Yale University Library

39002025316762

> SCHOOL OF THE FINE ARTS <

HISTORICAL STUDIES

OF

CHURCH- BUILDING

IN THE

MIDDLE AGES

VENICE, SIENA, FLORENCE

BY

CHARLES ELIOT NORTON

- o
CO , ) rn

NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
I 880

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year l88o, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

'1 2oN

CONTENTS.

I.
CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
Degradation of the Arts after Fall of the Roman Empire. — Effort of Charlemagne
to Revive them. — Improvement during Tenth Century in the Conditions of
Society. — Beginnings of Distinct National Life in Europe. — Principles of
Unity; Christianity and the Church, the Tradition of the Roman Empire,
Roman Law, Commerce, Equality of Intellectual Conditions. — Moral Unity
of the Western Nations Illustrated by the History of Architecture from
Eleventh to Thirteenth Century. — Revival of the Arts near looo A.D. — ^Anal
ogy in the History of Language and the Arts. — The Impulse of Expression
in Architecture Manifest in Zeal for Church-building. — Motives of this Zeal.
— The Services of the Church to Mediaeval Society. — Activity of Building
in Germany, in Italy, and elsewhere. — Essential Similarity in the Style of
Architecture throughout Western Europe. — The Romanesque Style. — Rapid,
Regular, and Splendid Development of Architecture. — Monastic and Lay
Builders. — The Gothic Style. — Revival of the Sense of Beauty, of the Study of
Nature. — Pervading Artistic Spirit. — The Union of the Arts in the Church
Edifice. — General Lack of Contemporary Information in regard to Church-
building. — Illustrations from the Romances. — Exceptions to the General Lack
of Information. — Conclusion  Page 3

II.
VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
Unique Character of Venice and the Venetians. — Affection of the Venetians for
their City. — The Commerce of Venice, Trade with the East. — Political and
Ecclesiastical Independence of the Venetians. — Civic Good Order. — Confi
dence in the Perpetuity of Venice. — St. Mark Patron of Venice. — Legend of
the Translation of his Body from Alexandria. — The First Church of St.
Mark. — Its Destruction by Fire. — Disappearance of the Body of the Saint.
— The Miracle of its Discovery. — The Building and Plan of the Existing
Church. — Its Adornment. — Mosaics. — Inscriptions. — Change in Character of
Venetian Architecture in Fifteenth Century. — St. Mark's as the Scene of

iv CONTENTS.
Public Transactions.— The Religious Quality of Venetian Character.— The
Legend of Pope Alexander III. and Frederic Barbarossa. — Enrico Dandolo.
— Preparations for the Third Crusade. — Mission of Villehardouin to Venice.
— Proceedings of the Venetians. — Departure of the Fleet. — St. Mark's En
riched by the Pillage of Constantinople.— The Story of St. Mark's an Epit
ome of that of Venice  Page 39

III.
SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE DUOMO, AND THE BATTLE OF MONTAPERTI.
Turbulence of the Sienese during Middle Ages. — Public Works in Twelfth Cen
tury. — Beginning of the Duomo. — Its Site. — Story of the Early Work. — The
Building a Work of the Commune. — Ordinances relating to it. — Sienese
Archives. — Funds for Building. — The Festival of the Madonna of August. —
Earliest Records relating to the Existing Building. — Work done in 1260. —
Guelf and Ghibelline. — Effect of Death of Frederic II. on Party Relations.—
Discord between Florence and Siena. — Ghibellines Exiled from Florence
Welcomed by Siena. — Preparations for War. — Manfred Takes Siena under
his Protection. — German Mercenaries. — Campaign of the Spring of 1260. —
Farinata degli Uberti. — Preparations for Autumn Campaign. — Florentines
March towards Siena, and Encamp at Montaperti. — Summons to the City to
Surrender. — Deliberations and Preparations of the Sienese. — Battle of JWon-
taperti. — Rout of the Florentines. — Results of the Sienese Victory  87
II. THE STORY OF THE DUOMO AFTER I260.
Progress of the Building. — The Cupola. — Irregularities in Construction. — The
Pulpit of Niccola Pisano. — Release of Prisoners. — Pier Pettignano. — The
Fajade. — Giovanni Pisano. — Revival of Painting. — Duccio di Boninsegna,
his Altar-piece. — Celebration in Taking it to the Duomo. — The New Baptis
tery. — Proposal for a New Church. — Its Rejection. — Slow Progress of the
Building. — Oblates. — New Statutes respecting the Duomo. — Change in the
Spiritual Temper of the People in Fourteenth Century. — Flourishing Condi
tion of the City. — Resolve to Build a New Church. — Beauty and Magnifi
cence of the New Design. — Work Begun. — Lando di Pietro. — Calamities in
1340. — Activity in Public Works. — Increase of Wealth and Dissoluteness. —
The Plague of 1348. — Its Horrors. — Desolation of the City. — Slow and Par
tial Recovery. — Diminution of Population, and of Means for Carryino- on the
Duomo. — The New Church Given Up and in Great Part Demolished. — End
of the Story of the Duomo as a Great Civic Work. — Completion of the Exist
ing Building. — Its Wealth of Adornment. — Decline of Siena  '.  124

CONTENTS. IV.
FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
I. THE CHURCH OF ARNOLFO.
Flourishing Condition of Florence at Close of Thirteenth Century. — Her Political
Administration. — Ordinances of Justice. — The Arti, their Organization and
Influence. — Public Works. — Rebuilding of Sta. Reparata. — New Church Be
gun 1294. — Sources of Means for its Erection. — Arnolfo di Cambio Archi
tect. — Character of his Style. — Wretched Condition of Florence in 1300. —
Dino Compagni's Chronicle. — Charles of Valois at Florence. — Dante Con
demned and Banished. — Death of Arnolfo. — His Work in Florence. — Pal
aces and Towers. — Methods of Construction. — Conflagration of 1304. — Party
Strife. — Neglect of Work on the Cathedral. — War with Castruccio Castra-
cani. — Burning of Cecco d' Ascoli. — Effects of War. — Charge of the Duomo
Committed to the Art of Wool. — Superintendence of Public Works by the
Arts. — The Baptistery in Charge of the Art of Calimala. — Statute of the Art.
— Feast of St. John Baptist. — Release of Prisoners. — The Care of the Car-
roccio. — Procurators at Rome. — 1334: Giotto Chosen Chief Master of the
Work of the Cathedral. — His Work on it. — His Bell-tower. — His Death. —
The Plague of 1348. — Its Effects in Florence. — New Plans for the Duomo. —
Arnolfo's Design Abandoned. — ^1357 : Work Begun on the New Design. —
Francesco Talenti Chief Master. — Character of the New Design. — Change
in Architectural Taste. — Progress of the Work till the Beginning of Fifteenth
Century  Page 181
II. THE DOME OF BRUNELLESCHI.
Picture in the Spanish Chapel in which the Duomo is Represented. — The Prob
lem of the Dome. — The Doors of the ISaptistery. — Competition of 1401. —
Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. — Decision in Favor of Ghiberti. — The Biographers
of Brunelleschi. — Brunelleschi's Journey to Rome. — Its Object. — His Studies
there. — Progress of Work on the Duomo. — Designs for the Dome. — Delib
erations of the Opera. — Competition. — Brunelleschi's Advice and Model. —
DonateUo Assists him. — Brunelleschi's Project. — Its Novelty and Boldness. —
Decision in its Favor. — 1420 : Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Battista d' Antonio
Chosen Chief Master-builders. — Group of Artists at Florence. — Artistic Spirit
of the Florentines. — Story of Building of the Cupola as told by Vasari. —
Character of Vasari's Lives. — Giovanni di Gherardo's Sonnet and Remon
strance. — Progress of the Work. — Ghiberti's Incompetence. — Ruse of Bru
nelleschi. — 1432 : Close of Ghiberti's Connection with the Work. — Incidents
of Building. — War with Filippo Visconti. — Slackness in Progress. — Renewal
of Activity in Building. — 1434: Completion of Dome. — Pope Eugenius IV. in
Florence. — 1436 : Consecration of the Duomo. — The Lives of Vespasiano da
Bisticci. — Cosimo de' Medici. — Activity of the Arts. — Benediction of the
Cupola. — Leon Battista Alberti. — Dedication of his Treatise on Painting
to Brunelleschi. — The Lantern. — Decision in Favor of Brunelleschi's Model.

vi CONTENTS.
— Brunelleschi in Charge of Construction. — Council of Florence. — Cere
mony of Union of Eastern and Western Churches in the Duomo. — Influ
ence of the Presence of Greek Prelates on the Study of Greek in Florence.
—Death of Brunelleschi.— Completion of Brunelleschi's Design  Page 234
Appendix I. . Documents relating to the Duomo of Siena  295
I. 1260. Extract from Statute.
II. 1262. Letter of Captain of the People to the Commune of Mon-
ticiano.
III. 1272. Q\vo\c& oi Operaio.
IV. 1280. Election of Board of Works.
V. 1282. Release of Prisoners.
VI. 1290. Donation of Money by the Commune.
VII. 1297. Ghino di Tacco.
VIIL 1337. Extract from Statute.
IX. 1353. Subsidy for the Works.
X. 1388. Order Concerning the Drafting of Wills.
XI. 1389. Order Concerning Offerings.
Appendix II. . Irregularities of Construction in Italian Buildings
of the Middle Ages  319
Index  323

I
CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES

HISTORICAL STUDIES
OF
CHURCH-BUILDING in the
MIDDLE AGES.

CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
The completeness of the wreck of ancient civiliza
tion in Western Europe during the centuries that fol
lowed the fall of the Roman Empire is indicated by
the degradation of all the arts of expression. As one
light of ancient civilization after another was extin
guished, the habits of culture, of which these arts are
the manifestation, disappeared. The language of com
mon speech as well as that of literature became feeble
and corrupt. The last book in which something of
classic dignity and vigor survived bore the significant
title of The Consolation of Philosophy. Palace, villa,
and temple, the monuments of ancient elegance and
splendor, were destroyed by violence, or deserted and
left to slow decay. No new great works of civic
utility or adornment were undertaken ; the old were

4 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
no longer maintained. Architecture, sculpture, and
painting, if practised at all, were occupied with the
rude execution of poor and unimaginative designs.
Skill even in the mechanic arts declined.
In Italy, indeed, a few cities remained, or became for
a longer or shorter time, centres of a life that preserved
feeble traditions of the old civilization or displayed
some traits of original culture. Rome, not yet at her
worst, was busy alike in destroying the works of hea
then ages* and in building and decorating Christian
churches that reproduced the forms of the imperial
basilica. Ravenna received from Constantinople the
* The rapid loss of sense of the worth of works of ancient art gives
evidence, not so much of the change of sentiment due to the influence
of Christianity, as of the growth of actual barbarism. The following
extract from a letter by R. Lanciani, in the Athenaum (London) of June
24, 1879, illustrates this point:
" Two striking instances of the wanton destruction of works of art
after the fall of the Empire have been obtained in the last days. A
few yards from the so-called Temple of Minerva Medica a wall was
discovered built with statues. Seven have already been put together,
as I mentioned in my last letter. Not far from the same place we are
exploring a foundation wall, eight feet square, built with the same ma
terials. The upper strata contain slabs of marble, stripped from pave
ments and from walls, steps, lintels, thresholds, etc. The middle strata
contain columns, pedestals, capitals, all split into fragments. Finally,
at the bottom of the wall, statues begin to appear of exquisite work
manship, together with busts, hermas, bass-reliefs, etc. The stratifica
tion of these marbles shows that at the time when the foundation wall
was being constructed there was in the neighborhood a shrine, a tem
ple, a fountain, or some such monument, in good preservation and pro
fusely ornamented. The masons first took advantage of whatever was
movable without difficulty, and accordingly we find the statues at the
bottom of the trench. Then they put their hands on what was half
movable, and this is the reason why columns, capitals, etc., are found
in the middle strata. A further want of materials obliged them to at
tack at last the building itself, its steps, thresholds, etc."

SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF EUROPE. c
arts which gave lustre to the Empire of the East. The
Lombards showed in their rough but impressive work
the vigorous spirit and kindling imagination of a strong,
half-barbaric Northern race.
But throughout the greater part of Europe the ele
ments of society were too confused, and its conditions
too unsettled, for the undertaking of any work that re
quired stable modes of life and implied confidence in
the permanence of established order. Charlemagne
(742-814) indeed, who, for a moment, by force of he
roic personal character and iron will, evoked order out
of chaos, and revived the fading memory of imperial
authority, conceived the generous but impracticable de
sign of restoring life to literature and the arts. The
famous church at Aachen is the venerable monument
of his effort, and one of the most impressive memorials
in the world of the power of character over circum
stance. But the order which Charlemagne established
in his dominions, and which alone made culture and the
arts possible, fell to pieces in the nerveless hands of his
successors. The conditions of society became more
wretched and distract-ed than ever; and, in the confu
sion and tumult of the ninth century, all forms of ex
pression became still ruder and feebler than before.
But this period of disintegration and dissolution was
one of preparation for the reorganization of society
upon new foundations. The old structure must be de
stroyed that the new might come into existence. As
years went on the brutal forces of anarchy were here

6 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
and there successfully withstood. The principles by
which the modern world was to be regulated slowly
gained, strength, though but dimly recognized and im
perfectly defined.
In the course of the tenth century, Europe began
to take on a new shape. A faint consciousness of dis
tinct national life was felt in Italy, Germany, France,
and England. The lines of modern nationalities were
beginning to define themselves. The wanderings of
the races had almost ceased, and the people were set
tling down into their permanent homes. At the same
time, while the various nations were thus drawing
apart within local boundaries of which the precise
limits were, indeed, in many cases but imperfectly de
termined, certain general influences were operating in
cessantly and irresistibly to unite them as they had
never before been united as members of a vast and
real, however vague, moral commonwealth.
Chief among these uniting influences was Christian
ity. For it not only subjected all believers, whatever
their difference of race and custom, to a common rule
of interior life, bringing all under one universally ac
knowledged, supreme authority, but it also filled their
imaginations with common hopes and fears, and sup
plied their understandings with common conceptions
of the universe, of the origin and order of the world,
and of the destiny of man.
The Church, in which the authority of Christianity
was organized and embodied as the divine instrument

THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE.
for the government of the world, claimed universal
obedience. Within her pale there was no distinction
of race or of person. Her discipline exacted of all men
equal submission. Her ceremonial observances were
celebrated everywhere with a uniform and impressive
ritual. Her sacraments were essential to salvation.
By the vast mass of ecclesiastical tradition and legend
she afforded the material of thought, fancy, and feeling
to the whole body of Christian people; and by fixing
her chief seat at Rome she had secured the inher
itance of a large share of the superstitious reverence
with which the paramount dominion of the mistress of
the ancient world had been regarded from of old.
While she thus asserted her authority over the
spiritual concerns of men, and extended it over many
of their material interests, the tradition of the right of
Rome to the government of the world survived also in
the name of the Roman Empire, transmitting to the
inheritor of the title of emperor, whoever he might be,
the claim to hold, by equally divine right, the sword of
earthly sovereignty. The Empire was, in truth, often,
and for long periods, little more than a name for an
ideal institution ; but this name was the source of the
most prevailing political theory of the Middle Ages ;
and such was the force of the idea behind the name
that it sufficed to hold the greater part of Europe in
allegiance, binding together the North and the South —
Germany and Italy — as under a yoke of fate ; so that, in
spite of difference of race, tradition, language, and cus-

8 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
tom, in spite of mutual hatred and incessant war, the
people of the two lands were compelled to advance
along the path of history with a common and control
ling sentiment for the image and authority of imperial
Rome. Associated with the idea of the Empire of Rome, yet
distinct from it, and even more effective as an influ
ence in giving unity to the civilization of Europe, was
the body of legal principles and political conceptions
derived from the system of Roman law and admin
istration — principles and conceptions which, though
greatly and variously modified by the laws and cus
toms of the Teutonic races, had yet a large share in
determining the new moral order of society.
The contrast to the conditions of the ancient world
wrought by the influence of these dominant elements
of unity is of the most striking character. For the first
time in history the people of nations of diverse origin,
language, and tradition were brought and held together
by the indissoluble ties of a common faith and a com
mon rule of conduct, as well as by generally correspond
ing convictions in respect to legal government and civil
order. Under the diversified forms of institutions varied
by local conditions, these principles moulded into gen
eral similarity the broad features of the inner as well
as the outer life of men throughout Western Europe.
But besides the influences exerted by the Church
and the Empire — by the Rome of the present and the
past — to create and foster the moral unity of mediaeval

SOURCES OF MORAL UNITY. g
society, there were others of a more material nature.
Wherever life and property acquired some degree of
security, however imperfect, commerce, still half pirat
ical, and exposed to peril on sea and land, began to
weave her fine, strong network of mutual interests be
tween distant lands. Venice, daughter of the waves,
led the way across the seas with her fleets, ready alike
for battle or for trade. The sails of Pisa and Genoa
flew close behind. Before long, the intelligence of the
artisans of Florence made their city the inland rival of
the wealthy seaports. In Germany, in France, in Eng
land, one town after another began to grow strong and
rich by industry and traffic.
Still another source of unity lay in the fact that the
ruin of the old civilization had been so complete ; that
in the fall of the ancient order the ancient culture had
become extinct. Many of the old sources of knowledge
were choked ; no one race or people possessed any ab
solute intellectual or material pre-eminence ; the men
tal development of all was alike rude and childish, and
the most enlightened men were everywhere groping
about in uncertain gloom to collect the scattered mate
rials for the reconstruction of learning. The very equal
ity of ignorance tended to produce community of senti
ment. The mental interests of m.en were everywhere
similar in kind ; their chief topics of thought for the
most part alike.
Thus, towards the beginning of the second thousand
years of our era, the greater part of Europe was divid-

IO CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
ing itself into distinct nations, different in historic ex
perience and intermixture of blood, but yet united by
many mutual relations and by common tendencies of
civilization, so as to form a vague commonwealth in
which the higher interests of man — religion, law, knowl
edge — the deep-rooted traditions common to the Eu
ropean race, and the most widely dominant institutions
were operating with irregular but constant force to
bring its discordant members into closer moral connec
tion with each other than had been possible in any pre
vious epoch of history.
This essential and characteristic feature of the mod
ern world, this main distinction between ancient and
modern civilization, finds its clearest and most brilliant
expression in the art of architecture from the eleventh
to the thirteenth century. The motives which inspired
the great buildings of this period, the principles which
underlay their forms, the general character of the forms
themselves, were, in their essential nature, the same
throughout Western Europe from Italy to England.
The differences in the works of different lands are but
local and external varieties. This intrinsic similarity
of spirit gives unity to the history of the art, and makes
it practicable to treat even a fragment of it, such as that
of church-building, not merely as a study of separate
edifices, but as a clear and brilliant illustration of the
general conditions of society, and especially of its mor
al and intellectual dispositions.
No precise date can be fixed for the reawakening of

GROWTH OF MODERN LANGUAGES. n
the arts in the Middle Ages. The dawn was gradual,
and broke earlier in one region than another. Wherev
er, in free or imperial city, in royal or monastic domain,
such a degree of order was established that regular and
legal modes of life became customary, and men could
look forward beyond the narrow horizon of their own
lives with confidence of transmitting their remembrance
and their property to their successors, wealth began to
accumulate, intelligence revived.
As life became richer and more settled, the range
of sentiment and of thought widened. Men felt un
wonted need of utterance and communication, and lan
guage and the arts answered to the strong inward emo
tion. There was a close parallel in their co.ndftions.
The Roman tongue had suffered a slow corruption.
Rudeness and barbarism had wrought their worst with
it. It broke up into various dialects ; the dialects
themselves were in process of constant change. In the
South as well as in the North the elements of Teutonic
tongues became more and more mingled with it. The
time came when no layma!n used Latin in his daily con
versation. At length, after this long confusion, after
unforeseen and unintended transformations and muta
tions, new languages were found to exist — languages
supple, fresh, differing in composition and in virtue, suf
ficient not only for the transient needs of intercourse,
but for the permanent ends of literature, and capable of
modulation to the finest forms of poetry — each not a
degraded ancient language, but a new language with

12 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
qualities and advantages of its own, requiring only to
be developed by use in order to afford the fit garb for
every mood of sentiment and every tone of thought.
Among the arts, the one that has alike the closest
and the widest relations to the life of a people — to its
wants, habits, and culture — and which gives the fullest
and most exact expression to its moral disposition, its
imagination, and its intelligence, is that of architecture.
Its history during the Dark Ages had been analogous
to that of language. The requirements it had had to
meet were in great part confined to those of immediate
necessity. There was little thought of building for pos
terity. But as the condition of society slowly changed
for the better the improvement found manifestation in
architecture even earlier than in literature. The grow
ing sense of perpetuity in the life of the community
promoted the revival of permanent and monumental
building. The new structures showed their derivation
from ancient models, but they were instinct with an
original spirit by which design and construction were
to be gradually but profoundly modified in response to
the needs and desires of men controlled by ideas, sen
timents, and emotions widely different from those of
the ancient world.
There are many Indications of this revival as early
as the last quarter of the tenth century,* but the year
* The existing Church of St. Mark at Venice and the Duomo of
Murano were begun at this period ; but Venice was more advanced
in civilization than any other part of Europe.

THE REVIVAL OF ARCHITECTURE. 13
1000 may be taken as a convenient date to mark the
setting-In of a strong current of progress in the art,
which, for nearly two hundred and fifty years, runs
on through ever deepening and widening channels.
From this time the successive steps may be traced
by which it advanced with constant increase of power
of expression, of pliability and variety of adaptation,
of beauty in design and skill In construction, until,
at last, in the consummate splendor of such a cathe
dral as that of Our Lady of Chartres or of Amiens, it
reached a height of achievement that has never been
surpassed. It was especially in the building of churches that
the impulse for expression in architecture displayed
itself, for it was in the church that the faith of the
community took visible form. The two motives which
have been most effective In the production of noble
human works — religion and local affection and pride —
united to stimulate energies that had long been sup
pressed. Either alone or in combination, these two
most powerful principles of action were alike existent
in their highest force. The nature of medieval socie
ty cannot be understood, the meaning and character of
a medieval cathedral will not be comprehended, the
devotion and sacrifices of the builders of churches in
city and village, in desert places and on mountain-tops,
unless the imagination represent the force and con
stancy of religious motives in a rude society, and the
commanding position which the Church then occu-

J 4 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
pied towards the world as the recognized representa
tive of the Divine government, and the authoritative
expounder of the Divine will. The lawlessness and ra
pine prevalent during the Dark Ages, the oppression
of the weak, the misery of the poor, the uncertainty
of life and possession among all classes, the contrast
between the actual state of society and the concep
tions of the kingdom of heaven, of which the Church
was the visible though Imperfect type, brought all men
to her doors.
In the midst of darkness and confusion and dread,
the ideal Church — and it is by ideal and fanciful con
ceptions that men of imperfectly trained intelligence
are apt to be most powerfully and permanently affect
ed — presented herself as a harbor of refuge from the
storms of the world, as the image of the city of God,
whose walls were a sure defence. While all else was
unstable and changeful, she, with her unbroken tradi
tion and her uninterrupted services, vindicated the prin
ciple of order and the moral continuity of the race.
Superstition, natural in a period of low culture, stimu
lated piety, and displayed itself in ardors of irrational
and imaginative devotion, of which the first Crusades
afford a striking Instance. No sacrifice by which their
faith might be witnessed, no effort to secure salvation,
seemed extreme to men in this temper. The doctrines
of the Church in respect to heaven and hell lent them
selves to material interpretation. The endowment of
monasteries, the building of churches, were works by

THE SERVICES OF THE CHURCH. jr
which the Divine favor was to be secured and the soul
to be saved.
A deep, wide-spread conviction of human sinfulness
was one of the characteristic traits of these times, hav
ing its root not so much in the doctrine of the fallen
nature of man as in the fact of the prevalence of crime,
immorality, and suffering. The Church alone could lift
from the world the burden of its sin ; and though her
ministers might fall short of fulfilling their high calling,
though pope, prelate, and priest might be partakers in
violence and partners in sin, yet the Church remained
pure, steadfastly upholding the power of righteousness,
preaching the coming of the Lord to judge the earth,
asserting her claim to loose and to bind, and vindicat
ing it with the blood of confessors and martyrs.
But, besides all this, the Church was the great popu
lar institution of the Middle Ages, cheering and pro
tecting the poor and friendless ; the teacher, the healer,
the feeder of the " little people of God." The services
of monastic and secular clergy alike, their offices of
faith, charity, and labor in the field and the hovel, in
the school and the hospital, as well as in the church,
were for centuries the chief witnesses of the spirit of
human brotherhood, and of the one essential doctrine
of Christianity. In times when lord and serf were far
thest apart, when the villain had no rights but those of
the beasts which perish, the Church read the parable
of Dives and Lazarus, and declared the equality of man
in the presence of God.

1 6 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
Her priesthood, spread abroad over the world, form
ed a vast corporation, inspired by similar motives, link
ed by common interests, and supplying to a distracted
society the priceless example of strength that had Its
source in unity. For every member of this vast body
of the priesthood was strong, not only in the sanctity
of his office, but in the numbers and the sympathy
of his brethren, and in the authority of the Church
herself. The clergy formed the first general society
in Europe, and it was through their intercourse that
some semblance of interchange of thought was main
tained among widely separated nations.
It was not strange, then, that when, towards the
close of the tenth centur}^, in various parts of Europe,
the sense of increasing civil order and security was
distinctly felt, one of the first signs of this improve
ment was a general zeal for the building of churches —
a work of piety to which all, poor and rich, weak and
strong, alike could contribute, and in the merits of
which all could have a share. It was a work for the
glory of God and of his Mother, for the honor of the
saints, for the credit of the community, for the eternal
benefit of every individual. The hearts and the imag
inations of all men were engaged in it ; the dispersed
resources of the people were brought together to achieve
it ; capacities that had long been unused were evoked,
and, as in other ages, a vivid and earnest faith found
its just and characteristic expression.
According to the testimony of a contemporary eye-

REBUILDING OF MONASTIC CHURCHES. 17
witness, Rudolphus Glaber, or Rudolph the Bald, a
monk of Cluny, just after the thousandth year had
passed, men began throughout almost all the world,
but especially in Italy and France, to rebuild the
churches, and in more noble style than that before In
use. " It was as if the earth," such is his picturesque
phrase, " rousing itself and casting away its old robes,
clothed itself with the white garment of churches." *
Of these new churches, a great number were those
of abbeys and monasteries. The Inestimable services
which, during the most troubled times, the religious or-
* " Erat enim instar ac si mundus ipse excutiendo semet, rejecta
vetustate, passim candidam ecclesiarum vestem indueret." Historicz
sui Teniporis, lib. iii. cap. vi. ; De Innovatione Ecclesiarum in toto Orbe.
Rudolph the Bald's History of his Own Time, from the election of
Hugh Capet to the year 1046, in spite of its wretched style, gives a
striking picture of the material and intellectual conditions of the
period. The fables and miracles with which the book abounds afford
many illustrations of the spiritual temper of the age. It was first
printed by Duchesne, Hist. Franc. Scriptores, tom. iv. pp. 1-58 ; it is
included by Migne in his Patrologia, tom. cxlii. In connection with
this general impulse of church-building, Rudolph says that about this
time many relics of saints that had long lain hidden were discovered.
" Candidato, ut diximus, in novatis Ecclesiarum basilicis, universe
mundo, subsequenti tempore, id est anno octavo infra praedictum mil-
lesimum humanati Salvatoris annum [1008], revelata sunt, diversorum
argumentorum indiciis, quorsum diu latuerant, plurimorum Sanctorum
pignora." Ibid. cap. vi. The effect of this discovery was to quicken
and maintain the ardor of the pious, and to secure constant and abun
dant contributions to the work.
The renewal of monumental building in the eleventh century has
often been ascribed to the sense of relief and security experienced by
the Christian community after the completion of the first thousand
years of our era, there having been, it is asserted, a general apprehen
sion of the end of the world at this date. This belief was, doubtless,
wide-spread, but it was by no means universal, and there is abundant
evidence to show that it had not prevented men, towards the close of
the tenth century, from undertaking works intended for long duration.
2

1 8 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
ders had rendered to society, by maintaining the stand
ard of self-discipline, of obedience, of humility and char
ity; by cherishing the faint and almost expiring coals
of letters and learning and the arts ; by the shelter
and Immunity which they afforded not only to their
own brethren, but to the poor people settled on their
lands ; by their well-directed labor on the soil and in
the mechanic arts, as well as by the powerful influence
of their example as centres of orderly life — all these
services had been rewarded by the increase of their
possessions and their power. Exemptions and privi
leges, the donations and bequests of the pious and the
penitent, had enriched the abbeys and monasteries in
all parts of Europe, and had extended their domains
till they included a vast portion of the land.*
The original churches of the monasteries, which had
been for the most part humble, but sufficient for their
early needs, were little befitting their increased size,
dignity, and wealth. The time had come for the build
ing of churches which should correspond to these new
conditions, and the arts which had long found shelter
* It is not possible to determine with accuracy the proportion of the
soil held respectively by the regular and the secular clergy. " They
did enjoy," says Hallam, " according to some authorities, nearly one
half of England, and I believe a greater proportion in some countries
of Europe." Europe during the Middle Ages, ch. vii. pt. i. ; compare
Milman, Latin Christianity, bk. xiv. ch. i. Mr. Bryce, speaking of Ger
many, says, " In the eleventh century, a full half of the land and wealth
of the country, and no small part of its military strength, was in the
hands of Churchmen." The Holy Roman Empire (1866), ch. viii. p. 140.
In France a similar state of things existed ; the domains of the great
abbeys, such as Cluny and St. Denis, were of the size of provinces.

ZEAL IN THE WORK IN GERMANY. i n
and nurture in the cloister were to repay the debt
many-fold. The secular clergy were not slow in following the
example of their regular brethren. They not only
recognized the advantage to the Church, as a popu
lar institution, to be derived from the general zeal in
church-building, but they also shared in the common
emotion, and took part in the common labor. The
bishops promoted the erection both of cathedrals and
of parish churches. In Germany, for instance, where
the bishops of the more powerful sees exercised civil
no less than ecclesiastical authority, almost as inde
pendent princes, the activity in church-building under
their lead during the first half of the eleventh century
was enormous.* The work was encouraged by a suc
cession of devout and vigorous emperors. There is a
tradition that the foundations of three churches, two
of them the mightiest of the time — the Minster at
Limburg, the Cathedral at Speier, and the Church
of St. John the Evangelist in the same city — were
laid on one day, in 1030, by the great emperor Con
rad II. The fact is questionable, but the story rep
resents the spirit of the age.f
Many of the new designs were on such a scale as
to require for their execution the toil and the con
tributions of more than one generation of believers.
* Schnaase, Geschichte der bildenden Kiinste (1871), Band iv. p. 328.
t F. von Quast, Die roinanischen Dome des Mittelrheins zu Mains,
Speier, Worms (1853), p. 25; Otte, Geschichte der deutschen Baukunst
(1874), p. 220.

20 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
The work was aided by imperial subsidies, by epis
copal privileges and indulgences, by gifts from the
episcopal revenues. The massive piles rose with
grandeur above the clustering roofs at their feet, and
threw their broad shadows, like a protecting mantle,
over city or hamlet. Of the multitude of churches
erected in Germany during this period, most have dis
appeared — many of them burned, many ruined by war
or other violence, many remodelled ; but a few, such
as the great Rhenish cathedrals of Mainz, of Speier,
and of Worms, still exist, more or less changed, but
enduring monuments of the emotions and sentiments
to which their builders sought to give expression, as
well as of the intelligence and the art with which the
zeal of the community was served.*
In Italy the Church held a different position from
that which it occupied in the Western nations of Eu
rope. Great as Its services to civilization In Italy had
been, it had not been the sole ark of the higher inter
ests of society. The Imperial traditions of Rome had
been here more than elsewhere a strong principle of
* " The grandeur of the whole building," says Von Quast, speaking
of the Cathedral at Speier, " which of all Romanesque churches makes
the most powerful impression on the beholder, and the simplicity of
its detail, which approaches even to rudeness, correspond in every re
spect to the character which it should possess, founded as it was by an
emperor, and zealously carried to completion by his successors at the
height of the power of the German Empire, in the eleventh century, in
order that it should serve as the resting-place of the highest earthly
rulers of the world." Die roma?tische?i Dome des Mittelrheins, p. 27.
Earthly pride was often combined as a strong motive with pious devo
tion in the erection and adornment of these buildings.

IN ITALY. 2 1
order throughout the confusions of centuries in which
the change from the ancient to the modern world had
been going on. Something of Roman culture and
of Roman institutions, at least in the suggestive form
of memories of past achievements, had been saved for
Italy from the wreck of the empire. This very pre
dominance of Rome deprived the clergy in other cities
of Italy of a portion of such authority as they exer
cised in more remote localities. The episcopal sees
were, indeed, even more numerous than In other lands ;
but they were of less extent, their revenues were gen
erally of less amount, and their bishops rarely pos
sessed that independent sovereign authority which
those at a greater distance from Rome frequently
exercised. Thus, though there was great activity
in church- building in Italy during the eleventh and
twelfth centuries, the upper clergy had less to do
with the work than in Germany or England. It was
mainly the expression of the piety of the citizens of
towns in which wealth was accumulating, and of the
spirit of a community animated with a sense of inde
pendence and of strength, and becoming confident of
perpetuity.* The new cathedral in an Italian city
was the witness of civic as well as of religious devo
tion, of pride and of patriotism consecrated by piety.
"* Muratori remarks on the display of piety in the free cities after the
year looo : " Particolarmente poi dopo 1' anno millesimo, e dappoiche
buona parte delle citta d' Italia riacquisto la liberta, ciascuna d' esse
gareggio per onorare al possibile il Santo suo tutelare." Delle Antichi
ta Italiane, dissert. 58, tomo iii. parte i. p. 241.

