Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Mondovi

MONDOVl, a city of Italy, in the province of Cuneo, 15 miles east of Cuneo and about 55 west of Genoa by rail, was formerly the chief town of the Sardinian province of Mondovi, and between 1560 and 1719 the seat of a Piedmontese university. The central quarter occupies the summit of a hill 1670 feet high, and contains the hexagonal piazza, a citadel erected in 1573 by Emanuel Philibert, the cathedral of St Donatus, a spacious episcopal palace, and the statue of Beccaria, who was a native of the town. At the foot of the hill along the banks of the Ellero (a tributary of the Po) lie the industrial and commercial suburbs of Breo, Borgatto, Pian della Valle, and Carassone, with their potteries, tanneries, marbleworks, &c. The mansion of Count San Quintino in Pian della Valle was the seat of the printing-press which from 1472 issued books with the imprint Mons Regalis; and in modern times the Ducal press founded by Emanuel Philibert has acquired a great reputation. The population of the town was 9637 in 1871, with the suburbs 11,958; that of the commune 17,726 in 1861, and 17,902 in 1881.

Breo is identified with a certain Colonia Bredolensis; but Mondovi proper—Mons Vici, Mons Regalis (Monteregale), or Vicodunum—probably did not take its rise till about 1000 A.D. The bishopric dates from 1388.