TheMotherChurch 43
when Pope Gregory VII praised it in one of his letters.^166 The sanctuary
modeled on the Jerusalem holy places may date to the early Middle Ages,
when the Constantinian basilicas there were destroyed by the Muslims, but
no clear reference to the ‘‘Holy Jerusalem’’ sanctuary exists before 1017.^167
The layout of the complex matches the Jerusalem shrine as it was before the
additions and modifications made by the crusaders, so the Bologna construc-
tion is certainly pre-twelfth-century. The complex became famous in the
eleventh century as a repository of relics. To foster the relic cult, the monks
of Santo Stefano concocted a vita for the saintly Bononio (d. 1026 ), a monk
of the monastery who died as abbot of a monastery in Piemonte.^168 Accord-
ing to the legend, he made pilgrimages throughout the Mediterranean world
collecting relics for Santo Stefano.^169 The monastery was soon on the shrine
map of north Italy. When the Italian life of Saint Petronio appeared in the
1200 s, the Holy Jerusalem was already very old and very celebrated.^170
The sanctuary consisted of the round structure known today as the San
Sepolcro, which mimicked the tomb of Christ. In its center stands a model
of the Holy Sepulcher, since the fourteenth century the repository of Saint
Petronio’s relics (fig. 32 ).^171 The current aedicula, which dates after the com-
munal period, is slightly off center, mimicking the position of its archetype
in Jerusalem. The original tomb shrine was probably identical in size to the
prototype.^172 To the east, as in the ancient shrine at Jerusalem, lies a court-
yard with porticoes on three sides. In the 1200 s a church dedicated to the
Holy Cross (now replaced by a chapel dedicated to the Trinity) rose beyond
the east end of this courtyard. Past the monastery walls to the north, proba-
bly near the modern post office, was a sanctuary identified with the Hakel-
dama, or ‘‘Field of Blood,’’ considered the same as the Valley of Jehoshaphat
in the Middle Ages. A ‘‘Pool of Siloam’’ could be found at this site. At what
is now the church of San Giovanni in Monte, up the street from Santo
Stefano, was a sanctuary named for the church of the Ascension.^173 Medieval
Bolognese believed that the distance between Santo Stefano and San Gio-
vanni was exactly the same as the distance between the two original shrines
in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem shrine of the Ascension was an open-air circular
- Ibid., 19.
- Francisco Lanzoni,San Petronio vescovo di Bologna nella storia e nella legenda(Rome: Pustet, 1907 ),
103 – 4 , 124. - Ousterhout, ‘‘Church of Santo Stefano,’’ 312 – 13.
- Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 1473(ca. 1180 ), fol. 161 r.
- Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 2060,c. 37 , fol. 15 v; Giuseppe Guidicini,Vita di s. Petronio
vescovo di Bologna, Notizie relative ai vescovi di Bologna da san Zama ad Oppizzoni(Bologna: Compositori, 1883 ),
90 ; Maria Corti, ed.,Vita di san Petronio con un’appendice di testi inediti del secolixiiiexiv(Bologna: Commissi-
one per i Testi di Lingua, 1962 ), 35 – 36 ; on thisxivcent. codex, see Lanzoni,San Petronio, 108 – 18. - On the Sepulcher church, seeVita S. Petronii Episcopi et Confessoris, 2. 13 ,AS 50 (Oct.ii), 455 ;
Lanzoni,San Petronio, 231 – 32. - Ousterhout, ‘‘Church of Santo Stefano,’’ 315.
- The vernacular life of Saint Petronio says nothing about its appearance or symbolism; cf. Bolo-
gna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 2060, cc. 38 – 39 , fols. 16 r–v; Guidicini,Vita, 90 – 91 ; Corti,Vita, 39 – 41.