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Basilica Historical Archive

Ambrosian Sites and Their History

The historical archive of the basilica is available to you for consultation

CHAPTER ARCHIVE
OF THE BASILICA OF SANT’AMBROGIO

Historical Archive

RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE MONUMENTAL COMPLEX AND ITS INVALUABLE HISTORICAL, ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

HIDDEN TREASURES

Manuscripts, parchments, textiles: the invisible riches of more than sixteen centuries of history.

The chapter archive of the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio was founded more than 900 years ago, when, shortly after the year 1000, the canons organised themselves into a community that was responsible for officiating at the church. Alongside modern and contemporary documents concerning the more than sixteen centuries of Sant’Ambrogio’s history and its restoration over the ages, the archive preserves fifty-five parchment volumes dating between the ninth and eighteenth centuries, a few manuscripts on paper with liturgical content of importance for understanding the Ambrosian rite,

and about 1,200 parchments from between the ninth and nineteenth centuries, some of which allow us to reconstruct a day-by-day account of the complex, fascinating activity of Sant’Ambrogio’s clergy house. This vast documentary collection is accompanied by an important group of valuable textiles from between the fourth to the twelfth centuries, which were associated over the course of the Middle Ages with the ‘dalmatics’ of St Ambrose, venerated textile relics believed to have been the liturgical vestments of the saint.

THE ARCHIVE

  • Manuscripts

    The archive preserves fifty-five parchment manuscripts from between the ninth and twentieth centuries, produced for the most part in the scriptorium of Sant’Ambrogio’s clergy house.

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    Manuscripts

  • Parchments

    The fonds contains approximately 1,200 parchments dated from the 8th to the 19th century. These make up half of the ancient collection of the Sant'Ambrogio rectory; the remainder is currently kept at the State Archives in Milan.

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    Parchments

  • Modern Documents

    This collection gathers together all the surviving documentation from the modern period concerning administration, the restoration of the Basilica, the canons’ properties, chapter appointments and records, the vestry board and the superstantia. It also includes documentation on new restoration campaigns and the scientific research currently underway.

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    Modern Documents

  • Incunabula, sixteenth-century books and later early-modern material

    This section of the archive contains a few incunabula (books printed before the sixteenth century), about fifteen sixteenth-century books and about one hundred volumes printed between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, for the most part concerning Ambrose and the history and liturgy of the Milanese Church.

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    Incunabula, sixteenth-century books and later early-modern material

  • Historical Drawings

    This collection contains a group of invaluable original architectural renderings and drawings, in particular those by Gaetano Landriani, who was hired to restore the Basilica in the Romanesque style in the nineteenth century.

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    Historical Drawings

  • Historical Photographs

    The Basilica’s photographic archive contains a valuable collection of photos of war damage and the subsequent repairs (including the original slides) and photographic material (analogue and digital) concerning the monumental complex and its masterpieces.

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    Historical Photographs

TEXTILES OF SANT’AMBROGIO

The core of this collection is a group of about twenty textiles from different periods (from the fourth to twelfth centuries), of varied provenance, and in a range of materials (silk, linen, wool embroidery), that was built during the Middle Ages around two silk textiles believed to have been Ambrose’s liturgical vestments. Besides this core group, the collection also includes a precious silk textile (ninth century) that was used to cover the doors of the golden altar and fragments of the fabric that was wrapped around the remains of the deacons Castus and Polemius.

Digital Resources

  • Digitalised Manuscripts, Documents and other Materials

  • Select Bibliography

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STUDY ROOM

The study room is located in the Sant’Ambrogio clergy house, which was the site of the scriptorium in the Middle Ages and the superstantia (a body in charge of managing buildings) in the modern period.

Regulations
Application for Access
Document Request Form
Contact Information and Hours

The Chapter Archive of the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio

Monday and Wednesday 9:30–12:30 (by appointment only)

Access to the medieval materials is reserved for scholars and university students with the necessary qualifications and demonstrated research needs.

Contacts

Archivista responsabile: Dott.ssa Miriam Rita Tessera (miriamrita.tessera@gmail.com)

Direttore: Prof. Marco Petoletti (marco.petoletti@unicatt.it)

Write to us

Address

Piazza Sant’Ambrogio, 15, 20123 Milano MI

Map

Credits

Texts in the Historical Archive and Basilica section are edited by Miriam Rita Tessera with the collaboration of Mattia Rizzi.