Bilingual Broadside
Gaetano Le Poer (18th century).
Spaccato del duomo di Milano / Coupe du dôme de Milan.
Milan: Jean Reycend, [ca. 1728]. (BRB1505)
This engraved broadside features text in two languages, Italian and French, not for purposes of textual comparison, but simply to address viewers who could read one or the other language. The purpose of the broadside was to highlight holy relics that could be seen by visitors to Milan Cathedral. In the main illustrations, a sectional elevation of the cathedral’s eastern end and a close-up view of a tomb, key letters identify three holy objects: (A) the elevated niche that contains a Holy Nail from Christ’s crucifixion; (B) the “holy cloud,” called the Nivola, in which the Archbishop is hoisted by ropes and pulleys up to the niche every September 13th to retrieve the Holy Nail; and (C) the bodily remains of St. Carlo Borromeo (1538–1584), Cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, in a glass reliquary that still exists within the cathedral. Below the Italian and French descriptions of the church is a portrait of its founding patron, Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351–1402), 1st Duke of Milan.
