Bobbio - Definition

Bobbio is a city in the Piacenza province of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. There is also an abbey and a diocese of the same name. It is located in the Trebbia River valley southwest of Piacenza city.

Known to the ancients as Bobium or Ebovium, the Irish Saint Columbanus (It. Colombano) established a monastery sometime between 612 and 614. The monastery became a center of learning during the Middle Ages, and was renowned for its library, but its decline in the 15th century led to the dispersal of the library. The monastery was officially suppressed by the French in 1803.

This monastery is in part the model for the great monastery in Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose. The bishopric dates from 1014.

The town became part of Savoy in 1748. On July 7, 1944, the partisan resistance in Italy conquered the town and self-governed it until it was crushed by the Germans on August 27, the same year.

External links

• Bobbio homepage (in Italian) (http://www.comune.bobbio.pc.it/)
• Catholic Encyclopedia article on Bobbio (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02605b.htm)