Vercelli

(VERCELLENSIS).

Archdiocese in the Province of Novara, Piedmont, Italy. The city of Vercelli is an important commercial centre for agricultural produce. The cathedral, erected and enlarged by St. Eusebius, formerly adorned with precious pillars and mosaics, was remodelled in the ninth century, and radically changed in the sixteenth by Count Alfieri. Like the other churches in the city it contains valuable paintings, especially those of Gaudenzio Ferrari, Giovenone, and Lanino, who were natives of Vercelli. Noteworthy also are Sta. Maria Maggiore and Sant' Andrea. The latter was erected by Cardinal Guala Bicchieri (1219) together with the old Cistercian monastery, one of the most beautiful and best preserved Romanesque monuments in Italy. There is an Institute of the Beaux-Arts, containing paintings by Vercellese artists. There are many relics of the Roman period, e.g. an amphitheatre, hippodrome, sarcophagi, many important inscriptions, some of which are Christian. There are old charitable institutions, like the hospital founded by Cardinal Guala Bicchieri (11224), which has an annual revenue of more than 600,000 lire ($117,000); the hospices for orphan girls (1553), and for boys (1542), and mendicant homes. The archives of the metropolitan chapter contain valuable manuscripts, including an evangelarium of the fourth century, the "Novels" of Justinian, the "Leges Langobardorum", the "Capitulare regum Francorum", also hagiographical manuscripts not all of which have been critically examined, and a very old copy of the "Imitation of Christ", which is relied upon as an argument for attributing the authorship of the work to John Gersen. The civil archives are not less important, and contain documents dating from 882. The extensive seminary contains a large library.

Vercellae (Vercelum) was a city of the Libici, or Lebecili, a