ABSTRACT In total, 33 and 65 chrome-spinel (Cr-spinel) grains in the >63 and 32–63 μm size fractions, respectively, were recovered from 12 beds in two stratigraphically separated groups along the 240-m-thick Monte Acuto section of the Maiolica limestone in central Italy, spanning from the Berriasian to the early Hauterivian. The chemistry of these detrital spinels suggests they may represent windblown ophiolitic detritus, showing the evolution of an ophiolite evolving from a mid-ocean-ridge basalt setting (Bosso section) to a suprasubduction-zone setting, including a backarc and an arc setting (Monte Acuto section). The source of the Maiolica detrital minerals may have been the obducting ophiolites of the Albanides and/or the Hellenides, which show a similar evolution. In this case, it is particularly important to note how the Cr-spinel detritus in the Maiolica limestone records this evolution over a relatively short period of time, lasting ~10 m.y.