment, margrave of Tuscany from 1027 until his assassination in 1052.
The Duchy of Ferrara was a state in what is now northern Italy. It consisted of about 1,100 km2 south of the lower Po River, stretching to the valley of the lower Reno River, including the city of Ferrara. The territory that was part of the Duchy was ruled by the House of Este from 1146 to 1597.
Girolamo Benivieni was a Florentine poet and a musician. His father was a notary in Florence. He suffered poor health most of his life, which prevented him from taking a more stable job. He was a leading member of the Medicean Academy, a society devoted to literary study. He was a friend of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), whom he met for the first time in 1479; it was Pico della Mirandola who encouraged him to study Neoplatonism. In the late 1480s, he and Pico della Mirandola became students of Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (1452–1498). In 1496, he translated the teachings of Savonarola from Italian to Latin. After he began following Savonarola, he rejected his earlier poetry and attempted to write more spiritually. He participated in Savonarola's Bonfire of the Vanities, and documented the destruction of art worth "several thousand ducats".
Pino III Ordelaffi was an Italian condottiero and lord of Forlì. He was a member of the Ordelaffi family.
The Abbey of Frassinoro was one of the many Benedictine monasteries throughout Europe associated with the noblewoman Matilda of Tuscany, who reigned over the Badia lands near Frassinoro. This abbey was located in Frassinoro, in the Apennines in the province of Modena, on the border with Reggio Emilia.
The Bevilacqua dynasty governed parts of Northern Italy between the 10th and 12th centuries. Their rise to prominence began in 962 when Otto I the Great, the first Holy Roman Emperor, appointed Antonio Bevilacqua as Governor of Lazise. The family remained loyal to the Emperors until they later allied themselves with Matilda of Tuscany; they were granted a Principality at Bevilacqua in 1059, and acquired other territories in the areas of Verona and Ferrara. During the 12th-century conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Bevilacqua led the victorious Ghibellines of Verona. They later supported the Canossa family of the Lombard League against Frederick Barbarossa, and in recognition received the church of San Salvaro in Verona.
San Giovanni Evangelista is a church in Parma, northern Italy, part of a complex also including a Benedictine convent and grocery.
The Badia di Passignano, also called the Abbey of San Michele Arcangelo a Passignano is a historic Benedictine abbey located atop a scenic hilltop, surrounded by cypresses, east of the town of Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, Province of Florence, Italy. The abbey complex is located about 2 kilometres east of the Siena-Florence autostrada. The settlement is also a frazione of Barberino Tavarnelle.
The Ognissanti is a Baroque style, Roman Catholic church located on Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Mantua, Lombardy, Italy.
Arnold Wyon, also known as Arnold de Wion, was a Benedictine monk and historian born in Douai 15 May 1554, and died near Mantua, Italy around 1610.
Praglia Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in the frazione of Bresseo in Teolo, Province of Padua, Italy. It is located at the foot of the Euganean Hills, some 12 kilometers southwest of Padua, and four kilometers from Abano Terme.
The Church of the Santissima Trinità is a Romanesque style, Roman Catholic church in Verona, region of Veneto, Italy.
Galeotto I Pico della Mirandola was an Italian condottiero and nobleman, Signore of Mirandola and Concordia. He was noted by contemporaries for his tyranny. The son of Gianfrancesco I Pico, Galeotto initially allied himself to the Duchy of Ferrara, first fighting for Duke Borso d'Este and then Ercole I d'Este, with whom he formed a strong bond. In 1486, he switched allegiance to Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. He fought his brother Antonio for the Signoria of Mirandola. He was ultimately successful in the last battle, taking his brother's place in 1491, which was reaffirmed two years later. He died in 1499 and was succeeded by his son Giovanni Francesco.
The Mirandola witch trials took place in Mirandola in the Duchy of Mirandola between 1522 and 1525. It resulted in the death of ten people, who were burned alive at the stake for witchcraft on the square.
45°02′32″N10°55′43″E / 45.04222°N 10.92861°E
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