2 2 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
It was also the sign of the favor of Heaven in the
bestowal of the prosperity of which it gave evi
dence. While the common character of the prevailing spir
itual influences by which the various nations of Eu
rope were affected is shown by this wide-spread zeal in
church-building, a similar indication of the common
stage of development at which they had arrived is af
forded by the essential likeness in the style of their
edifices. Under the general likeness, there were, in
deed, marked varieties. In Venice and the South of
Italy, for example, architecture borrowed more than
in the rest of Europe from the East. In Florence
and in Rome herself the tradition of ancient Rome
exercised a more exclusive influence than elsewhere.
But from the Duomo of Pisa to the Cathedral of
Mainz, from the churches of the Arno to those of the
Rhine and the Seine, from Monte-Cassino to Cluny
and Durham, one ruling style is to be traced under
which innumerable differences of plan, detail, and con
struction arrange themselves as local peculiarities or
progressive historical developments.
The name Romanesque, which has been given to this
style, very nearly corresponds with the term Romance
as applied to a group of languages. It signifies the
derivation of the main elements, both of plan and of
construction, from the works of the later Roman Em
pire. But Romanesque architecture was not, as it has
been called, " a corrupted imitation of the Roman archi-

ELEMENTS OF THE ROMANESQUE STYLE. 2 7.
tecture,"* any more than the Provencal or the Italian
language was a corrupted imitation of the Latin. It
was a new thing, the slowly matured product of a
long period and of many influences. The architect of
the court of Diocletian's great palace at Spalato and
the builder of the little Duomo of Torcello, though
separated by seven hundred years, used similar con
structive methods, adopted similar forms, and sup
ported their arches upon columns in the same fash
ion ; but the work of one was classic, of the other
mediaeval. The outward resemblances are strong,
but no one could suppose the two buildings to pro
ceed from the same spirit, or to express the sentiment
of the same age.f
* Whewell, Architectural Notes on German Churches (3d ed., Cam
bridge, 1842), p. 48. In his omniscience. Dr. Whewell included an un
usual knowledge of architecture. This book still retains its value for
students. t The Palace of Diocletian was built near the beginning of the fourth
century, when the emperor, abdicating the government, retired "to
grow cabbages " during his last years in his native province of Dalma-
tia. The arcade of the court is remarkable as one of the earliest
known instances of arched construction in which the arches spring
directly from the capitals of the columns which support them. This
step in the development of arched architecture, the importance of
which Mr. Freeman exaggerates in an interesting paper on " The Ori
gin and Growth of Romanesque Architecture," in the Fortnightly Re
view, Oct., 1872, marks the point at which the builders of the Middle
Ages took up the art.
A fine plate of the court is given by Adam, in his Ruins of the Palace
of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro (1864), one of those superb works
of investigation and delineation of ancient architecture which, from
the Antiquities of Athens of Stuart and Revett to the Principles of
Athenian Architecture by Penrose, have done credit to the energy and
the learning of English architects.
The Duomo at Torcello was, according to a doubtful tradition, origi-

24 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
The elements of the construction — the column or
the pier and the round arch, the broad spaces of solid
walls, and their strongly marked horizontal lines —
these and other features were common to the Roman
and the mediaeval building. But the members of
the architecture became plastic in the hands of the
mediaeval builders, acquiring new life and character.
The arch, as the controlling element of the structure,
was moulded with an admirable effect unknown to the
Romans. Compelled often to use materials of small
size in the construction of arches of great dimensions,
the medlEeval builders followed the method of the ear
liest times — of which the Cloaca Maxima itself gives
an example — in building the arches in rims, or several
concentric layers, one over the other, each layer form
ing a distinct arch ; but instead of building them
square through the heavy wall, they made only the
upper arched layer of the full width of the wall, and
recessed each of the subordinate rims, thus securing
not only economy of material, but play of light and
shade, a freer opening for light, and full opportunity
for variety of rich ornamentation. The change thus
introduced was of far-reaching effect. The support
nally built in the seventh century ; it was restored or rebuilt in 864,
and again in 1008. This last church exists essentially unaltered, pro
tected by the desolation of the little island on which it stands. The
best account of it is in Ruskin's Stones of Venice, vol. ii. ch. ii. See also
Mothes, Baukunst und Bildhauerei Venedigs (Leipzig, 1859), pp. 26 seq.
When the Duomo of Torcello was finally rebuilt, Spalato was subject
to the dominion of Venice. Sanudo, F^'fe de' Duchi, in Muratori, i^s/-.
Ital. Script, tom. xxii. p. 468 D.

THE CHARACTER OF ITALIAN DESIGN. 25
of the arch, whether pier or column, was shaped to
match with its various orders. Each rim rested on
a corresponding division of the support; the pier was
subdivided to meet the subordination of the arch ; the
column, from being single, became clustered. The
transformation was not effected all at once. It was the
result of experiment on experiment, of step after step
of progress. And It was not a solitary improvement.
The builders exercised their imagination and their
reason conjointly on every part of the construction.*
In the matter of plan, the forms which the Roman
Christians had adopted as suitable to the requirements
of ceremony and worship were still, in great part, fitted
to meet the needs of the Church after the lapse of five
or six hundred years. But the builders of the eleventh
century did not simply adopt the ancient forms. The
plans, no less than the construction of their buildings,
were gradually modified, with slow development but
with rational and regular procedure. In accordance
with the demands and the sentiment of the new time.
In Italy, where the tradition of building on a great
scale had never completely perished, the power of orig
inal design and of skilful execution of architectural
works displayed itself as soon as the new Impulse of
church-building was strongly felt. The Italian build
ers — or, more strictly, the Tuscan builders — possessed
* The subject is well treated from the architectural point of view in
Sir Gilbert Scott's Lectures on the Rise and Development of Mediceval
Architecture (1879), vol. i. p. 223.

26 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
a sense of dignity of proportion and of elegance of
decoration such as was nowhere else displayed. The
ancient, inextinguishable genius of Etruria shone out
once more with pre-eminent brightness. The Duomo
of Fiesole, the exquisite Church of San Miniato al
Monte near Florence, the Duomo at Pisa, are exam
ples of the work of the Tuscan architects of the
eleventh century. In other countries the designs did
not lack in grandeur, but they were less noble in pro
portions, less refined in ornament, and less beautiful, if
not less impressive, in effect. Everywhere the art
showed itself capable of meeting the demand upon
it for structures that should embody in permanent
form the fervid spirit of the time. The education of
the cloister had prepared artists competent for the
work which was required, while others sprang from
among the laity, trained by the discipline of familiar
industries,* * It has been asserted by most writers on the history of the arts of
the Middle Ages that up to the twelfth century the practice of the fine
arts was confined to the clergy. " Alle Kunst nur von der Kirche, und
besonders von den Sitzen grosserer Strenge, von den Klostern, aus-
ging." " Jedenfalls aber waren die Kloster und Domschulen die einzi-
gen Bildungsstatten der Kiinstler." Schnaase, Geschichte der bildenden
Kiinste (1871), Band iv. pp. 326, 327. " Ainsi avant le douzieme siecle
. . . I'architecture est dans les mains du clerge ; . . . au treizieme siecle,
au contraire, . . . I'art de batir n'appartient qu'aux laiques." Vitet,
Etudes siir IHistoire de VArt, deuxieme serie, Notre-Dame de Noyon,
p. 131. That most of the culture of the age, including that of the fine
arts, was in the hands of the clergy is unquestionably true. The clois
ter supplied many of the architects, painters, sculptors, overseers of
works, and even many of the workmen themselves. But at no time
were lay artists wholly wanting. Springer, in his treatise De Artifici-
bus Monachis et Laicis Medii ADui (1861), gives a large selection of ex-

PROGRESS OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. 27
In the history of architecture there are few passages
of study more interesting than that of the development
of the various forms of Romanesque, and of the grad
ual evolution, in the course of the twelfth centur}^, of the
new forms and principles of the Gothic style. There
are no gaps in the record of this progress. From the
vast Romanesque church of the mighty Benedictine
Abbey of Cluny, through the multitude of the churches
of the Cistercian Order erected in the early part of the
twelfth century, to the famous church built by the great
Abbot Suger at St. Denis, the increasing use of the
pointed arch is to be clearly traced, from Its first timid
employment in construction, till It appears where no
constructive advantage is gained by it, and the choice
marks a change not only of method but also of taste.
And then, from St. Denis and Vezelay to the cathedrals
of the lie de France, the supremacy of this arch asserts
itself more and more, modifying every portion of the
structure in conformity with Its imperative lines, until
the whole is changed into the new style, and Gothic
architecture stands complete. The course of this
transformation was no less regular than rapid. Each
step of progress was based on intelligent application
of principle. The builder was at once artist and
man of science, and one knows not which to admire
tracts from inscriptions and documents in proof of this fact. The pro
portion of lay artists increased in the twelfth century. As a broad
statement, it may be said that Romanesque art mainly proceeded from
the clergy, while Gothic art received its fullest development from the
hands of lay artists.

28 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
most — the imagination in the design, or the inven
tion and intelligence in the accomplishment of the
work. Never did the varied thoughts, the complex senti
ments, the multiplied fancies and emotions of a sensi
tive, active, and passionate age, find such complete,
such superb expression as within the hundred and
fifty years from 1 1 50 to 1 300 ; for the building of
church or cathedral had now become not only the
work of religious zeal or patriotic enthusiasm, but also
of poetic inspiration. The sense of beauty, which
had been weak, through want of nurture, during the
Dark Ages before the eleventh century, had gradu
ally grown stronger and stronger, till at length the
love of beauty had become a controlling motive of ex
pression, and gave direction to the moral and intellect
ual energies called Into play by religious or patriotic
sentiment. The mediceval ideal of beauty was, indeed,
not less narrow than the moral Ideal of the time, but
it was not less genuine. It did not embrace the whole
creation ; It was perverted by ascetic prepossessions
and by superstitious fears. But men had begun to
feel anew the pleasantness of the world, to take fresh
delight In the flowers of the field, in the song of birds,
in the grace of the body and the charm of human
expression, in the splendor of colors and the play of
lights and shadows, in the harmonies and contrasts of
line. In symmetries of form. This reawakened sense of
beauty, which in most men was still vague, illusory,

RESULT OF THE STUDY OF NATURE. 29
undefined, filled the consciousness of the artist with
definite conceptions capable of realization in his art.
He thus became the interpreter to itself of his own
generation. In the fullest sympathy with his con
temporaries, because the sources of his inspiration
were the natural sources of spiritual life common to
them and to him, but from which he drew more deep
ly than the rest, he revealed their own inward selves,
and enlarged the scope of their imaginings. There
was nothing of classic idealism in his work ; it was
modern and romantic in the sense that in it the matter
predominated over the form. Its moral import was,
indeed, his chief concern ; and his work at its best
illustrates, with peculiar simplicity and distinctness,
the truth which has determined the character of
all supreme artistic production — that in the highest
forms of human expression morality and beauty are
inseparable. The love of beauty, the charm of the beauty in the
world, had led him to the study of nature, and the re
sult of this study was apparent in his work. Directly
displayed in sculpture and in painting, it showed itself
in architecture so far as these arts were called into its
service ; and never had they contributed to enhance
its power and effect to the degree in which they con
tributed during the great period of Gothic building.
The efforts of the Gothic designer to conform his
works to nature often fell short of their aim. His
power of execution was often inferior to his concep-

30 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
tion. He was an apprentice, not yet a master, in the
rendering of the aspects of man and the outer world.
But he rejected the conventional types of representa
tion transmitted from his predecessors, substituting for
them his own fresh delineations, the expression of an
immediate and individual sentiment. It was no won
der that his art touched and excited the susceptible
feelings of simple beholders, moving them to penitence
and tears, or to unwonted gladness and hope.*
The field for the exercise of the arts, thus inspired
with creative impulse, was by no means limited to the
Church. Architecture, sculpture, and painting were
employed In secular no less than in religious build
ings. In the castle of the noble and in the house of
the burgher.t
The spirit of art penetrated every department of life,
* " Et videmus aliquando simplices et idiotas qui verbis vix ad fidem
gestorum possunt perduci, ex pictura passionis Dominicae vel aliorum
mirabilium ita compungi, ut lachrymis testentur exteriores figuras
cordi suo impressas." Walafrid Strabo, De Officiis Divinis, sive de
Ecclesiasticaricm Rerum Exordiis et Incrementis, cap. viii. ; in Migne,
Patrologia Cursus Completus, tom. cxiii. Walafrid Strabo wrote in the
ninth century, but his testimony is good for a later time.
t " It was a great period," says Sir Gilbert Scott, "and its greatness
seemed to pervade even the most secluded districts. . . . Let us not
imagine that the architecture of the age developed itself only in cathe
drals, abbeys, or churches of any kind ; all other buildings evince the
same spirit. A barn of the thirteenth century shows the nobleness of
the pervading style as clearly as even the cathedral itself, and what re
mains of their \_sic\ domestic architecture tells the same tale. Every
thing was done well, in good taste, and in accordance with reasonable
and practical requirements and the means at command." Lectures on
Mediceval Architecture, vol. i. p. 203. Sir Gilbert's wide acquaintance
with Romanesque and Gothic work in England gives value to his as
sertion.

LACK OF CONTEMPORARY DESCRIPTION. 31
and gave form to all the products of design. There
is a sohdarity in the arts ; they do not flourish in iso
lated independence. So at this time art exhibited it
self in the least no less than in the greatest things, in
the articles of common use as well as of display — In
the weaving and embroidery of stuffs ; in the shape and
ornament of dress ; in metal-work of all sorts — the work
of the blacksmith no less than of the goldsmith ; In ar
mor; in jewelry; in articles for the service of the table
or the altar ; in the wood-work of the carpenter and
the joiner ; in the calligraphy and illumination of man
uscripts. Whatever the hand found to do, that It did
under the guidance of artistic fancy and feeling.
But it was in the great church edifice that many
arts were united, as in no other work, in a single joint
and indivisible product of their highest energies. From
the pavement rich with mosaic of tile or marble, or
inlaid with the sepulchral slabs of those who in life
had knelt upon it, up to the cross that gleamed on
the airy summit of the central spire, each separate
feature, instinct with the life of art, contributed to the
organic unity of the consummate masterpiece of crea
tive imagination. Religious enthusiasm, patriotic pride,
the strongest sentiments of the community, the deep
est feelings of each individual, found here their most
poetic expression.
It might be supposed that of buildings so remark
able as these — buildings which occupied so large a
place in the thoughts and labors of the generations by

32 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
which they were erected, and in which the faith of
the time found its most complete visible expression —
full accounts would have come down to us from those
who were engaged in or who witnessed their construc
tion. One might expect that all that related to monu
ments so important, by which the aspect of the land
scape was changed, and which formed the most prom
inent object in city and country, would have been de
scribed in detail by contemporaries who beheld them
rise and shared in the emotions from which they pro
ceeded. But such is not the case.* Little Informa-
.tlon concerning them, compared with their social and
historical importance, has come down to us from the
period of which they are the most impressive and in
structive memorials. Such reference as is made to
them In the annals of the times is seldom more than a
brief and often untrustworthy record of dates, or a nar
rative of some miracle by which the work was favored,
or a dry notice of some trifling incident of the con
struction. Even the poets fail to show sympathy with
the popular emotion as expressed in these creations
of the Imagination. It would seem as if the intensity
of the motive of these works interfered with attention
to the works themselves. Most of the mediaeval ro-
* " Ce qui est rare, ce qui est merveilleux, c'est une eglise que ses
contemporains aient regarde batir et sur laquelle ils aient bien voulu
nous laisser des notions exactes et precises." Vitet, Etudes, " Notre-
Dame de Noyon,'' p. 15. "Si Ton cherche dans le Cartulaire des ren-
seignements relatifs a la construction de I'eglise de Notre-Dame, on est
surpris de n'en trouver d'aucune espece." Guerard, Cartulaire de
r Eglise Notre-Dame de Paris, tom. i. pref. § 52, p. clxvii.

NOTICES IN THE ROMANCES. 33
mances did not, indeed, receive their final literary form
till after the strong impulse of building had passed its
height. But it is curious how little illustration they
afford of contemporary art. Now and then, however,
they give us a picture in which the artistic aspect of
the time is reproduced. In one of the most popular of
the early French romances, that of Renaut de Mon-
tauban, the hero, after a life of adventure, goes in dis
guise to Cologne, and there, in order to save his soul,
engages as a common workman on the Cathedral,
The account of his hiring, of his labor in carrying
stone and mortar, of the way of life of the workmen, of
the jealousy he excites among them, and of his death
at their hands, is full of interest In its picturesque
defalk* In the later romance of Gerard de Roussll-
lon there is a long narrative of the foundation of the
beautiful church at Vezelay, in honor of St. Mary
Magdalen, and of the forwarding of the building by
the Countess Beatrice, the wife of Gerard. Like Re
naut, the Countess labored with her own hands, and
in such a spirit that a miracle, of which her husband
was witness, gave proof of the favor and of the power
of Heaven.f But these romantic episodes do not sup
ply the place of connected description.
* Renaus de Montauban (ed. Michelant, Stuttgart, 1862), pp. 445-450.
t Girart de Rossillon (ed. Francisque Michel, Paris, 1856), pp. 267-276.
The story is told at length in this Provencal version of the Romance.
In the version in the langue d'Oc it is narrated more briefly, and with
different circumstances ; see Girart de Rossillon (ed. Mignard, Paris,
1858), pp. 229-233. 3

34 CHURCH-BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
To this general lack of full information there are a
few notable exceptions. The Abbot Suger's vivid ac
count of his rebuilding of the famous Abbey Church of
St. Denis, dedicated in 1 144 ;* the letter of the Abbot
Haimon concerning the building of the Church of St.
Pierre sur DIves,t and that of the Archbishop of
Rouen (in 1 145) in regard to the emotion In his diocese
at the time of the building of the old Cathedral at
Chartres \\ the poem of Jehan le Marchant on the
Miracles of Our Lady In the rebuilding of the Cathe
dral in ii94;§ the monk Gervase's description of the
rebuilding of Canterbury Cathedral after its destruc
tion by fire in 1 1 74II — are, each in its kind, of the high
est interest, as giving information concerning the mo
tives and the methods of the builders of the respec
tive works, as well as in throwing light upon the gen
eral spiritual conditions of the times.
In regard to some of the great churches, the records
of building have been preserved with more or less
* Libellus de consecratione ecclesia a se adifcata, etc., in Duchesne,
Hist. Fran. Script, tom. iv. pp. 350-359.
t Fragments of this interesting letter are in Mabillon, Annates Ord.
S. Beiiedicti, tom. vi. pp. 393 sqq. It was first printed complete by M.
Leopold Delisle in the Bibliotheque de TEcole des Charles, 5e serie, vol.
i., Paris, i860.
X Mabillon, Annates Ord. S. Benedicti, tom. vi. p. 328.
§ Le Livre des Miracles de Notre-Dame de Chartres, par Jehan Le
Marchant. Pubhe pour la premiere fois par M. G. Duplessis, Chartres,
1855. II Tractatus de combustione et reparatione Dorobornensis ecclesia, in
Twysden, Hist. Anglic. Script, pp. 128 5-1 303. An excellent translation
of this important little work is given by Professor Willis in his admira
ble Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, London, 1845.

LACK OF AMPLE INFORMATION. 3c
completeness ; and when the church was the work of a
civic community, the civic records in some instances
afford the material for its history. But, with all these
aids, the supply of information concerning the course,
character, and results of the great movement of the
human spirit which took form in the church-building
of the Middle Ages is far less abundant than could be
desired.

II
VENICE AND ST. MARK'S

n,
VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
No city in the world appeals more strongly to the
poetic imagination than Venice. Her site, her people,
her history, her institutions, her art, are all alike unique.
Appearing first as a little group of fishermen's huts on
a sand-bank in the midst of a waste of waters, her soli
tude and her humility afforded protection to successive
bands of exiles flying from ancient cities of the main
land to escape from the scourge of the Northern bar
barians, who thronged through the passes of the East
ern Alps to share in the spoils of the ruined empire of
Rome. Secure within her broad moat of waves, her
foundations were firmly set* Rising in the dawn of
modern Europe, she linked the tradition of the old
civilization to the fresh conditions of the new. In
dependent from the first, her people framed and ad
ministered their own Institutions, The destiny that
ruled her beginnings seemed, as she grew, to have
had no element of chance, but to have been de
termined by foresight and wise counsel. Her posi-
* " Haec Celebris et inclyta civitas pro pavimento mare, pro muro
aquas maris, et pro tecto ccelum habet." Durantino, De Amplissimis
Laudibus Veneta Urbis (1522), p. 36 b.

40 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
tion was unrivalled. She lay fronting the East, and
the Adriatic opened before her a broad pathway for
commerce and for conquest, while tributary rivers on
either hand brought the trade of the Western main-
O
land to her gates.
In the character of her people, intelligence and en
ergy were combined with fancy and sentiment as in no
other Western race. Her statesmen were the ablest,
her merchants the most adventurous and the most
successful, her seamen the boldest, her craftsmen the
most skilful of their time. Her artists were quick to
give fine expression to the new moods of the Middle
Ages ; her gentlemen were the first In Europe, and the
first modern ladies were Venetian, She lacked, how
ever, a poet. Her life and feeling found utterance in
other modes of art. She was her own poem.
The affection in which she was held by her people
had the depth and intensity of a passion. The large
spirit of national patriotism was hardly felt in Italy
during the Middle Ages, Its place was occupied by
a narrow local sentiment which the natural and polit
ical divisions of the land stimulated often to a degree
fatal to peace, to prosperity, even to honor. But in
Venice this local spirit was justified by the peculiar
conditions of her existence. She was nation as well as
city to her people. " First Venetians and then Chris
tians" was a saying which stood her in good stead.
First Venetians and then Italians was the abldine sense
of her citizens. Cut off by the sea from the mainland,

THE COMMERCE OF VENICE. . j
she held herself aloof, and through all her better days
it was her steady policy to keep herself free from entan
gling alliance with any of the Italian states.
Her interests lay upon the sea, and she sought to
extend her dominion over the islands and coasts of the
Adriatic and the ^gean, over Crete and Cyprus, and
to obtain settlement and power still farther east, rather
than to increase her Italian territory. Her close re
lations with the East affected the character and tem
per of her people.* The commerce with distant and
strange lands developed In the Venetians not only fore
sight and gravity of counsel, strength of purpose, steadi
ness of will, firmness in peril, and calmness in success,
but also the love of adventure, the taste for splendor,
the sense of color, and a capacity for romantic emo
tion. The charm and mystery of the East pervaded
the atmosphere of Venice. Mere trade became poetic
while dealing with the spices of Arabia, the silks of
Damascus, the woven stuffs of Persia, the pearls of
Ceylon, or the rarer products of the wonderful regions
whence travellers like Marco Polo brought back true
stories that rivalled the Inventions of Arabian story
tellers. The ships of Venice were the signlors
and rich burghers of the sea. Refinement increased
with wealth; and while the feudal nobles of the maln-
* The trade of Venice with the East began very early. The Monk
of St. Gall, in his account of Charlemagne, written near the end of the
ninth century, speaks of the Venetians in the days of Charlemagne
bringing " de transmarinis partibus omnes Orientalium divitias." De
Gestis Caroli Magni, lib. ii. cap. xxvii,

.2 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
land were still half barbaric in thought and custom, the
civic nobles of Venice had acquired a culture that iso
lated them still more than they were separated by po
sition and material interest from the natives of other
cities. Moreover, all that the Venetians acquired, whether
of wealth or culture, was concentrated within the limits
of their single city, and became an ever-accumulating
heirloom transmitted from one generation to another.
Seldom did civil discords and tumults, such as many a
time devastated every other city of Italy, disturb her
tranquillity; no factions of Guelf and Ghibelline, of Neri
and Bianchi, divided her people into hostile camps;
no army of barbarian invaders or of jealous neighbors
ever sacked her houses or wasted her stores ; no siege
ever distressed her. And thus she grew from age to
age in beauty as in strength. Her citizens were the
first people of the modern world to acquire confidence
in the perpetuity not only of the State, but of their per
sonal possessions. Secure under just laws against do
mestic oppression, safe within the intrenchment lines
of the lagoons, they built for themselves homes sur
passing in stateliness and in beauty any homes of pri
vate men that the world had seen^ — homes not only
correspondent to their own love of splendor and of
comfort, but to the lofty genius of the city.*
* The Casa Dario on the Grand Canal, near San Gregorio, built about
i486, one of the most elegant of the smaller palaces of the Renais
sance, bears on its fagade the characteristic inscription " URBiS genio
JOANNES DARIUS."

FAITH OF VENETIANS IN VENICE. .3
The perpetuity of Venice was a fixed part of the
patriotic pride of her people. " Imperium stabile, per-
petuum, et mansurum," says Sabellico, the first of the
official historians of the republic ; and Sansovino, writ
ing seventy years later, in the middle of the sixteenth
century, begins his description of the government of
Venice with these confident words : " The Republic of
Venice, surpassing all other states in grandeur, nobil
ity, wealth, and every quality that may conduce to the
felicity of man, hath divers members, all well ordered,
as is plainly evident, since through their good disposi
tion it hath endured for one thousand one hundred
and sixty- five years, and gives sign, moreover, that it
will endure forever," * Forever is the vainest word of
man, but the glories of Venice might well seem sub
stantial, permanent, secure. Who could foresee that
the day was soon to come when but " gleaning grapes
should be left in her, as the shaking of an olive-tree,
two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough,
four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof,"
and that it was only in memory and imagination she
was to endure forever 1
With such faith in their city, and such reason for it,
and with affection for her quickened by the constant
appeal of her material beauty, it was not strange that
* F. Sansovino, Del Governo de' Regni et delle Republiche. Venetia,
1567, p. 169. All her writers celebrated the city "quae omnium bo-
norum amplitudine atque ubertate florescit in dies ;" " domina canta-
tissima,'' . . . "qua nihil majus, nihil excellentius, nihil sanctius in toto
orbe reperiri potest."

44 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
in the imaginations of her people Venice became per
sonified as a half-divine ideal figure. She is the only
city of modern times that has shared, and has de
served to share, this distinction with Rome and the
other great cities of the ancient world. A mytholog-
ic legend concerning her origin and destiny gradu
ally formed itself, in which Christian and pagan sym
bols were curiously Intermingled, and which the Re
naissance found half ready to its hand when, in ac
cordance with its general spirit, it proceeded to intro
duce the deities of Olympus, In harmonious co-opera
tion with the Virgin and the saints, for the protection
and exaltation of the favored city. In almost every
other city of Italy — in Verona, in Mantua, in Florence,
in Siena, in Padua — the popular tradition, cherished
alike by chroniclers, poets, and artists, connected the
origin or the legendary fortunes of the town with
royal, republican, or imperial Rome. Rome filled the
imagination of mediceval Italy. Her eagle still
" Governo 1' mondo Ii di mano in mano."
She was mistress of all Italy except Venice. Here
she had no dominion.
Christian to her core, devout in spirit, her history
abounding In miracles, her Imagination touched by do
mestic legends of saints and relics, Venice was yet as
independent in her ecclesiastical relations as In her
civil administration. The authority of the Pope, re
vered and acknowledged in all matters of faith, was

ST. MARK'S RELATION TO VENICE. ac
steadily and successfully resisted in all matters that
pertained to her own domain. She chose her own
bishops; her priests were her own citizens. She ad
mitted no divided claim to allegiance, and would en
dure no subordination of her authority, even in the
Church, to that of Rome. Her Church was Venetian,
and not Roman, and that it was so only increased the
fervor and constancy of her piety.
In the very heart of this unique and splendid city,
and worthy of the city of which It was the most sacred
and superb adornment, rose the church of her patron
saint. Her treasure was lavished here, and her wealth
consecrated; here her piety, her pride, her imagina
tion, found expression, and here was the symbol of her
power. It was under the banner that bore the winged
lion of St. Mark that she won her victories and extend
ed her dominion. The saint to her was more than St,
George to England, or St. Denis to France, or St. John
the Baptist to Florence, or St. Peter to Rome. He was
specially her own; for, according to the tradition which
she cherished, she had been destined by the will of
Heaven, long before she rose from the sea, to receive
and guard the body of the saint, and to flourish under
his effectual protection. She believed, though the leg
end was never received by the Church Universal, that
St. Mark had been sent by St. Peter as apostle to
Aqulleja, and that on his return to Rome his bark,
driven by the wind, came to a landing on the low isl
and which was the first site of the City of the Lagoons.

^6 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
Here, while he was rapt in ecstasy, an angel of the
Lord appeared to him and said, " Pax tibi, Marce, Hie
requiescet corpus tuum," (Peace be with thee, Mark.
Here shall thy body rest.) The angel went on to
prophesy that a devout and faithful people would here,
after many years, build a marvellous city (mirificam
ttrbem), and would deserve to possess the body of the
saint, and that through his merits and prayers they
would be greatly blessed.*
St. Mark was martyred and buried in Alexandria.
Centuries passed, Venice had founded herself solid
ly upon the sand heaps of the Rivo Alto and the salt
marshes around It. She was gaining consciousness of
independence and strength, and her people had estab
lished for themselves a settled social and political or
der under which they were prospering, when, accord
ing to another popular legend, in the year 829, two
Venetian merchants, Buono, Tribune of Malamocco,
and Rustico, of Torcello, sailing in the Mediterranean
with their vessels, for the purposes of trade, were driven
by stress of weather to take harbor in the port of
Alexandria. There was an edict at this time forbid
ding the Venetians to have any dealings with the Sar
acens, or to repair to their ports. The Venetian mer-
* Andrese Danduli Chronicon, in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, xii. col.
14. This chronicle of the Doge Andrea Dandolo, who died in 1354, is
one of the chief and best sources of information concerning the early
history of Venice. " A man early great among the great of Venice,"
says Mr. Ruskin, " to whose history we owe half of what we know of
her former fortunes." Stones of Venice,vo\. ii. ch. iv. He was the friend
and correspondent of Petrarch.

ST. MARK'S BODY AT ALEXANDRIA. 47
chants, compelled to seek safety in Alexandria, visited
the church in which the bones of St. Mark were pre
served and venerated. It happened that at this time a
certain Regulus, a ruler over the Saracens, was build
ing a splendid palace in the city of Cairo, and was seek
ing for columns and slabs of marble for its adornment,
taking them from sacred no less than profane edifices.
The guardians of the church where the relics of St.
Mark were worshipped were in fear lest it might be de
spoiled and desecrated, and the Venetian traders, find
ing them depressed and anxious, proposed to them se
cretly that they should allow the body of the saint to
be carried to Venice, where the angel of the Lord had
prophesied it would find its final resting-place. This
they did in the hope that by carrying home so precious
a treasure their disobedience of the edict against visit
ing the ports of the Saracens might be atoned for and
forgiven. After long and doubtful debate, Staurazio, a
monk, and Teodoro, a priest of the church, consented
to the proposal. But they feared the wrath of the peo
ple if the removal of the relics should be discovered.
The body of the saint, wound in silken wrappings of
which the edges were sealed, lay within a shrine. To
conceal its removal, the wrappings were cut open be
hind, and the body of Santa Claudia was artfully sub
stituted for that of St. Mark ; so that when, attracted
by a sweet and pungent odor diffused from the dis
placed relics, the faithful flocked to the altar, no trace
of the pious fraud was visible. In the darkness of

48 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
night and the fury of a miraculous tempest, the body,
placed in a basket and covered with leaves upon which
was laid a quantity of pork, was carried from the church
to one of the vessels. Certain officers of the Saracens,
seeing the Christians bearing away this load at this
strange time, were fain to know what it was, and, open
ing the basket and finding the swine's flesh, turned
from it in disgust and allowed the sacred burden to pass
on its way. The voyage to Venice witnessed many
miracles, which gave assurance of the willingness of
the saint to be transferred to his destined abode. Par
don for their disobedience was readily granted to
the merchants In consideration of the priceless gift
which they brought, and the Doge Giustinlano Par-
teclpazlo went, accompanied by the clergy, to the
vessel, and with greatest reverence bore the holy rel
ics to the ducal chapel, where they were deposited
till a more fitting resting-place could be prepared for
them,* '* Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis, tom. iii. April. 25, pp. 353-355. Danduli
Chronicon, col. 172. Marin Sanudo, Vite de' Duchi di Venezia, in Mura
tori, Rer. Ital. Script, tom. xxii. col. 452. The removal of the body of the
saint through the streets of Alexandria in the midst of the storm, and
the rescue of a Saracen seaman from drowning by the interposition
of the saint on the voyage to Venice, are the subjects of two splendid
pictures by Tintoretto, alike imaginative in the conception and mag
nificent in the rendering of the scenes. Of the last, Boschini, in his
precious little volume Le Ricche Minere della Pittura Veneziana, says,
what was true till Turner painted, " Chi do non vede, non sa cosa sia
spavento di mare." These pictures were painted originally for the
Confraternity of St. Mark, and, together with Tintoretto's more gener
ally noted work, the so-called Miracle of the Slave, adorned the walls
of the Scuola grande di San Marco. " Truly," says Boschini, " neither

THE FIRST CHURCH OF ST. MARK. ^g
The Doge at once began the construction of a new
church, but he had hardly put his hand to it before his
death, in the same year; and the work was left to be
carried on by his brother Giovanni, who succeeded him
in the dogeship.*
This first Church of St. Mark, erected about 829,
stood for nearly one hundred and fifty years. One
day in August, 976, a long -smothered hatred of the
Doge Pietro Candiano broke out in open tumult. His
palace was surrounded, the houses near it were set on
fire, and the flames, reaching the palace, drove the
Doge to take shelter in the church ; but the fire soon
seized upon this also, and the Doge, seeking safety in
flight, was set upon by his enemies at the portal and
barbarously murdered. The flames spread fast, and
not till palace and church and more than three hun-

Tintoretto nor all the art of painting could surpass what is seen in this
School." The two pictures first mentioned are now in the Palazzo
Reale, the third is in the Accademia.
* In regard to this edifice, and in general in regard to the history of
the church down to the beginning of the fifteenth century, no original
documents exist. Frequent conflagrations, together with the ignorance
and carelessness of the keepers of the ancient archives, were the cause
of the loss of records which would have been of great interest, as illus
trating not only the story of the church, but that of the arts, in Venice.
A few brief notices in chronicles, mostly of late date, and such evi
dence as the existing church affords in regard to the original con
struction, are the only sources from which knowledge of its early char
acter is to be gained. Such facts as are known are to be found collect
ed in Monumenti Artistici e Storici delle Provincie Venete descritti dalla
Commissione, etc., Milano, 1859. This valuable report was drawn up
by the Marchese Pietro Selvatico and Signor Cesare Foucard. Mothes,
in his Geschichte der Baukunst und Bildhauerei Venedzgs (Leipzig, 1859),
gives a good summary of the history of the church.
4

CO VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
dred houses had been destroyed did they cease their
work,* One of the first cares of the successor of Candiano,
Pietro Orseolo, was the rebuilding (recreare is the word
used by the chronicler) of palace and church. There
Is no account of the character or progress of the work ;
but about seventy years later Domenico Contarini, who
was Doge from 1042 to 105 1, began to remodel the
church upon a new design, reconstructing the edifice,
in the essential features of its plan, such as it now ex
ists. The building begun by him was completed by
his successor, Domenico Selvo, in the year 1071, and
artists were employed to cover its domes and vaults
with the splendid adornment of mosaics " after the
Greek manner," The phrase of the chronicler is sig
nificant ; for though to him it meant merely the man
ner of the degenerate Greeks of Constantinople, yet,
in truth, their manner was an inheritance — wasted now,
and scanty indeed, still a true inheritance — ^from those
Greek artists of the ancient time who had carved the
bass-reliefs of the Parthenon or designed the pattern
for the embroidered peplus of Athena,
The church was complete, but its consecration was
still delayed. Ever since the fire of 976, for now a

* Johannes Diaconus, Chron. Venetum, in Pertz, Mon. Script, tom. vii.
p. 52. This Chronicle, formerly known as the Chronicle of Sagornino, is
the work of -a contemporary of these events. The author was chaplain
of the Doge Pietro Orseolo IL, 991-1009. He writes with intelligence,
as one who saw things in the world with his own eyes, and not from
cloister windows.

