medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Thursday, March 30, 2006, at 9:03 pm, Phyllis wrote:
> Today (31. March) is the feast day of:
> Guy of Pomposa (d. 1046) ...
> G. went on to the abbey of Pomposa (near Ferrara) and
> became abbot there.
G.'s tenure is regarded as the high point in the history of the abbey at
Pomposa (in the Po Delta in Emilia), founded in 523. In his time the
abbey, which then was located on an island in the delta, was an
independent state within the empire, controlling a large territory
stretching back from the Adriatic between the Po and the Gauro and
endowed with numerous dependencies elsewhere. It went into a decline in
the later Middle Ages, was suppressed in 1663, and in 1802 what was then
left of it was secularized. In the the late nineteenth century it
became an Italian national monument and in the 1920s restoration began
on the surviving buildings. That work continues today. A recent aerial
view of the site, showing the abbey church and its adjoining structures,
is here:
http://tinyurl.com/p7p8j
The abbey's church, dedicated to the BVM, dates to the eighth and ninth
centuries. An interior view is here:
http://www.guanciarossa.it/leviedellafede/pomposa.htm
A detail of the mosaics in the church's eleventh-century _opus sectile_
floor is here:
http://tinyurl.com/ldjzd
The extensive interior frescoing is of the fourteenth century. Some
detail views:
http://www.pomposa.com/fchiesa3.htm
http://www.pomposa.com/fchiesa7.htm
http://www.pomposa.com/fchiesa8.htm
http://www.comune.codigoro.fe.it/turismo/arca.htm
http://www.comune.codigoro.fe.it/turismo/strageinn.htm
The refectory is similarly decorated. Here's a view of G. transforming
water into wine right there at Pomposa:
http://www.pomposa.com/frefettorio5.htm
also a Last Supper:
http://www.pomposa.com/frefettorio2.htm
Likewise the chapter house:
http://www.pomposa.com/fcapitolo2.htm
Here's G. again:
http://www.pomposa.com/images/abbazia3.jpg
The atrium of the church dates from Guido's abbacy. Here are some
views, including details of its exterior decor:
http://www.uni.net/aec/riskmap/ppra/sma11s31.gif
http://www.vecchiofare.org/images/abazzia2.jpg
http://www.vecchiofare.org/images/abazzia6.jpg
http://www.vliegclub-grimbergen.be/Vliegclub/Stage/Picts/pomposa2.jpg
http://www.uni.net/aec/riskmap/ppra/sma31s3.gif
http://www.nickinitalia.com/pomposa2.jpg
Much better views of the reliefs here, and of the interior decor of the
various buildings, are here:
http://www.pomposa.com/testopomposiaen.htm
The belltower is likewise G.'s work:
http://tinyurl.com/nwrw2
http://www-jcsu.jesus.cam.ac.uk/~mma29/pictures2.cgi/Italy2001/
http://www.dragonsholm.org/italy2004/italy8.htm
http://tinyurl.com/ry4so
Situated apart from the remains of the cloister is the Palazzo della
Ragione, the judicial center of the abbey's territorial state:
http://tinyurl.com/lpeox
http://www.pomposa.com/fragione1.htm
http://www.vecchiofare.org/images/abazzia3.jpg
The acta of two recent conferences on G. were published by Olschki in
2000. Herewith a view of the upper cover of that book:
http://www.pomposa.com/atticonvegno.htm
The abbey had a great library; the pioneering medieval humanist Lovato
Lovati used texts from here. See especially Giuseppe Billanovich, ed.,
_Pomposia monasterium modo in Italia primum. La biblioteca di Pomposa_
(Padova: Antenore, 1994).
Best,
John Dillon
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