Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/743

 RAVENNA

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RAVENNA

cratic government, and having died without children was succeeded by his cousin Ostasio I and Guido Novello, of whom the latter was a lover of letters and of the arts; he received Dante with honours, and called to Ravenna Giotto, who painted the vault of San Giovanni Evangelista -n-ith frescos, while other artists who studied under him adorned with frescos Santa Maria in porta fuori (supposed portraits of Guido da Polenta, Dante, Chiara, and Francesco da Polenta), and Santa Chiara, founded by Chiara da Polenta in the thirteenth century. Dante died at Ravenna (1321) and was buried in the vestibule of the Church of San Francesco. His present mauso- leum was erected in 1482 by Bernardo Bembo. Ostasio, who had assassinated his own brother, the Archbishop Rinaldo, soon thereafter drove from Ravenna Guido, who attempted in vain to return. Ostasio received from Louis the Brave and from Pope Benedict XII the title of vicar. Not less cruel than Ostasio was his son Bernardino (1345-59), against whom his own brothers conspired; they died, however, in the same prison of Cer\da into which he had been treacherously thrown. A better ruler was Guido Lucio, who in his old age in 1389 was thrown into prison by his sons, where he ended his days. He was sur\'ived by his son Ostasio IV, who died in 1431. Ostasio V in 1438 was forced into an alliance with Duke Filippo Maria of Milan by that prince, on which account the Venetians in\-ited him to Venice, where he soon learned that the annex- ation to Venice had been proclaimed at Ravenna. He died in a Franciscan convent, the \'ictim of a mysterious assassination. The ^'enetians governed Ravenna by proit'editori and podesta. In 1509 Julius II attempted to retake all of Romagna that was held by the Venetians, and sent the Duke of Urbino with an expedition. Ravenna was defended by the podesla Marcello and by the captain Zeno; but at the news of the defeat of Agnadello, the republic ordered the restoration of Ravenna to the Holy See. Three years later, in 1512, there took place near this city the disastrous battle in which the French defeated the allied Pontifical and Spanish troops. In 1527, notwithstanding their aUiance with Clement VII, the Venetians occupied Ravenna and the Romagna, which, however, they were compelled to restore in 1529. The popes governed Raverma through a cardinal legate. Of this period are: the monument of the battle of 1512, erected in 1557; the tombs of Guidarello Guidarelli, and Tullio Lombardo, in the Museo Xazionale; those of LufFo Numai and Tommaso Flamberti, in the Church of San Francesco (1509), and, above all, the church and the monastery of Santa Maria in Portu (1553), built on the site, and in part with the materials, of the Church of San Lorenzo in Cajsarea (fifth century) ; it has a Byzantine Madonna of the tenth century. Its construction was undertaken when the Regular Canons of Portu were obliged to leave Santa Maria in portu fuori; the church has three naves, and an octagonal cupola; the stalls of the choir are adorned with beautiful car\'ings, and the loggia of the garden of the annexed monastery is of very pure style. The faijade dates from 1784. The city was adorned with princely palaces, more especially the work of the architects Danisi, Gros.si, Morigia, and Zumaglini, while Nicold Rondinelli, at Santo Domingo, Cotig- nola, Luca Lunghi and his sons, Guido Reni, at the Duomo, and other painters adorned the churches. Meanwhile, the public works were not neglected. Besides the fortifications already constructed by the Venetians, which were enlarged, there was dug in 1654 the Canale PanfiUo (named in honour of Innocent X), by the Cardinal legate Donghi, and, in the following century, the Canale Corsini, works that were nece.ssarj' not only to facilitate maritime commerce but to preserve the city from inundation

in consequence of the raising of the beds of the rivers. In 1797 Ravenna became a part of the Cispadan Repubhc, and later of the Cisalpine RepubUc. The Austrians took it from the French, who in turn drove the former from the city in 1800-01. The town was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy, after which it was attacked again by the Austrians, and finally was restored to the pope. Pro\'isional governments were established in 1831, 1849, and 18.59; and in 1860 the annexation of Ravenna to the Kingdom of Italy was declared.

The academy of fine arts has some paintings by well-known masters, mentioned above: San R o m u a 1 d o, by Guercino; a col- lection of Byzan- tine and of Slav Madonnas, and sculptures by Canova and Thorwaldsen. The Museo Nazionale contains collec- tions of Etruscan, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine coins and inscrip- tions, and also coins and in- scriptions of the Middle Ages; fragments of an- cient sculptures, and a bust of In- n o c e n t X bj' Bernini. It oc- cupies the mon- astery of the Camaldolese of Classe, who moved into the city in 1515. The archi- episcopal palace also hiis a lapidary hall, ancient vest- ments, a Lenten calendar for the years 532 to 626, and a chiselled ivory throne of the sixih centurj', taken to Raveima in 1001 by Ottone III, who re- ceived it from Pietro Orseolo, Doge of Venice.

According to local tradition, St. Peter himself founded the Church of Raverma, and established as its first bishop St. ApoOinaris, a native of Antioch, who according to the same tradition suffered martyr- dom under Nero; the acts of his martyrdom, however, have scarcely any historical value; they were prob- ably written under the bishop Mauro (642-61), and intended, together with the alleged ApostoUc origin of the See of Ravenna, to abet the autocratic aspira- tions of that bishop. However, in 1756 there was dis- covered near Classe a Christian cemetery in which there were found inscriptions that date from the second centurj-; and in 1904 in Classe itself there was unearthed another graveyard, the upper layers of which date from the fifth centurj-. It may be con- cluded, therefore, that Christianity was "taken to Ra^•enna by sea. It is certain tha't St. Apollinaris was the first bishop, and that he suffered martvrdom. According to the list of the bishops of Ravenna, handed down to our times by .\gnellus (ninth cen- tury), who received it from the bishop Marianas (546-56), of whose accuracy there is no reason to doubt, Severu.s was the twelfth of the .series; and as he is among those who signed at the Council of

St. Michael the Ar

Vl-Century Mosaic in th

S. Apoliinare in Claase