RECOVERY OF THE BODY OF THE SAINT. ^I
hundred years, the body of St. Mark had disappeared.
This was occasion, says the Doge Andrea Dandolo in
his Chronicle, "of lamentation to the clergy, and of
great depression to the laity." It was not to be be-
Heved that the sacred treasure, the palladium of the
city, destined for it by the decree of Heaven, had per
ished. Without it the new church must remain vacant
of its chief dignity. It could not be the divine will
that Venice should be deprived of her own special
saint. Now that at length the church was finished
and adorned worthily to contain such a treasure, it
was resolved, in June, 1094, to keep a fast in the
city, and to make a most solemn procession through
the church, with devout supplication to the Almighty
that he would be pleased to reveal the place of con
cealment of the sacred relics. And lo ! while the pro
cession was moving, of a sudden a light broke from
one of the piers, a sound of cracking was heard, bricks
fell upon the pavement, and there, within the pier, was
beheld the body of the saint, with the arm stretch
ed out, as if he had moved It to make the opening
in the masonry. On one finger was a ring of gold,
which, after others had tried in vain, was drawn off
by Giovanni Dolfino, one of the counsellors of the
Doge, The joy of the people was now as great as their
grief had been before. The miracle quickened their
devotion and excited their fancy, and on the 8th of
October following, " the church being dedicated to God,

r2 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
the reverend body was laid away in a secret place, the
Doge, the Primate, and the Procurator alone knowing
where,"* The design of the new church, both in its general
plan and in its details, was not copied from any exist
ing edifice. It gave evidence, in its conception, of a
quality characteristic of Venetian art at all times and
in all departments — the quality of independent and
original treatment of elements derived from foreign
sources. This Is a distinguishing trait of the artistic
races of the world, and this it is which gives Venice a
higher rank in the history of the arts than that which
any other mediaeval Italian city can claim, Florence,
indeed, at times presses her hard ; but even the Flor
entine artists were less inspired by the spirit which
remodels traditional types of beauty into new forms,
adapted to give expression to the special genius of a
people of definite originality, than the great masters of
Venetian architecture and painting. Whatever Venice
touched she stamped with her own impress. She
studied under Byzantine teachers, but was not con
tent merely to copy their works. She partook of
the inheritance of Roman tradition, but improved
upon and modified its rules. She felt the strong
influence of the Gothic spirit — no other Italian city
* This secrecy was doubtless adopted in order to secure the body
against the risk of being a second time stolen. ¦ Thefts of relics were
not uncommon in the Middle Ages. The wonder-working relics of a
famous saint were the source of great profit to the church where they
were preserved.

PLAN OF ST. MARK'S. ^3
felt it so strongly ; but, instead of yielding her own
originality to the powerful compulsion of the North
ern style, she accepted its principles, not as ultimate
canons of a fixed system, but as vital and plastic ele
ments for her own invention to work with ; and created
a fresh and beautiful Gothic style of her own.
The architect of St. Mark's is unknown, but that he
was a Venetian is evident from the exhibition of this
prime trait of Venetian genius in his work, Constan
tinople and Rome furnished him with separate ele
ments of his design, which he fused into a composition
neither Byzantine nor Romanesque, unexampled hith
erto, only to be called Venetian, Adopting the Greek
cross for his ground-plan, he placed over the point of
intersection of its arms a central dome, forty-two feet
in diameter, connected by pendentlves with four great
arches that sprang from four piers of vast dimensions.
Over each arm of the cross rose a similar but some
what smaller cupola ; each cupola, including the cen
tral one, having a range of small windows at its base,
which seemed to lighten its pressure upon its supports.
Through the piers ran archways in both directions, so
as to open a narrow aisle on each side of the nave and
transept. The level of the eastern arm of the cross
was raised above that of the body of the church to
give space to a crypt beneath it, where, below the
high - altar, the relics of St. Mark were laid in their
secret repose, A semicircular apse terminated the
eastern end of the church, stretching out beyond the

C4 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
aisles, which were closed externally by a flat wall, but
shaped within into small, also semicircular, apses. The
material of the structure was brick, but the whole
surface of the building, within and without, was to be
covered with precious incrustations of mosaic or of
marble. The form of the cross, the domes, the incrusted dec
oration, were all borrowed from the East, and all had
their prototypes In Byzantine buildings. But the crypt
and the apses, and many of the details, were of Roman
esque character; and the diverse elements of the two
styles mingled here in harmonious combination,*
How far the adorning of the church with mosaic and
marble had advanced at the time of its dedication in
1094 cannot be told ; but the work was not of a nature
to be speedily accomplished, and the twelfth century
may have been drawing to its close before the com
pletion of the elaborate and splendid covering of the
walls. The consistent and steady carrying-out of a
system of decoration so costly and so magnificent Is
a proof of the interest of the Venetians in the work,
and of the reality of that piety which was one of the
constant boasts of the republic. The church was prop
erly the Chapel of the Doges, and, as such, under their
Immediate charge ; but though successive Doges de
voted large sums to its construction and adornment,
* Some interesting remarks on the Byzantine elements in St. Mark's
are to be found in M. F. de Verneilh's remarkable work on L' Architec
ture Byzantine en France. Paris, 1851.

MATERIALS FOR THE EDIFICE.

55

the chief cost was doubtless defrayed by the offerings
of the citizens, to whom, year by year, it became more
and more an object of pride, and who saw in it the
image of the faith and the power of the State itself. It
became by degrees the centre of Venetian life, the type
of the glory of Venice, And thus while the mosaics
of its vaults and domes display the religious concep
tions of the age and the sentiment and skill of a long
succession of nameless artists, in like manner the slabs
of marble and alabaster that cover pier and wall, the
multitudinous carvings, and the priceless columns of
marble exhibit no less plainly the persistent zeal of sea
going traders and men-at-arms in contributing for the
adornment of their church the gains of their commerce
or the spoils of their conquests. From far and near —
from the ruins of Aqulleja or from the desolate palace
of Spalato, from the temples of ancient cities along the
coast of Italy or Asia Minor, from Athens or Constan
tinople, from the islands of the .^gean, from Sicily or
Africa — were brought shafts and capitals, fragments of
sculpture, blocks of colored stone, to be offered for the
work of the church. It is a most striking indication of
the prevalence of a genuine artistic spirit at Venice,
not only that these objects should have been so widely
sought, but that the successive master-builders should
have had the genius to make such use of this medley
of materials, supplied to them irregularly and without
order, as to produce not a mere variegated patchwork
of carved and colored ornament, but a skilful, harmoni-

56 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
OUS composition, in which each detail seems to be cal
culated in relation to the general effect with hardly less
intention and appropriateness than if all had been so
designed from the beginning. Their success, however,
lay in the fact that they worked upon a principle whol
ly diverse from those which controlled the builders of
Gothic structures — a principle which subordinated the
effects of pure line and constructive form to those
of color. The church was designed to afford broad,
unbroken masses of wall for colored surface decora
tion, and the elaborate multiplicities of form peculiar
to Gothic architecture were altogether unattempted.
There have been no such colorlsts in architecture as
the Venetians, It was as special a gift to them as the
perfect sense of form was to the Athenians, Gifts
such as these, limited to single races, to defined epochs,
are not to be accounted for by any enumeration of ex
ternal conditions. Their sources lie concealed in un-
discoverable regions. But their influence is to be
traced in all the most characteristic expressions of the
race, and may be perceived often in remote and varied
fields of thought and of action. They appear not mere
ly in art and manners and language, but their subtle
influence penetrates into those relations of private or
public conduct in which the imagination claims an
interest. Of all the legacies of Athens to the world,
none, perhaps, is more precious than the teaching of
the intellectual value of form and proportion ; of the
many heirlooms that Venice has bequeathed, one of

WEST FRONT OF ST. MARK'S. 57
the best is the doctrine of the refined and noble use of
color. Though the original plan of the main building seems
to have been that of the simple Greek cross, yet, not
long after its walls were erected, an addition to it was
begun, by which the western arm was to be enclosed
within an atrium, or vestibule, upon its northern side
and western end, and on its southern side with a chapel
dedicated to St. John the Baptist and an apartment for
the sacred treasury of the church,* This addition, in
the course of the twelfth century, gave to the building
that magnificent facade which is the most striking and
original characteristic of its exterior. Upon the adorn
ment of this facade the resources of Venetian wealth
and art were lavished. It was enriched not only with
precious marbles, but with carvings and mosaics, till it
was made the most splendid composition of colored ar
chitecture that Europe has beheld. No building so
costly or so sumptuous had been erected since the fall
of the Empire ; and none more impressive, in propor
tion to its size, none more picturesque, has been built
in later times. And yet it is this unique fagade, to
which the hand of time has given the last touch of
* It is possible, indeed, that the hall at the western end, with its triple
portal, supporting a gallery, may have been part of the original design.
It appears certain that it was constructed before the northern or south
ern additions. The exact dates are not to be ascertained, nor are they
of much consequence, for the whole work belongs to the great period
of creative activity and imaginative design throughout a large part of
Europe, extending from the close of the eleventh to the beginning or
middle of the thirteenth century, 1075-1225.

58 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
beauty. In the hue which only years can bestow, that,
at this moment, as these pages are going through the
press, is threatened with destruction, under the name
of restoration. Italy plays the part in these days of
the serving-maid of Aladdin, and over and over again
is cheated into giving up her old magical treasure by
the allurement of bright new brass, Florence, Perugia,
Siena, Rome — all have suffered irreparably in loss of
beauty and in historic dignity through the wanton
work of that modern spirit of vulgarity which has
neither reverence for the past nor regard for the future.
But there has been nothing worse than this proposal
to ruin " those golden walls that East and West once
joined to build." The protest against this special dese
oration now making itself heard in Europe may be ef
fectual to prevent it, but there is need of constant vigi
lance and effort to protect the most venerable monu
ments from the rude hand of the professional despoller.
The church was not merely picturesque, but pictorial
The system of mosaic decoration with which arches,
vaults, and domes were covered was intended not mere
ly for ornament, but as a series of pictures for religious
instruction. The Scriptures were here displayed In im
perishable painting before the eyes of those who could
not read the written Word. The church became thus
not only a sanctuary wherein to pray, to confess, to be
absolved, but also a school-house for the teaching of the
faithful, * It was like " a vast illuminated missal," its
* A description of the mosaics, with their various inscriptions, is to

MOSAICS AND INSCRIPTIONS.

59

pages filled with sacred designs painted on gold. One
of the inscriptions on its walls truly declares in rude
rhyme —
" HISTORIIS, FORMA, AURO, SPECIE TABULARUM,
HOC TEMPLUM MARCI FORE DECUS OMNIUM ECCLESIARUM."
The scheme of its pictorial decoration includes the
story of the race of man, his fall and redemption ; the
life and passion of the Saviour, and the works of his
apostles and saints.
The ceiling of the atrium, or fore-court, of the temple
was naturally, according to the order of thought of its
designers, occupied with subjects from the Old Dispen
sation ; and there appears to have been an obvious and
impressive intention, as has been pointed out by Mr.
Ruskin,* in the conclusion of the series with the mira
cle of the fall of manna. It was to direct the thoughts
of the disciple to the saying "Your fathers did eat
manna and are dead," and to bring to his remembrance
that living bread whereof " if any man eat, he shall live
forever," Entering the central door of the church, he
would see before him, dim in the distance of the east-
be found in a book of great value to the student of the church, and now
rare, called La Chiesa Ducale di S. Marco [da G. Meschinello]. Venezia,
1753. 4 vols. sm. 4to. For a plan exhibiting the order of the mosaics,
see Kugler, Handbook of Painting. London, 1851, i. 74.
* I am glad of the opportunity which the mention of Mr. Ruskin's
name affords me to refer to his Stones of Venice, and his recent St.
Mark's Rest, as the books from which a better acquaintance with the
qualities of Venetian art and of Venetian character may be gained than
from all others besides. The dry bones of history are changed to a
body with a living soul by the inspiration of his genius.

6o VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
ern end, the mighty figure of the Saviour throned in
glory, and uttering the words —
" SUM REX CUNCTORUM, CARO FACTUS AMORE REORUM,
NE DESPERETIS VENI^ DUM TEMPUS HABETIS."
Then, turning and looking upward to the wall above
the door by which he had entered, the worshipper would
behold the same figure, with the Virgin on one side and
St. Mark on the other, Christ himself holding open upon
his knee the Book of Life, on the pages of which Is
written " I am the door ; by me if any man enter in, he
shall be saved ;" and above, on the moulding of red mar
ble around the mosaic, were the words " I am the gate
of life ; enter through me ye who are mine." (" Janua
sum vitae; per me mea membra venite.")
It was thus that Venice received within the church
of her patron saint the followers of the faith of which
she boasted herself the bulwark,*
At the beginning of the twelfth century St, Mark's
was essentially complete. But such a building was not
erected by contract, with the stipulation that it should
be finished at a certain date. It was not, indeed, re
garded as a work that admitted of definite conclusion,
but rather as one to be continually in hand, to be made
more excellent from generation to generation, the con
stant care of the State and of the people, an object of
unceasing interest and of endless increase in beauty
and adornment. There was never a time when some
one of the arts was not adding to its embelhshment.
* " Sempre 1' antemurale della Cristianita " was her own claim.

CHANGE IN VENETIAN TASTE. gi
Of much that was done no record remains ; but the his
tory of the building can in part be traced from its own
walls, in part from written records. During the twelfth
century the Campanile was carried up above all the
other towers of Venice, and from that time has been
the most conspicuous signal of the city by sea or by
land. It stands, after the common Italian fashion, de
tached from the church, with whose low domes and
enriched arcades its own simple and stern vertical lines
are a vigorous and picturesque contrast* For at least
two centuries (ii 25-1 350) the structures annexed to the
main body of the church, and forming a part of it as
seen from without, including the baptistery, the treas
ury, and the fore-court, or vestibule, were slowly advan
cing towards completion and receiving their rich casing
of marble and mosaic. All this work corresponded
in general style with that of the church, and was in
harmony with its general design. But meanwhile a
great change was going on in the taste of the Vene
tians. The influences of the East were losing ground
before those of the West, and the Byzantine elements
in Venetian architecture were giving place to those of
Gothic art. It was about the end of the fourteenth
century, or perhaps in the early years of the fifteenth,
that the incongruous but picturesque and fanciful
crowd of pinnacles and tabernacles, of crockets, finials,
* The Campanile frequently suffered from strokes of lightning and
from fire. In 1489, after its summit had been shattered by lightning, it
was restored, and since then has remained essentially unaltered.

62 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
and canopies with pointed arches, which is in such
striking opposition to the older and simpler forms of
the building, was set up on the church. These archi
tectural decorations enhance the impression of variety
and wealth of adornment, they give a strange and
complex character to the facade, but they serve no
constructive purpose : they are mere external decora
tion ; and though their effect is brilliant and surpris
ing, it Is not in keeping with the scheme of the earlier
builders. Intended but to increase the richness of
the front, they have, indeed, a real significance as
marking a change in the moral temper of Venice, and
a loss of fineness in her perceptions of fitness and of
beauty. She was growing luxurious, sensual, and prod
igal, A century earlier she had known how to use the
forms of Gothic architecture with dignity, and with im
agination all the more powerful for being held firmly
in restraint. But this ornamentation of St. Mark's Indi
cated by its wantonness the beginning of a new epoch
of Venetian art, in which architecture, sculpture, and
painting, after having long united their powers to ex
press the sentiment and faith of a high-spirited com
munity, were to become the ministers to its ostentation
and the servants of the luxury and display of private
citizens. The moral history of Venice for five hundred years
is indelibly recorded on the walls of the church, the
decoration of which had been the chief task of her arts ;
the arts are incorruptible witnesses, and form and color

POPULAR ASSEMBLIES IN ST. MARK'S. 63
are undeniable indications of spiritual conditions. The
testimony of mosaics and marbles concerning the char
acter and aims of the Venetians corresponds with and
is confirmed by the less instinctive evidence of the in
scriptions set in the walls or engraved on the monu
ments of the dead buried within the church,
St. Mark's, the chapel of the doges, was used, not for
strictly religious services and ceremonies alone, but
served as the gathering-place of the people when great
affairs were to be determined, and the Doge saw fit to
summon the citizens to hear and to decide by their
vote what course should be followed. There was no
other place so fitting for public transactions of impor
tance, for which the blessing and guidance of Heaven
were to be sought by the powerful intercession of the
saint. Here, too, each Doge, upon his election by the
council, was presented before an assemblage of the peo
ple, called together by the ringing of the bells, that the
choice might be confirmed by the voices of the com
mon citizens. " We have chosen this man Doge, if so
it please you,"* were the words with which their con
sent was asked, and it was seldom that the people had
reason not to be pleased with the choice. Then, before
all the people, the new Doge, kneeling at the high-altar.

* This form lasted till the election of Francesco Foscari, in 1423,
when it was disused, all semblance of a popular element in the State
having by this time disappeared. " Suppose the people were to say
No ; what would it matter .'" asked the Grand Chancellor. " Let us
therefore only say. We have chosen this man Doge." See Sanudo, Vite
de' Duchi, 966, E.

64 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
was invested by the Primate with the ducal mantle, and
received from his hands the red banner of St, Mark, the
triumphant standard of the republic. Near the door
by which the Doge entered the church from his palace,
above the altar of St. Clement, was an inscription In let
ters of gold, addressed to the Doge himself ; it was the
monition of Venice to him :
"DILIGE lUSTITIAM, SUA CUNCTIS REDDITO lURA : PAUPER CUM
VIDUA, PUPILLUS ET ORPHANUS, O DUX, TE SIBI PATRONUM SPE-
RANT. PIUS OMNIBUS ESTO : NON TIMOR AUT ODIUM VEL AMOR NEC
TE TRAHAT AURUM.
" UT FLOS CASURUS, DUX, ES, CINERESQUE FUTURUS,
ET VELUT ACTURUS, POST MORTEM SIC HABITURUS."
" Love justice, render their rights unto all : let the
poor man and the widow, the ward and the orphan, 0
Doge, hope for a guardian in thee. Be pious towards
all. Let not fear, nor hate, nor love, nor gold betray
thee. As a flower shalt thou fall. Doge ; dust shalt thou
become ; and as shall have been thy deeds, so, after
death, shall thy guerdon be,"
The close connection of palace and church was the
type of the connection between the politics and the re
ligion of the State, There was no divorce between
them in theory. The men who founded, built up, and
administered the republic were, with few exceptions,
men not merely pious, but In a noble sense religious.
During the centuries of the splendor and power of Ven
ice, a standard of honesty, uprightness, and steady jus
tice in the conduct of public affairs was maintained by
her superior to that of any other medieval State, The

INSCRIPTIONS IN ST. MARK'S. 65
qualities which distinguished the private dealings of her
citizens were displayed in her public administration.
Her merchants were men of honor, who valued their
word. They knew that their prosperity and that of
their city depended on the confidence inspired by their
integrity. The habit of honest dealing became a rul
ing principle in Venetian character. There were cheats
and thieves and traitors at Venice as well as elsewhere,
but there was no laxity towards fraud, and the Venetian
ideal of character was one in which honesty and justice
were the first elements. The Doge Vitale Faliero, in
whose time St. Mark's was consecrated, died in 1096, and
was buried in the portico of the church. Upon his tomb,
enriched with mosaics of the Saviour, the Virgin, and
the archangels of the Last Judgment, is an inscription
of which the first lines render the old Venetian ideal :
" MORIBUS INSIGNIS, TITULIS CELEBERRIME DIGNIS,
CULTOR HONESTATIS, DUX 0MNIM0D.E PROBITATIS."*
The evidence of epitaphs, however doubtful as re
gards the character of special individuals, is trustwor-
* Close by the tomb of this Doge is that of the young wife of his suc
cessor, Vitale Michele. She died in the first year of the 12th century,
and the inscription which commemorates her virtues gives us a con
ception of the Venetian ideal of the womanly character at that early
time. This record of one of the long train of fair Venetian women,
deficient as it is in literary art, but with the grace of simplicity, adds an
association of tenderness to the historic memories of St. Mark's :
" Cultrix vera Dei, cultrix et pauperiei ;
Sic subnixa Deo quo frueretur eo ;
Comis in affatu, nullis onerosa ducatu ;
Vultu mitis erat, quod foris intus erat.
Calcavit luxum, suffugit quemque tumultum
Ad strepitum nullum cor tulit ipsa suum."
5

66 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
thy in respect to the qualities honored by the pubhc.
Through all the period of the best life of Venice, from
the eleventh to the fourteenth century, the virtues of
probity and justice are constantly cited as chief titles
to honor of the dead,
" Justus, purus, castus, mitis, cuique placebat " is the
praise of the Doge Sebastiano Zlani, who died In 1178.
It was while this just, pure, chaste, and mild man was
Doge that St. Mark's was the scene of one of the most
striking incidents in Venetian annals. So deeply im
pressed was the popular imagination by the nature of
the transaction and the personages that took part in It,
that a fanciful legend concerning it sprang up and so
flourished, with the aid of the Church and of the arts, as
for centuries to obscure the real facts of history. Dur
ing the twenty years' strife between Frederic Barba
rossa and the Pope Alexander III. — a strife which dis
tracted the whole Christian world — Venice, though
cajoled and threatened by either power In turn, had
maintained an independent neutrality. At length, after
long and difiicult negotiations, the Doge, a man trusted
and skilled in affairs, succeeded in prevailing upon the
Pope and the Emperor to meet in Venice, where terms
of accord were settled upon between them. It was
agreed that, in token of reconciliation, there should be
a solemn service in which Pope and Emperor should
take part. The Pope, In presence of a vast multitude
of spectators, received the Emperor in the vestibule of
the church, before the main door of entrance, and the

LEGEND OF THE POPE AND THE EMPEROR. 67
place of this meeting was marked by three slabs of
red marble inserted in the pavement.
Great as was the splendor of the scene, and great as
its importance may have appeared to the chief actors
in it and to the crowd of spectators, they did not ap
preciate its full meaning. It was, in truth, the sign of
the victory of the ecclesiastical over the secular power
— a victory of which the consequences are manifest
even in contemporary history. The event deserved
commemoration, and the popular legend, though large
ly a pure invention, expressed more vividly than the
true record the real significance of the facts.
According to this legend, the Pope, poor and desert
ed, flying in disguise to escape the persecutions of
Frederic, took refuge secretly In Venice, and, being re
ceived into a monastery, ministered to the brethren for
some days as their cook. At length a Venetian, who
had been on a pilgrimage to Rome and had seen the
Pope there, recognized him under his disguise, and In
formed the Doge of his presence in the city. The
Doge, accompanied by the clergy and the people, at
once went to the monastery, and thence conducted the
Pope, with all honor, to the palace of the Patriarch.
Then the Doge sent messengers to the Emperor to ar
range terms of peace, but he angrily refused, bidding
them tell the Doge that he demanded the surrender of
the Pope, " and if this be refused," he added, " I will
come to take him by force, and will set my eagles on
the very church of St. Mark."

68 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
The Doge did not tremble when he heard these
words. It was resolved to send out a fleet at once to
meet the fleet of the Emperor. That of the Venetians
consisted of but thirty galleys, while that of the Emper
or numbered seventy-five. On the 26th of May, 11 77,
the Feast of the Ascension, the Venetians won a signal
victory, with their thirty galleys capturing forty of the
enemy's vessels, and taking prisoner Otho, the son of
Frederic and the captain of his fleet. Defeat only em
bittered the stubborn heart of the Emperor, After a
while Otho persuaded his captors to let him out from
prison on parole, that he might try to turn his father's
mind to peace. Great was the joy of his father at see
ing him. Then Otho told him that the rout of his ar
mada had been due to no natural cause, but was a
manifest judgment of God, and the sign of his displeas
ure with the Emperor because of his persecution of the
Pope ; and he besought his father to make peace be
fore the arm of the Lord should fall more heavily upon
him. At last the stiff-necked Barbarossa yielded to
the arguments and persuasions of his son ; and the two
set out for Venice, accompanied by a great train of fol
lowers. The Doge and the people went out to meet
the Emperor, while the Pope, in his pontifical robes, re
mained standing on a pulpit that had been erected be
fore the entrance of St. Mark's. As the Emperor drew
near, the Pope left the pulpit, and, entering the vesti
bule of the church, awaited his approach. The Emper
or came, and, overcome with awe at the sight of the

MYTHICAL HUMILIATION OF BARBAROSSA. 69
vicegerent of the Lord whom he had so deeply offend
ed and who had visited him with such heavy chastise
ment, prostrated himself upon the pavement, kissed the
foot of the Pope, and prayed for pardon. Then the
Pope said, setting his foot upon the head of the Em
peror, " Super aspidem et basillscam ambulabis, et con-
culcabis leonem et draconem," or, as translated, " Thou
shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion
and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet" (Psalm
xci. 1 3), The Emperor, not yet humiliated so far as to
endure patiently such indignity, replied, " Non tibi, sed
Petro" (Not to thee, but to Peter, do I humble myself) ;
and the Pope answered, " Et mihi et Petro" (Both to
me and to Peter), Then the Pope raised him from the
ground, and they entered the church with the Doge,
all the clergy singing " Te Deum laudamus,"*
* See Sanudo, Vite de' Duchi, col. 511. This famous legend for cen
turies was very widely adopted, not merely by unscrupulous partisans
of papal pretensions, but by many veracious historians. Even Daru, in
his Histoire de Venise, tom. i. pp. 230 seq., maintains it in spite of the
fact that Muratori, and before him Sigonius and Baronius, had exposed
it as a tissue of fables. A thorough examination of the subject by the
Nobile Angelo Zon is to be found in Cicogna, Inscrizioni Veneziane, vol.
iv. pp. 574-593. The early credit given to the legend appears from the
fact that in 1319 it was ordered that the walls of the Church of San Nic
colo of the Palace, then " tota nuda picturis," should be painted with
pictures representing "hystoriam Pape quando fuit veneciis cum domino
Imperatore." See Lorenzi's invaluable Monumenti per servire alia Storia
del Palazzo Ducale di Venezia. Parte I. Venezia, 1 868, 410, p. 1 2. A cen
tury later, in 1425, one wall of the Hall of the Great Council in the Ducal
Palace was covered with paintings of the same story. Id. p. 63. Nor was
the popularity of the legend confined to Venice. A series of pictures
on the walls of one of the apartments of the Palazzo della Repubblica
at Siena, painted by SpineUo d' Arezzo in 1407-8, represents the scenes
of the story. Siena was proud of being the birthplace of Alexander III.

yo VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
Such was the legend which was cherished by the
Venetians and adopted by the Church, It represents,
better than the true history, the popular feeling of the
time ; and It is itself a piece of the history of St. Mark's,
as having exalted the pride of the Venetians in the
church that had been the stage on which a scene of
such import had been transacted. As time went on,
they connected these fabulous events with some of
the chief dignities and chief festivals of the republic.
Of all her festivals there was none more fanciful or
more splendid, none which more clearly reflected her
poetic temperament, than that of the annual espousals
of the sea by the Doge on the Day of Ascension,
The actual date of the origin of this ceremony cannot
be certainly fixed, but it seems likely that the custom
began not far from the year lOOO, The later Vene
tians were, however, apt to regard it as being in part,
at least, a commemoration of the marvellous and fabu
lous victory gained on Ascension Day over the impe
rial fleet ; and it was believed that Pope Alexander had
given to the Doge the first ring which was cast into the
sea, as the bridal ring, the sign that, as the wife to her
husband, so the sea should be subject to the republic*

* " Uti uxorem viro, ita mare imperio reipublicse Venetae subjec-
tum," — these were the words of the Pope ; or, according to another
version, " Te, fill. Dux, tuosque successores aureo annulo singulis annis
in die Ascensionis mare desponsare volumus, sicut vir subjectam sibi
desponsat uxorem, quum vere ipsius custos censearis, quare ab infes-
tantibus nostrum mare quietasti totaliter." • Sanudo, Vite de' Duchi,
col. 510.

ENRICO DANDOLO AND INNOCENT IIL yi
Sebastiano Ziani, who thus accomplished peace be
tween the two swords, died an old man, in 1 1 78, Four
teen years later, a still older man, and one still more
famous, was chosen Doge, Enrico Dandolo, The re
pute of the Venetians for wealth, for arms, for arts, was
high throughout Christendom. Their energies were
fresh and their spirit unexhausted. It was during the
dogeship of Dandolo that St, Mark's was the scene of
incidents of hardly less interest than those attending
the pacification of Pope and Emperor, and of which,
fortunately, a vivid and trustworthy account by one of
. . the chief actors in them has come down to us,
Dandolo had been Doge for six years when, in 1 198,
Innocent III, was chosen Pope, He was but thirty-
seven years old, a man of resolute will, of ardent tem
perament, and with a political genius that made him
not only the foremost statesman of his time, but gives
him claim to rank with the ablest in the long line of
the successors of St, Peter. He had hardly become
Pope before he devoted himself, with all the energy of
his vigorous character, to inciting the rulers and the
people of Europe to a new crusade. He recognized
the effect of the crusades in increasing the authority
and extending the jurisdiction of the papacy. There
was no lack of motive to excite zeal in a new expe
dition for the recovery of the Holy Land. The true
cross had been lost; Jerusalem was in the hands of
the infidel; with the loss of Jaffa, in 1197, scarcely a
stronghold remained for the Christians in Palestine,

72 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
and the Latin kingdom was little more than a name.
But Saladin, the great leader of the Mohammedans, was
dead, and his power had fallen into weaker hands. Let
but a determined effort be made, and there was yet
a chance to free Christendom from the ignominy of
leaving the holy city of its Lord in subjection to the
Saracen. Innocent despatched his briefs and sent his messen
gers throughout Europe to rouse the hearts of men,
and to press upon them the new enterprise. He pro
claimed an indulgence, by the terms of which all those
who should enlist in the crusade and do the service of
God for one year under arms should be relieved from
all penalty for the sins of which they should devout
ly make confession. Nowhere was the cause more
ardently preached or the cross more readily taken
than in the lands of France. The fervid eloquence of
Foulques, priest of Neullly, near Paris, stirred the blood
of young and old, of high and low. Among those who
pledged themselves to go across sea to fight in the
cause of the Lord were Thibaut, the young Count of
Champagne and of Brie ; Louis, Count of Blois and of
Chartres, both cousins of the King; Simon de Mont-
fort, who had already served well in the Holy Land,
and who was, years afterwards, to acquire terrible re
pute in the miscalled crusade against the Albigenses ;
and, following the example of these leaders, many more
of the chief barons of France, In the spring of 1201
the preparations had so far advanced that six envoys

GEOFFROI DE VILLEHARDOUIN. 73
were sent to Italy to make arrangements for the em
barkation of the crusaders from some Italian port.
Furnished with full powers, they proceeded to Venice,
knowing that there they would find a larger supply
of vessels and of needful stores than at any other
port, Geoffroi de Villehardouin, Marshal of Cham
pagne, was the head of the commission ; and in his
chronicle of the conquest of Constantinople he report
ed their proceedings and the later doings of the cru
saders with a spirit, simplicity, and picturesqueness that
make his narrative one of the most interesting and de
lightful pieces of early French literature, as well as the
most important historical record of the events which
he describes. His book affords such an image of the
character and temper of the times as is not elsewhere
to be found.
On the arrival of the envoys at Venice, at the sea
son of Lent, in February, 1201, the Doge, "a man very
wise and of great worth," welcomed them cordially, and
with much honor. Having presented to him their let
ters of credence, it was agreed that four days after
wards they should lay their propositions before the
council. At the appointed time "they entered the
palace, which was very rich and beautiful, and found
the Doge and his council in a chamber, and delivered
their message after this manner : ' Sire, we are come
to you on the part of the high barons of France, who
have taken the sign of the cross in order to avenge
the shame of Jesus Christ and to reconquer Jerusalem,

74 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
if God permit. And, because they know that no peo
ple have so great power to aid them as you and your
folk, they pray you, for God's sake, to have pity on
the Land beyond the Sea and on the shame of Jesus
Christ, and to take pains that they may have ships of
transport and of war,' ' In what manner .?' said the
Doge, ' In every manner,' said the envoys, ' that you
can propose or advise, so only they can do and bear
their part' ' Certes,' said the Doge, ' 'tis a great thing
they have asked of us, and it seems truly that they are
devising a high affair ; we will reply to you eight days
hence. And marvel not if the delay be long, for so
great a matter needs much reflection,'
" At the time fixed by the Doge they went back to
the palace. All the words that were uttered there I
cannot report them to you, but the end of the confer
ence was this : ' Gentlemen,' said the Doge, ' we will tell
you the decision we have taken, if we can bring our
great council and the commonalty of our land to con
firm it, and you shall consult together to see if you can
do and bear your part. We will provide fit vessels to
transport four thousand five hundred horses and nine
thousand squires, and ships for four thousand five hun
dred knights and twenty thousand foot-soldiers. And
we will agree to provision them for nine months. This
is what we will do at the least on condition that four
marks shall be paid for every horse and two marks
for every man. And we will make this agreement to
hold for one year, counting from the day we shall

TERMS ACCEPTED BY THE ENVOYS. yc
leave the port of Venice to do service for God and
for Christendom in whatsoever place it may be. The
sum of this expense before named amounts to eighty-
five thousand marks. And thus much more we will
do: we will add fifty galleys armed for the love of
God, on condition that so long as our joint company
shall last of all the conquests we shall make of land
or of goods, on sea or on land, we shall have one half
'and you the other. Now, then, consult and see if you
can do and bear your part.'
" The envoys went out saying that they would talk
together, and reply on the next day. They consulted
and talked together that night and agreed to do it
and the next day went to the Doge, and said, ' Sire,
we are ready to conclude this convention.' And the
Doge said he would speak to his people about it and
would let them know what he found out
" The morning of the third day, the Doge, who was
very wise and worthy, summoned his great council, and
this council was of forty men, the wisest of the land.
And he, by his sense and wit which was very clear
and good, brought them to approve and will it. Thus
he brought them to it and then a hundred, then two
hundred, then a thousand, till all agreed and approved.
Then he assembled at once full ten thousand in the
chapel of St. Mark — the most beautiful in the world
— and he said to them that they should hear a mass
of the Holy Spirit and should pray God to counsel
them as to the request that the envoys had made to
them. And they did so very willingly.

