Reconstructing the history of the Nativity scene is difficult due to the lack of documents and testimonies. The news comes exclusively from the oral tradition. It is known that it was used by various scholars as a "documentary source for the history of clothing" in order to reconstruct popular tradition. The clothing of the shepherds and shepherdesses, according to scholars, document the popular costume of the Cividale people.
Those who had dressed them, in the silence of the cloister, must have well remembered the people who animated the markets and streets of Cividale, the statuettes are faithfully reproduced if we look at the diligent tailoring of the clothes and the meticulous attention to detail. The oral testimonies handed down to the present day by the Ursuline nuns, attribute the crib to the eighteenth century, by the Benedictines who lived in the Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle until 1843, the year in which the Ursulines took over.
Originally the ancient crib was set up in the laundry room of the Monastery, in 1936-1937 it was set up in the Church of San Giovanni Battista, occupying a large part of the left aisle. To achieve it, no project was carried out, but we relied on the imagination of the moment. A support surface was created with large tables and the colored paper was drawn up which was produced at home by painting sacks of flour. The houses were raised with wooden boxes, those of fruit, then the lights were positioned and finally the precious statuettes.
Now the crib can be admired in its original location, in the laundry room of the monastery.