medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
An addendum to John's message: several MSS from Sant' Eustorgio can be
found at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. Or on microfilm at Notre
Dame in the collections of the Medieval Institute.
Tom Izbicki
John Dillon wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Today (18. September) is the feast day of:
>
> Eustorgius I, bp. of Milan (d. ca. 350). According to the testimony of
> Athanasius the Great, E. was a vigorous opponent of Arianism. His cult
> seems to have begun very shortly after his death; Ambrose already
> speaks of him as a confessor. The (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology
> gives today as the date of his laying to rest. E.'s Vita (BHL 2776,
> 2777; many versions) is no earlier than the eleventh century, probably
> of the twelfth, and quite unreliable. A late sixth- or early
> seventh-century funerary inscription in verse (_CIL_, vol. 5.2, p. 621,
> no. 9; from Fontana's sylloge in lieu of the lost original) relates a
> miracle of his, indicating that by this time E. was already quite legendary:
> though his sepulchre was originally constructed for an emperor whose
> oxen could not move it, the saint was able to draw where he wished with
> the aid of two small heifers.
>
> E.'s major monument is Milan's church of Sant'Eustorgio. Parts of the
> present building overlie the remains of a late antique basilican church,
> presumably the predecessor church of the same dedication cited in the
> _Versum de Mediolano civitate_ (MGH, Poetae, I, pp. 24-26), an early
> eighth-century poem in praise of the city of Milan. Seen here in an
> aerial view:
> http://tinyurl.com/9x8jz
> , Sant'Eustorgio's central structure gets older as one moves from front
> to back. Today's facade is a nineteenth-century essay in Lombard
> Romanesque, the present nave (a replacement for the one badly damaged in
> Friedrich Barbarossa's sack of 1162) was begun in the 1190s but is
> mostly of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the apse is of
> the eleventh century. The belltower is from the end of the thirteenth
> century. An illustrated English-language overview is here:
> http://www.discountmilano.com/tour/Secoli/SantEustorgio/
> And a very nice panoramic tour is accessible here:
> http://milano.arounder.com/
> (click on the next-to-lowest green dot).
>
> Facade:
> http://tinyurl.com/2t67f3
> http://www.santeustorgio.it/images/seustor.jpg
> Corner views:
> http://www.milano24ore.de/Bilder/Mailand/Kirchen/158_5870.jpg
> http://www.pbase.com/ugpini/image/36970254
> Side views:
> http://tinyurl.com/lpgpg
> http://tinyurl.com/2pqwfq
> http://www.pbase.com/ugpini/image/36970256
> http://tinyurl.com/2nraww
> Apse and belltower:
> http://tinyurl.com/zbwzf
> http://tinyurl.com/38qxg9
> Rear views (showing the Cappella Portinari):
> http://tinyurl.com/8mo4s
> http://www.santeustorgio.it/foto/images/basilicadaigiardini.jpg
> Nave:
> http://tinyurl.com/33gsa2
> Nave and right aisle from behind the new altar:
> http://www.pbase.com/ugpini/image/37628710
> Left aisle:
> http://tinyurl.com/2mqjm3
> Thirteenth-century fresco (Madonna and Child):
> http://tinyurl.com/2h6jf3
> South transept:
> http://tinyurl.com/377vew
> Tomb of Stefano Visconti (d. 1327), lord of Milan:
> http://www.chiesadimilano.it/or/ADMI/esy/objects/images/415370.jpg
> The fifteenth-century marble altarpiece behind the new altar:
> http://tinyurl.com/ytwty2
> More fourteenth- and fifteenth-century decor here:
> http://www.santeustorgio.it/museo/sito/03/index.htm
>
> Remains of the late antique church beneath the apse:
> http://tinyurl.com/yuwn8w
> http://www.santeustorgio.it/foto/images/sottocoroNew.jpg
>
> A sixteenth-century plan of the church (thus including its Renaissance
> chapels) is here:
> TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/blh9s
> A modern plan:
> http://www.santeustorgio.it/museo/sito/Pianta.htm
>
> Located in the south transept is a third-century CE Roman sarcophagus.
> Presumably, this is E.'s sepulchre referred to in his early medieval
> funerary inscription mentioned above. The fourth column on the right
> hand side of the nave bears a relief of E. and his heifers moving the
> sarcophagus (apparently with both angelic and human assistance); two
> excellent photographs of this will be found in Hans Hofmann, _Die
> Heiligen Drei Könige_ (Bonn: Ludwig Röhrscheid, 1975; Rheinisches
> Archiv, no. 94), pp. 380-81. Views of the sarcophagus are here:
> http://tinyurl.com/2ctndf
> http://tinyurl.com/7uujw
> Here's a better view of the sainted bishop on the wall next to the
> sarcophagus:
> http://tinyurl.com/2q9nhh
> There's no proof that he's meant to be E. but the location is
> suggestive.
>
> An eighteenth-century inscription on the sarcophagus reads: SEPVLCRVM
> TRIVM MAGORVM ('Tomb of the Three Magi'):
> http://tinyurl.com/akrch
> In 1158 these three were said to have been found at Milan in a church
> outside the walls (as Sant'Eustorgio then was) and, as is well known, in
> 1164 (when Milan was largely a very recent ruin) Friedrich Barbarossa had
> their relics transported from Sant'Eustorgio to Köln, where they are today.
> Evidence that they were venerated in Milan before 1158 is either dubious
> or nonexistent and this in turn has led Hofmann (op. cit., pp. 73-95; the
> basic study of this matter) to conclude that Eustorgius' _Vita_, which
> ascribes to E. the translation of these three from Constantinople to Milan
> and whose oldest known witness is dated to the end of the twelfth century,
> was concocted in or shortly after 1158 in order to document the presence
> in Milan of these newly discovered relics.
>
> In the early fourteenth century some Milanese claimed that the Three
> Magi were still in Sant'Eustorgio. Epiphany celebrations took place in
> and in front of the church (for the festival of 1336, see the account in
> Richard Trexler, _The Journey of the Magi_ [Princeton University Press,
> 1997], pp. 88-89). In 1347 a confraternity of the Three Magi/Kings
> erected the altar shown here:
> http://tinyurl.com/a8xnd
>
> A more impressive and only slightly earlier (1335-39) sculptural monument
> in Sant'Eustorgio is the tomb of St. Peter Martyr (d. 1252) created by
> Giovanni di Balduccio and now located in the church's Cappella Portinari:
> http://www.santeustorgio.it/images/arcaportinari.jpg
> A Thais page with expandable views of details from this monument:
> http://www.thais.it/scultura/giovbald.htm
> Another view of Temperance (one of the tomb's caryatids):
> http://tinyurl.com/9glgo
>
> Best,
> John Dillon
> (last year's post revised)
>
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