76 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
" When the mass was said, the Doge sent word to
the envoys that they should humbly beg the people
to consent that the convention should be concluded.
The envoys came to the church. They were much
looked at by many people who had never seen them.
By the consent and wish of the other envoys, Geoffroi
de Villehardouin took the word and said to them,
' Gentlemen, the highest and most puissant barons of
France have sent us to you, and they cry you mercy,
that you take pity on Jerusalem, which is in bond
age to the Turks, and that for God's sake you would
aid them to avenge the shame of Jesus Christ And
they have chosen you because they know that no peo
ple who are on the sea have so great power as you and
your people. And they bade us fall at your feet and
not to rise till you should consent to take pity on the
Holy Land beyond the Sea.' "
The memories of the church were eloquent in sec
onding the appeal of the envoy. More than a hun
dred years before, the people had been summoned to
St Mark's to deliberate as to the part that Venice
should take in the first crusade, and had resolved to
join in the holy enterprise. The favor of Heaven
had attended them, and they had brought back with
them, as a sign of its grace, the most precious bodies
of St Theodore, chief patron of Venice next after
St Mark, and of St Nicholas, another of her special
heavenly advocates. Again, in 1 123, they had met in
St Mark's once more, to resolve, in the presence of

THE RESOLVE OF THE VENETIANS. 77
the Lord, to take share in a new crusade ; and again
the fame of Venice had been increased by the deeds
of her crusaders ; her dominion had been extended,
her power in the East augmented, and she herself had
been enriched with new store of relics, and with those
stately columns that now stood at the edge of the sea,
near to her palace and her church, monuments of the
ancient glory of Tyre, transferred to the still more
glorious mediaeval city.
The voice of such memories and monuments as
these was clear. There could be but one answer to
the new call to help to rescue the sacred walls of
Jerusalem. When Villehardouin had finished his ad
dress, " the six envoys knelt down weeping, and the
Doge and all the rest burst into tears of pity, and cried
out all with one voice, and stretched their hands on
high and said, ' We consent ! We consent !' Then
there was such a great noise and uproar that it
seemed as if the earth trembled. And when this
great uproar was quieted, and this great emotion (and
greater no man ever saw), the good Doge of Venice,
who was very wise and worthy, mounted to the pulpit
and spoke to the people, and said to them, ' Gentle
men, behold what honor God has done you ! for the
best people in the world have turned from all other
people and have sought your company in so high an
emprise as the deliverance of our Lord.'
" Of the fair and good words that the Doge spoke I
cannot report to you all ; but the end of the thing was

78 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
that they took till the morrow to draw up the papers.
, . , And when the papers were drawn up and sealed,
they were brought to the Doge in the great palace,
where were the great council and the little. And
when the Doge delivered his papers to them, he knelt
down, and with many tears he swore upon the saints
to keep in good faith the agreements that were in the
papers ; and all his council, which was of forty-six per
sons, did the like. And the envoys, on their part,
swore to hold to their papers, and that the oaths of
their lords and their own oaths should be kept in good
faith. And know that many a tear of pity was shed
there. Then the envoys borrowed five thousand marks
of silver, and gave them to the Doge to begin the
fleet ; and then they took leave to return to their own
country," The news that the envoys carried to France of the
good-will and the promises of the Venetians was re
ceived with joy. But " adventures happen as it pleases
God," says Villehardouin, and many things occurred
to disarrange the plans of the leaders of the crusade.
At length, after Easter, in May and June, 1202, the pil
grims began to depart from their country. Many of
them journeyed to Venice, but not all who had prom
ised to do so proceeded thither ; so that when all who
had gone there met together they were greatly trou
bled, finding themselves too few to keep their bar
gain and to pay the promised money to the Vene
tians. Such as had come were received with joy and

DISCORD AMONG THE CRUSADERS. 70
honor by the Venetians. They were all lodged on the
island of St. Nicholas, near the city, and the army,
though small, was " very beautiful, and composed of
good folk." The Venetians provided them well with
all needful supplies, and the fleet which they had got
ready was the finest any Christian man had ever seen,
and sufficient for three times as many people as there
were in the army. " The Venetians," says Villehar
douin, " had fulfilled completely their agreement and
even done much more ; and now they summoned the
counts and barons to perform their part and they de
manded the money due them, for they were ready to
set sail." But when the price of passage had been
paid for all who had come to Venice, the sum fell
short by more than half. Discord arose among the
crusaders, some, half-hearted, wishing to give up the
expedition and return home, while others, more in
earnest resolved to contribute, over and above their
share, all that they could spare or borrow, preferring
to go poor rather than to fail in their vow. " And
then you might have seen quantities of fine plate of
gold and silver carried to the palace of the Doge to
make payment And when all was paid, the sum still
fell short by thirty -four thousand silver marks; and
those who had kept back their property were very
joyous, and would set nothing thereto, for they thought
then that surely the army would fail and go to pieces.
But God, who consoles the disconsolate, would not
suffer it thus,"

So VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
Then the Doge spoke to his people to this effect:
" This folk can pay no more, but let us not therefore
break our word ; let us agree that the payment of the
thirty-four thousand marks which they owe us be post
poned till God let us, we and they, gain this sum to
gether, on condition that they help us to recover the
strong city of Zara, in Slavonia, which the King of
Hungary has taken from us." And so, finally, it was
arranged. " Then they assembled one Sunday in the Church
of St. Mark. It was a very great feast and the peo
ple of the land were there, and most of the barons
and pilgrims. Before the high mass began, the Doge
of Venice, who was named Enrico Dandolo, mounted
the pulpit and spoke to the people, and said, ' Gentle
men, you are associated with the best people in the
world, for the highest affair that has ever been under
taken ; and I am an old man and feeble, and have need
of repose, for I am ill of body ; but I see that no one
could so govern and lead you as I who am your lord
(sire). If you will consent that I should take the sign
of the cross in order to guard and direct you, and my
son stay in my place and guard the land, I will go to
live or die with you and the pilgrims.' And when
they heard him, they all cried with one voice, ' We
pray thee, for love of God, that you do this, and that
you come with us,' Very great was then the emotion
of the people of the land and of the pilgrims, and
many tears were shed, because this worthy man might

THE DOGE TAKES THE CROSS. gj
have had such great reason for staying at home ; for
he was an old man, and though his eyes were fair to
look on, yet he saw not at all, for he had lost his sight
through a wound on the head.* But he had a very
large heart He came down from the pulpit and went
before the altar and knelt down, weeping much ; and
they sewed the cross on the front of his tall cap of
cotton, because he wished that the people should see
it And the Venetians began to take the cross in
great numbers. Our pilgrims felt great joy, and their
hearts were moved on account of that cross which he
had taken, because of his wisdom and his prowess.
Thus the Doge took the cross, as you have heard.
Then they began to deliver the ships and the galleys
and the vessels to the barons for setting sail, and so
much time had passed that September [1202] was
drawing near."
The resolution of the Doge, now ninety-four years
old, is an illustration of the spirit that made the cru
sades possible, and not less of that which inspired the
great works of church-building of this period.
The crusade achieved little for the honor of the
* Dandolo had been blinded when Venetian envoy at Constantino
ple, in 1 171, by Manuel Comnenus, Emperor of the East. His blind
ness does not seem to have been complete. His descendant, the Doge
Andrea Dandolo, says simply in his chronicle, " Emanuel itaque erga
Venetos furore accensus, se eos ad nihilum redacturum adjurans, in le-
gatos, dum ea quae paeis erant requirerent, injuriose prorupit. Cui
Henricus Dandolo pro salute patriae constanter resistens, visu aliqua-
liter obtenebratus est. Qui illatam injuriam sub dissimulatione secre-
tam tenens, una cum socio Venetias redeunt." Lib. x. cap. i. § 4. The
" pro salute patriae " is a touch of the true Venetian spirit.
6

82 VENICE AND ST. MARK'S.
cross. The arms of the crusaders were turned against
Christians and not Saracens. Constantinople was be
sieged and taken by the allied forces of the French
and Venetians. From the pillage of the imperial city
Venice gained many precious objects. Her piety was
gratified by receiving from the Doge as part of the
booty a piece of the true cross, one of the arms of
St George, a part of the skull of St John the Baptist
the body of St. Lucia — Lucia nemica di ciascun crudele
— the body of St. Simeon, and a phial of the blood of
Jesus Christ The crusaders were not of a temper to
respect the priceless works of ancient art with which
the city was adorned : the statues of marble were shat
tered, those of bronze melted down ; but Dandolo in
terposed to save the four horses of gilded bronze that
Constantine had carried from Rome to decorate his
hippodrorne, and In 1205 they were sent to Venice,
and shortly after set up on the front of St. Mark's —
a strange but striking ornament of Its fanciful facade,
and a permanent memorial of the share of Venice In
the crusade.*
* Coryat, whose lively description of Venice, in his Crudities (1611),
gives a picture of the splendid city in the days of its magnificence,
says : " Two of these horses are set on one side of that beautiful
alabaster border, full of imagery and other singular devices, which is
advanced over the middle great brasse gate at the comming into the
Church, and the other two on the other side. Which yeeldeth a mar-
uailous grace to this frontispice of the Church, and so greatly they are
estemed by the Venetians, that although they have beene offered for
them their weight in gold by the King of Spaine, as I heard reported
in Venice, yet they will not sell them."
After the overthrow of the republic they were carried, in 1797, to

THE VIEW FROM THE TOWER OF ST. MARK'S 83
The story of St Mark's is an epitome of the story
of Venice, So long as Venice lived, St. Mark's was
the symbol and expression of her life. Among the
noble works of men, few more beautiful, few more
venerable, adorn the face of the world. It is the chief
monument of one of the communities which in its time
did most to elevate and refine mankind. For a long
period the Venetians served as the advance-guard of
modern civilization, and their history can never cease
to be of interest to the student of political institutions
and of the highest forms of human society. From the
top of the tower of St Mark's, says an old traveller,
" you have the fairest and goodliest prospect that is
(I thinke) in all the worlde. For therehence may you
see the whole model and forme of the citie, sub uno
intuitu, a sight that doth. In my opinion, farre sur-
passe all the shewes under the cope of heaven. There
you may have a synopsis — that is, a general viewe —
^f little Christendome (for so doe many intitle this citie
J Venice), or rather of the Jerusalem of Christen
dome," and among all the sights of this glorious city
the best is " the beautiful Church of St Marke, which
though it be but little, yet it is exceeding rich, and
truly so many are its ornaments that a perfect de
scription of them will require a little volume,"
Paris, but were restored (as an inscription, curiously out of place on the
front of the church, records) by the Emperor of Austria, Francis I., in
1815.

Ill
SIENA AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION

III.
SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE DUOMO, AND THE BATTLE OF MONTAPERTI.
The annals of Siena during the twelfth and thir
teenth centuries, like those of most other Italian cities,
are little more than a record of frequent changes in the
order of government, of popular tumults, of the exile
of powerful citizens and their armed return to take
vengeance on and expel their domestic foes, of bloody
feuds between allied families, and of repeated violence
and treachery, consequent on bitter party divisions.
The hate of Guelf and Ghibelline, quickened by the
passions of intestine factions, was never appeased.
The turbulent mass of the common people was always
ready for a call to arms. Each great family had their
band of retainers, trained for service however desper
ate, and their palaces were built as strongholds, not
for themselves alone, but to afford shelter and protec
tion to their numerous followers.
In spite, however, of division and discord, in spite of
broils at home and wars abroad, the city grew and
prospered, and the strength of the community in
creased. Siena became by degrees conscious of her

88 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION. '
abilities and her resources. The pride of her citi
zens, rising with their growing numbers and gathered
wealth, inspired them with zeal to adorn the city, that
she might be no less beautiful than strong, and might
display to her emulous neighbors her superiority in
arts as well as In arms. The gente vana, as Dante calls
them, were not of a temper to let themselves be out
done by their rivals without an effort, or to count nar
rowly the cost of works that would do honor to their
town or add to Its magnificence. The community, not
withstanding its divisions, was not too broken nor too
large to share in a common emotion, or to be inspired
by a single will, at least in the prosecution of such de
signs as rose above the level of personal ambitions and
partisan interests.
The latter part of the twelfth century, here as else
where In Tuscany, was especially fruitful in undertak
ings of this sort For a longer breathing-spell than
usual, the city was free from war and exempt from tu
mult, so that Its people could give their thoughts and
means to works of common concern for its service
or adornment Thus in 1177 the Sienese began to
dig through one of the hills enclosed within their
walls in search of a hidden and mysterious spring
known to the popular fancy as the Diana. They long
labored in vain, and Dante scoffs (Purgatory, xiii.
1 5 1-3) at their lost hopes. But the secret source was
at last reached, and Diana's Well, in the garden behind
the Church and Convent of the Carmine, to-day gives

PUBLIC WORKS OF THE CITY. 89
water to the troops quartered in cells once occupied
by monks. The chief w^ater supply of Siena was, how
ever, and Is still, derived from sources outside the walls,
conducted through pipes into the city; and in 1193,
in order to meet the growing needs of the town, new
streams were led through underground channels to the
famous Fonte Branda, while probably about the same
time the spacious reservoir and noble triple arcade of
this most picturesque of fountains were constructed
at public cost In the next year, 11 94, the Campo di
Siena, the public square, which from that time has been
the centre of the life of the town, was laid out in its
actual form. Here the heart of the city has beat high
in rejoicing and festival, and here its hottest blood has
stained every stone of the broad pavement. The re
public has here celebrated Its victories and mourned
its defeats ; and here the old palaces still sullenly gaze
on the cheap activities of the daily market, and on the
shadowy forms of existence that have taken the place
of the real life and eager emotions of the past. Few
cities In Italy can boast of a nobler public square, or
one more crowded with historic association, than this
shell-shaped Piazza della Signoria.
But of all the works undertaken by the community,
the chief was the building of a cathedral. From a
very early time a church dedicated to the Virgin had
existed on the site now occupied by the Duomo ; and
here. In still more ancient days, had stood, it is said, a
temple dedicated to Minerva ; for it had been ordained

90 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
of God, says one of the Sienese authors most in repute,
" that the city which, under the light of the Gospel,
was to be consecrated to the Virgin Mary, should
cherish, even In the darkness of paganism, the worship
of the goddesses most renowned for chastity — Minerva
and Diana." *
The position was well chosen for the site of the
principal sacred edifice of the city. Siena encloses
within its walls a curiously broken surface of hill and
valley. The sharp contrasts of level give to the town
a striking picturesqueness of aspect On the top of
one, of the heights, a hundred and fifty feet above the
ravine-like valley beneath it rises the cathedral, seem
ing alike to crown and to keep watch over the city.
Its rectangular Campanile lifts itself high above the
city walls, matched only by the lighter and more
aspiring tower of the Palace of the Republic standing
on the Campo below. Round the feet of these towers,
symbols of the religious devotion and civic indepen
dence of the restless but vigorous little republic, the
turbulent life of Siena whirled and eddied ; and now
that her life has run low, her power gone, her glory
become a mere memory, these towers stand as the
monuments of her former proud self, and of a noble
spirit and eager energies long since extinct
But when the cathedral was building there was
blood enough in the veins of the Sienese, and their
pulses were quickened by the work. Its magnificence
* Gigli, Diario Sanese, Lucca, 1723, parte ii. p. 426.

THE DUOMO A CIVIC WORK. qj
was not only the proof of their devotion, but the sign
of their strength, and of the abundance of their re
sources. It was to be as well the envy of neighboring
cities as the delight of their own. It was a civic, much
more than an ecclesiastical, work ; and the votes of a
majority in the popular assembly determined not only
how it should be carried on, but elected the architect
and the overseers who were to be engaged on the
building. Bishop and clergy exercised no authority
over it The lay democracy were the rulers in all that
concerned it.
Of the existing Duomo probably no visible portion
belongs to an earlier date than the second quarter of
the thirteenth century. But the Duomo, as it now
stands, grew out of an earlier building by successive
modifications and additions. In the preceding century
the Sienese had been at work on the church, and the
Campanile, one of the finest in Italy, is said to have
been begun in 1146, built up upon the solid founda
tions of one of those towers for defence which formed
an essential part of the city habitation, half fortress,
half palace, of every great family.* There is a tradi-
* The number of such towers in Siena, as in other Italian dties, at
thts time, was very great, and gave characteristic picturesqueness to
its aspect : " Turribus et celsis consurgunt mcenia pinnis
Exornantque suam tectis sublimibus urbem."
A description of the towers of Pavia, written about the year 1300,
would serve for Siena as well : " Quasi omnes ecclesiae habent turres
excelsas propter campanas, etc. Ceterarum autem turrium super lai-
corum domibus excelsarum mirabiliter maximus est numerus, ex qui-

Q2 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
tion that the Pope Alexander III., a Sienese by birth,
the Pope who, according to the legend, put his foot on
the neck of Frederic Barbarossa prostrate before him
in the vestibule of St Mark's — there is a tradition that
Alexander, during a stay in Siena in 1 1 79, consecrated
the then existing church. It seems likely, however,
the building was not then complete, for there exist
numerous records of work done on the Duomo in the
early part of the thirteenth century, though little is
known of its exact nature.
With the growth of the city and the increasing pros
perity of the citizens, the need was felt of a larger and
finer church. The splendid Cathedral of Pisa, not far
off, was a goad to the pride and the vanity of the Si
enese. The old forms of building, in which the an
cient tradition of Roman art had maintained suprem
acy, no longer satisfied the newly aroused creative in
telligence of the mediaeval communities, Italy took
hints of Gothic construction and form from the build
ers of Northern cathedrals and castles, but she never
adopted the style as her own. Her builders were
stimulated to their utmost endeavors by the wonders
bus multae tam ex vetustate, quam studio civium se invicem persequen-
tium ceciderunt." The author of the little Chronicle of Ferrara, writ
ing near the end of the thirteenth century, and telling of the discords
of the citizens, introduces a charming touch of nature in his descrip
tion of the party strifes : " Audivi a majoribus natu, quod in quadra
ginta annorum curriculo altera pars alteram decies a civitate extru-
serat. Accepi puer a genitore meo, hiberno tempore confabulante in
lare, quod ejus tempore viderat in civitate Ferrariae turres altas tri-
ginta duas, quas mox vidit prosterni et dirui." Cited by Muratori,
Antich. Ital, tomo i. parte 2, p. 205.

GOTHIC ART IN TUSCANY. 03
of the development of the pointed arch ; but they held
true, for the most part to their inherited principles of
construction and of ornament The Gothic structures
in Italy stand on Roman foundations. But at this mo
ment Tuscany was inspired with zeal to build after the
Gothic manner. Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Prato, Pistoia,
and many a less noted town, were rebuilding, or propos
ing to rebuild, their old churches according to the new
style ; and so it was in Siena. The edifice dates it
self. Its character indicates that it belongs, in general
scheme at least to the thirteenth century, but It indi
cates also that it was not, like the Duomo of Orvieto,
erected according to a plan carefully laid out in ad
vance, and closely adhered to In the progress of the
work; but that It rather grew up in the course of a
hundred years, part by part with many variations of
design, its successive architects seeking only to pre
serve a general harmony of effect, with little considera
tion of exact conformity of parts or of precise regular
ity of execution,
Malavolti, the trustworthy historian of Siena, states
that the new church was begun in 1245, and, in the
absence of contemporary records, this date may be as
sumed as that of the earliest visible part of the exist
ing cathedral.*
* Malavolti's words are : " Nel medesimo anno [1245] i Sanesi volendo
accrescer la lor chiesa catedrale, la quale non essendo molto grande,
non era capace ne' giorni piii solenni a ricever '1 popolo di quella citta,
poi ch' ella s' era cosi ripiena d' habitatori, ch' in quel tempo faceva
undicimila ottocento famiglie." Historia, Wentliii, 1599, parte i. p. 62 b,

94 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
Although records concerning the origin and first
progress of the design are wanting, yet contemporary
documents remain which show the methods adopted
by the commune in the carrying-on of the building,
and illustrate the relation of the people, and of the
authorities elected by them, to what was called dis
tinctively Z' Opera, or " The Work."
In the Archives of State at Siena there is a manu
script volume of the statutes of the commune, com
piled about 1260. Among other matter of great inter
est it contains various ordinances regulating the du
ties of the magistracy in respect to the Duomo. They
are not all of one date, but all are to be regarded as
in force at the time of the compiling of the statute.*
Their form Is that of an oath of the Podesta, or chief
magistrate of the city. He was elected annually, and
upon taking office he was obliged to swear to main
tain the statutes of the commune. The first article
concerns the Duomo, the Podesta swearing that, within
a month from the beginning of his rule, he will cause
the master of the works to take oath to pay over
whatever moneys for the work may come to his hands
to three legates homines de pcenitentia, chosen by the
Bishop, the Consuls of the Trades, and the twenty-four
* This volume bears the title of Statuto Senese, No. 2. The Sienese
archives are exceedingly rich in documents relating to the early mu
nicipal history of the city, full of important and curious material il
lustrating the social and political conditions of Tuscany during the
Middle Ages. They are admirably arranged and cared for. The his
tory of mediaeval Italy must be studied and rewritten in the archives
of its cities. See App. I. " Documents relating to the Duomo." No. I.

STATUTES RELATING TO THE DUOMO. g.
Priors of the City, and that he will oblige these three
men to take upon themselves the debts of the work,
and to render accounts every three months to the
Council of the Bell and of the People.*
In the next clause the Podesta swears to summon
the Council of the Bell during the month of January,
to provide for the appointment of men who shall audit
the accounts and determine how the building shall be
proceeded with, and whether there shall be one master
of the works or more.
Subsequent clauses provide the mode of expending
any balance of money that may remain in the hands
of the master of the works, and ordain that all persons
who may receive contributions for the building shall
take oath to pay them over without diminution to the
proper authorities. They further provide that marble
quarried for the building shall be brought into the city
at public cogt; that ten master-workmen shall be em
ployed every year on the building at the expense of
* The Consilium Campana et Populi was the chief legislative assem
bly of the city. It was composed of three hundred citizens, one hun
dred being chosen by popular vote from each terzo, or third of the
city, to whom, in certain cases, fifty more were added. It met at irregu
lar intervals, generally as often as once or twice a week, and derived
its name from the bell by whose sound it was convoked. Its meetings
were usually held in the Church of St. Christopher, which still stands
on the Piazza de' Tolomei, facing the palace of the family after whom
the square is named, one of the finest early Gothic palaces in Italy.
The old walls of the church remain, but the fagade and the interior
have been modernized and spoiled. The records of the Consiglio della
Campana exist in the archives, almost unbroken, from the year 1252,
and are among the most important sources for the history of the re
public.

C,6 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
the commune ; that these masters shall take oath to
work in summer as well as in winter, and for the same
wages, bona fide, sine fraude, sicuti in propria suo labo-
rarent, and to do no other work unless by special per
mission of the Podesta ; that in January of each year
the Podesta and the Captain, and the Consuls of the
Trades and the Priors of the City, shall make all need
ful provision for the progress of the work, ct super
omnibus utilitatibus faciendis pro dicto opere ; that all
citizens of Siena, owners of beasts of burden, shall,
twice a year, bring loads of marble to the work, on
condition that the Bishop shall give to such persons
for each load indulgence of one year for penance im
posed on them; and, finally, that a judge shaU be ap
pointed who shall decide summarily, sine solempjiitate
Judiciorum, in all matters of dispute concerning the
works, and shall order payment of whatever Is due to
them, and that his judgments shall be exe^cuted by the
Podesta or other civil authorities.
These provisions, standing as they do at the very
head of the ancient Sienese code, clearly exhibit the
popular and municipal character of the work, and
indicate the feeling with which it was regarded as a
sacred charge, the chief of the concerns of the com
mune. The construction of so great and so magnificent an
edifice as the people had resolved that their Duomo
should be was a work to demand not only vast labor,
but enormous expense. But the proud and prosper-

SOURCES OF FUND FOR BUILDING. gy
ous Sienese counted no cost too heav>'. The contri
butions of individuals, the offerings of zeal or super
stition, and sums voted from time to time by the Coun
cil of the Bell, suppHed a considerable part of the fund
for building.* The Bishop and canons of the church
had large revenues, of which a portion may have been
expended for the same object.!
But the fund was also increased by the offerings
made every year, at the Feast of the Assumption of
the Virgin, the 1 5th of August by the citizens of Si
ena and by the towns and cities subject to her domin
ion. These offerings were In money, or more gen
erally in candles, or wax for candles. As early as
1200 an ordinance was passed that every inhabitant
of the city and of its suburbs between the ages of
eighteen and seventy should, under penalty of one
hundred soldi, offer a wax-candle at the Duomo on
the vigil of the Madonna of August the Madonna of
the Assumption, to whom the church was dedicated.^
Whenever Siena added a new village or town to her
rule, whether by peaceful means or by force, a clause
* It was an old rule of the Canon that one fourth of the revenue and
of the offerings should be assigned to the church fabric. " Quatuor
autem tam de reditu quam de oblatione fidelium . . . convenit fieri
portiones ; quarum sit una pontificis, altera clericorum, tertia paupe-
rum, quarta fabricis applicanda." Codex Canonum Ecclesiasticorum et
Constitutortcm S. Sedis Apost. cap. Iviii. § xxiii.
t The Bishop of Siena was one of the most powerful prelates of
Northern Italy. His feudal possessions embraced a rich and extensive
territory, over which he exercised exclusive jurisdiction, and from
which he exacted a large annual tribute.
X Arehivio del Duomo, Perg. 108. 7

q8 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
was inserted in the giuramento, or oath of submission,
binding the subject community to the offering of can
dles at the Duomo on the great feast of August which
still remains the chief festival of the Sienese calendar.*
Nor were these offerings of wax-candles the only
tribute exacted by Siena from her subjects for the ben
efit of the church building. Many a robber chieftain
of the Maremma or baron of the mountains was forced,
during the thirteenth century, to submit himself, his
castle, and his lands in feud to Siena, and, as a sign of
his submission, to make offering each year with his
* In 1204, for instance, the town of Montelatrone, giving herself to
Siena, promises to send every year a candle of twelve pounds of wax,
on the Feast of S. Maria, in August, provided that the expenses of the
bearers of it be defrayed by the authorities of Siena. In 1232, Chiusi,
making league with her more powerful neighbor, promises to send a
" cero," or wax-candle, every year, according to custom. A hundred
years later, when the town cf Foseni submitted to Sienese dominion, it
promised that every year, at the Feast of S. Maria d' Agosto, its syndic
should carry to the Duomo of Siena, in token of subjection, "unura
cerum de cera foliatum, ponderis xxv libr. cere,'' and that he should be
accompanied by eight householders of the town, each bringing a can
dle of one pound in weight. In 1224 the city of Grosseto, having re
belled against Siena, and being brought anew under her rule, promised,
among other terms of submission, to send every year to Siena, on the
Feast of the Assumption, fifty of its citizens, each of whom should
present a wax-candle to the Opera, or Board of Works, of the Duomo.
So, too, four years later, the Ghibelline exiles from Montepulciano,
making league with Siena, pledged themselves that when with her aid
they should be restored to the control of their city, they would every
year, on the same feast, send their chamberlain, accompanied by fifty
cavaliers, to offer at the cathedral a wax -candle of fifty pounds in
weight. For the last two instances, see Malavolti, Historia, parte i, pp. 51, S^-
The preceding I have taken from the series of records known as the
Caleffo Vecchio, in the Archives at Siena, each under its respective year.
The list might be greatly extended. See Appendix I. Document II.

FESTIVAL OF THE MADONNA OF AUGUST. gg
own hand of a certain number of silver marks on the
high-altar of the cathedral,*
The festival of the Madonna of August as the Sien
ese termed the Feast of the Assumption, was the
most striking and picturesque of the civil and re
ligious ceremonies of her year. But the contempo
rary medieval chroniclers, finding the times in which
they lived as prosaic as the present always is except to
the poet took little pains to note the details of even
the most impressive scenes of which they were wit
nesses, and have left no description of the festival.
The facts concerning it to be gathered from scattered
sources are, however, enough to enable us to depict it
in part, though the liveliest fancy may well fail to re
produce it in all its variety of aspect and brilliancy of
color. On the vigil of the feast, a procession of the
citizens, arranged under the ensigns of their trades or
the banners of their parishes, and in their distinctive
costumes, headed by the nobles of the city in their
most splendid apparel, and accompanied by the magis
tracy in their garb of office, was conducted with sol
emn pomp to the cathedral, there to take part in the
sacred services, and to lay their offerings on the high-
altar. That evening, or the next day, the deputies of
the cities, castles, and villages under the dominion of
Siena, each delegation in ceremonial robes, together
with the counts and barons who owed allegiance to the
city, presented themselves with their due tribute, their
* Malavolti, Historia, parte ii. p. 28 b.

IOC SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
pride soothed by the fact that the symbol of their sub
jection had the form of an offering in the service of
the Lord. The solemn and splendid ministrations of
the church were made more magnificent by the stately
order of the processions, the display of gay and costly
dresses, the gleaming of armor and the waving of in
numerable banners. It was a proud sight for Siena as
she watched the defile through her narrow and em
battled streets of band after band of the envoys of the
towns that acknowledged her sway, and of the nobles
whom she had compelled to become her vassals, and it
was no wonder that for a befitting stage for the closing
scene of such a spectacle she was resolved to have a
cathedral that should not be surpassed by any other In
Tuscany. Whether all the offerings made, and all the tribute
paid on the 15th of August went to the advancement
of the work of construction cannot be told ; but that a
large portion of them did so there is no doubt The
candles were disposed of for the benefit of the build
ing fund, and the money was paid directly into the
hands of the officer duly authorized to receive it and
expend it in the prosecution of the works.*
* The profitable disposal of the great quantity of candles received in
tribute was secured by the large and constant demand for them by per
sons wishing to burn candles at the shrine of the Madonna or of a
favorite saint, in fulfilment of a vow or for the obtaining of some
grace ; and also by their use in the frequent religious processions by
which the popular piety was both manifested and stimulated. There
is no doubt that the sale of candles offered by the faithful was one of
the chief common resources for obtaining means to carry on the work

EARLIEST RECORDS OF BUILDING. iqi
Besides the sources of revenue already enumerated,
there were not infrequent legacies to the Opera ;* and
during the greater part of the thirteenth century the
resources for building seem to have been ample, with
out recourse to any extraordinary means for stimulat
ing the zeal and good-will of the community towards
the work.
The earliest documents known to exist relating to
the building of the actual Duomo are of the year 1259.
At a meeting of the Consiglio della Campana, held In
of church-building. In 1 260, after the victory of Montaperti, the Sienese
resolved to erect a church in honor of St. George, and the popular
Council passed an ordinance, " De cereis portandis ad ecclesiam Sancti
Georgii in ejus festivitate," the second chapter of which runs as follows :
" Ut cerei portati ad ecclesiam Sancti Georgii in festivitate convertan-
iur in ejus utilitatem. Et predicti cerei convertantur in constructionem
ecclesie supradicte ; et idem fiat de aliis cereis omnibus qui in festivi
tate predicta vel in vigilia ipsius festivitatis portabuntur ad dictam ec
clesiam. Et omnes dicti cerei, quolibet anno in dicto festo debeant
pervenire ad manus operarii ecclesie nove Sancti Georgii, vel trium bo-
norum hominum de populo dicte ecclesie, si operarius non esset, qui
teneantur dictos cereos recipere, et eos convertere in constructionem
dicte ecclesie.'' See La Battaglia di Motitaperti, di Cesare Paoli, Siena,
1869, 8vo. Documente V. pp. 80, 81. See also, for similar facts, the
terms of the agreement between the masters "dell' arte della pietra"
and the operaio of the Duomo concerning the construction of an altar
for the stonecutters' guild, November 4, 1368 ; Milanesi, Documenti per
la Storia dell' Arte Senese, Siena, 1854-56, tomo i. p. 266. See Muratori,
Antich. Ital. tomo iii. parte i. p. 242, for illustrations of the prevalence
of this custom of offering candles or wax.
* In the Arehivio del Duomo there are many records of such legacies.
For instance, in the year 1235, Perg. 178; in 1246 one Alessio del gia
Guglielmo leaves his possessions to the Hospital of S. Maria di Siena,
on condition that every year, in perpetuo, till the Duomo be finished,
twelve measures ("staja") of grain be paid to the Opera, Perg. 198;
and to this bequest he adds, by a codicil, a legacy of ten lire in money,
Perg. 199; other legacies are recorded in 1250, 1257, 1258, 1259, 1265,
and many subsequent years.

