GENTILE
421
GENTILE
mercliant-niarine school, a, Catholic high school, an
academy of fine arts and other institutions of a simi-
lar nature.
The line of bishops is usually dated from St. Solo- mon or Salonius, said to have been martyred in 269. Other liishops are mentioned in the third and fourth centuries, the first known with any certainty being Diogenes, a member of the Council of Aquiloia in 381. Blessed Jacobus a Voragine, author of the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend) and Bishop of Genoa (1292- 1298), tells us that till the tenth century he found no mention of a Bishop of Genoa, thus proving that in his time nothing was known of the legendary martyred bishops. The St. Syrus I assigned to the beginning of the fourth century may therefore be a double of St. Syrus II (1139-1163). When the Lombards captured Milan (568), its bishop, Laurentius, and many of his clergy took refuge in Genoa; five other Milanese bishops took up their residence there. It was this same Laurentius who dedicated the church of St.
Gentile da Fabriano, Italian painter; b. probably
about 1378 in the District of the Marches; d. probably
1427. The history of this artist has for a long time
been involved in mystery, and even Vasari's state-
ments concerning him have to be accepted with cau-
tion. Of his early Ufe we still know nothing, but
thanks to the investigations of Milanesi, Amico Ricci,
and later on of Venturi and Corrado Ricci, we have
a few definite facts concerning him. The earliest
mention of him is concerned with the decoration of
the large coimcil hall in the doges' palace at Venice,
which, it seems clear, must have been carried out
between 1411 and 1414, probably in the former year,
as the theory set up by Wickhoff, placing the work at
a much later date, has now been proved to be unten-
able. In 1408, however, Gentile is known to have
painted a large altar-piece in Venice for Francesco
Amadi, and this date implies that he must have been
resident in the city for some years previously, because
it was not possible for an artist, who had not been
3LAS. John the Baptist, and St. George
Fabriano, tian Nicolo, Florence
Ambrose built for the Milanese refugees. About 617,
Bishop AppcUinus became involved in the schism of
Agrestius. In 634, Bishop Asterius ordained St.
Byrsinus, who was to be one of the apostles of North-
umbria.
Councils were held at Genoa in 773 (?), 1216, and 1292. Innocent IV and Adrian V were natives of the city. It was originally a suffragan of Milan, but, in 1133, Innocent II made it a metropolitan see. Its first archbishop was the St. Syrus mentioned above. Its suffragan sees are Albenga, Bobbio, Brugnate and Luni-Saranza, Chiavari, Savona and Noli, Tortona, Ventimiglia. It has 200 parishes and 470,000 souls (161,000 in the city) ; there are 33 religious houses for men in the city, and 19 throughout the diocese; also 62 convents for women in the city, and 82 throughout the diocese. The archdiocese supports 2 Catholic daily newspapers, 3 weekly papers, and 13 other peri- odicals.
Cappelietti. Le chiese <r Iliilin (Venice, 1857), XIII, 269- 419; Semeria, .S'iurio i/cHa m./, ,.,.,./, ,,-, (,,n..ra (1843); Cana Storia civile, cominerciale < (Genoa, 1844-184.5); Her
Giomale storico e letterario tUII" !.<
U. Benigni.
born in Venice, to be accepted as a member of its
school or guild, unless resident in the city for some
considerable time before he made his application.
Between April, 1414, and September, 1419, we know
that he was painting in Brescia, decorating a chapel
for Pandolfo Malatesta, and it was on the occasion of
the visit which Pope Martin V made to Malatesta,
when he was received at Chiari, that the pope invited
Gentile to pay him a visit in Rome. We have evi-
dence of the date on which he set out, because on the
18 September, 1419, he appHed for a safe-conduct.
There were serious difficulties, however, connected
with the early days of the pontificate of Martin V,
and Gentile only got as far as Florence, and could not
proceed to Rome.
Of Gentile's residence in Florence we have evidence from the two applications he made, dated 23 March, and 6 April, 1420, that he might be relieved from the payment of tribute, inasmuch as he was only temporarily sojourning in Florence, and was on his way to his native city; but he could not have remained very long in Fabriano, because on 21 Novem- ber, 1422, he figures in the deeds of matriculation connected with the doctors and painters of Florence,
