BOBBIO

bobbio, a town and episcopal see of lombardy, italy, in the province of pavia, 32-1/2 m. s.w. of piacenza by road. pop. (1901) 4848. its most important building is the church dedicated to st columban, who became first abbot of bobbio in 595 or 612, and died there in 615. it was erected in lombard style in the 11th or 12th century (to which period the campanile belongs) and restored in the 13th. the cathedral is also interesting. bobbio was especially famous for the manuscripts which belonged to the monastery of st columban, and are now dispersed, the greater part being in the vatican library at rome, and others at milan and turin. the cathedral archives contain documents of the 10th and 11th centuries. see m. stokes, _six months in the apennines_ (london, 1892), 154 seq.; c. cipolla, in _l'arte_ (1904), 241.