I02 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
the Church of St Christopher, on the i6th of Novem
ber, 1259, it was voted that nine judicious men ("sapi-
entes viri"), three from each of the local divisions, or
terzi, of the city, should be appointed to consult with
the Master of the Works ; and that they should see
and determine what best may be done in the church ;
and that whatever all or a majority of their number
should order, so it should be done.*
On the 28th of November the nine "sapientes viri"
render their reports, a majority of six recommending
one course, the minority another. This division of
opinion seems to have prevented immediate action, and
ten weeks later, on the nth of February, 1259-60,! at a
meeting of the Consiglio, it was agreed ("fuit in con-
cordla") to appoint a new committee -of nine good men
(" boni homines"), with a similar charge, to direct what
work should be done at the Duomo. Accordingly, on
the 20th of the month, the nine good men being met
in the cathedral, and the name of Christ being in
voked, they unanimously agree in ordering Fra Me-
lano, Master of the Works, to vault the space between
the two last marble columns and the rear wall of the
church, and to do some other less important work.
Three months later the same committee of nine — " no-
* This and the following documents referred to of the same and the
next year are printed by Milanesi in the first volume of his Documenti.
The originals are in the Archives of State, having been transferred
thither, with other early records, from the Archives of the Opera del
Duomo. t The Sienese year, like the Florentine, began on the 25th of March,
the Feast of the Annunciation.

PROGRESS OF WORK IN 1260. iq-'
biles viri boni electi et positi a consllio comunis et
populi Senensis qualiter procedatur in opere sancte
Marie et quomodo ibi laboretur" — direct Brother Me-
lano to construct between the two next columns, three
more vaults like those just made, and also to vault the
part of the church between the altar of St. Bartholomew
and the door near to it But the vaulting just com
pleted, whether it had been constructed too hastily or
with insufficient skill, was already giving signs of weak
ness; and on the 9th of June twelve master-workmen
employed on the building, and two other master-build
ers not so employed, were consulted as to its stability.
Their advice was that the vaults should not be thrown
down and rebuilt on account of the cracks apparent in
them, " because," they say, " other vaults to be made
next them may be so well joined to them that they will
not open any farther ; nor are the said vaults in which
the cracks exist at all weakened by these fissures."
Here all information concerning the progress of the
building in this year comes to an end. But besides
the vivid iUustration these documents afford of the
manner in which the work was conducted, and of the
active supervision of the community over it, they throw
a strong light on the spirit of the Sienese at one of the
most critical periods of their history. The year 1260
is the most famous in the annals of Siena. While she
was thus busy with her cathedral, she was still busier
in making preparations for a war in which her very
existence as an independent city was at stake.

I04

SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.

The long contentions during the first half of the cen
tury between the Emperor Frederic II, and successive
popes had imbittered the great party strife throughout
Italy between Guelf and Ghibelline. Though the con
flicting ideas represented by these names were often
lost sight of In the heats of civil faction or domestic
feuds, or partially reconciled in alliances contracted
under the influence of temporary but powerful inter
ests, and Guelf might in the confusion of the times, be
found fighting against the Pope, and Ghibelline against
the Emperor, yet in the main the Guelfs were constant
in opposition to the domination of a foreign ruler in
Italy, favoring the increase of popular liberties as the
surest mode of securing the independence of their sev
eral cities, and hence the independence and unity of
Italy ; while, on the other hand, the Ghibellines sought
in their support of the Emperor, who maintained, to
the imagination at least the ancient imperial tradition,
to provide a strong feudal head for the State, under
whose rule existing privileges and liberties would be
safe, civil discord repressed, and the natural grades
of orderly society preserved. The very bitterness of
the hatred between these two parties was an indication
of the strength of the common passion and principle
which in reality underlay all differences — the princi
ple of communal independence, the passion for the
unity of Italy. Each Tuscan city was in turn ruled
now by one party and now by the other, according as
the leaders of one or the other gained forces and ad-

EFFECT OF DEATH OF FREDERIC II. 105
herents. The history of Italy during this period is a
record of woes wrought by these fatal divisions — a rec
ord of wars, treasons, banishments, confiscations, and
ruin repeating themselves, with mournful monotony,
year after year ; fruitless victory alternating with fruit
less defeat the victors of one season becoming the
vanquished the next*
The death of Frederic, in 1250, depressed the spirit
even more than it weakened the strength of the Ghib
ellines. The striking individuality of his strong char
acter, the rare qualities of his genius, and the unusual
fortune that attended him had deeply impressed the
imaginations of his friends and his enemies alike. He
had been the " wonder of mankind." Freed from the
dread of his long-reaching arm, Florence, always Guelf
at heart called back those of her citizens who had been
* The chronicles of the Italian cities, both North and South, are full
of pictures of the wretchedness produced by party divisions and pas
sions. Freedom from strife is nowhere to be found ; there is neither
quiet nor security. " Cerca, misera, intorno dalle prode
Le tue marine, e poi ti guarda in seno,
S' alcuna parte in te di pace gode."
Malavolti, speaking of the hate of Guelf and Ghibelline, says, " Ne ci
rimase alcun popolo che non fusse infettato da quella pernitiocissima
contagione, per la quale, senza haverne altra causa, combatteva 1' uno
con r altro, con nimicitia mortale, e non solamente una citta contra
air altra, ma le medesime citta divise in queste fattioni combattevano
infra di loro ; havendo ciascuna parte, non solo different! le sue in
segne, con le quali usciva alle guerre, ma haveva differentiati i colori,
il portar de gli habiti, i gesti della persona, et ogni minima cosa ; tanto
che dall" aspetto solamente si potevan conoscere i Guelfi da Ghibellini ;
e non solo eran tra Sanesi queste divisioni, ma . . . era nato nuovo
disparere tra molti.cittadini." Historia, parte i. p. 61 b.

I06 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
in exile, expelled some of the leading Ghibellines, and
put herself at the head of the Guelf interest in Tus
cany. But the rising power of Manfred, the son of
Frederic, and now King of Sicily, soon restored hope
to the Ghibellines, and inspired them with new bold
ness, so that the Florentines, fearing the designs of
the great Ghibelline families that still remained within
her walls, rose against them in 1258, and in a tumult
of popular fury tore down, sacked, and burned their
houses, murdered some of the chief among them, and
drove the rest to flight and exile. Several hundreds of
the banished Ghibellines, with Farinata degh Uberti,*
one of the most marked figures of the time, at their
head, betook themselves to Siena, where the Ghibellines
were the ruling party. Siena was noted for her devo
tion to the Imperial cause. She received the exiles with
open arms, as bringing a welcome addition to her war
like strength. But In thus sheltering those whom Flor
ence had driven out, Siena quickened into flame the
always smouldering hate of her jealous and overbearing
neighbor. For more than a hundred and fifty years,
the two commonwealths had been in open hostility or
latent enmity. The prosperity of one was an offence
to the other. The boundaries of one were the limits
to the territory of the other, and disputes were com
mon along the variable line, affording easy occasion
* Few readers will need to be reminded of Dante's interview with
" quell' altro magnanimo,'' who bore himself in torment
" Come avesse 1' Inferno in gran dispitto."

ALLIANCE WITH MANFRED. jq-
for recourse to arms. But now there was more serious
ground of quarrel,
Siena had bound herself by treaty only three years
before not to receive or harbor any person banished
from Florence.* Siena had no valid excuse for her
breach of faith ; the act was one of manifest hostility
to Florence, in the interest of the cause which Siena
had at heart From within her walls the exiled and
impatient Ghibellines could watch their chance, and
with her aid make good their return to their own city,
Florence could not endure to be thus threatened. She
sent envoys to demand the fulfilment of the treaty.
The Sienese, encouraged by Manfred, refused to send
away the exiles. She drew close her alliance with the
king, swearing fealty and obedience to him, and he. In
return, took the commune formally under his protec
tion, pledging himself to maintain, defend, and aid it
against its enemies, whosoever they might be.t Mean-
* " Aliquem exbannitum a comuni Florentiae." The original of the
treaty is in the Archives of State at Siena, Pergamene delle Riforma-
gioni, An. 1255. Signor Cesare Paoli has printed a part of it in his ex
cellent work before referred to. La Battaglia di Montaperti, Docu
menti, p. 75.
t The curious instrument by which Manfred, in May, 1259, under
took the protection of the city still exists in the Sienese archives. It
has been printed by Malavolti, parte ii. p. 2 ; and by Saint-Priest, Hist.
de la Conquite de Naples par Charles d' Anjou, tome i. p. 360. The words
of Manfred's promise have a rhetorical character which illustrates a
trait in his personal disposition : " Promittentes a modo civitatem
predictam cum omnibus supradictis manu tenere, defendere, et juvare
contra quoslibet offensores, et sicut nos turrim sue fortitudinis ele-
gerunt, sic sub felicis Dominii nostri tempore tranquilla pace qui-
escant et suorum emulorum insultus muniti potentie nostre clypeo
non formident."

Io8 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
while active preparations for war went on on both
sides. At the end of the year 1259 Manfred made
good his promise by sending to Siena, as his vicar, his
cousin Giordano d' Anglano, Count of San Severino,
and with him a troop of mercenary German horse
men, several hundred strong. During the winter of
1259-60 Siena, besides fitting out a strong force to
reduce Grosseto and other places in the Maremma
that had rebelled against her, was engaged in strength
ening her walls, in laying in a store of provisions, and
in preparing supplies of tents, cross-bows, and other
munitions of war " pro conforto nostrorum et pro ter-
rore rebelllum," *
On the 1 9th of April the Florentine forces moved out
from Florence, and, after a successful campaign In the
Maremma, encamped near Siena on the 1 7th of May.
The next morning the Count Giordano, at the head of
the band of German horse, supported by a small body
of Sienese infantry, made an impetuous sortie, and
routed the first ranks of the enemy ; but, overpowered
by numbers, he was driven back with great loss, leav
ing the banner of King Manfred In the hands of the
Guelfs. But the vigor of this sortie seems to have
convinced the Florentines that they were not strong
enough to reduce the city. The next morning their
army broke camp and withdrew, and a few days after
re-entered Florence In triumph, with a number of prls-
* Cotisiglio della Campana, Reg. 9, car. 53. See Paoli, La Battaglia
di Montaperti, p. 1 9.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE STRUGGLE. 109
oners, and with the royal banner of Manfred trailing
in the mud. It was while these events were taking
place that Fra Melano was building the new vaults at
the Duomo and the discussion as to their stability was
going on.
Manfred no sooner heard of the triumph of the
Guelfs and of the insult that had been offered to his
banner, than he sent a fresh supply of mercenary horse
to Siena, while the Sienese themselves, feeling that the
tug of war was yet to come, strained every nerve to
prepare for the struggle.*
On the other hand, the Guelfs of Florence summon
ed all their allies and friends to join forces with them
for an expedition that should put an end at once to
the power of the Tuscan Ghibellines, to the preten-
* The chroniclers of Siena and Florence differ, as is natural, in their
accounts of this period, and of the battle which ended it. Much legen
dary matter is mixed with the truth. The Florentines lay great stress
on the part played by the exiles, especially by Farinata degli Uberti,
both in the preliminary events and in the final combat. It was sooth
ing to their pride to ascribe the largest possible share of the eventual
defeat of the Florentine Guelfs to the arms of the exiled Floren
tine Ghibellines. It was Florence against Florence ; the credit of
victory remained with her. But the Sienese annalists make little
count of the aid afforded to Siena by the exiles. Signor Paoli, in his
treatise on the Battle of Montaperti, has carefully sifted the conflicting
narratives, and has succeeded in reconciling many apparent discrepan
cies. My object being to illustrate the character of Siena at the time
of the building of her Cathedral, it is needless for me to enter into
these subordinate questions. It is to be regretted, however, that so
striking a personage as Farinata finds but bare mention in the Sienese
narratives. One reason for this neglect is, doubtless, that he was the
head of what may be called the independent Ghibellines of Tuscany,
who sought to make a party by themselves, while Siena had pledged
fealty to Manfred, and united her cause with his.

I IO SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
sions of Manfred to interfere in the affairs of Northern
Italy, and to the independence and prosperity of Siena.
At the end of August everything was ready, and the
Guelf army moved out from Florence with great pa
rade and jubilant confidence in an easy victory. Never
before had so large a force set forth from her gates.
All her own men of arms, excepting a scanty guard
left to protect the city, together with contingents from
Bologna, Prato, Volterra, and other cities, formed the
main army of near thirty thousand men, while detach
ments from Orvieto, Perugia, and Assisi were on the
way to add to its numbers. At the head of the army
was the carroccio, from whose tall mast floated the red-
and-white banner of Florence, the standard and signal
for the whole host* Siena could hardly hope to de-
* The carroccio, or "great car," that bore the standard of the com
mune, was a symbol of independence widely in use among the free
cities of Italy. Its invention is ascribed to Eriberto, Archbishop of
Milan in the eleventh century. It was universally held "as a thing
venerable and sacred," guarded with greatest care in time of peace,
and in time of war committed to the charge of a body of picked
men who were to die rather than desert or surrender it. On oc
casion of a military expedition it was richly adorned and drawn
to field by white oxen, or oxen in white trappings. At each cor
ner of the car stood a man steadying, by a rope attached to its top,
the mast from which floated the banner of the army. On the plat
form from which the mast rose was hung a bell that sounded on
the march, and was rung when the car was stationary in time of
battle. Upon this platform was also erected an altar at which mass
was performed previous to an engagement, and on any distant expedi
tion a priest attended the march for this special service. When a halt
was made, the tent of the captain of the forces was set up by the car
roccio, the signal of battle was given from it, and in case of stress or
defeat it was the rallying-point of the scattered troops. A striking de
scription of the carroccio of Florence is given by Ricordano Malespini

ADVANCE OF THE GUELF ARMY. jjj
fend herself successfully against such a host of ene
mies. But she did not despair.
Having made directly for Siena, the army of the
Guelfs encamped, on the 2d of September, about five
miles from the city, in the valley of the little stream of
the Biena, surrounded by low and broken ranges of
hills, near the foot of a height called Montaperti, and
not far from the banks of the torrent Arbia. Trusting
to the impression made by their overwhelming force,
envoys were sent to Siena to declare the will of the
Florentines that the wall of the city should be broken
down so that they might enter where they liked, and
that Siena should submit herself to the dominion of
Florence, otherwise she was to expect no mercy. The
twenty- four Signori, who at the time composed the
chief magistracy of the city, having heard the message,
said to the envoys, " Return to your people and tell
them a reply shall be given them by word of mouth."
Thereupon the Twenty-four hastily summoned a gen
eral council in the Church of St Christopher and laid be
fore It the demands of the enemy. Then, according to
the chronicle of Domenico Aldobrandini,* after various
in his History, cap. 164. For a further account of its use in various
cities see Muratori, Antich. Ital. tomo i. parte 2, pp. 197-202.
* The writer of this chronicle was not a contemporary narrator of
these events. The portion of his work relating to the Battle of Mon
taperti appears to have been drawn mainly from current popular tradi
tion, and has a freshness and directness of narrative characteristic of
its source. This portion was printed in 1844 by Signor Porri in his
Miscellanea Storica Sanese. In the same volume is an account of the
battle composed about the middle of the fifteenth century by Niccolo
di Ventura. It adds some curious and picturesque details to Aldo-

112 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
opinions had been given, " Messer Bandinello coun
selled compliance with the demand ; but this was not
agreed to. Then the counsel of Messer Provenzano
Salvani* was agreed to that they should send for
Messer Giordano, vicar of King Manfred, to whom
Siena was confided." The Count summoned to the
council, came attended by some of the officers of his
troop of German cavalry, who, as soon as they learned,
through an interpreter, the demand of the enemy,
showed every sign of gladness. The assembly, thus
encouraged, voted double pay for a full month to the
whole band of horsemen in order to make them the
more hearty in defence of Siena. " And when they
reckoned it up, one hundred and eighteen thousand
florins were needed, which, though sought for, were
not to be found. And on this, Salimbene Salimbeni,
speaking, said : ' Honorable Councillors, I deal in ready
money, and I will provide it to the said amount' And
this offer being accepted by the Twenty-four, Salim
bene went to his owm house and brought the money
on a little cart to the Piazza Tolomei, and delivered It
brandini's simpler narrative, but is unhistoric in spirit and awkward in
style. An unsatisfactory translation of it is to be found in the Chro-
niques Siennoises, par le Due de Dino, Paris, 1846, 8vo.
* This was he with whom, as Oderisi da Gubbio tells Dante,
" all Tuscany resounded.
And now he scarce is lisped of in Siena,
Where he was lord, what time was overthrown
The Florentine delirium, that superb
Was at that day, as now 'tis prostitute.''
Purgatory, xi. 1 10-114. (Longfellow's Translation.)

PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE. jj,
to the said Twenty-four." Then the money was given
to Count Giordano and his companions, and they left
the council, and went to give to each man of the eight
hundred who made up the troop of mercenaries his
double pay for a month. " And these, having It, made
good cheer with dances and songs, according to the^
custom of their country."
All the city being in commotion, the people crowded
the streets and gathered around the Church of St Chris
topher. There was no dismay, but on every side the
hurry of preparation for the coming battle. The Coun
cil chose a syndic, giving him full powers to govern the
city in all things. His name was Bonaguida Lucari, a
man of pure and good life and of the best condition.
Meanwhile the Bishop had summoned all the clergy —
priests, canons, and friars — to the Duomo, and he ex
horted them " to pray to God and the Virgin Mary and
the Saints for the people and the city, that they would
defend them against the impious lusts of the Floren
tines ;" and then, all barefoot, they made a devout and
solemn procession through the cathedral.
The Council was no sooner ended than the syndic
Bonaguida, " inspired by God and by the Virgin Mary,"
cried with a loud voice to the people before the church
in the Piazza Tolomei, and said, " ' Though we be in
trusted to King Manfred, yet now meseems we should
give ourselves, in property and person, the city and the
territory, with all our dominion, to the Virgin Mary; and
do ye all follow me with pure faith and good-will.' Here-

1 14 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
upon Bonaguida bared his head and his feet stripped
himself to his shirt put his girdle round his neck, and,
having caused the keys of all the gates of Siena to be
brought to him, he took them, and led the way for the
people, who, all barefoot followed him devoutly, with
tears and lamentations, up to the Duomo; and enter
ing It all the people cried aloud Misericordia I and
the Bishop, with the priests, came to meet them ; and
Bonaguida threw himself on the ground at the feet of
the Bishop, and the people all went on their knees. Then
the Bishop took. Bonaguida by the hand, and lifted him
up from the ground, and embraced and kissed him ; and
in like wise did all the people, one to another, In great
charity and love, and all forgot their wrongs. And
Bonaguida, standing before the picture of the Virgin
Mary, uttered these words : ' Oh, Mother most pitiful !
oh. Counsel and Help of the afflicted ! help us. I give
and dedicate to thee the city of Siena, with all its in
habitants ; the territory, and all that belongeth to us.
Lo, I consign to thee the keys. Guard thou thy city
from every wicked work ; above all, from the tyranny
of the Florentines. Ah ! Mother compassionate, accept
this little gift of our good-will. And, notary, do thou
take note of this donation, that it is forever, so long
as the world endures.' And so it was done and re
corded."* * All public resolves and acts of state were recorded and published by
a public notary. When, near the end of the century, the fagade of the
Duomo was constructed, a picture in mosaic, representing this scene,
was set over the main door. In the centre was the Virgin enthroned.

PROCESSION THROUGH THE CITY. jjc
The next morning the people assembled at the Du
omo to join in a solemn procession. " The crucifix,
carved in relief, which stands above the altar of St
James,* was taken down, and he who bore it was the
leader of the procession ; and after came the image of
the Virgin Mary, under a canopy, and then the Bish
op, barefoot, and Bonaguida, with head and feet bare,
and his girdle round his neck; and behind them the
clergy and the people barefoot, reciting psalms and
prayers ; and thus they went through Siena. And
having returned to the Duomo, kneeling before the
high-altar, they prayed God that he would deign to
hear their prayers, though they were sinners, and that
he would regard not their deserts, but for pity's sake
would have compassion on them. Then the Bishop
took the keys and blessed them and gave them back
holding the Child. On the right hand an angel presented to her the
kneeling Bonaguida, in the act of offering to her the keys of the city ;
on the left stood Siena, in the form of a crowned woman, uttering the
prayer " Respice, Virgo, Senam quam signas amenam." See Tizio, MSS.
Historiar. Sen., in the Biblioteca pubblica Comunale. This mosaic was
probably destroyed in the remodelling of the fagade in the fourteenth
century. The lover of the early art of Siena may well regret its loss.
The devout at Siena are still given to the worship of the Virgin. In
a chapel attached to the little old church of San Pietro, near the Porta
Camollia, is a modern picture of the Virgin and Child, under which is
the following inscription, quite in the spirit of the thirteenth cen
tury,— " Maria Advocata
Mediatrix Optima
Inter Christum
Et Senam Suam."
* This crucifix still exists in the Duomo, at the altar in the left tran
sept.

Il6 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
to Bonaguida, and he returned with them to St Chris
topher's." And In memory of this was painted, at the high-altar,
a paper in the hand of the Child in the arms of his
Mother, to signify the donation of Siena; and after
wards this Madonna was removed, and placed at the
altar of St Boniface, and was called Our Lady of Grace.
The rest of the day, Thursday, was spent in warlike
preparations. On the next morning, Friday, Septem
ber 3, at daybreak, a crier was sent through each quar
ter of the city, crying, " Let every man arm himself In
the name of God and of the Virgin Mary, and report
himself to his Gonfalonier." * Every man was ready,
and early In the morning the Sienese army. In good
array, marched out of the gate of Santo Viene, now dei
Pispini, the mercenaries under command of Conte
Giordano, and the soldiers of Siena under that of Conte
Aldobrandino di Santafiore, Near the front went the
carroccio of Siena, " with a white banner, which indeed
gave comfort for it seemed the mantle of the Virgin
Mary." Following their special banners came the men-
at-arms of each of the three wards of the city, " and
priests and friars went with them, encouraging them;
and some even of the clerks had arms for fighting."
The Sienese advanced without opposition from the
Florentines, passing first the stream of the Bozzone,
and then that of the Arbia, and finally encamped at
* There were three Gonfaloniers, or Standard-bearers, one for each
of the Terzi, or wards of the city.

THE DAY AND NIGHT BEFORE THE BATTLE, uy
the foot of Monteropoli, in face of the camp of the
Guelfs. That day after the army had gone out the women
who were left behind, and the old men who could not
bear arms, kept fast and went in solemn procession,
with the Bishop and clergy at their head, to visit all
the holy shrines, " praying God and the Virgin Mary
for the safety of the Sienese people, and for their lib
erty," And having come back to the Duomo, " the
Bishop, kneeling before the altar, made a devout prayer,
and then gave the people his bleSsing, and part went
to their houses to rest and part remained to pray." *
As soon as the Sienese army had taken up its posi
tion, final preparations were made for battle, and troops
were told off to harass and disturb the enemy through
the night That night a mantling white mist was seen
to hang over the Sienese camp, at which the people
marvelled, and some said, " it seemed as it were the
mantle of our Mother, the Virgin Mary, who watches
over and defends the people of Siena." t
Early on the morning of Saturday, the 4th Septem
ber, the Sienese prepared for the attack. " ' It is near
day,' said their captain-general, ' let all the troops com
fort themselves with eating and drinking, and then, in
* Aldobrandini, p. 1 1 ; Ventura, p. 48.
t Aldobrandini, p. 18 ; Ventura, p. 56. From an early time the Sie
nese painters were accustomed to represent the Virgin with a white
mantle ; varying in this from the common traditional representation
of her in a red tunic, with a blue robe or mantle. Many instances of
this peculiar dress may be seen in the pictures in the Gallery of Fine
Arts at Siena.

Il8 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
the name of God and his mother the Virgin Mary and
the glorious Messer St George, the noble cavalier, we
will forward and begin the victory.' " "And thereupon
were served most excellent roast meats, and a great
quantity of other provisions, and the best of wines and
abundance of good bread. And the Germans set them
selves to dancing and singing a song in their tongue,
which says, " Soon shall we see what hap may fall." *
And this they did while the rest of the army was get
ting ready; for it seemed to them a thousand years
¦while they waited to mount.!
Orders were given that the advance should be made
without sound of trumpet, but with a shout at the mo
ment of joining battle. No one was to break ranks for
^ One is reminded of the German mercenaries in the expedition on
Branksome Hall, —
" Behind the English bill and bow.
The mercenaries firm and slow.
Moved on to fight in dark array.
By Conrad led of Wolfenstein,
Who brought the band from distant Rhine,
And sold their blood for foreign pay.
And as they marched, in rugged tongue
Songs of Teutonic feuds they sung."
Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto iv. St. xviii.
t Ventura, p. 6i. It is difficult to render the simplicity of the words
of the chronicler : " E in questo vennero buonissime vivande arrostite
di diverse carni, e grande quantita di confetti, e di perfetti e solenni
vini e bene vantaggiati, e grande abondanza di pane pur del piii belle.
In questo mentre che le cose s' apparecchiavano, el conte d' Arasi, e
misser Gualtieri con altri tedeschi presono uno bello ballo cantando
canzone in tedesco, che a nostra lingua dicea : Tosto vedremo cih che si
ritrova. E questo fero per poco ispazio, acciocche la gente che dormiva
si svegliasse e si mettesse in ponto, e predesse conforto di mangiare e
here, che a loro pareva mille anni di montare a cavallo."

THE BEGINNING OF THE BA TTLE. 1 1 g
the sake of taking prisoners or booty ; no quarter was
to be given to the enemy, but the troops were to ''far
carne',' to kiU, At the moment of advance one of the
German knights, the leader of a band of two hundred
horse — Master Harry of Astimberg — coming to the
Captain of the army, said, " The holy empire has given
the privilege to our House of Astimberg to strike the
first blow in every battle ; be pleased to allow it now,"
His suit was granted, " and thereupon Messer Walter,
nephew of the aforesaid Master Harry, leaped from his
horse, and kneeling, said to his uncle, ' He who receiv-
eth grace can best grant it ; you have the right to de
liver the first blow, and now grant to me that in your
stead I may be the first to lower lance,' Then Master
Harry yielded it to him, and kissed him and blessed
him ; and Messer Walter quickly mounted his horse,
and gave thanks to his uncle for so great an honor,
and put his helm on his head and set forward," *
The battle, once joined, soon became a desperate
fight. What the Sienese lacked in numbers they made
up in fury ; and they were aided — so, at least say the
Florentine chroniclers — by treachery in the ranks of
their enemies, " Messer Bocca degli AbatI, the trai
tor," says Malespini in his chronicle, " smote and cut
off the hand of Messer Jacopo de' Pazzi of Florence,
who bore the standard of the cavalry of the commune
of Florence. And the cavaliers and the people, see-
* Aldobrandini, p. 19. Ventura tells the story with many rhetorical
additions and flourishes.

I20 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
ing the standard down and the treachery, were put to
rout" *
But spite of treachery, spite of panic, the Florentines
fought bravely; and, as their fortune grew desperate,
they rallied round their carroccio, and defended it with
passionate valor. With tears they kissed it taking thus
a last farewell of all that was dear to them, and then
turned to die, till a heap of the dead surrounded it like
a wall. But all their efforts were vain. The Ghibel
lines gained possession of the carroccio, pulled down
the banner of Florence, and dragged it in the blood
and dust to revenge the insult to the banner of King
Manfred. The victory was complete. Before nightfall the great
er part of the Florentine host were dead or captive, and
the rest were flying in dismay.
Meanwhile Siena was waiting and watching In anx
ious suspense for the issue of the day on which her fate
depended. In the morning one Cerreto CeccoHni had
gone, taking his drum with him, to the top of the tow
er of the Mariscotti,! whence he could see the battle-
* Malespini, Istoria di Fiorenza, c. 171 ; G. Villani, Cronica, vi. 78.
It was this Bocca degli Abati whom Dante found freezing in the ice
in which traitors were set :
" Whether 'twere will, or destiny, or chance,
I know not ; but, in walking 'mong the heads,
I struck my foot hard in the face of one.
Weeping, he growled, ' Why dost thou trample me ?
Unless thou comest to increase the vengeance
Of Montaperti, why dost thou molest me ?' "
Inferno, xxxii. 76-81. (Longfellow's Translation.)
t The tower of the Mariscotti still exists, though diminished in height,

THE BATTLE WATCHED FROM SIENA. 121
field. When he saw the Sienese host begin to move
he beat his drum, and cried aloud to the people who
gathered round the foot of the tower, telling them of
the advance, and bidding them pray God for victory.
When the fight became thick he beat his drum again,
and cried, " Now they are at work ; pray God for vic
tory." And again, after a while, the drummer shouted,
" Pray God for ours, for they seem to give way some
little. Now I see it is the enemy who waver." And
so from hour to hour through the day the drummer
gave news to the people, till, at length, towards even
ing, beating his drum gayly, he cried that the Floren
tine banners were on the ground, and the enemy in
flight* That night there was rejoicing in Siena.
Wearied with slaughter and the pursuit of the routed
Guelfs, the Sienese army took up their quarters on
the site of their encampment of the previous night
So ended — •
" Lo strazio e '1 grande scempio
Che fece 1' Arbia colorata in rossa ;"
and neither Florence nor Siena has ever forgotten " la
vendetta di Montaperti." !
attached to the Palazzo Saracini. From its summit even now the
heights of Monteropoli and Montaperti can be seen.
* Aldobrandfni, pp. 19-23; Ventura, pp. 65-73.
t Inferno, x. 85, 86 ; and xxxii. 80. It is impossible to reconcile the
conflicting accounts of the numbers of the slain and captured Guelfs.
The author of a manuscript account of the battle, which exists in the
Laurentian library, who speaks as one present at it, says : " Fuitque
numerus occisorum, sicut existimari potui qui adstabam, mille ducen-
torum virorum ; sed undecim milium fuit numerus captivorum, ex qui
bus ultra octo milia fame et inedia in carcere perierunt. In hoc con-

122 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
On Sunday morning, at dawn, the Sienese troops set
out on their triumphal return to the city, and the peo
ple who had remained at home went to meet them on
the way. The army, impeded by the amount of booty
and the number of prisoners, moved slowly, but reached
the city before noon, and went at once to the Duomo,
to offer thanks to God and to the glorious Virgin Mary
for the great victory. Thence they descended to St
Christopher's Church, where they gave over to the
Twenty -four all that belonged to the commune —
baggage, standards, pavilions, tents, banners, and what
ever of the sort they had taken from the Floren
tines.* For three days there were continual rejoicings, with
frequent religious processions and thanksgiving. The
wounded were cared for at the public expense, and the
dead were honorably buried. To two of them, Andrea
Beccarini and Giovanni Ugurgieri, captains of com
panies and of noble family, was conceded the honor
of burial in the cathedral, wherein, up to that time,
no one had been entombed. The inscribed stones
which marked their graves, worn by the feet of many
generations, have been replaced in recent times by oth
ers, on which the ancient inscriptions are re-engraved.

flictu sunt capta viginti milia asinorum victualia simul et bladum por-
tantium." Plut. xxi. Sin., cod. 5, S. Croce. Paoli, Battaglia de Mon
taperti, p. 60. From the effect produced at Florence by the defeat,
there can be no doubt that a large part of her best men-at-arms were
lost to her.
"^ Ventura, p. 81.

MEMORIALS IN THE DUOMO. 123
Near the main door of entrance one may read on a
marble slab,
"D. O. M. Andreas ex nobili Beccarinorum familia, quia in Montis
Aperti certamine strenue cecidit hie situs est primus."
And a little to the right,
"Johannes Ugurgerius decreto publico hie situs est. Decess. Montis
Aperti clade anno salutis mcclx."
The simplicity of the record is striking, but the memo
rial is sufficient ; for after the lapse of more than six
centuries, Siena Is still proud of her greatest victory,
and renews its memory each year in the picturesque
games with which she celebrates the Festival of the
Madonna of August
Ventura says that the two masts of the Sienese
carroccio were set up in the Duomo, as memorials of
the battle, against two piers of the nave, fronting the
choir. Two tall masts to-day stand bound to these
piers, but popular tradition asserts that they are those
that belonged to the captured carroccio of the Floren
tines, Both chronicler and tradition may be right;
one mast may have borne the humbled lilies of Flor
ence ; the other the triumphant white ensign of Siena,
The episode of the battle of Montaperti begins and
ends at the Duomo. The civic history interweaves
itself with that of the Cathedral,

Ill, — Continued.
SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
II. THE STORY OF THE DUOMO AFTER I260.
Siena had now little to fear from her enemies. She
had broken the strength of her most dangerous rival,
and had re-established the influence of her own party.
The Ghibellines throughout Italy had reason to exult
in her triumph. The Sienese were elated with a new
sense of power. They were conscious that their vic
tory not only made their city conspicuous, but had
given her a political importance such as she had never
before possessed. It was for them to make her as
beautiful as she was glorious, and they turned with
fresh ardor of piety to the completion and adornment
of the Duomo, a work to which they were now pledged
in an especial manner. In the straits of peril they had
given themselves and their possessions to the Virgin,
and they acknowledged with devout thankfulness the
signal protection and assistance with which she had
manifested her favor. Every emotion of pious gratitude
combined with every sentiment of patriotic pride to
stimulate them to make her church a worthy expres
sion of their devotion to their heavenly intercessor.

