PISTOIA
117
PISTOIA
February, 1787, the first edition (thirty-five hundred
copies) of the Acts and Decrees appeared, bearing the
royal imprimatur. De Ricci, wishing the Holy See to
believe that the worlc was approved by his clergy,
summoned his priests to pastoral retreat in April with
a view to obtaining their signatures to an acceptance
of the synod. Only twenty-seven attended, and of
these twenty refused to sign. Leopold meantime
summoned all the Tuscan bishops to meet at Florence,
23 April, 1787, to pave the way for acceptance of the
Pistorian decrees at a provincial council; but the
assembled bishops vigorously opposed his project, and
after nineteen stormy sessions he dismissed the assem-
bly and abandoned hope of the council. De Ricci
became discredited, and, after Leopold's accession to
the imperial throne in 1790, was compelled to resign
his see. Pius VI commissioned four bishops, assisted
by theologians of the secular clergy, to examine the
Pistorian enactments, and deputed a congregation of
cardinals and bishops to pass judgment, on them.
They condemned the synod and stigmatized eighty-
five of its propostitions as erronccjus ami dangerous.
Pius VI on 28 August, 1794, dealt the death-blow to
the influence of the synod and of Jansenism in Italy in
his Bull "Auctorem
Fidei".
Atti e Decreti '/•' Concilio Diocesano Pisloja (2nd ed., Fl": ence. 1788); tr. Schwah ZEL, Acta Congregationis ArchiepiscopoTumet Epis- coporum Elrurice, Floren- liai anno 1787 celebrala (7 vola., Bamberg, 1790- 94); Denzinger-Bann- WART, Enchiridion (Frei- burg, 1908), 397-422; Ballerini, Opus Mornir, I (Prato, 1898),li-lxxxii; Gehodulo, Leltera critn- logica aopra il sinodo di Pisioia (Barletta, 17S'.l); La voce delta greggia di Pistoja e Prato at suo pn. - tore Mgr Vescovo Scipinnc de' Ricci (Sondrio. 1789) ; Lettera ad un Prelato Ro- mano dove con gran vivezza e con profonda dottrina vengono confutati gli errori de' quali abbonda il Sin odo di Mgr de' Ricci, Vescovo di Pistoja (Halle, 1789) ; Seconda lettera ad un
Prelato Romano suit' idt't Facade of thh f'ATni:i)KA
falsa, scismatica, errjnca, Ut-sii^iied b>-
contradittoria, ridicola
delta chiesa {ormata del Sinodo di Pistoja (Halle, 1790); Con- aiderazioni sul nuovo Sinodo di Pistoja e P^ato, fatte da un paroco delta stessa diocesi (Pistoia, 1790) ; PicOT, Mlmoires pour servir a I'histoire du IS' silde (Paris, 1855) . V, 251 sq. ; VI, 407 sq. ; Gendry, Pie VI, sa vie— son ponti/icat, II (Paris, 1907), 451-83, documented from Vatican archives; Scaduto, Stato e Chiesa sotto Leopold I (Florence, 1885); de Potter, Vie et Mimoires de Sci- pion de' Ricci (Paris, 1826). 1 sq.; Parsons, Studies in Church History. IV (New York, 1897). 592-600; Scipio de' Ricci in Dub- lin Review (March, 1852), XXXII, 48-69.
John B. Peterson.
Pistoia and Prato, Diocese of (Pistoriensis ET Pratensi.s), in the Province of Florence. The city of Pistoia is situated at the foot of the Apennines in the valley of the Ombrone. The chief industries of the town are the manufacture of paper and objects in straw. The cathedral dates from the fifth cen- tury, but was damaged by fire several times prior to the thirteenth century, w-hen Nicol6 Pisano designed its present form ; the outer walls are inlaid with bands of black and white marble; the tribune was painted by Passignano and by Sorri; the paintings by Alessio d'Andrea and by Buonaccorso di Cino (1347), which were in the centre aisle, have disappeared. Other things to be admired, are the ancient pulpit, the (ceno- taphs of Cino da Pistoia and Cardinal Forteguerri, by Verrocchio, the altar of S. Atto, with its silver work, the baptismal font by Ferrucci, and the equipments of the sacristy. Opposite the cathedral is S. Giovanni
Rotondo, the former baptistry; it ia an octagonal
structure, the work of Andrea Pisano (1333-59), with
decorations by Cellino di Neso; the font itself is a
square base with four wells, surmounted by a statue of
St. John the Baptist by Andrea Vacca. The church
of S. Giovanni Fuoricivitas is surrounded, on the upper
part, by two rows of arches; it is a work of the twelfth
century; within, there is the pulpit, with its sculptures
by Fra Gulielmo d'Agnello, and the holy-water font,
representing the theological virtues, by Giovanni Pi-
sano. The name of Pistoia appears for the first time
in history in connexion with the conspiracy of Cati-
line (62 B. c), but it was only after the sixth century
that it became important; it was governed, first, by
its bishops, later by stewards of the Marquis of Tus-
cany. It was the first to cslablisli its inilcpciiclence,
after the death of Countess .Malild;i, :nid its inuTiicipal
statutes ;i.ii- the most ancient of their kind in It :dy. It
was :i ( lliilielliiie town, and had siibjun;itc(l si'vcral
cities and castles; but, after thi' death of Frederick II,
the Florentines compelled it to become Guelph.
About 1300, the Houses of the Cancellieri (Guelphs),
and Panciatichi (Ghibellines), struggled with each
other for supremacy. The fcirnicr having triumphed
it soon divided into
Bianchi and Neri,
which made it easy
f(jr Castruccio Cas-
tracane to subject
the town to his
domination, in 1328.
I'lorence assisted the
Pistoians to drive
Castruccio from their
town, but that aid
soon weighed upon
them, and they re-
volted (134-3), taking
part with Pisa. In
13.51 Pistoia be-
came definitively
subject to Florence.
Clement IX was a
Pistoian.
Prato is also a city in the Province of Florence, situated in the fertile valley of the B i s e n z i o , which supports many industries, among them flour mills, woolen and silk manufactories, quarries, iron, and cop- per works. The Cicognani college of Prato is fa- mous. The cathedral, which was erected before the tenth century, was restored in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, according to plans of Giovanni Pisano; it contains paintings by Fra Filippo Lippi and by Gaddi, a pulpit that is a masterpiece of Donatello, and the mausoleums of Carlo de' Medici and of Vin- cenzo Danti. In the chapel of la Cintola there is pre- served a girdle that, according to the legend, was given by Our Lady to St. Thomas. Prato is first mentioned in history, in 1007, as being in rebellion against Florence ; after that it had several wars with Florence and Pistoia. In 13.50, it was bought by the Floren- tines, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Visconti. In 1512, it was sacked by the Spaniards. Fra Arlotto, author of the first Biblical concordance, was a native of Prato, as were also Fra Bartolommeo della Porta and several personages of the Inghirami family. Pistoia claims to have received the Gospel from St. Romulus, the first Bishop of Fiesole. The first mention of a Bishop of Pistoia is in 492, though the name of this prelate, like that of another Bishop of Pistoia, referred to in 516, is unknown. The first historically known bishop is Joannes (700); Leo (10G7), important in the schism of Henry IV; Jacobus
