Monte Viso or Monviso (; oc, Vísol;

Piedmontese Piedmontese (; autonym: or , in it, piemontese) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, northwestern region of Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regard ...

: ''Brich Monviso'' or ''Viso'') is the highest mountain of the

Cottian Alps The Cottian Alps (; french: Alpes Cottiennes ; it, Alpi Cozie ) are a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps. They form the border between France (Hautes-Alpes and Savoie) and Italy (Piedmont). The Fréjus Road Tunnel and Fréjus R ...

. It is located in Italy close to the French border. Monte Viso is well known for its pyramid-like shape and, because it is higher than all its neighbouring peaks by about 500 m, it can be seen from a great distance, including from the Piedmontese plateau, the Langhe, the Theodulpass in the Zermatt ski area, the col du Galibier and the summits of the

Mont Blanc massif The Mont Blanc massif (french: Massif du Mont-Blanc; it, Massiccio del Monte Bianco) is a mountain range in the Alps, located mostly in France and Italy, but also straddling Switzerland at its northeastern end. It contains eleven major indep ...

. On a very clear day it can be seen from the spires of Milan Cathedral. It has been suggested that Monte Viso could be one of the mountains which inspired the Paramount logo. In Italy it is also known as ''Il Re di Pietra'' ("The Stone King") because of its prominence within the western Italian Alps. It was declared a cross-border UNESCO biosphere reserve in 2013. Il Monviso visto da Torino

It is also a mountain of the birth of the longest river of Italy, River Po.

Geography

On the northern slopes of Monte Viso are the

headwaters The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition The ...

of the Po, the longest Italian river, the so-called Pian del Re (2,020 m). The Monviso group is surrounded by the Valle Po, Valle

Varaita The Varaita (; pms, Vràita ; oc, Varacho ) is a river of the Province of Cuneo in northwest Italy. It is the first right tributary of the Po River. Geography The river springs at an elevation of some on the slopes of Monviso, in the Cottian ...

and, on the French side, the Guil valley. The northern sector of the group, from the Punta Gastaldi to the Col de la Traversette, is located on the French border. Monviso seen from Saluzzo 11-12-2021

SOIUSA classification

According to the

SOIUSA Alps by SOIUSA. SOIUSA (an acronym for - English: ''International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps-ISMSA'') is a proposal for a new classification system of the Alps from the geographic and toponomastic point of view. It was desig ...

(''International Standardized Mountain Subdivision of the Alps'') the mountain can be classified in the following way: * main part = Western Alps * major sector = South Western Alps * section =

* subsection = southern Cottian Alps * supergroup = catena Aiguillette-Monviso-Granero * group = gruppo del Monviso isa * subgroup = nodo del Monviso *

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

= I/A-4.I-C.8.a Monviso - panoramica cresta da Ostanetta

History

Monte Viso is the location of a neolithic

jadeite Jadeite is a pyroxene mineral with composition Na Al Si2 O6. It is hard (Mohs hardness of about 6.5 to 7.0), very tough, and dense, with a specific gravity of about 3.4. It is found in a wide range of colors, but is most often found in shades ...

quarry, at an elevation of 2000 to 2400 metres. Its productivity peaked around 5000 BC. The jadeite was used to make cult

axe An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has man ...

s, which are found all over western Europe. One such ceremonial axe head was found as far away as a small hill called Tristia in Western Ireland and is on display in the

National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology The National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology ( ga, Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann – Seandálaíocht, often known as the "NMI") is a branch of the National Museum of Ireland located on Kildare Street in Dublin, Ireland, that specialises in Irish an ...

, Dublin. In ancient times the mountain was known as Vesulus.Lewis C. T. and Short C., 1879, ''Latin Dictionary'', p 1982, citing Virgil ''Aen''. X 708 and Pliny 3. 16. 20 §117. Monte Viso was climbed for the first time on August 30, 1861 by William Mathews, Frederick Jacomb, Jean-Baptiste Croz and Michel Croz. The first woman to summit the mountain was Alessandra Boarelli (1838 – 1908) on 16 August 1864.

Monte Viso in literature

Monte Viso is mentioned by various authors, Italian and non-, including Dante, Petrarch, and

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

. Dante mentions the mountain in a long

simile A simile () is a figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes differ from other metaphors by highlighting the similarities between two things using comparison words such as "like", "as", "so", or "than", while other metaphors c ...

in Canto XVI of the

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * ''Inferno'' (1973 film), a German t ...

as the source of the

Montone River The Montone is a river in the historical region of Romagna, which is in the present-day region of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. It is the northernmost river on the east-facing slopes of the Apennines to flow directly into the Adriatic Sea rat ...

cites the mountain in the prologue to the

Clerk's Tale "The Clerk's Tale" is the first tale of Group E (Fragment IV) in Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterbury Tales''. It is preceded by The Summoner's Tale and followed by The Merchant's Tale. The Clerk of Oxenford (modern Oxford) is a student of what ...

in his

Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''magnum opus' ...

, in a passage adapted from Petrarch's Latin version of his "Tale of Griselda":

(Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Clerk's Tale," from ''The Canterbury Tales'')

References

Bibliography

External links

Monte Viso on SummitPost
{{DEFAULTSORT:Viso Alpine three-thousanders Populated places established in the 5th millennium BC Mountains of Piedmont Mountains of the Alps Archaeological sites in Italy Province of Cuneo Neolithic Biosphere reserves of France Biosphere reserves of Italy Three-thousanders of Italy