Marinelli Bells – Pontifical Bell Foundry ( it, Campane Marinelli – Pontificia Fonderia di Campane) is a bell foundry in

Agnone Agnone is a '' comune'' in the province of Isernia, in the Molise region of southern Italy, some northwest of Campobasso. Agnone is known for the manufacture of bells by the Marinelli Bell Foundry. The town of Agnone proper is complemented wit ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Founded no later than 1339, the foundry is one of the oldest family businesses in Italy. In addition to bells, it produces bronze portals,

bas-reliefs Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

, church artifacts, and bell restorations.

Marinelli family

The Marinelli family first started the bell foundry nearly 1,000 years ago in the Apennine hills of Italy, in the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

. The village of

, a small Italian town of 5,200 inhabitants in the province of

Isernia Isernia () or, in Pliny and later writers, ''Eserninus'', or in the Antonine Itinerary, ''Serni''. is a town and '' comune'' in the southern Italian region of Molise, and the capital of province of Isernia. Geography Situated on a rocky crest ...

Molise it, Molisano (man) it, Molisana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 ...

, is where the foundry is now located. The foundry "has a tradition of foundries that dates back 10 centuries." In 1924, the foundry was awarded "the title of pontifical foundry" by the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

. The Roman Catholic Church now accounts for 90 percent of all orders placed for the company.Vatican bell foundry fears uncertain future
AFP April 1, 2009 The company is co-owned and operated by brothers Armando and Pasquale Marinelli. The foundry typically produces up to 50 bells a year and currently employs around 12 people.Italian Bell-Masters
Gani, Martin, Ambassador Magazine, Spring 2006

Notable bells

The foundry produced the latest bell to be hung within the bell tower of the

Leaning Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa ( it, torre pendente di Pisa), or simply, the Tower of Pisa (''torre di Pisa'' ), is the ''campanile'', or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unsta ...

. The bell is a replica of the 17th-century bell damaged in 1944 during the bombings on Italy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The newest addition started service on Easter 2004, replacing the missing bell for the first time in 60 years. In 1923, the foundry made a set of bells for the Mariano Sanctuary in

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

. The bell of

Monte Cassino Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first ho ...

was cast for the church of San Benedetto in 1950, which was destroyed during the

Battle of Monte Cassino The Battle of Monte Cassino, also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino, was a series of four assaults made by the Allies against German forces in Italy during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The ultimate objective w ...

. In 1961, The foundry cast a special bell to commemorate the "100th anniversary of Italy's founding as a united country." In 1992, one of their bells commemorated the 500th anniversary of

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

's discovery of the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with t ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

was presented the official Jubilee Bell in 2000 that is hung in

St. Peter's Square Saint Peter's Square ( la, Forum Sancti Petri, it, Piazza San Pietro ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood ( rione) of Borgo. ...

. The bells of Pontificia Fonderia Marinelli can also be found in New York City ( United Nations Building), Rome (United Nations

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

), Beijing, Jerusalem, South America, and South Korea.

Craftsmanship

The firm's managers still apply the same lost wax casting technique that the firm's founders used nearly a thousand years ago. The artisans use wax to transfer the bell's designs onto a brick "core" slathered with clay, slightly smaller than the bell to be cast. Another layer of clay is applied to form a "false bell". After this hardens, the wax inside is melted, leaving the imprint of the design on the inside of the false bell. Molten

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

, at a temperature of around , is poured into the space to form the bell.

References

Sources

External links