IRREGULARITIES IN CONSTRUCTION. 125
Immediately after the victory the old enactment was
revived, that on the vigil of the Assumption of Our
Lady every adult citizen of Siena should offer in the
cathedral a pound of refined wax — a custom, says
Malavolti, writing more than three centuries later,
"which has been always observed and is still main
tained," *
The design upon which the cathedral was building
did not embrace the present prolonged choir or the ex
isting facade. Both of these were additions of a later
period; and it is not unlikely that the building, as
originally designed, was now approaching its comple
tion, for in 1262 there was a large expenditure for lead
to finish the work on the roof,! and two years later
the final touch was given to the cupola at the inter
section of nave and transept.^
This cupola, though of no unusual size and of little
grace of design, presents such marked irregularity in
the lines and dimensions of its several sides as to be
one of those puzzles of construction that many Italian
buildings of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries offer
to the architect and in which the Duomo at Siena
abounds.! It is plain that the builders of that time
worked upon a much looser plan, paid less attention
to exactness of line and measure, and were less re
gardful of symmetry in corresponding parts than the
* Historia, parte ii. p. 20 b. t Arehivio del Duomo, Perg. 254, 270.
X Milanesi, Documenti, i. 145.
§ See Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, " Architektur," pp. loi, 131.

126 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
builders of a later period. And it is at least an open
question whether the Irregularities which their works
display, when not carried so far as to attract attention
to the want of conformity, be not a source of pleasure
to the eye and of intended perspective effects unat-
tained in more exact and symmetrical construction.*
It agrees with the view that the Duomo was at
this time near completion, according to the plan then
followed, to find that the next existing record relates
to an accessory work, of no structural importance, but
essential for the due performance of service within
the cathedral walls — namely, the construction of a pul
pit worthy of the building in which It was to stand.
In 1260 Niccola Pisano had designed and sculptured
the famous pulpit which, originally Intended for the
Duomo at Pisa, now stands, altered in its proportions.
In the neighboring baptistery. It was a work such as
Italy had not seen before — the sign of a new life In
art ; the proof of a new life In society. It was not the
tentative effort of uncertain emotion and unskilled
workmanship, but the deliberate product of a self-con-
* At Siena there is not merely a slight difference in the size of cor
respondent piers, but in many of them the centres, as well as the cir
cumscribing lines of the bases and capitals, are out of line one with
another, so that there is a curiously delicate difference in the curves
and angles of the vaulting ribs ; but there are also more conspicuous
irregularities which can hardly be defended as within the limits of
good effect, and which seem the result of careless building — such, for
example, as the break in the line of the cornice over the arches of the
nave at the point where the two last arches towards the fagade con
nect with the others. See Appendix II. " Irregularities of Construc
tion in Italian Buildings of the Middle Ages."

NICCOLA PISANO. I 27
fident and well-trained genius — a genius, indeed, not
yet completely master of the principles, or even the
methods, of sculpture, but far advanced on the way
to their discovery and application, and already capa
ble of giving noble expression to its own conception.
The feeling for art — especially for art at once deco
rative in character and religious in motive, which was
one of the most marked traits of the revival of the na
tional spirit in Italy — led to the rapid spread of Nic-
cola's fame.
The artist in sympathy with his generation is the
soul and hand by which its imperfect ideals are
shaped for it into definite forms. The appreciation
of his contemporaries is his highest and most in
spiring stimulant. And this appreciation is the es
sential condition for the production of works that ris
ing above the level of personal fancy and the demand
of personal caprice, succeed In passing the narrow lim
its of individual experience, and give new and just ex
pression to emotions, sentiments, and conceptions com
mon to a race. It was the characteristic of this pe
riod, in which the flush of a fresh consciousness of
national existence was felt throughout Italy, that archi
tecture and sculpture afforded expression to the deep
est sentiments, patriotic or religious as they might be,
of the nation, and answered with completest recogni
tion to that intense demand for utterance which such
sentiments create in the breasts of an ardent poetic,
and emotional people in the early stages of national

128 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
life. The place of these arts was to be taken in later
generations by poetry and by painting; but at this time
they were the best suited to the needs of the people.
It was under conditions such as these that Niccola's
powers had developed. His works, the best in their
kind, were competed for by distant as well as by neigh
boring cities. Siena, induced by his fame, and eager
to have a pulpit worthy of her cathedral — one that
should at least rival the pulpit of Pisa — applied to Nic
cola to construct and carve one for her. He under
took the commission, and the contract between Fra
Melano, " operarius operis sancte Marie majoris eccle
sie Senensis," and "magister Nicolus lapidum de pa-
roccla ecclesie sancti Blasli de ponte de Pisis," still
exists in the Sienese archives. It is an interesting
document in its illustration of the practical conditions
under which the greatest artist of the thirteenth cen
tury — the Giotto of sculpture — led his life and did his
work. The instrument is dated October 5, 1266.*
Niccola must have previously furnished a design
which had been accepted, for he binds himself to de
liver, within a month, at Pisa, to Fra Melano or his
agent eleven columns with their capitals, seven pieces
of marble for the arches, and eight for the spaces be
tween them, seven other slabs, and sixteen small col
umns, besides such other pieces as were necessary for
* It is printed by Milanesi, Documenti, i. 145. An abstract of it, not
altogether accurate, may be found in Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History
of Painting in Italy, i. 131 — a book important as a repertory of infor
mation, but deficient in higher respects.

CONTRACT FOR THE PULPIT. j2q
the construction of the pulpit excepting what were re
quired for the foundation and the stairs, and excepting
also the lions and the "pedestals" of the eleven col
umns first mentioned. All these were to be of Car
rara marble, and the price agreed upon for them was
sixty-five lire in Pisan money, "libras denar. pisanor."*
Niccola further bound himself to go to Siena in the
following March, and there to reside until the pulpit
should be finished ; and to undertake during this time
no other work without express permission from Fra
Melano or his successor as operarius. He was, how
ever, to be at liberty to spend a fortnight at Pisa four
times a year, in the Interest of the work on the ca
thedral and baptistery there — "ad consillandum ipsa
opera, et etiam pro suis ipsius magistri Niccholi factis
propriis." He was further to bring with him from
Pisa two of his scholars, Arnolfo and Lapo, with leave
to add a third to their number, to assist him on the
work, and to remain with him at Siena till its comple
tion, or at least for so long as the term of apprentice
ship for which they were bound to him might extend.
He was also to be at liberty to bring with him his son
Giovanni. His own salary was to be eight soldi a day ;
but it was to be paid — and this provision is worth not-
* Crowe and Cavalcaselle make the mistake of saying that he agreed
to deliver these marbles at Siena, and that "he was also to furnish the
lions or pediments " \sic\ adding, by way of explanation, " which prob
ably were to be found ready made at Pisa.'' In view of the purely
exceptional genius displayed in the design and sculpture of the lions
of the Sienese pulpit, this supposition is curiously absurd.
9

I30

SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.

ing — only for the days on which he should be actually
at work or directing work, " pro singulo die quo in ipso
opere laborabit et faciet laborari." His scholars were
each to be paid six soldi a day ; and his son, if Nic
cola chose to bring him, should be paid, or his father
should be paid for him, four soldi a day. Niccola and
his scholars were further to be free from every tax or
civic claim, "omnibus servitiis realibus et personallbus,"
during their stay at Siena, and were to be provided
with board and lodging, " hospitium et lectos." The
parties being bound under heavy penalties to all these
agreements, the contract was signed and duly wit
nessed In the Baptistery at Pisa,
The work, thus undertaken, was rapidly accom
plished. On the 6th of November, 1268, Niccola gave
to Fra Melano a final receipt for the sum due to him,
his son, and his scholars on account of wages, and a
-discharge from all obligations and compacts. Two
years was certainly a brief time for the construction
and sculpture of a work so elaborate in design, so
careful in execution, as this pulpit. Of all the works
of Niccola, none affords a fuller expression of his gen
ius or displays more maturity of power. In compari
son with the pulpit at Pisa, it shows a more advanced
study of nature and living forms, and a greater facility
of composition. The simplicity of composition visible
in the bass-reliefs of the earlier work, and the direct
imitation of classic models in the pose and character
of certain figures, are here exchanged for richer and

DESCRIPTION OF THE PULPIT.

131

more complicate designs, in which the tendency tow
ards imitation of antique art is overborne by the
lively dramatic spirit of the artist and by the free
dom gained from confidence in his own powers.* His
later work shows the hand of one conscious of beino-
a master. The body of the pulpit is octagonal in form, one side
being left open for entrance ; the others are filled with
bass-reliefs, separated from each other at the angles by
admirable figures of virtues and angels. The bass-
reliefs represent in order the Nativity, the Adoration of
the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the Flight
into Egypt the Massacre of the Innocents, the Cruci
fixion, and the Last Judgment!
In purity of style, the best of these sculptures are
those in which the composition is most simple and
least crowded, as the Nativity and the Adoration ;
but as a master of dramatic effect Niccola exhibits
his highest power in the Massacre of the Innocents,
in which the violent action and passionate expression
of single figures are rendered with a force and truth of
characterization that leave little to be desired. Sculpt
ure showed itself here capable once more, after long
* Burckhardt, Der Cicerone, p. 563, seems to attribute this difference
to the influence upon his father of Giovanni — " der jijngere Meister
des dramatischen Ausdruckes behalt das Feld." But Giovanni was
plainly too young at this time to affect his father's style. It is not sur
prising that his own undoubted works of a subsequent time should par
take of the spirit of the later rather than the earlier works of his father.
t The first, second, third, sixth, and seventh represent the same sub
jects as those of the five bass-reliefs of the Pisan pulpit.

132 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
disability, of displaying correspondence of emotion in
face and gesture. The intricacy and fulness of this and
the succeeding compositions reveal, however, the ten
dency which afterwards prevailed in Italian sculpture,
and reached Its height in the works of Ghiberti, towards
a pictorial method essentially in contradiction with the
principles on which sculpture, as a special art properly
rests. Italian sculpture is, from its beginning, pictur
esque and romantic as contrasted with the antique and
classic work. It exchanges dignity, tranqulhity, and
simplicity for variety and liveliness. Niccola Is the
first and one would say the greatest of the long line
of romantic sculptors, if Michael Angelo were not the
last In Its architectural construction, no less than in the
character of its bass-reliefs, the Sienese pulpit shows
the advance that Niccola had made in the six years
since the Pisan pulpit was completed. The body of
the Sienese pulpit rests upon arches, in whose span
drels are set figures of prophets and apostles. The
arches spring from eight columns, which stand on a
wide and well-proportioned platform ; a ninth, central,
column supports the pulpit floor, and rests on a base
adorned with seven finely designed female figures, sym
bolizing the seven sciences, and Indicating by their po
sition the subjection of human knowledge to divine
wisdom. Of the other columns, four have simple
bases, two rest each on the back of a lion, and the
remaining two each on the back of a lioness giving

COMPLETION OF THE PULPIT. 13,
suck to her cubs. These are the first realistic repre
sentations of living animals which the medieval revi
val of art had produced ; and in vivacity and energy
of rendering, in the thoroughly artistic treatment of
leonine spirit and form, they have never been sur
passed, Niccola had learned and knew how to apply
the fundamental principle of his art— the principle of
absolute truth to nature in imaginative no less than In
direct representation.*
The six centuries that have passed since the pulpit
was completed have mellowed the hue of its marbles,
and thus added to its beauty more than they have
taken from it of its original perfection. And if it be
as well guarded from accident and wilful injury hence
forth as it has been hitherto, it may last for twice as
many centuries yet one of the most precious and en
tire monuments of the arts of the early revival in
Italy, After the completion of the pulpit some years seem
to have passed during which no new work of impor
tance was undertaken. A record, however, of the year
1 2 71 relates to a curious ceremony performed within
the Duomo, and to a custom that illustrates the temper
* Burckhardt speaks of these lions as " dutch antike Anregung ganz
lebendig gewordenen Thierbilder.'' But they show less of antique sug
gestion or classical influence than of study of nature. The figures of
animals on the sarcophagi at Pisa, which were Niccola's instructors,
are inferior to his work alike as natural or imaginative representa
tions. Niccola's technical method proves his close study of classic
remains, but his later artistic style is that of an independent master,
whose strokes are the expression of his own genius.

134 ^^^^^' ^^^ OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
of the period. At this time the Guelfs had gained the
upperhand in Siena, and were retaliating the wrongs
they had suffered by exiling some of the chief Ghibel
lines, tearing down their houses, and reducing their
strongholds in the neighboring country. Having been
successful in a recent expedition, and having taken
many prisoners, it was ordered, by a vote of the Gen
eral Council on the 3d of June, 1271, that five pris
oners, enumerated by name, should be released, and
" offered at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary for
the victory vouchsafed to us over the enemies of the
commune,"* The release of certain prisoners on the Feast of the
Assumption, in honor of the Virgin, to whom they
were presented before the altar in the Duomo, was a
custom long practised by the Sienese, Instances of it
occur more than a century after this time. The mo
tive partook more of superstition than of humanity.
The sufferings of prisoners during the Middle Ages
were horrible. The common treatment of them was
¦^ Consiglio della Campa?ia, xiv. 30. The Church of St. Christopher,
where the Council held its sessions, had lately been greatly injured by
the fall of the Palace and Tower of the Salvani, the demolition of which
had been ordered by the commune to reduce the power of the great
Ghibelline family, of which Provenzano Salvani, famous through Dante's
mention of him {Purgatory, xi. 121), had been the head. He had fallen
in battle in 1269, and the commune took advantage of his death to de
stroy his house. For some months the Piazza of San Cristofano was
encumbered with the ruins. The commune, taking the fault of the in
jury to the church upon itself, appointed Fra-Melano to conduct the
necessary repairs, according to the estimate, at a cost of not more than
two hundred lire. Cotisiglio della Campana, xiv. lo, 21, 23, 87 ; xv. 50.

PIER PETTIGNANO. 13c
a mingling of cruelty and neglect Multitudes pined
and starved and died without help. Men looked on
them as either criminals or enemies to whom no pity
was due.
There was one man, however, at this time in Siena
who felt compassion for those languishing In captivity,
and was known to the city as their friend. When
Dante met the Sienese gentlewoman Sapia in Purga
tory, she told him that she should not have advanced
so far towards the end of her penance, had it not been
that Pier Pettignano, grieving for her through charity,
had remembered her in his holy prayers.*
Pier Pettignano, Peter the Combmaker, was known
and honored in Siena for his good deeds ; he grieved
through charity for all who were in suffering, and he
visited and ministered to those who were in prison.
The record remains of a debate in the Council of the
Bell, on the nth of August 1282, concerning the
release of prisoners for the approaching Feast of the
Assumption.! In this debate it was urged that Pier
Pettignano be empowered to select from the crowd of
prisoners those who should be deUvered. The argu
ment by which the proposal was supported has not
been preserved, but it doubtless rested either on the
probity of his character, which gave assurance that his
selection would be uninfluenced by personal or partisan
considerations, or on his acquaintance with the prisons,
* Purgatory, xiii. 128.
t See App. I. " Documents relating to the Duomo of Siena." No. V.

136 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
which qualified him to determine who among the pris
oners were most deserving of release.*
During these years there was constant work on the
cathedral Its outside was still incomplete. Like so
many of the finest churches, it was furnished with only
a plain substantial front wall, intended to serve as the
backing and support of an ornamental fa9ade. The
principle of Gothic building, that every part, including
what might seem at first sight as mere ornament
should have a constructive value, was never adopted
by Italian builders. They made iron bars and firm
mortar do the work of good construction, and they fast
ened on their ornament in what forms or in what place
they chose, with little regard to any principle but that
of picturesque effect Of this they were consummate
masters, and the style of architecture which is conse
quently characteristic of Italy, and in which Italian
architects have never been surpassed, is that in which
incrusted takes the place of constructive ornament so
that there is a double building, the interior hidden
solid frame, and the exterior visible ornamental shell
When they adopted Gothic forms, the builders still
* Consiglio della Catnpana, xxvi. II : "Jacobus Domini Renaldi Gilii
consuluit et dixit quod Pierus Pettinarius hinc ad diem beate Marie
Virginis debeat invenire X ex pregionibus Comunis Senarum pauperi-
oribus quos invenire poterit, et illi quos inveniret relaxentur." See also
Cotisiglio della Campana, xxxviii. 65, 28th of December, 1290.
On the 1 8th of December, 1290, the Council voted that two hundred
lire be given to the Minor Friars for a noble tomb to be erected in
their church over the grave of S. Pier Pettignano, " con ciborio ed al
tare," with pyx and altar.

FACADE OF THE DUOMO. 137
built according to Roman tradition, and the outside ap
pearance often had little relation but that of contiguity
with the inner and essential framework. This was the
case at Siena.
The work on the interior of the Duomo having
reached such a point that no great expenditure upon
it was required, the authorities in charge determined
about 1280 to adorn the exterior with a facade which
should excel all other similar structures in Tuscany,
and should testify by its magnificence to the steadily
held resolve to express in the splendor of the building
the piety and the pride of the people. Giovanni Pisano,
who had now acquired reputation almost equal to that
which his father had enjoyed as the best artist In Italy,
was employed to give the design for the facade and
to oversee its construction. The work was begun in
1284, and pushed rapidly forward. Although in sub
sequent times the facade has suffered many changes,
yet the general features of the original design are prob
ably preserved in the existing front. Lifted on a wide
platform, to which eleven broad steps lead up from the
level of the surrounding piazza, the white marble piers,
gables, and pinnacles rise fronting the west, dazzling
the eye with gilded decorations, crowded with statues
and busts of prophets, apostles, and saints, with sym
bolic figures of animals and with sculptured ornament
On the peak of the central gable stands the figure of
the angel of the Annunciation, while on the deep blue
stellated field of the gable itself is set a gilded statue

138 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
of the Madonna of the Assumption surrounded by a
glory of rays that flash in the bright sunlight The
effect of the facade Is brilliant beyond that of any
other church-front In Tuscany. It is a showy pile of
ornamental work, by an artist skilled in picturesque
composition ; but it has not the grace or elegance
characteristic of the best Italian designs. It wants
simplicity ; Its general proportions fail in grandeur and
its lines in dignity. Ii is costly and elaborate. It Is full
of interest, but it is not beautiful ; it indicates the
setting-In of the decline of Italian architecture. The
contemporary facade of the Duomo at Orvieto Is su
perior to it in unity of design, in the interesting
nature of its various parts, and in the splendid color
of its famous mosaics. There may be, however, some
unfairness In judging of the original from the pres
ent front Many changes have been made in it in
different centuries, and their accumulated effect may
have been to injure the general character of the facade.
A few years since, the old stone having suffered from
long exposure, a complete renewal was undertaken;
the old forms were reproduced, but the old spirit no
longer inspired them ; the subtile quality of ancient
excellence refused to be copied. The facade is now a
brand-new modern reproduction, and suits the taste
of modern Siena, Of the work of the great days of
mediceval sculpture scarcely a trace remains — not a
fragment that belongs to the school of the Pisani—
and only about the doors some few venerable mould-

PENALTY IMPOSED ON GIOVANNI PISANO. 130
ings and bits of bass-relief bear witness to the merits
of the stone-cutters of the early time.
The construction of so elaborate a facade was not a
work to be accomplished in a short time. In 1290
Giovanni Pisano was still employed as " Caput magis
trorum operis beate Virginis Marie." At this time,
however, he came under heavy penalty for some griev
ous misdeed ; but, on the ground that without him the
work on the Duomo could not be well carried on ("sine
quo magistro Johanne bene perfici non posset "), it was
proposed to the Council of the Bell to ratify the deci
sion of the " eighteen governors and defenders of the
commune," that the said Giovanni should be restored
to his place on the work and absolved from the sentence
pronounced upon him without payment of any fine.*
It would seem that the popular council refused to
adopt this proposal, for in October of the same year
Giovanni paid to the treasury of the commune the
sum of eight hundred lire, "pro una condempnatione
facta de eo in DC libras , . . et solvit tertium plus."
So heavy a fine implies the commission of a very grave
offence. Meanwhile the cost of building the facade had out-
* The mode in which it was proposed that this absolution should be
secured is exceedingly curious : " provisum sit . . . quod magister
Johannes ... ad laudem, et reverentiam, et honorem gloriose Marie
semper Virginis offeratur dicto operi, quia dictus magister Johannes sit
valde utilis et necessarius dicte opere ; cum condempnationibus de eo
factis ; quod facta dicta oblatione, dicte sue condempnationes cancel-
lentur de libris Comunis Sen. sine aliqua solutione pecunie." Milanesi,
Documenti, i. 162.

I^O SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
run the funds in the hands of the operarius, and In the
autumn of this year, 1290, he petitioned the commune
for a grant of money, without which the work could not
be carried on — "et laborerium jam inceptum non possit
ad laudem effectui producl." His prayer was laid before
the council, and on the 20th of October a grant of
eight hundred lire, just the amount of Giovanni's fine,
was voted by a majority of 219 to 12.* Eight years
afterwards a similar petition was made and a similar
grant voted by the council.
Numerous documents in the Archives of the Duomo,
relating chiefly to the purchase of woodland and quarry,
indicate activity in building during the early years of
the fourteenth century, but no record remains of the
special work done.!
It was during this time, however, that the most Im
portant work of art within the cathedral, with the ex
ception of Niccola's pulpit, was commissioned and exe
cuted by Duccio, the chief of the painters of Siena.
The revival of painting was naturally later than that of
sculpture In Italy. As a more refined and complicate
art it requires a higher culture than that demanded
for the development and appreciation of the simpler
* Consiglio della Catnpana, xl. 50. See Appendix I. " Documents re
lating to the Duomo of Siena." No. VI.
t In 1303 the commune conceded to the Opera a tract of land known
as il plan del Lago, from which wood and stone were supplied for con
struction. Perg. 563. In 1305, 1306, 1308, 1310 the <9/^ra bought many
pieces of woodland and quarry, terra boscata e petraja. Perg. 593, 594i
596, 604, 605, 611, 615. Other similar purchases were made in 1319,
1 32 1, and later years. As one tract was exhausted another was bought.

DUCCIO DI BONINSEGNA. j . j
processes, motives, and effects of sculpture. A genera
tion passed after Niccola Pisano had opened the way
of progress, not less to painters than sculptors, before
the painters of Italy showed that they comprehended
the lesson taught by his work, and before they gained,
by taking nature as their model, the power to free their
art from the bondage to traditional types of representa
tion under which it had long lain enslaved and inert.
Duccio di Boninsegna was the first master of this new
school in Siena. Unable to liberate himself completely
from the fetters of ancient methods and conventional
forms of expression, he yet did succeed in giving to his
works the stamp of a vigorous originality, and, trusting
to nature more than his predecessors had done, he
reached a truth in representation, both of form and of
expression, and a reality of scenic composition, such
as they had been unable to attain. Older than Giotto
by some years, of a less creative imagination, and a
less poetic temperament, he at times rises almost to
rivalry with the greatest of Florentine masters in the
dramatic power of his composition, and the simplicity
and ¦ sincerity of the expression of his single figures.
He was an innovator, but only to such degree as to
keep in close harmony with the temper of his advanc
ing contemporaries, and to secure their appreciation,
sympathy, and applause. He had that fondness for
gay and brilliant color, for elaboration of ornamental
detail, and for exquisite finish which were afterwards
characteristic of the Sienese school, and which not

142 SIENA. AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
seldom give a charm to pictures that have little other
merit In 1308 Duccio entered Into agreement with the
head of the works to paint a picture for the high-altar
of the Duomo. It was to be the best he could do, as
the Lord should give him grace to do it — "quam melius
poterit et sclverit et Dominus sibi largietur," While
engaged upon it he was to undertake no other work ;
his salary was to be at the rate of sixteen soldi a day
for every day employed upon it — " pro quolibet die, quo
dictus Duccius laborabit suis manibus In dicta tabula ;"
all needed materials were to be supplied to him free of
cost, " so that the said Duccio shall be bound to put
nothing into it but his own self and his labor " — " ita
quod dictus Duccius nihil in ea mictere teneatur, nisi
suam personam et suum laborem." *
The work was conceived In all the freshness and
glow of the spirit which was now revivifying the forms
of painting. It was to be worthy of its destination, and
in size no less than in character it was intended to sur
pass whatever of a similar sort had preceded It In Tus
cany, The main panel, fourteen feet long, and seven
high, was set in a rich architectural framework, de
signed to afford places for numerous minor scenes and
separate figures. As the altar stood free in the choir,
and the altar-piece was to be seen from- behind as well
as from before, both sides were to be covered with
painting,
* Arehivio del Duomo, Perg. 603 ; Milanesi, Documenti, i. 166.

DUCCIO'S ALTAR-PIECE. j ..,
The main subject was prescribed to the artist by the
special devotion of the Sienese to the Virgin, On the
front of his great panel Duccio represented the Virgin
enthroned, a sweet and nobly conceived figure, holding
the infant Christ On the high back of the throne lean
four angels, while two on each side support its arms.
Angels and saints are ranged to the right and left, and
kneeling before the throne are the four bishops, the
protectors of the city. On the cushioned stool on
which the feet of the Virgin rest, the artist inscribed
the following pious and proud petition :
Mater • Sancta • Dei ¦ Sis ¦ Caussa • Senis • Requiei •
Sis • Ducio • Vita • Te ¦ Quia ¦ Depinxit • Ita •
On the back of the altar-piece Duccio painted the
chief scenes of the Passion in a series of twenty-six
compositions, in which the dramatic quality of his gen
ius finds full expression, while the Inspiration that he
drew from nature justifies their claim to rank among
the best of the early productions of modern creative
art The series has been compared with that of the
same subject by Giotto in the Arena Chapel at Padua.
The comparison is unfair to it The genius of Giotto
was solitary in moral intensity and in poetic sentiment.
But, as independent and imaginative conceptions, ex
pressed with a power and freedom hitherto quite un
known in Sienese art, Duccio's pictures deserve a very
high place of honor.
Nearly two years had passed since Duccio undertook
the commission before the altar-piece was ready to be

144 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
set in Its place in the Duomo. It was on the 9th of
June, 1 3 10, that this "the most beautiful picture that
ever was seen or made, and that cost more than three
thousand golden florins," as the chronicler Tura del
Grasso reports, was carried from the workshop of the
artist to the cathedral. The day was a festival for the
Sienese. Another chronicler, whose name is not known,
but whose work is preserved in manuscript in the
Communal Library of Siena, gives an account of the
celebration. He says, " At this time the altar-piece for
the high-altar was finished, and the picture which was
called the ' Madonna with the large eyes,' or Our Lady
of Grace, that now hangs over the altar of St Boni
face, was taken down. Now this Our Lady was she
who had hearkened to the people of Siena when the
Florentines were routed at Monte Aperto, and her
place w^as changed because the new one was made,
which is far more beautiful and devout and larger, and
is painted on the back with the stories of the Old and
New Testament And on the day that it was carried
to the Duomo the shops were shut and the bishop
conducted a great and devout company of priests and
friars in solemn procession, accompanied by the nine
signlors, and all the officers of the commune, and all
the people, and one after another the worthiest with
lighted candles in their hands took places near the
picture, and behind came the women and children with
great devotion. And they accompanied the said pict
ure up to the Duomo, making the procession around

ALTAR-PIECE CARRIED TO THE DUOMO. j^r
the Campo, as is the custom, all the bells ringing joy
ously, out of reverence for so noble a picture as is this.
And this picture Duccio di Niccolo the painter made,
and it was made in the house of the Muciatti outside
the gate a StaUoreggi. And all that day they stood in
prayer with great almsgiving for poor persons, praying
God and his Mother, who is our advocate, to defend us
by their infinite mercy from every adversity and all
evil, and keep us from the hands of traitors and of the
enemies of Siena," An entry in the book of public
accounts of the commune completes the picturesque
narrative, which reminds the reader of the story of the
rejoicings in Florence with which Cimabue's famous
Madonna was accompanied some years earlier to its
place in Sta, Maria Novella. The entry runs thus:
" Spent on the transportation of the picture painted by
Duccio, Lire 12 Soldi 10, paid to the sounders of
trumpets, cymbals, and drums for having gone to meet
the said picture,"*
For nearly two hundred years this magnificent work
of religious art stood in its place of honor over the
high-altar. By degrees the spirit of the Renaissance
of the fifteenth century so took possession of the
Sienese that they no longer cared for their ancient and
historic treasure. In 1506 it was taken down from the
* Milanesi, Documenti, i. 169. It seems that the whole work on the
altar-piece was not finished at the time of its setting-up over the high-
altar, and in November, 13 10, provision is made that " in laborerio nove
et magne tabule beate Marie semper Virginis gloriose, sollicite et cum
omni diligentia procedatur." Milanesi, Documenti, i. 175.
10

1^6 SIENA. AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
altar, and its place filled by an elaborate bronze taber
nacle, in the depraved taste of the later time. Even its
character as an altar-piece was destroyed; front and
back were divided and hung upon the wall at opposite
ends of the transept ; the beautiful architectural frame
work was broken up ; the gradino, painted on one side
with figures of the Apostles, on the other with scenes
from the life of the Virgin, was sawn in pieces, and its
dismembered fragments were scattered over the walls
of the adjoining sacristy. It is fortunate that the wanton
iconoclasts of the Renaissance did not shove the whole
picture into some damp lumber-room, where it might
have been utterly destroyed, as so many of the rarest
works of the early time have been, by mould and vermin.
Early in the fourteenth century, not many years after
the cathedral had been adorned with Duccio's altar-
piece, a work was taken in hand which had long been
in consideration, and which, as finally accomplished,
produced a great change in the form and aspect of
the Duomo. A small and old church, dedicated to St
John the Baptist and used as a baptistery, stood on
the cathedral square in inconvenient neighborhood to
the great building. It was now resolved to carry out
an old intention to tear down this old church and to
build a new baptistery in a place where it should not
interfere with the approach to the Duomo.*
* In 1297, " Fu rimesso nei Nove I'affare della Chiesa di San Gio
vanni che secondo il Capitolo dello Statuto doveva demolirsi e riedifi-
carsi in altro luogo." Consiglio della Campana, Hi. 25. Nothing was then
done, as appears from Consiglio della Campana. liii. 23, 1298. In 1315 a

THE NEW BAPTISTERY. ^.y
The precise date of the beginning of the work is un
certain, but it was not far from 1 3 1 5 that the founda
tions of the new church were laid. The site chosen
for it was immediately behind the Duomo, where the
ground fell off precipitously, and the design contem
plated not only the building of the baptistery on this
lower level, but the extension of the choir of the Duo
mo over it so that the floor of the upper church should
serve as the ceiling of the lower, and the external walls
of the two churches form a continuous and harmonious
structure. There was to be no interior passage be
tween the churches, but communication was to be
maintained by a broad flight of external steps leading
from the level of the entrance to the baptistery up to
the square of the Duomo. The design was striking
from its novelty and its boldness. The Sienese were
always venturesome builders, not easily turned aside
from their resolves by difiiculties that might have ap
palled a people less secure in the resources of their
arts and of their wealth. The work was rapidly
pushed forward, but the design did not meet with
unanimous approval, and in 1322 five expert master
builders were called upon by the authorities of the
commune to give their opinion as to its merits and the
probability of its successful completion. Chief among
these advisers was Lorenzo Maitani, the renowned ar-
beginning was perhaps made. Consiglio della Campana, Ixxxvi. 33. In
the chronicle ascribed to Giovanni Bisdomini it is said that the fagade
of the new church of San Giovanni was begun in 1317.

J .8 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
chitect of the Cathedral of Orvieto, over the building
of which, begun more than thirty years before, he was
at this time presiding. The five skilled builders united
in the opinion that the work should not be proceeded
with, on the grounds that the foundation and walls of
the new structure were not of sufficient strength, con
sidering the great height to which the walls must be
carried ; that the junction of the new structure with
the old could not be effected without great risk to the
stability of the existing edifice ; that the proposed ex
tension would throw the dome " out of the centre of
the cross" — "non remaneret in medio crucis ut rationa-
billter remanere deberet ;" that the proportions of the
Duomo would be Injured and the required relations of
length, breadth, and height — "ut jura ecclesie postu
lant" — would not be preserved. As a sequel to this
discouraging report they advised the construction of an
entirely new church, "beautiful, great and magnificent"
— " pulcra, magnia \_sic'\ et magnifica, que sit bene pro-
portlonata . . . cum omnibus fulgldls ornamentis ... ad
hoc, ut noster dominus Jesus Christus et eius Mater
sanctissima, eiusque curia celestis altlssima, in ipsa ec
clesia benedicatur, et collaudetur in ynnis, et dictum
Comune Sen. ab els semper protegatur aversis et per
petuo honoretur," *
This discouraging advice was no sooner given than

* Arehivio del Duomo, Perg. 667. Printed by Delia Valle, Lettere
Sanesi, ii. 60; by Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen. ii. 129; and by
Milanesi, Documenti, i. 186.

DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING THE WORK. iaq
the operarius, or overseer of the works, took measures
to have a meeting called " of seventy-five of the best and
wisest men of the city," that he might be guided by their
opinion as to the course to be followed. The meeting
was held in the palace of the commune, and, after full
discussion, came to the conclusion that the affair was too
serious to be determined except by the General Coun
cil, before which it was resolved to bring it Accord
ingly, on the 27th of March the matter was laid before
the Council by one of the counsellors of the operarius.*
An animated debate ensued ; no voice was raised to
advocate the adoption of the proposal to construct a
new cathedral, the old one was good and beautiful
enough, and it was strongly urged that even the project
of extending it should be given up, and that It should
not In any wise be touched — "dicta vetus ecclesia nullo
modo debeat tangi." But this counsel was not accept
able to those who saw what added majesty would be
given to their Duomo by boldly lengthening It over
the new baptistery, and a vigorous resolution proposed
by Messer Vecchietta degli Accarigi, " that in the
name of Almighty God and the Blessed Virgin Mary
his mother, the work should be steadily proceeded
with, and proceeded with according to the plan on
which it had been undertaken," was adopted by a ma
jority of 149 to 73 votes.!
* At this time there was what seems to have been a Board of Works,
consisting of the operarius and five "consiliarii."
t " Dominus Vecchietta de Accherigiis surgens in dicto consilio, ad
dicetorium arengando super dicta proposita, et hiis que et de quibus in

I^o SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
In accordance with this resolve the w^ork was vig
orously carried on for a time, but whether the unfa
vorable and disheartening opinion of the consulting
architects gradually took effect in diminishing the zeal
of the people for the undertaking, or whether some
other cause operated to the same result it appears that
in the course of a few years the funds for construction
fell off, and the building made little or no progress.
At last In 1333, the dissatisfaction at this state of
things reached such a point that the operarius was
urged by many "judicious persons, lovers of the
Church" — "bonos et sapientes viros, homines fide dlg-
nos, amatores operis majoris ecclesie Senarum " — tp
complete rapidly the construction of the rough exte
rior walls of the building, which could be done at com
paratively little cost and to postpone their adornment
with a marble facing to a later and more prosperous
time. Thus, at least both the great Duomo and the
baptistery might be rendered fit without much further
delay, for the services and ceremonies of the Church.
UjDon this appeal the opej'arius called several master
builders into council, and, having laid the case before
them, they unanimously agreed In recommending the
adoption of the proposed course.*
Their counsel was followed, and to this day the
ea continentur et mentio fit, dixit et consuluit quod in nomine omnipo-
tentis Dei et beate Marie virginis matris eius, in dicto opere continue
procedatur, et procedi debeat prout inceptum est," Consiglio della Cam
pana, xcvi. 74. A brief extract from the proceedings may be found in
Milanesi, Documenti, iii. 275.
* Milanesi, Docicmenti, i. 204.

