Tortona
For the medieval scholar Tortona, see Marziano da TortonaTortona is a
comune of
Piemonte, in the
Province of Alessandria,
Italy. Tortona is sited on the right bank of the Scrivia between the plain of
Marengo and the foothills of the Ligurian Appennines.
Its ancient name was
Dertona. Dertona was probably the oldest colony under Roman rule in the westernmost section of the Valley of the
Po, on the road leading from
Genua (Genoa) to
Placentia (Piacenza). The city was founded circa
118 BC -
123 BC at the junction of the great roads; the
Via Postumia and the
Via Aemilia Scauri which merged to become the
Via Julia Augusta. The site made Dertona an important military station under the Romans.
A bishopric was founded at Tortona early, but its first bishops are purely legendary, like Saint Marcianus of Tortona, called the first bishop of Piedmont and a disciple of
Barnabas, the companion of Paul. Until the 9th century, the city was under the rule of its bishop; in
1090 it became a
commune. In 1133 the diocese was separated from the archbishopric of Milan to the new archdiocese of Genoa (
CE "Lombardy"). During the
Middle Ages, Tortona was a faithful ally of the
Guelphs and was destroyed several times. From
1260 to
1347 the city was dominated by a series of different Italian noble families and adventurers like
Facino Cane de Cesale, who in the unsettled affairs of Lombardy had assembled a string of lordships and great wealth which he bequeathed to his wife, Beatrice, and arranged with his friends that a marriage should be effected between her and
Filippo Maria Visconti. According to
Macchiavelli (
History of Florence, ch. 7) "By this union Filippo became powerful, and reacquired Milan and the whole ofLombardy. By way of being grateful for these numerous favors, as princes commonly are, he accused Beatrice of adultery and caused her to be put to death" [
1]. In this way, in 1347, Tortona was decisively incorporated into the territories of
Milan, where it remained until
1735. Then following the vicissitudes of the
War of the Polish Succession, the city was occupied by the
King of Sardinia, and "count of Tortona" was added to the titles of the
House of Savoy.
*Saint Innocent of Tortona (died ca. 350), who survived the persecutions and was sent as bishop to Tortona by
Pope Sylvester.
*Bishop Gezo of Tortona in the 10th century wrote a
Treatise on the Body and Blood of the Lord one of the few important theological works of the century in Italy [
2].
*
Marziano da Tortona, secretary to duke
Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan is one of the people credited with inventing the card game of
Tarocchi [
3].
*
Giuseppe Campora (1923–2004), operatic tenor.
*
Catholic Encyclopedia: Tortona
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (eds. Richard Stillwell, William L. MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister)
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD)
