NICE
48
NICE
edifice. On his return to Pisa, the architect erected
the campanile for (he church of S. Niccol6 which con-
tains the remarkable windinjj stair unsupported at its
centre; an invention repeated hy HranKUilc for tlie
"Belvedere", and by San (iallo in the renowned
well at Orvieto. In 1242 Niecola superintended the
building of the cathedral of Pistoja, and in 12t)3 the
restoration of S. Pietro Maggiore. He remodelled S.
Doinenico at Arezzo, the Duomo at Volterra, the
Pieve and Sta. Marpherita at Cortona. Much of his
work at Pisa is believed to have perished in the fire of
IGIO. A wonderful creation (1260) is the hexagonal,
insulated pulpit of the Baptistery. It is supported by
seven colunms, three of them resting on lions. The
panels have reliefs from the New Testament ; the [ledi-
ments, figures of virtues; the spandrels, ))ni])hi'ts and
evangelists. The areliitertural part is Italian ( iolhie:
the sculptures are mainly pure re])roduetions of the
antique. .\ second
pulpit for the Duomo
of Siena followed in
1206. Niccola's early
sculpture shows
clumsiness, if we are
to believe that the
figures outside the
MisericordiaVecchia
in Florence are his.
In later life, whether
from Rome or from
his own Camposanto
at Pisa (Roman sar-
cophagus used for t he
Countess Beatrice of
Tuscany; Greek vase
with figures he repro ■
duced) he learned to
create with the free-
dom, beauty, and
power of ancient art .
Ruhmer suggests
aptly that he may
have used clay for his
Pulpit in tuk C
the 5'outhful St. Pontius about 200, had also a see, held
,in the middle of the fifth century by St. Valerianus; a
rescript of St. Leo the tireat, issued after 4.50 and con-
firmed by St. Hilarus in Ki.'i, united the Sees of Nice
and Cimiez. This newly-formed see remained a suf-
fragan of Embrun up to the time of the Revolution
(.see Gap, Diocese op). Mgr Duchesne has not dis-
covered sufficient historical proof of the episcopate
at Nice of St. Valerianus (43:i-4:5), of St. Deutherius
(490-93), martyred by the Vandals, of St. Sjagrius
(d. 787), Count of Brignoles and son-in-law perhaps of
Charlemagne. St. An.sehn, a former monk of I.erins,
is mentioned as Bishop of Nice (1100-07). Bishops
of Nice bore the title of Counts of Drap since the dona-
tion of property situated at Drap, made in 1073 by
Pierre, Bishop of Vaison, a native of Nice, to Ray-
mond I, its bishop, and to his successors. Charle-
magne, when visiting Cimiez devastated by the Lom-
bards in 574, caused
St. Syagrius to build on its ruins the mon- astery of St. Pon- tius, the largest Al- pine abbey of the Middle .\ges.
II. Diocese of Grasse. — The first known Bishop of Antihesis Armentar- ius who attended the Council of Vaison in 4-12; Mgr Duchesne admits as possible that the Remigius, who signed at the Council of Nimes in 39() and in 417 re- ceived a letter from Pope Zosimus, may have been Bishop of Antibes before Ar- inentarius. About the middle of the
initial model, a method then unpractised in Italy. One thirteenth century the See of Antibes was transferred
of Niccola's last works in architecture was the abbey to Grasse. Bishops of Grasse worthy of mention are:
and church of La Scorgola, commemorating Charles Cardinal Agostino Trivulzio (1537-164S); the poet
Antoine Godeau (1636-53), one of the most cele-
brated habitues of the Hotel de Rambouillet, where
he was nicknamed "Julia's dwarf" on account of his
small stature.
III. Diocese of Vence. — The first known Bishop of Vence is iSeverus, bishop in 439 and perhaps as early as 419. Among others are: St. Veranus, son of St. Eucherius, Archbishop of Lyons and a monk of L6rins, bishop before 451 and at least until 465; St. Lambert, first a Benedictine monk (d. 1154); Cardinal Alessan- dro Farnese (1.50.5-11). Antoine Godeau, Bishop of Grasse, was named Bishop of Vence in 1038; the Holy See wished to unite the two dioceses. Meeting with opposition from the chapter and the clergy of Vence Godeau left Grasse in 1653, to remain Bishop of Vence, which see he held until 1672.
The following saints are specially honoured in the Diocese of Nice: The youthful martyr St. Celsus,
of Anjou's victory at TagUacozzo, now in ruins; in
sculpture, the statuettes for the famous Fonte Mag-
giore at Perugia, erected after his design (1277-80).
CicOGNAHA, Storia ddla scuUuTa (Venice, 1813) ; Perkins, Tuscan sculptors (London. 1864) ; Lubke, History of sculpture, tr. Burnett (London, 1862-72).
M. L. Hand LET.
Nice, Diocese op (Niciensis), comprises the De- partment of Alpes-Maritimes. It was re-established by the Concordat of 1801 as suffragan of Aix. The Countship of Nice from 1818 to 1860 was part of the Sardinian States, and the see became a suffragan of Genoa. When Nice was annexed to France in 1860, certain parts which remained Italian were cut ofT from it and added to the Diocese of Vintimille. In 1862 the diocese was again a suffragan of Aix. The arrondissement of (Jlrasse was separated from the Diocese of Fr^jus in 1880, and given to Nice which now
unites the three former Dioceses of Nice, Grasse, and whom certain traditions make victim of Nero's perse- Vence. cution; St. Vincentius and St. Orontius, natives of
I. Diocese of Nice. — Traditions tell us that Nice Cimiez, apostles of Aquitaine and of Spain, martyrs was evangelized h\ St. Barnabas, sent by St. Paul, or under Diocletian; St. Hospitius, a hermit of Cap Fer- else by St. Mary ^Iagdalen, St. Martha, and St. Laz- rat (d. about 581); Blessed Antoine Gallus (1300-92), arus; and they make St. Bassus, a martyr under De- a native of Nice, one of St. Catherine of Siena's cius, the fir.st Bishop of Nice. The See of Nice in Gaul confes.sors. The martyr St. Reparata of Csesarea in existed in 314, since the bishop sent delegates to the Palestine is the patroness of the diocese. The chief Council of Aries in that year. The first bishop his- pilgrimages of the diocese are: Our Lady of Laghet, torically known is .\mantius who attended the Coun- near Monaco, a place of pilgrimage since the end of eil of Aquileia in 381. Cimiez, near Nice, where .still the seventeenth century; the chapel of the Sacred can be seen the remains of a Roman amphitheatre. Heart of ,Jesus at Roquefort near Grasse; Our Lady and which was made illustrious by the martyrdom of of Valcluse; Our Lady of Brusq; Our Lady of Vie.