OBLATES. I CI
eastern end of the Duomo, built boldly above the
baptistery, and rising high over the narrow valley be
neath, remains, like so many of the most splendid
churches in Italy, destitute of the marble facing that
should have concealed and covered with beauty its
rough and ugly wall,
A curious illustration of the character of the times
and of the popular feeling towards the church is af
forded by a document bearing date in this same year,
1333, by which the operarius pledged himself to afford
support during their lives to one Master Guccio and
his wife, Mina, who had given themselves as " oblates,"
with all their property, to the church, devoting them
selves and their means to the advance of the work.
And, besides support during their life, the operarius
further bound himself to see that the survivor of the
two should after death receive honorable sepulture,
and that due funeral rites should be performed for
him or her, as it might be. Such devotion of one's
self and one's property to works for the service of the
Lord had not been uncommon during those centuries,
in which men and women were actuated by an earnest
and sincere faith in the dogmatic teachings of the
Church. To any one of lively imagination it was but
httle to give up the brief present joys of material life,
and to offer himself and all that he might possess to
the service of Him who had promised to reward his
servants with endless and unutterable satisfactions.
The fear of suffering for sin — the awful dread of hell

IC2 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
— quickened the readiness to make whatever sacrifices
were needed for exemption from penalty. Justifica
tion by works was not then strictly divided from ju.s-
tification by faith, and it was honestly believed that to
do good deeds and to make sacrifices for the Lord's
sake was at least as virtuous as to believe aright and
have confidence in the Lord's sacrifice as the atone
ment for one's own sins. The same spirit that led men
to venture life and fortune in the Crusades led them to
give themselves to any labor that tended directly to
the honor of the Saviour or of the blessed Mother of
God." *
The zeal exhibited by Master Guccio and his wife,
Mina, was, however, not common in these days. Siena
had been growing rich, and as her wealth increased the
offerings of her piety seem to have diminished. But
although the operarius was stinted for the means to
carry the building to completion, the cathedral itself
still remained an object of prime interest to the Si-
* See Du Cange, Gloss, art. " Oblati." The document referred to in
the te.xt begins, " Anno Domini millesimo trecentesimo trigesimo tertio,
inditione prima, die quinto mensis junii. Certum est quod tu magister
Guccius, olim Golli, infrascriptus, pro te ipso, et vice et nomine domine
Mine uxoris tue, ad honorem Dei, et beate Marie virginis matris eius,
obtulisti te, et donasti titulo donationis inter vivos, mihi Balduccio
Contis Ciaccacontis, civi Senensi, operario operis beate Marie virginis
de Senis, pro dicto opere stipulanti, unam domum positam Senis in
populo Abbatie Arcus . . . et duas domos contiguas positas Senis in
populo Sancti Donati, . . . et etiam donasti mihi pro dicto opere stipu
lanti, omnia bona tua et etiam lucrum tue persone totius tempore vite
tue, et si extra domos dicti operis laborares aliquo tempore, lucrum
quod inde faceres vel haberes sit et esse debeat operis supradicti."
Arch, di Stato, Opera Metrop. di Siena, Anno 1333.

REVISION OF THE STATUTE. 1C3
enese. It was the custom in Siena, as in many other
of the free cities of Italy during the Middle Ages, to
make frequent revision of its constitution or codified
statutes, for the purpose of modifying them as the
changes of time and circumstance might require. The
work of revision, which included the codification, or
adaptation to the Statuto, of such enactments as had
been made since the previous revisal and compilation,
was usually intrusted to some jurist of repute, often
a citizen of another city, or to a number of persons
learned In the law. The statute as revised was sub
mitted for examination and discussion to the popular
assembly ; and, if found acceptable, was adopted by
formal vote, thus becoming the fundamental law of the
State, and superseding the statute previously in vigor.
Since 1260, the date of the earliest existing statute,
there had been numerous revisions of this sort But,
whatever the changes in the form of the code, what
ever the fluctuations of popular feeling In other mat
ters as expressed by alterations of the fundamental
law, the provisions concerning the cathedral always
held a foremost place In the statute under which the
republic was governed. Thus, in 1334, when, on the
recommendation of a commission of thirteen learned
men — "tredeclm sapientes viros statutarios civitatis Se
narum " — certain new enactments were embodied in
the statute, there was one among them providing for
the better progress of the work on the Duomo.*
* As this ordinance shows the method of procedure proposed for

154 SIENA. AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
A few years later, in 1337, a complete revision of the
Statutes was made, and the first article of the new Con
stitution related to " the protection and defence of the
greater church of the Blessed Virgin Mary." * It was
the furtherance of the work, and as, I believe, it has never been
printed, I give the text in full :
"DE PROVIDENDO QUOMODO IN OPERE SANCTE MARIE MELIUS
PROCEDATUR.
" In primis statutum et ordinatum est pro evidenti melioramento
operis Sancte Marie et hedificationis maioris ecclesie Senensis : Quod
de mense iulii proxime accessuro, postquam electi fuerint operarius,
scriptor, et consiliarii novi dicti operis, Domini Novem, qui de dicto
mense iulii in ofliitio residebunt, teneantur et debeant vinculo iura-
menti consiliarios dicti operis qui nunc in offitio resident, et etiam alios
consiliarios dicti operis novos pro futuris sex mensibus eligendos com-
pellere et compelli facere in simul convenire et super dicto opere dili-
genter providere quecumque viderint fore utilia, et meliora pro con-
structione, et melioramento, accelleratione, et evidenti utilitate operis
prelibati. Et omnia et singula que dicti consiliarii tam novi quam
veteres in simul providebunt, in predictis vel eorum occasione, tenean
tur et debeant omnino referre offitio dominorum Novem. Ac deinde
dictum offitium dominorum Novem, una cum aliis ordinibus civitatis
Senarum, et dictis consiliariis veteribus et novis, super dicta materia et
relatis per dictos consiliarios, diligenter, sapienter, et bene teneantur et
debeant providere. Et quecumque in predictis, et super predictis, de-
liberaverint et providerint, valeant et teneant et executioni plenarie ac
effectualiter demandentur per operarium operis memorati, ac si per
generate consilium campane comunis et populi Senarum foret suffi-
center et solenniter reformata." Statuti di Siena, xviii. c. 383.
* In the records of the Consiglio della Campana of the nth of
August, 1337, it appears that the new compilation of the Statutes
of Siena being completed by the labor "del sapiente uomo Niccola
d' Angelo da Orvieto," it was resolved that it should be examined,
emended, and corrected so far as there was occasion. Cons, dell
Camp. cxxi. 15.
The statute as adopted begins as follows :
" In nomine Dei amen. Incipit prima distinctio constituti comunis
Senarum. " De protectione et defensione maioris ecclesie beate Marie virginis,
et episcopatus Senarum, et eorum bonorum et jurium, et quod in opere

THE STATUTE OF IJ37. jcr
still the most important affair of the community, for it
was the visible expression of their continued devotion
to the Virgin, the protectress of the city, and it was
becoming that their statute should begin with provi
sions that might seem to invoke her favor on the peo-
dicte ecclesie continuo sit unus custos, et unus operarius, et unus
scriptor, et sex consiliarii, et de ipsorum consilii officio."
This distinction of the statute also embraced rules for the election
of the operarius, and for the offerings to be made at the Feast of the
Madonna in August. The operarius was to be a man " sciens legere et
scribere, qui habeat pro suo salario quolibet mense libras quinque dena-
riorum. Et possit dare libere de vino dicti operis servientibus in dicto
opere prout eidem videbitur pro melioramento ipsius operis.'' This
last clause gave a final settlement to a long-standing grievance. Thirty
years before, in 1 308, a petition had been presented to the Signori Nove,
the magistracy of Siena, and by them referred to the General Council,
from the masters and laborers on the cathedral, stating that they were
not supplied with wine from the opera, and begging, for the love of the
Virgin, that the wine coming from the vineyards that had been given
to the opera for the good of the work might be allowed to them, " for
otherwise they must go to drink at the taverns or at their own houses,
for they cannot labor all day without drinking, and thus the work suf
fers great harm, and to save one penny it loses twelve in the time
that is wasted by the workmen in going and coming." Arch, del
Duomo, Libro di Documenti Artistici, No. i.
Besides the operarius, there was to be a good scribe attached to the
works, who was to act as secretary to a council of six good men to be
chosen, two from each third of the city, without whose consent no new
piece of work should be undertaken, and who, in common with the
operarius, should oversee and provide for all the interests of the build
ing. The scribe — " bonus scriptor " — was also to keep account of all
the income and outgo of the works. Timber for the building was to
be cut and marble to be quarried, and both were to be brought to the
city at the expense of the commune. The operarius was to have the
right to take stone and marble from any quarry, even against the will
of the owner, giving him, however, a receipt for what might be taken
which should be available as a claim against the commune.
The provisions of the statute include many other points of detail of
more or less interest, but enough has been given to show its general
scope. The volume in which it is contained is tomo xxv. {numerazione
antica) degli Statuti del Comune di Siena, in the Arehivio di Stato.

ie6 SIENA. AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
pie and her all-sufficient aid in the support of their
laws and the maintenance of their republic.
But though the desire to propitiate their celestial ad
vocate was still perhaps as strong as ever among the
Sienese, yet the spiritual temper of the people had
undergone, in common with that of their neighbors in
Florence and elsewhere, a great change during the last
hundred years. The slowly developed sense of civic
community which was the basis of the social order
that had gradually risen from the confusion of the
Dark Ages had grown into confidence In the continu
ity of the existence of the community itself. With the
development of commercial, social, and political rela
tions, life had become more complex. The increase of
power and of wealth had brought luxury. The increase
of knowledge and of self-dependence had been accom
panied with a decrease in the naive piety and sincere
faith of earlier times. Religion was becoming more
formal — more a matter of outward observance and less
of interior conviction. Manners were less simple than
of old. The picture that Cacciagulda draws of the
Florence sobria e pudica of his own time, as contrasted
with the splendid and dissolute Florence of Boccaccio's
stories, illustrates the general change in the spirit of
the people in the cities of Italy.
The arts showed their sympathy with this change.
Architecture lost power in original and imaginative
expression. It fell off in the essential qualities of man
ly and thoughtful building. The tendency of the

MORAL CHANGE IN THE POPULAR TEMPER, jry
ItaUan architects to sacrifice the principles of good
construction to picturesque effects became more and
more pronounced. Sculpture and painting made rapid
progress in skill and ease of mechanical execution, and
were more and more employed to minister to the grow
ing taste for domestic magnificence and personal dis
play, though not yet reduced, as in later times, to mere
household menials. While they gained in science and
In productiveness, they lost In dignity of motive and
truth of sentiment They gained a new perfection of
grace, a fresh variety of. fancy, and a wider range of
expression, but they lost in depth of imagination and
serious meaning.
Siena felt the full force of these currents of change.
She had grown in size and power; she had, on the
whole, in the long course of years, been prosperous ;
her wealth had increased, and her people, even in ear
ly days inclined to display, now fell easily into lavish
modes of living. The seed of luxury readily took root
in her soil, " Neir orto dove tal seme s' appicca."
The stories of the extravagance of the rich Sienese
youth have a touch of Oriental excess. After more
than five hundred years, the tradition of the brilliant
festive life of the reckless spendthrifts who got the
name of the brigata spendereccia still holds its place in
the popular memory, and still serves as an illustration
of the prodigal spirit of the whole town,*
* See/«/>r»o,cantoxxix.i2i-i32,and Buti's comment upon the verses.

I eg SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
Siena had never prospered more steadily, had never
been gayer, had never brought more important works
to conclusion, than in the years between 1320 and 1340.
She had completed her magnificent public palace for
the magistracy of the State ; her great citizens were
building new and more splendid palaces than the old
for their own habitation ; she was bringing in fresh sup
plies of water and erecting new fountains ; she was
strengthening and extending her walls and opening
new gates. A census taken In 1328 showed that her
population had largely Increased during the last gen
eration,* and her numbers gave her reliance on her
strength and on her capacity to accomplish whatever
she might resolve.
The languid progress and the Incomplete condition
of the works on the cathedral, the chief building of the
city, were far from satisfactory to a people in this tem
per of mind. The adverse judgment of the architects
who had been called upon for counsel In regard to the
extension of the Duomo over the new Church of St
John, though disregarded, had not been forgotten ; and
the advice, which at the time had been little heeded,
was now recalled, that a new Duomo, " pulcra, magnia
et magnifica, cum omnibus fulgldls ornamentis," should
be erected in honor of Our Lord and his most holy
Mother. The old Duomo had, indeed, been good
* The number of heads of families was 11,711. Under the head of
a great family would be reckoned a very large number of more or less
closely connected retainers.

PROJECT FOR A NEW C A THEDRAL. i c g
enough for the old Siena; but a new generation had
arisen with larger thoughts, and new Siena required a
new, a greater, a more splendid church. Such was the
conviction of a large party in the city ; but there were
others who held to the old ways, and to whom the old
church, with its century of memories and sacred asso
ciations, was dear, who urged that to attempt to build
a more magnificent cathedral would be but to waste
the means and energy of the commune in an under
taking not merely needless, but objectionable. At
length a plan was proposed fitted to conciliate alike
those who desired a new Duomo and those who would
maintain the old. The design was of surprising and
admirable boldness. It was no less than to change the
whole lay of the cathedral, and, adopting the existing
edifice as a transept for a new church, to erect a nave,
aisles, and choir of proportionate dimensions. The
building that had so long been the pride of Siena
would thus be preserved in its integrity, and all past
labor upon it would inure to the benefit of the new
and vastly grander edifice. This design, if carried out
would give to Siena far the most magnificent and glo
rious cathedral in Italy, a building for which the rev
enues of a kingdom would hardly suffice, but which
Siena, rich in resource and in money, proud, ambitious,
devout trustful in herself and her future, felt able to
construct without misgiving or exhaustion. The pro
ject was brought before the Council of the Bell on the
23d of August 1339. and before the popular assembly

l6o SIENA. AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
broke up that afternoon it was resolved, by 2 1 2 votes
against 132, that "a new nave should be built" accord
ing to the plan proposed, provided, however, that the
work now in progress be proceeded with diligently.*
The resolve having been taken, there was no delay
in making the necessary preparations for carrying it
out. The ground on which it was proposed to build
the new nave was thickly covered with houses, and the
records of the Duomo show that the operarius at once
set to work to purchase house after house,! or to ex
change for a house in this region some house belong
ing to the opera in another part of the clty.| The
nuns of the Hospital of Mona Agnese "out of their
piety " concede three of their houses as a gift to the
work, and promise to sell two more.§ Before the end
of the year, almost all the land that was needed seems
to have been secured. A still more important step had
been taken in the sending by the commune to Naples
to Induce Master Lando di Pietro to return to Siena
to take the place of superintendent of the public works
of the commune, and especially of the cathedral Lan
do was a native of Siena, a man of varied accomplish-
* " Navis dicte ecclesie de novo fiat, et extendatur longitudo dicte
navis per planum sancte Marie versus plateam Manettorum, sen pla-
team que Manettorum dicitur, sicut et quomodo designatum est . . .
dummodo in opere novo dicte ecclesie jam incepto nichilominus sol
licite et continue procedatur, tantum quantum et prout requiritur ad
proportionem operis dicte navis." Cons, della Campana, cxxv. i8.
Milanesi, Documenti, i. 226. The "opus jam inceptum" was probably
the work on the extension of the Duomo over the baptistery.
t Arch, del Duomo. Perg. 766, 768, 769, 771, 778, 779, 781, 790, 792, 796.
X Id. Perg. 77 5, 776. § Id Perg. 780, 784.

MASTER LANDO DI PIETRO. .161
ment — goldsmith, mechanician, architect engineer —
and now of wide repute, so that his services were sought
in many quarters in Italy, When the proposal for re
calling him from Naples was introduced into the coun
cil, he was described as a man of highest worth, of great
ingenuity and Invention, not only in his own art of gold-
smithery, but in many other arts besides, and as well in
what relates to the building of churches as to the con
struction of palaces, houses, streets, bridges, and foun
tains ; and It was urged that it would be greatly to the
advantage of the commune that a man of such excel
lence should not remain absent and distant from Siena,
but that he should dwell always In the city, in order to
give his counsel and aid In respect to all pubhc works,
and especially to the new construction of the cathe
dral* There is, unfortunately, no evidence to show whether
the design on which the new edifice was begun was
due to Master Lando, or whether it was the work
* " Quod cum notorium sit, et certum in civitate Senarum, quod pro-
vidus vir magister Landus aurifex, est homo legalissimus, et non solum
in arte sua predicta, sed in multis aliis prefer dictam suam artem, est
homo magne subtilitatis et adinventionis, tam his que spectant ad edi-
ficationes palatiorum et domorum comunis, et viarum et pontium et
fontium, et aliorum operum comunis Senensis ; et ipse magister Lan
dus moram seu habitationem contrahat ad presens in civitate Neapoli-
tana, ut ibidem suum honorem augeat et profectum ; et convenientius
et utilius esset pro comuni Senarum quod homo tante bonitatis non
absens et longinquus a civitate Senarum, sed potius in ipsa civitate
continue permaneret, ut suum consilium et iuvamen impenderet tam
operibus fiendis in majori ecclesia Senensi quam comuni Senarum in
omnibus aliis supradictis." Cons, della Campana. cxxv. 54. Milanesi,
Documenti. i, 228. II

J 62 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
of the genius of some nameless architect Whoever
was Its author, he was a consummate master of noble
and exquisite design, full of imagination in its general
conception, full of fancy in detail, of grandest and
most picturesque effect. The Italian architects, even
when without other merit have usually shown a pre
eminent sense of the value of just proportions, and of
harmony in the relation of parts to each other and to
the whole building ; and in this respect the design for
the new Duomo was of surpassing merit Had the
work been completed according to the plan, it would
have been not only the most picturesque, but the most
dignified and beautiful, of the cathedrals of Italy.
Master Lando seems to have accepted at once the
proposal of the republic, and before the end of the year
1339 he had entered on the duties of his office. The
preparations for the beginning of the work were active
ly completed, and on the 2d of February, in the winter
of 1339-40, the first stone of the new building was laid
with great solemnity, with religious services and civic
festivities,* The work was hardly fairly begun before a heavy ca
lamity fell on the city. One of the violent epidemics
to which the people in the close towns of the Middle
Ages were constantly exposed raged for some months,
* The following entry in the accounts of the operajo probably be
longs to this date : " Anco ij. lib. x. sol., e quali si spesero in came e in
pane, e in vino che si mando a' preti di Duomo perche venero a diciare
r ufficio quando si fondo la prima pietra nel fondamento de la facciata
nuova del Duomo."

CALAMITIES AND RECOVERY. 16-5
making Siena mourn for many of her chief citizens,
among them for Master Lando himself, whom at this
moment she could ill spare. To the pestilence suc
ceeded famine, the result of the interruption caused by
the epidemic in the regular course of industry and traf
fic. The fields had been left unfilled, and the harvest
failed. The magistracy, called that of Abundance, sent
to Sicily, to France, and to Spain for cargoes of grain ;
but owing to many disasters and delays, the supplies
were late in reaching Siena, and but scanty after all ;
and though more than forty thousand golden florins
were spent from the public treasury to relieve their
misery, the common people suffered terribly.*
This year there can have been little spirit and small
means for pushing on the works at the Duomo. But
the recovery from the losses and depression of these
successive calamities was rapid. The prosperity of the
city had been checked but for a moment In a year
or two the people had recovered spirit and, feeling
themselves once more rich and flourishing, engaged
with fresh ardor in carrying forward old and new works
for the service or adornment of their town. In 1343
water was introduced through long underground chan
nels to the fountain in the Campo, known ever since as
the Fonte Gaia — the Glad Fountain— from the rejoic
ings and gladness of the people, as the clear stream
flowed abundantly into the square which was the chief
stage of the public life of the city. Two years later the
* Cronica Sanese di Agnolo di Tura. Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, tom. xv.

1 64 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
great bell-tower on the same piazza, the tower of the
Palace of the Republic, was completed. The new walls
of the cathedral were rising rapidly. There were vast
activity and productiveness in all the arts. And while
the town was thus beautifying herself within, she was
extending her dominion and exercising jurisdiction
over wider territory than had ever before been subject
to her rule, Siena had never, to outward seeming, been
so strong, so flourishing, so full of confidence in herself
as now. She had reached the acme of her splendor
and the crisis of her story.
With increase of wealth and strength had come in-
crease of luxury and wantonness. The sources of civic
virtue and of public spirit were beginning to run low.
Men were less honest, women less modest, than of old.
The people were more than Qvtr gente vana. The new
generation was growing up less hardy, more passionate
and lustful, than the old had been. The laws became
ineffectual to restrain men who no longer reverenced
justice. In 1 34 1 one of the annalists makes entry,
" Many homicides committed in Siena," The ferocity
displayed by all classes in their feuds and vengeances
was revolting. Revenge and wrath knew no mercy.
Men taken by their enemies were tortured to the point
of death, but revived to be tortured again, and killed at
last with every refinement of savage cruelty. There is
no redeeming trait of romance or generosity in these
bloody records. At last affairs became so bad that the
council, finding that no check could be put on the

CORRUPTION OF ITALY. jg.
cruel and violent practices of the time, passed an ordi
nance to the effect that at the Feast of the Assump
tion, at Christmas, and during Holy Week there should
be truce among all those involved in feuds, that they
might go to their devotions with more quiet minds. At
all other seasons men carried their lives In their hands,
for the assassin might lurk at any corner, the avenger
of real or fancied wrong might interrupt the gayety of
any feast with " the furious close of civil butchery."
Siena was, in truth, not alone, nor even pre-eminent,
In wickedness among Italian cities. She shared in the
general corruption of Italy, The Decameron affords a
picture of a society without convictions, honor, or puri
ty: selfish, violent and timid; and yet in depicting this
society Boccaccio omitted many of the darkest traits.
But a day of reckoning was at hand. Nowhere was
a heavier penalty exacted than at Siena, In her height
of pride, she was struck down by a blow from which
she never recovered.
The summer of 1 347 had been very sickly. At some
of the Tuscan ports, especially at Pisa, a violent appar
ently contagious, disease — brought It was believed, on
some infected vessel from the East — had raged during
the hot weather, ceasing only with the coming of win
ter. The next spring it broke out afresh. It spread
through Italy. The plague of 1 348 was the most fatal
epidemic on record. Many accounts of it from eye
witnesses have come down to us. The Sienese chron
icler Agnolo di Tura gives a brief narrative concern-

1 66 SIENA. AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
ing it which renders all other narrative superfluous:
" At this time," he says, " the great mortality began in
Siena, greater, gloomier, more terrible than could ever
be told or imagined, and so it lasted till October, It
was so severe that men and women died of it all of a
sudden. The groin and the armpit became swollen,
and suddenly, while they were talking, men died. The
father scarcely stayed to watch his child; one brother
fled from another ; the wife deserted her husband, be
cause it was said that this disease was caught by look
ing, and from the breath. And so it was, in truth, for
so many people died in the months of May and June,
and July and August that no one could be found who
would bury them for hire. Neither relation nor friend
nor priest nor friar went with them to the grave, nor
was the service said. But he to whom the dead be
longed, as soon as the breath was out took up the body,
whether by day or night, and with the help of two or
three carried it to the church ; and then they them
selves buried it as best they could, covering it with a
little earth, that dogs might not devour it And in
many places in the city enormous trenches were made,
and bodies were thrown into them and covered with a
little earth, and then other bodies were put in and cov
ered in turn, and so on, layer by layer, till the trench
was full And I, Agniolo di Tura, called Grasso, bur
ied five of my children in on-e trench with my own
hands, and many others did the like. The bells were
not rung, no mourning was made for any one, grievous

THE PLAGUE OF 134S. ^67
as the loss of him might be, for almost every one was
expecting death, and things went in such fashion that
people did not believe that any one would be left ; and
many men believed and said, ' This is the end of the
world.' Neither physician nor physic availed aught
nor was any precaution of use ; but rather it seemed
that the more care one took, the sooner he died. And,
in truth, the mortality was so dark* and great and hor
rible that no pen could describe it. And It was ascer
tained that in this time there died in Siena more than
eighty thousand persons."
Such was the plague at Siena. Agnolo di Tura goes
on to relate some of its immediate effects. " The peo
ple who had escaped from the plague were all glad, and
thought of nothing but rejoicing, and took no heed of
what they spent or how they played ; for every man
felt himself to be rich, seeing that he had escaped from
such a pestilence. And all who remained alive were
as brothers, greeting each other and jesting with each
other as though they had been relations. And they
paid no regard to aught but enjoyment and feasting;
for to each man it seemed as that he had regained the
world, and it appeared as if no one could settle down
to do anything."!
It was long before the usual course of life renewed
itself in the desolated city, long before the survivors
* Oscura — " the black death."
t Cronica Sanese di Andrea Dei continuata da Agnolo di Tura, dall'
Anno iiZGfno al 1352. Muratori, Rer. ItaL Script, tom. xv. col. 123.

1 68 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
became accustomed to the changed conditions in which
they found themselves. The confusion not only of af
fairs, but of relations between men, resulting from the
sudden, indiscriminate sweeplng-away of two thirds or
three quarters of the population of a close, compact
city, can hardly be too strongly depicted. For a time
all the common order of society was broken up. In
Siena one hundred noble families had become extinct
In many cases no heirs were left for estates and prop
erty. Men without claim took possession of houses
and goods, their right to which no one was left to dis
pute. Half the city was vacant and falling to ruin. It
seemed, says one of the chroniclers, as if nobody were
left in Siena. The condition of the city would have
been even worse had her enemies not suffered from
the same calamity. All Tuscany was half depopulated.
On all sides there were bewilderment and expectancy.
Events must be left to take their own course; men
could not all at once understand the position in which
they actually stood ; they must learn it b}' waiting for
experience. In 1350, the second year after the plague,
the city, says Malavolti, "was still afflicted by the late
pestilence, and I do not find that it did anything wor
thy of memory for public service or advantage."* Nor
was anything of this sort done the next year, or tlie
next. Siena did not recover from the blow that had
stricken her down. By degrees, however, men grew
familiar with the new aspect of things ; life began to
* Historia, parte ii. lib. vi. p. 108, b.

RESULTS OF THE PLAGUE. 169
run in its old channels, trade sprang up, but the spirit
of the city had been broken, and public affairs went
from bad to worse.
This was no period for the carrying-on of great pub
lic works. The plague had not only swept off the mas
ter workmen from the Duomo, but it had dried up
many of the sources of supply for the construction of
the new building. Still more than this, it had so re
duced the numbers of the people that even the old ca
thedral might well seem too great for the needs of the
shrunken city. The new design had been adopted by
a light-hearted people, prosperous and confident of the
future ; it was far too vast and superb to be executed
by a people hardly a third as numerous as that wliich
had undertaken the work — a people, moreover, depress
ed in spirit distracted by Internal confusion, and humil
iated to the point of submission to unworthy enemies.
The records of the year of the plague, and of those
immediately succeeding, are very scanty. In 1348, and
the two next years, the operajo bought, at a low price,
a few houses which probably occupied a part of the
ground required for the new building.* The means
for the purchase were drawn from the offerings at the
church during the fatal season, in which the votive gifts
extorted from terror had been of no avail to obtain im
munity from what was conceived to be the stroke of
Divine wrath. No progress of importance was made in
the works, and in 1353 the operajo presented a suppll-
* Arehivio del Duomo, Perg. 833, 842, 847.

lyo SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
cation to the magistracy, setting forth that for five years
past the customary subsidy from the communehad not
been paid, and begging that the payment should be re
newed. The council, moved by piety, and by desire
that the work should not come to a stop, granted his
request* But the end was near, and the fate of the new build
ing was to correspond with that of Siena herself. The
finest design of the architecture of the Middle Ages In
Italy was not to be brought to perfection. After a year
or two In which the records of the building are a blank,
they recommence In 1356 with a series of documents
of deplorable significance. Defects had become visi
ble in the construction of the new cathedral. Whether
it was that Lando had left no successor able to carry
forward the great and difficult project, or whether the
plan had been In itself too bold, or whether during the
wretched years that followed his death the masonry of
the building had been carelessly and slightingly per
formed, cannot be told. But the defects that now de
clared themselves were sufficient to awaken the anxiety
of the operajo and his counsellors, and they summoned,
from Florence and elsewhere, skilled masters to exam
ine the work and give advice concerning It, From the
opinion given by one of them, Benci di Clone, of Flor
ence, it appears that four columns had shown such
* Consiglio della Campana, tomo civ. p. 28. It appears that previous
ly five hundred and fifty lire had been paid annually from the public
treasury for the benefit of the work. Arehivio del Duomo, Perg. 808,
Anno 1343. See Appendix I. Document IX.

DEFECTS MANIFEST IN THE NEW CATHEDRAL, lyi
weakness that the vaulting arches and the walls that
rested upon them had become insecure, and that there
was no mode by which the harm could be satisfactorily
repaired. In his judgment the best course would be
to take down walls, arches, and columns.* The opin
ions of the other architects who were consulted have
not been preserved, but there is no reason to suppose
that they were of a different tenor.
Such a misfortune as this would have been enough
to discourage a community even less burdened with
calamity than that of Siena. It compelled the magis
trates and the people to new deliberations, and the con
viction at last forced itself home upon them that they
must give up the hope of completing the work, begun
less than twenty years before under conditions so dif
ferent from those under which the city now lay. The
capomaestro of the opera, Domenico d' Agostino, and
Master Niccolo di Cecco, who had long been employed
upon it were now called on to give their judgment. It
was briefly to the effect that, considering all that must
be destroyed of the old church if the new one were
constructed as had been proposed, and that the work
to be destroyed could not be rebuilt at a less cost than
one hundred and fifty thousand florins of gold, and be
lieving that with the present income of the opera the
new church could not be completed in a hundred years,
it were the wiser counsel that the old Duomo be left
standing as it then stood; and that the prolongation
* Milanesi, Documenti, i. 249.

172 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
of the choir over the new baptistery, or Church of St
John, begun so many years before, but the progress of
which had been interrupted by the works on the new
Duomo, should now be carried forward to its end.
This work could be accomplished, they thought within
five years, and the city would then possess a cathedral
and a baptistery sufficient for its needs, if not for its
ancient pride.*
The tenor of this counsel harmonized with the fallen
fortunes and depressed spirit of the republic. But,
though no other course than to adopt this recommen
dation seemed feasible, it was not resolved upon with
out further deliberation. A committee of twelve citi
zens was appointed by the magistrates to consult and
report upon the subject Their conclusion was unani
mous and decisive. They reported that, having care
fully inspected the work of the new church, and having
consulted the best master builders, both of Siena and
from abroad, they had found that the walls of the new
church were defective and not strong enough to sup
port the necessary building upon them ; that they were
even already threatening to fall ; wherefore It was rec
ommended that all the interior walls and vaults and
other portions of the church be demolished as speedily
as possible, and nothing of it left standing but the out
er walls. This report was made In the month of June,
1357. It appears to have been at once adopted, and
immediately acted upon by the governors of the repub-
* Milanesi, Documetiti, i. 251.

DEMOLITION OF THE NEW CATHEDRAL. j 73
lie* Each stone thrown down from the marble walls
might have served as a slab on which to inscribe the
lost hopes of Siena, to commemorate her former glory,
to record her fall.
And here with the resolve to demolish the interior
of the new building, and to leave only the outer walls
standing, the story of the Duomo at Siena as a great
civic work — a work in which the hearts and energies
of the people were engaged — comes to an end. From
this time forward the Sienese contented themselves with
their old Duomo, leaving the bare but magnificent walls
of their later design to stand as the splendid sepulchral
monument of the past glory and greatness of the State,
of the largeness of Its spirit and the abundance of its
resources. Thus these walls still stand, more impressive
to the imagination than if they belonged to a completed
building, the stateliest memorial of disappointment in
the land of noble designs left incomplete. Had Siena
not been stricken down, and had she retained spirit to
complete the new cathedral as it was begun, it would
have been the most magnificent building of its sort in
Italy, and one of the noblest cathedrals in all Europe,
The existing portions of it show the Gothic harmo
nized with the Italian spirit in admirable accord, the
one not losing its energy nor the other Its grace, but
both so interfused and united that the charm and
power of each commingle in rare fulness of effect
Exquisite in its colossal proportions, in division of its
* Milanesi, Documetiti. i. 254.

