RECANATI, a city of Italy, in the province of Macerate, 171 miles from Loreto, on the highway between Ancona Ind Rome, is built on a hill 910 feet above the sea, and still retains portions of its 15th-century walls and gateways. It Ls now perhaps best known as the birthplace of the poet Leopardi, whose monument adorns the principal piazza and whose family has collected in the town a very interesting museum of Leopardiana ; but it also contains fine old mansions of the Leopardi, Mazzagalli, Massucci, and Car-radori in the main street, a palazzo communale with a bronze represent,ation of the removal of the Holy House to Loreto, and a Gothic cathedral, built towards the close of the 14th century and dedicated to St Flavianus, patriarch of Constantinople. The population in 1881 was 8864 in the town and port (3040) and 19,524.in the commune.

Recanati appears as a strong castle in the 10th 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 The interdict was withdrawn iu 1328 on payment of a heavy fine, but the bishopric remained in abeyance till 1357.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.