RECANATI  , a

city of the Marches, Italy, in the province of Macerata, 8 m. direct N.N.E. of the city of that name . Pop . (1901) 14,590 (town), 16,389 (commune) . It has a station on the railway 171 m . S. of Ancona, and distant 41 M. from the town, which is built on a hill, 931 ft. above the sea, and retains portions of its 15th-century wails and gateways . It was the birthplace of the poet Leopardi (1798-1837), whose monument adorns the principal piazza and whose family has collected in the town a very interesting museum of Leopardiana; it also contains fine old mansions of the Leopardi, Mazzagalli, Massucci and Carradori in the main street, and a Gothic cathedral, built towards the close of the 14th century and dedicated to S Flavianus, patriarch of Constantinople . The churches of S Maria sopra Mercanti and San Domenico contain characteristic examples of the work of Lorenzo Lotto, as also does the new municipal palace, with a fine old battlemented tower, while the palace of Cardinal Venier has a fine Renaissance loggia by Giuliano da Maiano, who was probably responsible for the designs for the portals of S Agostino and S Domenico . The older buildings of the town ate noteworthy for the curious terra-cotta work which adorns the majority of them . Recanati appears as a strong castle in the loth century or earlier . Round this gathered a community whose petty wars with Osimo (Auximum) called for the interference of Innocent III. in 1198 . From Frederick II. it obtained the right of having a port on the Adriatic; and by Gregory IX. it was made a city and the seat of the bishopric transferred from Osimo . This oscillation between Guelf and Ghibelline continued characteristic of Recanati .

Urban IV. abolished the " city " and bishopric; Nicholas IV. restored them . John XXII. again, in 1320, removed the bishopric and placed the city under interdict . The interdict was withdrawn in 1328 on payment of a heavy fine, but the bishopric remained in abeyance till 1357 . Gregory XII., who on his deposition by the council of Constance was made papal legate of the sees of Macerata and Recanati, died in this city in 1417 . The assistance rendered by Recanati to the popes in. their struggles with the Sforza seems to have exhausted its resources, and it began to decline . Considerable damage was done by the earthquake of 1741; and the French, who were twice in possession of the city in 1797, pillaged it in 1799 .