medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The cult of the martyr Antoninus (d. 303, supposedly) is attested to as early as the late fourth century, when St. Victricius of Rouen refers to him as the protector of Piacenza (_De laude sanctorum_, 11). Reliable information about him is lacking. In about 570 a group of pilgrims traveling under his protection made a tour from Constantinople to the holy places (and other tourist destinations) in Palestine and Egypt; the surviving account, an engaging piece of lowbrow travel literature not dissimilar in some respects from what a blogger of today might write and post, is known as the _Itinerarium Antonini_ (though its author is better referred to as the Pilgrim of Piacenza). Antoninus is entered under today (30. September) in the (pseudo-)Hieronymian Martyrology. He is also so entered in the second edition of Usuard's martyrology, where however he is designated a confessor.
The absence of any entry for Antoninus of Piacenza in the martyrologies of Florus of Lyon and St. Ado of Vienne, coupled with Usuard's calling him a confessor, leads one to suppose that in the ninth century he will have had had no legendary identity in Francia (as seems also to have been the case with St. Magnus "of Trani"; 20. August). Indeed, all manuscripts of the legendary _Inventio corporis sancti Antonini martyris_ (BHL 580, 580a, 581), whose oldest witness is of the ninth century, that are listed in the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina Manuscripta are in Italian repositories. According to the Inventio, Antoninus was a member of the Theban Legion who found martyrdom near today's Travo (PC) in Emilia and whose remains were discovered by Piacenza's later fourth-century bishop St. Savinus.
Antoninus' major medieval monument lies some 27 kilometers away in the also Emilian city of Piacenza (in ancient Roman times, Placentia), whose basilica di Sant'Antonino is said to go back to the early fifth century. In an earlier form it was Piacenza's cathedral until the later ninth century. In its present appearance it is an eleventh-century church with later modifications. The latter include the twelfth-century main portal, the octagonal upper portion of the belltower (thirteenth-century, on an eleventh-century base), and the enormous enclosed porch or atrium added to one of the transepts in 1450. An illustrated, English-language account of this church is here:
http://www.piacenzamusei.com/s.php?i=0044
Other views (all exterior):
http://fiorehotel.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/SAnt.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/gun7q2j
http://tinyurl.com/zd6k9be
http://rete.comuni-italiani.it/foto/2008/108126/view
http://tinyurl.com/j3dyuaf
More views (incl. several of the interior) are in the second, third, and fourth rows here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malona/sets/72157605760156889/
The Italia nell'Arte Medievale page on this church:
http://tinyurl.com/3zpczt
Antoninus' principal feast day in Piacenza falls on 4. July. Today (30. September) is his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Antoninus of Piacenza:
a) as depicted in a full-page illumination in an early fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in the Special Collections Department of Glasgow University Library (Hunterian MS Gen 1111):
http://tinyurl.com/bfvwl
Executed in Flanders, this book is thought (from the fact that Antoninus' illumination is larger than any of the 101 others) likely to have been commissioned by a religious house in Piacenza.
b) as portrayed in relief (at left in the image at right; at right, St. Bassianus of Lodi) on an early fifteenth-century grosso from Piacenza (betw. 1410 and 1413) in the Museo civico in Lodi:
http://tinyurl.com/glmtnmm
c) as portrayed (scenes) in an earlier fifteenth-century altar frontal (ca. 1425-1430) in the Museo capitolare della basilica di Sant'Antonino in Piacenza:
http://www.piacenzamusei.com/images/imageg01/110.jpg
Detail view (panel at far left in the upper register):
http://tinyurl.com/zdqeysn
d) as depicted in a late fifteenth-century panel painting in the Museo capitolare della basilica di Sant'Antonino in Piacenza:
http://www.piacenzamusei.it/upload/gallery/scheda_chi_siamo/imgBig/1320939219.jpg
Best,
John Dillon
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