Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/363

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ORTOLANO


331


ORVIETO


Episcop." of Antioch for the sixth century ("Echos d'Orient", X, 145) Orthosias is suffragan of Tyre, wliile in that of the tenth century (op. cit., X, 97) it is confounded with Antaradus or Tortosa. The discov- ery on the banks of the Eleutherus of Orthosian coins, dating from Antoninus Pius and bearing figures of Astarte, led to tlic identification of the site of Orthosias near the River EI-Barid at a spot marked by ruins, called Bordj Hakmon el-Yehoudi.

Beurlier in ViGOuRoux. Diet, de la Bible, s. v.; Smith, Dirt. of Greek and Roman Geography. II, 407.

S. Vailh^.

Ortolano Ferrarese, painter of the Ferrara School, b. in Ferrara, about 1490; d. about 1.525. His real name was Giovanni Battista Benvenuti, and he was called L'Ortolano because his father, Francisco, was a gardener. Of his career little is known, save that he was a diligent student of the works of Raphael and Bagnacavallo in 1512-13 at Bologna. His master- piece, a picture of rich colour and fine draughtsman- ship, representing Saint Sebastian, Saint Roch, and Saint Demetrius, is in the National Gallery, London. It was brought from the church of Bondeno near Fer- rara in 1844, and purchased by the gallery in 1861. In the cathedral at Ferrara are other works attributed to him, which later critics have given to Garofalo, but in some of the smaller churches of Ferrara, those of San Nicoolo, the Servi, and San Lorenzo, there are pictures which may be readily accepted as his. His work so resembles that of Garofalo that there is a never-ceas- ing controversy between the critics who accept the re- spective claims of each, and nearly as much dispute has arisen over his works as over those of Giorgione. There is a fine picture usually accepted as his, in the possession of Lord Wimborne in England, and this shows very strongly the influence upon the painter of Lorenzo Costa. Two of his paintings are in the gal- lery at Ferrara, and others at Naples and Berlin, while there are several similar works in private possession in Ferrara.

Lanzi, Storia Pittorica (Bassano, 1509) ; Laderchi. Pittura Fer- rarese (Ferrara, 16U); Idem, Guida di Ferrara (Ferrara, 1525).

George Charles Williamson.

Ortona. See Lanciano and Ortona, Arch- diocese OF.

Ortwin. See Gratius (van Geaes), Ortwin.

Orval (AuREA Vallis, Gueldenthal), formerly a Cistercian abbey in Belgian Luxemburg, Diocese of Trier. It was founded in 1071 by Benedictines from Calabria, who left in 1110 to be succeeded by Canons Regular. These were replaced in 1132 by Cistercians from the newly founded monastery of Tre Fontane. Their first abbot Constantine had been a disciple of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, dying in the repute of holi- ness after fourteen years. Owing to the industry and frugality of the monks, and the competent manage- ment of the abbots, Orval became exceptionally rich. In 1750 it owned no less than 300 towns, villages, and manors, and had an annual income of 1,200,000 livres. In proportion to its riches was its charity towards the .poor. Under the leadership of able and pious abbots its discipline was always in a flourishing condition, with the exception of a short period towards the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the storms of the Reformation raged in the Netherlands. Abbot Bernard de Montgaillard (1605-28), who was famous for piety and learning, restored the decaying discipline by drawing up new statutes for the monastery. After a short interrup- tion during the Thirty Years' War, the reform which Bernard had introduced was zealously carried out by the succeeding abbots, especially by Carl von Benzeradt (1668-1707), who also founded the abbey of Diisselthal in 1707. The doctrines of Jansenius were espoused by a few monks early in the eighteenth


century, but, happily, those that were imbued with them had to leave the monastery in 1725. The abbey and its church fell a prey to the ravages of the French Revolution in 1793. In the literary field the monks of Orval did not distinguish themselves in any special manner. The only noteworthy writer was Gilles d'Orval, who lived in the first half of the thirteenth century. He wrote the continuation, to the year 1251, of the "Gesta Pontificum Leodiensium", which had been written up to the year 1048 by Heriger of Lobbes and Anselm of Liege (Mon. Germ. Script., XXV, 1-129).

TiLLifeRE, Hist, de Vabhaye d'Orval (2nd ed.. Namur. 1907); Jeantin, Chroniques histor. sur Vabbaye d'Orval (Nancy. 1850): Marx. Gesch. des Erzstiftes Trier, II. i (Trier, 1860), 568-79; ScHOHN, Eiflia sacra, II (Bonn. 1889). 297-308.

Michael Ott.

Orvieto, Diocese op (Urbevetana), in Central Italy. The city stands on a rugged mass of tufa, near the rivers Paglia and Chiana, the swamps of which were drained by Sixtus V. Some believe this town to be the ancient Hebanum or Oropitum; others, e. g. Mliller and Gamurrini, hold that it was the primitive port (therefore Urhs vetus, or old city) of the Etruscan city of Volsinii, destroyed by the Romans at an uncer- tain date, and rebuilt on the site of the present Bolsena which gives its name to the largest lake of the Italian peninsula. In the country around Orvieto there are many Etruscan tombs. The name of Urbs Vetus ap- pears for the first time in Procopius, corrupted into Urbebentum; it is also found in the writings of St. Gregory the Great.

During the Gothic War, Orvieto was defended by the Goths for a long time. Later, it fell into the hands of the Lombards ((306). From the latter end of the tenth century the city was governed by consuls, who, however, took the oath of fealty to the bishop; but from 1201 it governed itself through a podesta (in that year, the Bishop Richard) and a captain of the people. On account of its position, Orvieto was often chosen by the popes as a place of refuge and Adrian IV forti- fied it. A "Studium Generale" was granted to the city by Gregory XI in 1337. In the middle of the thirteenth century, bitter feuds arose between the Filipeschi and the Monaldeschi families, and were not quelled until the city came under the rule of Ermanno Monaldeschi, whom Cardinal Albornoz re- duced to obedience to the Holy See. One of the first convents of the Dominican Order was built at Or- vieto (1220); and in 1288 there was founded in the town a monastery of Armenian monks. In 1199 the martyrdom of St. Pietro Parenzo took place at Or- vieto; he was a Roman whom Innocent III had sent to govern that city with a view to suppressing the Patarian movement that Ermanno of Parma and Gottardo of Marsi had roused in the town.

The cathedral of Orvieto is one of the most beautiful churches in Italy; it was begun in 1285, and is of the Gothic style, with three naves; its tripartite fagade was a conception of Lorenzo Maitani, and is embel- lished in its lower portion with scenes from the Old and New Testaments, and in its upper part with mo- saics and statues of the Blessed Virgin, the Prophets, and the Apostles. The walls in the interior of the edifice are built of layers of Travertine marble and of basalt; the choir is adorned with frescoes, illustrating the life of the Blessed Virgin; they are by Ugolino di Prete Ilario, Peter di Puccio, and Anthony of Viterbo; the stalls of the choir are of inlaid work. The chapel on the right, called Our Lady of San Brizio, was painted by the Blessed Angelico of Fiesole ("Christ Glorified", "Last Judgment", and "The Prophets", done in 1447) and by Luca Signorelli ("Fall of Anti- christ", "Resurrection of the Dead", "Damned and Blessed", etc.); Michelangelo took inspiration from these paintings for his "Last Judgment" of the Sis- tine Chapel; there is, also by Signorelli, the " Burial of