A number of artefacts belonging to Saint Scalabrini are preserved in the Cathedral Museum in Piacenza. Sumptuous is the chasuble with the coat of arms of Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, part of a vestment donated to the bishop by Queen Margherita and Italian ladies on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his episcopate. It is covered with a considerable number of precious stones (said to be as many as 565) and bears the embroidered depictions of the Pelican and the Bronze Serpent on the front and the Agnus Dei on the back.

Among the endowed pastorals, the one donated to Monsignor Giovanni Battista Scalabrini on the occasion of his episcopal entry on January 22^nd, 1876 deserves special mention. It bears an equestrian sculpture of St Antonino, the patron saint of Piacenza, at the top.

Monsignor Scalabrini also owned the chalice and the architectural monstrance made in Milan by Eugenio Bellosi and donated to him on the occasion of his 25th anniversary of episcopacy (1901): the first bears on the base the Agnus Dei, the allegories of Faith, Hope, Charity, the Pelican and in the shaft the minute sculptures of St. Antoninus and St. John the Baptist, the second in the polychrome medallions of the base the bishop’s coat of arms and the emblem of the Chapter with the Madonna in Glory between St. Antoninus and St. Justina.

Also of note is the Herbarium donated to the Episcopal Seminary of Piacenza by the bishop himself in 1890 and kept in the institution’s library. It is an enormous folio volume (the three-moon watermark on the sheets is a mark used by paper mills in the eighteenth century) consisting of 270 papers, with leather stitching on three nerves, the hardboard cover is covered in parchment, there are remnants of cloth bindings that replaced the leather originals. On the front plate is a handwritten title, now almost completely illegible (one can practically only read the inscription ‘Mattioli’).

The herbs, after being carefully dried, have only been glued on the front of the cards, probably using glues made of flour or egg white. They are strictly ordered alphabetically, as can be seen from the cartouches with the handwritten names, and classified inspired by Pietro Andrea Mattioli’s work ‘Di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo Libri cinque Della historia, et materia medicinale tradotti in lingua volgare italiana da M. Pietro Andrea Matthiolo Sanese Medico, con amplissimi discorsi, et comenti, et dottissime annotationi, et censure del medesimo interprete”, one of the longest book titles in the history of publishing, which for brevity we all call “Discorsi”, first published in 1544, without illustrations (thirteen more editions followed before the author’s death; the first illustrated edition is the third official one of 1550).