The Sacro Catino is an artifact preserved in Genoa in the Museum of the Treasure of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. It was portrayed as the Holy Grail, or the simulacrum of the dish used by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper; however modern studies considered it to be an Islamic artifact of the 9th-10th century.
The basin is a hexagonal vase made of bright green transparent material. When it was brought to Genoa it was believed that it was emerald. The Sacro Catino ended up shattered during its stay in France and was the subject of various restorations. The first in 1908, in 1951, and finally in 2017.
The study of the object made during the period of presence in France by the Académie des sciences of the Institut de France established that it was a Byzantine crystal and not an emerald. The following studies would have postdated the work considering it to be an Islamic artifact of the 9th - 10th century.
The source of the belief that the plate was the Holy Grail, is Jacopo da Varagine, who tells in the Genoese Chronicle that, during the first Crusade (11th century), the Genoese soldiers under the command of Guglielmo Embriaco participated in the capture of the city of Cesarea (1101), coming into possession of what was believed to be the dish of Jesus' Last Supper.
Archbishop William of Tire wrote in the second half of the 12th century that the crusaders found the emerald plate in a temple built by Herod the Great and bought it at a high price. They resold it at a high price anyway.
At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Cardinal Luca Fieschi obtained the Catino as a pledge of the loan of 9,500 lire made by him to the Compagna Comunis who in 1327 redeemed the Catino and established that in the future it could no longer be committed or taken out of the sacristy of the cathedral.
Jean Le Meingre known as Boucicault, French governor of Genoa, in 1409 would have attempted the theft. In 1470 Anselmo Adorno describes it with precision, even if he later confuses it with the plate in which the Baptist's head had been placed, also preserved in San Lorenzo.
At the end of the fifteenth century the rumor spread that Venice too was attempting the subtraction. In 1522 the army of Emperor Charles V sacked Genoa, but failed to take possession of the treasure of the Cathedral both due to the resistance of the priests and because the Republic of Genoa paid 1,000 ducats to the captain who was besieging the sacristy.
In 1726 Gaetano di Santa Teresa says it is eight Genoese inches (16 cm ) high while the one on display today is only 9 cm high. This made someone think that to prevent the theft a copy would have been made with different sizes.
When Genoa was conquered by the French led by Napoleon Bonaparte, the dish was brought to Paris in 1806 and, when it was returned on June 14, 1816, it returned to Genoa broken into 10 pieces, one of which was missing.
In 2017, the "emerald vase" was returned to the city in its transparent color, [1] after the restoration carried out by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence. [2] According to L. Ciatti, protagonist of the restoration attributed to Daniele Angellotto [1] In 1800, the hypothesis was advanced for the first time that it was not obtained from a huge natural emerald, but that it was a simple green glass vase, a matter with no economic value. [3]
The Holy Grail is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance, often guarded in the custody of the Fisher King and located in the hidden Grail castle. By analogy, any elusive object or goal of great significance may be perceived as a "holy grail" by those seeking such.
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The Genoesecolonies were a series of economic and trade posts in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Some of them had been established directly under the patronage of the republican authorities to support the economy of the local merchants, while others originated as feudal possessions of Genoese nobles, or had been founded by powerful private institutions, such as the Bank of Saint George.
Genoa is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2023, 558,745 people lived within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 813,626 inhabitants, more than 1.5 million people live in the wider metropolitan area stretching along the Italian Riviera.
Molo is a neighbourhood in the old town of the Italian city of Genoa. It was one of the six sestieri of ancient Genoa. At present is part of the Genoa's city Municipio I.
The siege of Tortosa was a military action of the Second Crusade (1147–49) in Spain. A multinational force under the command of Count Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona besieged the city of Tortosa, then a part of the Almoravid Emirate, for six months before the garrison surrendered.
The Regatta of the Historical Maritime Republics is a sporting event of historical re-enactment, established in 1955 with the aim of recalling the rivalry of the most famous Italian maritime republics: those of Republic of Amalfi, Republic of Pisa, Republic of Genoa and Republic of Venice, during which four rowing crews representing each of the republics compete against each other. This event, held under the patronage of the President of the Italian Republic, takes place every year on a day between the end of May and the beginning of July, and is hosted in rotation between these cities. The regatta is preceded by a historical procession, during which parade through the streets of the city organizing some figures that play the role of ancient characters that characterized each republic.
Guglielmo Boccanegra was a Genoese statesman, the first capitano del popolo of the Republic of Genoa, from 1257 to 1262, exercising a real lordship, assisted in the government by a council of 32 elders.
