Building Milan Cathedral: Unrecorded invitation to the Veneranda Fabbrica.

[Milan Cathedral]. Si compiacerà [V. S. Ill.ma e Rev.ma] ritrovarsi il giorno di [Giovedì] che sarà illi [3] del mese di [Agosto entrante] alle ore [otto pomeridiane] al Capitolo della [V.d] Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano per trattare, e stabilire affair importanti di detta [V.d] Fabbrica. Da Campo Santo [li 31. Luglio 1826.] [Milan]: s.n, signed 31 July 1826. [25.7 x 17.0 cm], [1] f. letterpress form headed with a woodcut image, form filled out in manuscript. Folded, minor wrinkling, manuscript annotations on verso. 
 
 
Unrecorded letterpress form used to invite members of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano to occasional meetings concerning the construction, maintenance, and preservation of Milan Cathedral. The form—a rare ephemeral item of cathedral building during the (very) Long Middle Ages—is headed by a handsome woodcut depicting the façade of the cathedral under the protection of the Virgin Mary, who, helped by two putti, spreads her mantel over the building. 
 
Construction on Milan Cathedral was begun in 1386, and the Veneranda Fabbrica was established in 1387. The Duomo was under construction for nearly 600 years, and the records kept by the Veneranda Fabbrica remain a valuable source for understanding contemporary attitudes to gothic architecture, methods and problems of construction, matters of building finance, etc. Today Milan Cathedral remains the second largest church building in Europe, behind only Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. 
 
This form is dated 31 July 1826 and concerns a meeting to be held on 3 August. No meeting for 3 August 1826 is recorded in the Annali della fabbrica del Duomo di Milano dall’origine fino al presente, vol. 6 (1885), but other meetings in July and August were devoted to the payment of sculptors and the construction of a bronze and iron chancel gate in the Cappella Medicea (p. 315); the final line of the form suggests that the chancel gate was the matter under discussion. On the verso of the sheet is a note indicating that the meeting was called by the head of the Veneranda Fabbrica, Gaetano Oppizoni (1768-1849), who was devoted to the cathedral from 1800 until his death in 1849. Another annotation on the verso of the sheet is a bibliographical reference, likely a source discussed at the meeting. 
 
 
The form is not recorded in OPAC, OCLC or KVK.
 
*Annali della fabbrica del Duomo di Milano dall’origine fino al presente, vol. 6 (1885).