VERCELLI (anc. Vercellae), a provincial capital and archiepiscopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of Vercelli, 13 m. S.W. of Novara by rail. Population of Vercelli in 1931 was It is situated 430 ft. above sea-level on the river. Sesia, at its junction with the Canterana. Vercelli is a point at which railways diverge for Novara, Mortara, Casale Monferrato and Santhia (for Turin). The Piazza Cavour has a statue of Cavour. The cathedral library contains many ancient mss., especially the Codex Vercellensis (see VERCELLI BooK). The church of S. Andrea is a Romanesque Gothic building of with lofty towers and an interior in the French Gothic style and a museum of Roman antiquities in the adjacent cloister. S. Paolo, S. Francesco and S. Cristoforo possess valuable examples of the work of Gaudenzio Ferrari (1471-1546) and of his follower Lanini. The castle of the Visconti is now a prison. Vercelli was
the birth place of the painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, called Sodoma (1477-1549). Vercelli is one of the principal Italian centres of the exportation of cereals and especially of rice.
Vercellae, originally the chief city of the Libici (a Ligurian tribe), was at the junction of Roman roads to Eporedia, Novaria and Mediolanum, Laumellum (for Ticinum) and perhaps Hasta. Remains of the theatre and amphitheatre were seen in the 16th century, and ancient streets have been traced during drainage operations. In the neighbourhood (near Rotto on the Sesia) are the Raudii Campi where Hannibal won his first victory on Italian soil (218 B.c.), and where in IOI B.C. Marius and Catulus routed the Cimbri. From about 1228 till 1372 Vercelli was the seat of a university. (T. A.)