174 SIENA. AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
spaces, and exquisite also in its decoration, in which
something of the refined elegance of the best work of
the Renaissance Is already visible, the fragments of the
incomplete edifice are not only more interesting, but
more beautiful, than the completed structure to which it
forms the most picturesque and striking of forecourts.
There Is no need to trace the further history of the
Duomo in detail ; for the building no longer has inter
est as the expression of the will of a people full of vigor,
conscious of a common life, and capable of sustained
exertions and abiding passions.
The very next record that I have noted is, indeed,
curiously expressive of the change that had come over
the Sienese since the day of the victory of Montaperti a
century before. In 1363 a dreaded band of free lances,
called the Company del Capelletto, ravaged the territo
ry of Siena, burning and devastating far and wide, till
finally, seizing on the stronghold of Campagnatico, It
threatened to establish itself there as a headquarters
whence to make forays so long as anything was left In
the territory to plunder. The Sienese, so low had they
sunk, sent envoys to the captain of the band to offer
him a large sum of money if he would take his troop
elsewhere, but the offer was refused. Driven to de
spair, Siena then began to get together a troop of mer
cenaries, mostly Germans, In order to try to drive out
the freebooters by show of force. The command was
given to Messer Francesco Orsino, of Rome, or, as he Is
called, M. Francesco di M. Giordano de' figlioli d' Orso,

DEFEAT OF THE COMPANY DEL CAPELLETTO. lyc
and his orders were on no account to join battle
with the company of marauders, for fear of defeat and
of exposing the city to danger, Messer Francesco,
however, taking advantage of a favorable opportunity,
disobeyed his orders, attacked the band, routed it with
great slaughter, made its captain prisoner, and returned
to Siena triumphantly, having delivered the city from a
great fear. For his victory Francesco was rewarded,
but for his disobedience he was removed from com
mand, A day or two afterwards the ruling magistrates
of the city, Ii Signori Dodici, had a solemn mass cele
brated at the Duomo, to return thanks for the victory,
and great offerings were made by the commune and
by private citizens.* Further than this, at their next
meeting the council voted that a chapel should be
erected in the Duomo, at the expense of the republic,
in honor of St Paul, with a painting to commemorate
the victory obtained over the Company del Capelletto.!
The altar-piece has perished, but on the wall of the
Sala delle Balestre, In the Palace of the Republic, a
picture of the battle may still be seen, which the mag
istrates had painted in honor of the victory won for Si
ena by mercenary arms.
The change which the spirit and temper of the peo
ple had undergone in the course of a hundred years
was no ordinary alteration. The people seem no longer
* Cronache diNeri di Donato. Muratori, Script. Rer. Ital. tom. xv. col.
179-180. t Consiglio della Campana, clxxvi. 57.

176 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
the same in blood, and the contrast between the glory
of the victory of Montaperti and the shame of such a
chance defeat of a loose band of marauders, serves to
measure their degeneracy.
In the course of years Siena recovered some degree
of prosperity and strength, but she never regained her
ancient power or her former vigor; The old Duomo
and the Church of St John were in a few years com
pleted according to the resolve taken in 1357, and
thenceforward such interest as the citizens contin
ued to feel In the building was expressed in works of
finish or adornment The vaults of the cathedral were
painted. Its windows were filled with painted glass, a
pavement of inlaid marble of various design was laid
down,* alterations were made in the facade, and from
* This pavement, which has ever since been one of the boasts of Si
ena, was begun, according to Milanesi (Documenti, i. 176), about 1369.
Vasari was in error in ascribing the first designs for it to Duccio. It
is a work in which the talents of the artist and the materials employed
are alike perverted to the least appropriate uses ; but it is much ad
mired by persons who like to be amused with the ingenious artifices
of misapplied skill. " C'est certainement,'' says M. Labarte, " ce qui a
ete fait de plus beau en ce genre." From time to time during the last
five hundred years the pavement has been renewed, and during the
sixteenth century an artist of considerable but exaggerated repute,
Domenico Beccafumi, gave designs for the floor of the choir, which
surpassed in their kind all that had been seen before. The merit of
this sort of work as pavement is shown by the fact that for ten or
eleven months out of twelve it is carefully protected by a covering of
planks. Details concerning the designs of the pavement, and the artists em
ployed on it at different periods, may be found in Vasari's Life of Bec
cafumi ; in Milanesi, Documenti (see Index, iii. p. 414. Siena, Duomo,
Spazzo) ; in Labarte's Histoire des Arts Industriels au Moyen-Age, tome
iv. p. 305 ; and in all the local guide-books.

WORKS OF THE RENAISSANCE. J77
time to time many an ornament was added, and many
a change in minor features was made both within and
without. Through the next two centuries the most noted ar
tists of Siena, and many from abroad, were employed
to enrich it with their works, till It became the treasure-
house that it still remains of the decorative arts of the
most brilliant period of Italian culture.*
Work on such a building never ceases. Each new
generation, with its new fancies, finds something to add
or to alter. Time does its work of waste, and years
bring constant need of repair and restoration. Siena
had her share in the revival of old arts and letters, and
in the birth of modern culture and sentiment ; and the
Renaissance left a deep mark on the Duomo in works
sharply contrasted with those of an earlier age, not only
In quality of design and execution, but in the motive
of their construction. They are mostly monuments of
the pride and wealth of special families or individuals,
and no longer serve as expressions of the spirit and
devotion of the whole community.
The history of the Duomo had ceased to be that of
Siena. The sentiment of corporate unity, of common
interests in the bonds of a common civic life and a
common religious faith, had been strong enough, in
spite of civil discord and party divisions, to secure the
* See, for an account of some of these works, " L'Eglise Cathedrale
de Sienne et son Tresor, d'apres un Inventaire de 1467, traduit et an-
note par Jules Labarte," in the Atmales Archeologiques, tome xxv.
12

178 SIENA, AND OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION.
Independence of the community, and to inspire it with
magnanimous designs. But this sentiment gave way
before the development of rationalism and of individu
alism. Men grew indifferent alike to the claims of re-
llgion and of the community. Their emotions were
brought more and more under the control of reason,
and their energies, which, united in effort towards a
common end, had once rolled as a vast stream in a
deep, however narrow, channel, were now dispersed In
slender and widely separated currents.
The Duomo, that had been the expression and wit
ness of the strong forces of the life of the community
of Siena, became the evidence of their decay. To the
imagination, even to the eye, of the lover of the past
Siena exists only in the works and deeds of her early
time. Her cathedral and her palace are monuments
over the grave of the passions, hopes, and faith of gen
erations that were capable of efforts beyond the mark
of modern times.

IV
FLORENCE AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER

IV.
FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
I. THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCH.
" Never was our city," says Machiavelli, speaking of
Florence as she was at the close of the thirteenth cen
tury — " never was our clt}^ In a greater or happier con
dition than at this time, being full of men, of riches,
and of renown. Her citizens capable of bearing arms
numbered thirty thousand, and those of her territory
seventy thousand. All Tuscany, partly as subject to
her, partly as friendly to her, obeyed her," * Nowhere
In Italy was trade more flourishing, or the arts more
zealously cultivated. Her citizens, however divided by
party discords, were united in a common pride in their
city. The fame of her strength and her beauty was
wide-spread ; " so that many," says a chronicler of the
time, " come to see her, not of necessity, or because of
the excellence of her trades and arts, but because of
her beauty and adornment" Yet this beauty and
adornment had been wrought out for her in spite of
internal contention and division. Peace seldom dwelt
within her walls. The eager and hasty temper of her
* Istorie Fiorentine, lib. ii. § 15.

1 82 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
citizens was quickly kindled into passionate outbreaks
and tumultuous uproar, in which civil order was for
the time broken up, and the very existence of the State
seemed to be at stake.
The thirteenth century had been a long struggle be
tween the feudal and civic nobility and the mass of the
common people. In which the grandi had for the most
part gained the upperhand. Through the intricate
record of a hundred years one may trace the baffled
but persistent effort of the compact and industrious
democracy to achieve such a combination of their
forces as to enable them to get the better of their aris
tocratic oppressors. The rule of an unscrupulous, quar
relsome, and tyrannical privileged class was incompati
ble with the institutions requisite for the prosperity of
the Industrious community. Gradually a form of or
ganization was worked out by the trades, resembling
that of the guilds of Northern cities, but more political
in its character, which, in spite of various checks and
numerous futile endeavors, at length, towards the end
of the century, succeeded in mastering the old nobility
and in establishing Itself as the chief power in the
government of the city. This result was reached in
1292. The opening clauses of the Ordinances of Justice,
by which the new order of the State was regulated, in
dicate the spirit of those by whom this revolution had
been accomplished : " Whereas justice is a steady and
constant will that gives to each man his rights, there-

THE "ARTI" OF FLORENCE. ^^.
fore the following ordinances, property called the Ordi
nances of Justice, are ordained for the benefit of the
republic," to the end of establishing " true and perpet
ual concord and unity, and of securing peace and tran
quillity for the artificers and arts, and for all the people
of Florence,"*
The political administration was concentrated in the
arti, or organized trades of the city. These comprised
twelve arti maggiori, or chief trades, and nine arti mi-
nori, or lesser trades : under the banner of one or the
other of these trades the mass of the citizens was en
rolled.! * The Ordinamenti di Giustizia are to be found in the Arehivio Sto
rico Italiano, Ser. II. tomo i. pp. 1-93, Firenze, 1855 ; and also in Emi-
liani-Giudici, Storia dei Comuni ItaUani, tomo iii. pp. 5-147, Firenze,
1866. They are remarkable for the display of the political sense and
vigorous resolve of their framers.
t The division of the industrial population of Florence into " arts "
appears first near the end of the twelfth century ; but it was not till
1266, at the time of the political revolution consequent on the defeat
and death of Manfred, that the arts were organized as civil and politi
cal corporations. At that time there were seven chief arts, of which
Villani (lib. vii. cap. xiii.) gives the list as follows : i, lawyers and notaries ;
2, merchants of calimala, that is, of French cloths ; 3, bankers ; 4, wool-
merchants ; 5, physicians and druggists ; 6, silk manufacturers and
dealers; 7, furriers. To these were added in 1282 (Villani, lib. vii. cap.
Ixxix.) five more, as follows : 8, retail dealers ; 9, butchers ; 10, shoe
makers ; II, master carpenters and masons; 12, smiths. In 1292 the
Ordinamenti di Giustizia adds to the enumeration of the twelve chief
arts nine lesser arts, as follows : 13, vintners ; 14, innkeepers ; 15, deal
ers in salt, oil, and cheese ; 16, leather-dressers ; 17, armorers ; 18, lock
smiths and dealers in old and new iron; 19, saddlers and shield and
corslet makers; 20, joiners; 21, bakers. This order of the arts was
preserved essentially the same during the existence of Florence as a
republic. Compare Goro Dati (in Napier's Hist, of Florence, ii. loi),
about 1380; and Machiavelli, Ist. Fioretitine, lib. ii. § viii., and Varchi,
Storia Fiorentina, lib. iii. § 21. "All the citizens of Florence," says

1 84 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
Florence, like other Italian cities, was accustomed
annually to call upon some personage from a remote
but allied city to exercise the functions of Podesta, or
chief executive officer, within her limits ; but all the
other magistrates of the commonwealth were to be
chosen from the members of the twelve chief Arts.
The grandi, or nobles, were expressly excluded from
office. Each of the Arts had its own officers, and each
was required to maintain a military organization for
the support of order and the defence of the city. Each
of them had its written statute, by which Its members
were governed, while provision was made that the vari
ous statutes should be in harmony one with the other
so far as the common Interest required. It was the ob
ject of these statutes to secure at once the good order
of the city and the prosperity of the trades.
The provisions of these codes, so far as judgment may
be formed from the only one of them which has come
down to us — the Statute of the Art of Calimala, or of
foreign cloth merchants — indicate the sound political
sense of the Florentine tradesmen, and their full under-
Varchi, " were obliged to enroll themselves in one of the twenty-one
Arts ; that is, no one could be a burgher of Florence unless he or his
ancestors had been approved and matriculated in one of these arts,
whether he practised it or not. Without proof of matriculation he
could not be drawn for any office or exercise any magistracy." An in
teresting account of the character and political influence of the arts is
given by Von Reumont in his Loretizo de' Medici, Band i. p. i8 seq.,
Leipsig, 1874 ; and a notice of the devices on their banners (mainly from
Villani, lib. vii. cap. xiii.), and other particulars of interest concerning
them, in the same author's earlier and very useful work, Tavole Crono-
logiche e Sincrone della Storia Fiorentina, Firenze, 1841, Introduzione, p.
ii.n. 3.

COMMERCIAL MORALITY OF FLORENCE. jgr
standlng that permanent commercial prosperity depends
upon moral conditions ; first of all, upon the uprightness
and integrity of the individual tradesman. Every pre
caution is taken to secure fair dealing, and to maintain
firm credit Heavy penalties are enacted against fraud,
perjury, misrepresentation, and unfair competition. It is
required of the merchants "to use pure, loyal, and simple
truth " in all their dealings. There is a stamp of piety
and uprightness on the whole statute. The provisions
in respect to the method In which accounts were to be
kept, to the terms of credit, to bankruptcy and the re
covery of debts, to usury and prices, are ample, careful,
and minute. In the trade of Florence there was noth
ing of the looseness of modern competitive dealings ;
nothing of the spirit that seeks gain at any cost even
that of truth and honesty ; nothing of the disposition
to make undue profit, and to reckon every trick fair in
trade. There was a standard of commercial morality
as exact as that to which the weights and measures of
the shops were made to conform. Florence was re
solved that her credit should be good, and that neither
rival nor enemy should have a right to reproach her
with slackness in the fulfilment either of public or of
private obligations. The four consuls who were chosen
to rule each of the Arts, holding office for six months,
were to be selected from "the best and most useful
merchants ;" and they were to be " Guelfs and lovers of
the Holy Roman Church, and in their choice no cava-
Her was to take part." It was from these consuls of

186 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
the trades that the priors of the city were chosen, and
neither Ghibelline nor noble was to have part In the
government of the State,
The Arts thus combined and organized could control
the most powerful and lawless of the great and for
some years Florence experienced the benefit of the
new order of affairs in an unwonted sense of security
and a rapid increase of prosperity. The strength that
lies In union and concord inspired her with confidence
in herself, and she made a splendid display of the great
qualities and designs of her trading and industrious
democracy. The citizens of a compact walled town,
having no regular or general communication with the
distant outside world ; occupied with few interests but
those of their households, their shops, and their city ;
engaged in pursuits that kept them close within the
narrow circuit of their native streets, were naturally
filled with a spirit of local attachment little short of
devotion, and this spirit was the source of great under
takings, in which their religion, their pride, and their
patriotism might find expression. The Arts, each a lit
tle commonwealth in itself, served to quicken and in
tensify the public spirit ; to bring home to their mem
bers the sense of common interests and duties ; and to
maintain a standard of principle and of action to which
each member was compelled to conform, by the strong
pressure of a concentrated public opinion.
Seldom has a nobler activity or a more abundant
productiveness been displayed than Florence exhibited

PRODUCTIVENESS OF THE ARTS. 187
at this period. The quick wit the lively fancy, and the
poetic imagination of her people were aroused. Her
poets drew inspiration from her, and gave it back
through their verses for the quickening of the hearts
of her people. They were the most noted in Italy,
even before Dante lifted Florence to the topmost peak
of fame, and Dante was now already meditating his
divine poem. Her painters had broken the bonds of
tradition which had long restrained their progress, and
Cimabue held the field against all rivals. Her archi
tects and builders were showing themselves masters in
their art and the number of great works of building,
many of which are still among the chief ornaments of
the city, begun in the ten years between 1290 and 1300
indicates alike the ability of the architects and the en
ergy and abundant resources of the community. Dur
ing these years the churches of Santa Maria Novella
and of the Carmine, as well as the loggia of Or' San
Michele, were in process of construction ; the founda
tions of the churches of Santo Spirito, of San Marco,
of Santa Maria in Cafaggio (now known as the Annun
ziata), of Santa Croce, together with its vast convent
were all laid; and the building of the Palace of the
Priors and of the Hospital of St. Bartholomew was be
gun. Nor does this complete the list The thriving
city was extending her limits, and building a new cir
cuit of walls with towers for the common defence,
erected in part out of materials obtained by the demo-
Htion of some of the tall and massive towers which had

1 88 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
served as the dens and strongholds of those grandi
whose lawless power she was engaged in repressing.*
But besides all these works, she set about what was
to prove a much more Important undertaking. The
old church of Santa Reparata, that had long served as
her Duomo,! stood In need of repair, and on the nth
of September, 1294, an appropriation from the public
treasury of four hundred lire was voted for this pur
pose. On the 2d of December of the same year a sim
ilar appropriation was made, with a slight but signifi
cant change In terms — for the church " the repairing
and renewal of which are now In progress." %
No more definite Information than this remains con
cerning the beginning of the work of construction of
that new cathedral which was destined to become the
most characteristic and impressive edifice In Florence,
and to employ her chief artists for the next two hun
dred years. But there is an apocryphal decree, the
invention probably of the sixteenth century, in which
its author expressed what he not unfitly conceived to
have been the spirit and Intent of the earlier time.§ As
* See Moise, Santa Croce di Firenze, Firenze, 1845, pp. 51, 52, and Reu
mont, Tavole Cronologiche, for these years.
t The first authentic mention of the Church of Santa Reparata is
in 724.
X Gaye, Carteggio inedito d' Artisti, dei Secoli NI V. X V. X VI., Firenze,
1839, tomo i. pp. 42 5, 427. Every student of the history of Italian art finds
himself under obligations to this invaluable collection of documents.
§ The desire of communities and of individuals to perpetuate their
fame by monumental buildings is one of the most characteristic feat
ures of Italian culture. Nowhere was it stronger than in Florence.
Burckhardt, in his Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien, Stuttgart, 1868,

RESOLVE FOR A NEW DUOMO. i8q
reported, the decree runs thus : " Whereas it is the
highest concern of a people of illustrious origin so to
proceed in their affairs that men may perceive from
their works that their designs are at once wise and
magnanimous, it is therefore ordered that Arnolfo, ar
chitect of our commune, prepare the model or plan for
the rebuilding of Santa Reparata with such supreme
and lavish magnificence that neither the industry nor
the capacity of man shall be able to devise anything
more grand or more beautiful ; inasmuch as the most
judicious in this city have declared and advised in pub
lic and private conferences that no work of the com
mune should be undertaken unless the design be to
make it correspondent with a heart which is of the
greatest nature, because composed of the spirit of many
citizens concordant in one single will." *
Although the words of this decree cannot be trusted,
there is evidence that the Florentines soon gave up the
thought of repairing the old church, and resolved to re
construct and enlarge it, so as to have a Duomo of size
capable of accommodating the increasing crowds of
worshippers, and in its design worthy of the wealth and
spirit of the city. To such a work the Florentines were
especially called as the head of the Guelf party, a party
an important supplement to his admirable, more widely known work
Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien, has collected many instances of
this disposition ; see, especially, Buch I. Kap. I. § 2.
* This decree was first published by Del Migliore, in his Firenze,
Citth Nobilissima, 1684, p. 6. He does not say whence he derived it ;
and no such decree exists in the archives of the state. The style is
too rhetorical for the thirteenth century.

jQQ FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
that claimed to be in a peculiar sense the support of
the Interests and authority of the church, while they
were also stimulated to It by the spirit of rivalry in arts
no less than in arms that burned deep in the hearts of
citizens of neighboring states contending for pre-emi
nence. Florence could not easily brook that Pisa, Si
ena, and Orvieto, inferior to herself in numbers, wealth,
and power, should each boast a cathedral far more
spacious, more costly, and more beautiful than the old
church that had long served her needs.
" And so," says the trustworthy Giovanni Villani,
who was a youth In Florence when the work was be
gun, " in the year 1294, the city of Florence being In a
state of tranquillity, the citizens agreed to rebuild the
chief church of Florence, which was very rude in form
and small in proportion to such a city, and they or
dered that It should be enlarged, and extended at the
back, and that It should be all made of marble, and
with carven figures. And the foundation was laid with
great solemnity, by the Cardinal Legate of the Pope,
on the day of St. Mary in September,* and many Bish
ops, and the Podesta and the Captain, and all the
Priors, and all the ranks of the SIgnory of Florence
were present and it was consecrated to the honor of
God and St. Mary, under the name of St. Mary of the
Flower,! although the original name of Santa Reparata
* The 8th of September, the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin,
t The Blessed Virgin of the Flower — the lily, alike the flower of Mary
and of Florence, named for its flowers. The lily of Florence is the
fleur-de-lys, while the flower of the Virgin is the true white lily ; but

MEASURES TO PROVIDE MEANS FOR BUILDING, iqi
was never changed by the common people.* And for
the building and work of the said church a tax was or
dered by the commune of two denari upon every lira
paid out of the public treasury, and a poll tax of two
soldi. And the legate and the bishops bestowed great
indulgences and pardons, to be gained by every one
who should contribute aid or alms to the work."!
The work was indeed the common interest of all
Florentines, and the supply of means for it their com
mon duty. The decree establishing the poll tax to
which Vlflani refers was made in December, 1296, un
der the title of " Super impositione pro opere ecclesiae
See, Reparatse facienda." It provides, not, as Villani
states, for a uniform poll tax, but for a tax graduated
according to the property and family of the citizen.
It was still further ordered that every person making
a written will should bequeath a certain sum to the
work; the notary employed to draw the will was re-

the two were associated in their symbolic attributes in the fancy of the
Florentines. When, in their flourishing state, they laid the foundations
of their great church, they might read the words of Ecclesiasticus as if
addressed to themselves : " Florete flores quasi lilium et date odorem,
et frondete in gratiam, et collaudate canticum et benedicite Dominum
in operibus suis."
* The old name was long retained. It was not till 141 2 that the new
was substituted for it by a vote of the " Signori e Collegi."
t Giovanni Villani, Cronica, lib. viii. c. ix. Villani's dates are not al
ways to be trusted, even when he gives account of contemporary events.
An old inscription in the wall of the church, itself of uncertain date,
may be read in two ways, so as to give either 1296 or 1298 as the year
of the consecration of the corner-stone by the legate. The most trust
worthy Florentine antiquaries conclude from various evidence that the
ceremony took place in 1296.

ig2 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
quired to remind the testator of this obligation, and in
case of non-compliance with it the heirs were bound to
make good the omission. For the gatherlng-In of these
sums the bishop was empowered to employ two or
more of the clergy, without salary, in each district of
the Florentine territory. And, in order to quicken the
liberality of testators, special indulgences were to at
tach to bequests for the building, over and above " the
graces already conceded to the benefactors of the
work,"* The architect of the commune at this time was Ar
nolfo, the son of Cambio : a great artist of whose life
little is recorded, but whose works at Florence are his
sufficient memorial! He was busy with the construc
tion of Santa Croce when he was called upon to take
charge of the work on the Duomo. The old church
of Santa Reparata had been constructed in that beau
tiful style of which the Church of San Miniato was till
lately an exquisite example. Though this was a thor
oughly national and vigorous style, it was now giving
way before the foreign and intrusive modes of Gothic
art Arnolfo inherited from Niccola Pisano the love

* Gaye, Carteggio, i. 431.
t Vasari's life of Arnolfo di Lapo, as he miscalls him, is full of errors.
He was born near the middle of the thirteenth century, in the little
town of CoUe in the Val d' Elsa. It has been suggested, not without
reason, that he was the Arnolfo, the pupil of Niccola Pisano, who was
employed by his master on the pulpit for the Duomo of Siena. (See
ante, p. 121.) The impulse to the progress of the arts given by the
genius of Niccola would thus have been transmitted through a genius
hardly inferior to his own.

ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO. ^gn
of Gothic forms, and he had shown his preference for
them in the design of Santa Croce, His work was
doubtiess approved by the popular taste. Such Gothic
facades as those of Siena and Orvieto were indeed far
more brilliant and striking, far more impressive to the
uneducated taste, than the simple design and exquisite
incrustation of San Miniato or Santa Reparata. The
new style suited the new age, and Arnolfo undertook
to rebuild Santa Reparata into a church in which the
pointed should take the place of the round arch, the
stone vaulted roof should- be substituted for the flat
timber ceiling, and the facade should form a splendid
screen adorned with gable and pinnacle, rich with carv
ing, glowing wdth mosaics, and shining with gold.
The deserts of Arnolfo were recognized by Florence,
and in 1300, when the work on the Duomo was in
active progress, a decree was passed which exhibits
the mode taken by the commune for his recompense.
" Considering," says the decree, " that Master Arnol-
phus is the chief master of the labor and work of the
Church of the Blessed Reparata, the principal church
of Florence, and that he is a more famous master and
more expert in the building of churches than any one
else in neighboring parts, and that through his indus
try, skill, and wit the commune and people of Florence,
judging from the magnificent and visible beginning of
the said work of the aforesaid church, hope to have a
more beautiful and honorable temple than any other in
the region of Tuscany," therefore " the Priors of the
13

IQ4 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
Arts, and the standard-bearer of Justice, wishing to do
honor to the person of this master," after deliberation
and a vote by ballot, " have resolved and established
that the aforesaid Master Arnolphus, so long as he
shall live, shall be totally exempt and free from every
tax and cess of the commune of Florence."*
This decree is dated April i, 1300, The most sig
nificant date in the history of Florence lies within a
week of this day, the date of Dante's journey through
the three spiritual realms.! A little more than two
months afterwards, on the 15th of June, Dante entered
on his office as one of the priors of the city; and In
that priorate, he himself declared, all the ills and ca
lamities of his after-years had their occasion and be
ginning. |
The year 1300 was In truth a disastrous year for
Florence. The old party passions, quenched for a time,
but not extinguished, blazed up with new fury, and
wrapped the whole city in smoke and flame. The story
of this wretched time has been often written. The city
had never been so prosperous and so happy, says Vil
lani, but this year was the beginning of its ruin. Bitter
* Gaye, Carteggio, i.445.
t Whether this journey began on the supposed actual day of the
death of Christ, the 25th of March, or on Good Friday of 1300, the 8th
of April, or on the Jewish Passover, the 5th of April of the same year,
is doubtful and unimportant. See the note of Philalethes, Inferno,
canto xxi. V. 114.
X " Tutti Ii mali, e tutti gl' inconvenienti miei dagl' infausti comizii
del mio priorato ebbero cagione e principio." (Letter 'Cited by Leonar
do Bruni Aretino in his Vita di Dante, Firenze, 1672, p. 16.)

CIVIC DISCORD AND MISERY. jgr
and destructive as had been the quarrels of former
generations, they had brought less calamity to the city
than those which now made of its people Its own
worst enemies. The people seemed to have gone mad.
Things went from bad to worse. Dino Compagni,
who witnessed and had share in the events of the
period, has described them in his brief chronicle with
the moving eloquence of an upright clear-minded man,
saddened by the misery he had witnessed and been
unable to prevent* " In these deeds of ill," he says,
"many became great who before had had no name,"
many citizens were driven into exile, many houses
ruined. No one was safe ; neither relationship nor
friendship availed aught Friends became enemies,
brothers deserted each other, the son fell away from
the father; all love and humanity were extinct; great
riches were wasted ; trust pity, pardon, were In no one
to be found. Who cried loudest Let the traitors die !
he was the greatest Many a palace was burned and
sacked within the city; many a village burned and
many a field wasted in the territory that lay round
about Falsehood, perjury, robbery, murder, and all
* Within late years the authenticity of the Chronicle of Dino Com
pagni has been vigorously impugned by both German and Italian crit
ics. It is a work which, if genuine, is of such extraordinary interest,
and which in style of narration and quality of character holds so ex
ceptional a place, that to have to regard it as a forgery of a later
century would be matter for serious regret. The question is not yet
authoritatively settled. I am inclined to believe that the chronicle as
we now have it is in great part genuine, but that it was worked over,
added to, and its integrity impaired by an anonymous writer of a com
paratively late period.

196 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
crimes of violence and treachery made every man
afraid. " Rise up, ye evil citizens," exclaims the chron
icler ; " take fire and flame in your hands, and spread
wide your wicked deeds. Go, bring to ruin the beauty
of your city. Shed the blood of your brothers; strip
yourselves bare of faith and love, refuse aid and ser
vice one to another. Scatter the seed of lies tiU they
shall fill the granaries of your children. But do ye
believe that the justice of God has failed ? Even
that of this world rendereth one for one. Delay not
ye wretches. One day of war consumeth more than
many years of peace can gain, and there needs but
a little spark to bring a great city to destruction."*
On the 4th of November, 1301, the feeble, cruel, and
treacherous Charles of Valois, commissioned by Pope
Boniface VIII. to restore peace to the city, entered
Florence. His doings served but to make things worse,
and to gain for him there, says Dante, "sin and shame."!
But In the stress of storm and confusion, the order of
civil life was not wholly broken up. Though troubles
come and endure, yet must men eat drink, and labor.
Morning and evening, summer and winter, recur in
their order, with their appointed tasks and their famil
iar gifts. The nature and the desires of men undergo
no sudden change ; old interests remain alive to strug-
* " Piii si consuma in uno di nella guerra, che molt' anni non si gua-
dagni in pace." Cronica, lib. ii.
t Purgatorio, xx. 76 :
" Quindi non terra, ma peccato ed onta
Guadagnera."

EVENTS OF ijoi AND ijo2. igy
gle with new passions. All parties in the strifes of
those dark days, however otherwise they might be di
vided, were united at least in common faith in the doc
trines of that religion of which the visible Church was
the minister ; and thus, on the 24th of November, twen
ty days after the entry of Charles of Valois — nick
named Carlo Senzaterra, Charles Lackland — when he
was extorting money from the rich by treachery and
threats, and amusing himself with the sight of palaces
ablaze, and while the government of the city was pow
erless to prevent or redress the wrongs hourly commit
ted, the signory, still mindful of the work the commune
had undertaken for its glory, voted the large subsidy
for the fabric of the Duomo of eight thousand lire for
two years.*
Two months later, on the 27th of January, 1302,
Cante dei Gabrielli, Podesta of Florence, a tool in the
hands of the ruling faction, condemned Dante, on the
ground of malversation during his term of office as one
of the priors, to a fine of five thousand florins. Dante
was absent from Florence as one of her envoys to Bon
iface VIII. in Rome, but his sentence ran that unless
the fine were paid within three days all his possessions
should be laid waste, and then be confiscated to the
benefit of the commune : " omnia bona talis non sol-
* Gaye, Carteggio, i. 447. Dino Compagni describes the events of
this time with vigorous and picturesque strokes : " Quando una casa
ardea forte, messer Carlo domandava, ' Che fuoco e quello ?' eragli ri
sposto che era una capanna, quando era uno ricco palazzo."

Iq8 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
ventis publlcentur, vastentur, et destruantur, et vastate
et destructa remaneant In communi." Building with
one hand, destroying with the other, was the rule.
Should the fine be paid within the allotted time, still
Dante was to remain for two years in banishment On
the loth of March he was proclaimed as in contumacy
to the State, and condemned, should he ever fall into
the power of the commune, to be burned to death:
"igne comburatur sic quod morlatur."*
The answer of Dante to this sentence is in the words
with which he begins one of the latest cantos of the
Divine Comedy:
" If e'er it happen that the Poem Sacred,
To which both Heaven and earth have set their hand,
So that it many a year hath made me lean,
O'ercome the cruelty that bars me out
From the fair sheepfold where a lamb I slumbered.
An enemy to the wolves that war upon it.
With other voice forthwith, with other fleece.
Poet will I return, and at my font
Baptismal will I take the laurel crown.''
But he was never again to pass the sacred threshold
of his beautiful St John, nor again to see the rising
walls of the cathedral, to which popular tradition has
attached the memory of his Interest, still pointing out
the spot whence he was wont to watch the laying of
their deep foundations and the lifting of their massive
stones. * The text of the decrees against Dante may be found in Fraticelli,
Storia della Vita di Dante Alighieri, Firenze, 1861, pp. 147 seq. The
originals may still be seen In the Florentine archives.

BUILDINGS OF ARNOLFO. ign
The records of the work during the next few years
are scanty. In 1310 Arnolfo died, and, irreparable as
was the loss of such genius as his, he had yet lived
long enough to leave the building so far advanced that
his successors in office would find little difficulty in
continuing the main parts of the construction accord
ing to his design. During his many years of service
as architect of the commune, Arnolfo had set his stamp
Ineffaceably upon the aspect of the city, giving to it
many of the most striking features by which It is still
adorned. The Palace of the SIg'nory (the old palace,
as it Is called), the Palace of the BargeUo, each with
Its aspiring belfry, now surmounting all other towers
of the city ; the vast pile of Santa Croce, the still vaster
pile of the Duomo — of all of which the first design, and
in great part the construction, were his — remain unsur
passed by later buildings, with a single exception ; and,
in the midst of more modern edifices preserving their
ancient character, they give proof of the marvellous en
ergy of the republic, and the not less marvellous gifts
of the artist by whom she was served. Arnolfo had
also overseen the beginnings of the great new circuit
of turreted and battlemented wall that was to enclose
and defend the city, and which stood as a picturesque
and impressive memorial of the conditions of mediceval
life till, but a few years ago, it was swept away to give
place to what are called modern improvements.
Recent generations have so relentlessly waged war
against the picturesqueness of mediaeval cities that it is

200 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
difficult for the fancy to reproduce the full effect of the
aspect of Florence at the beginning of the fourteenth
century. In every street rose stronghold palaces, built
for the needs of war as well as of peace, flanked by
lofty towers, the shape of whose battlements gave sign
to which of the great parties, Guelf or Ghibelline, their
possessors owed allegiance.* The number of the tow
ers of Florence was to be reckoned by hundreds. The
Florentine masons had inherited the old Roman art of
solid building. They knew how to lay stones so that
they should lie as firm in wall or buttress as they had
lain in their native beds.! Adjoining the palaces of
the chief families was a loggia, or covered portico or
arcade, where the rich and noble were wont to cele
brate those ceremonies in which the common people —
the popolo minuto — had a share of interest, or at which
* The merlons of the Guelf battlements were square, those of the
Ghibelline were "a coda di rondine," that is, in shape like the letter M.
t Palaces and towers were built with a double wall of cut stone, of
blocks of uniform thickness. The space between the sections of the
wall was filled in with a concrete of lime and pebbles, by which the
whole was bound together in a solid mass. The towers were usually
square ; few were less than one hundred feet, many were more than two
hundred feet, in height. They were entered by a small door opening
directly upon the narrow staircase which filled their whole interior
space. Here and there a passage in the wall led to a loop-hole, or to
a door by which the defenders of the tower, if assailed, might pass out
at a safe height on to a movable platform supported by brackets of
stone, many of which may even now be seen in the truncated remains
of these old monuments of the fights and feuds of those passionate
days that were the discipline of Florentine character and the training
of her art. See Passerini's note in Ademollo's Marietta de' Ricci,
Firenze, 1845, vol. ii. p. 735. The notes to this elaborate historical
romance in six volumes octavo, contain an immense amount of infor
mation concerning Florence not easily found elsewhere.

WALL OF THE CITY. 201
their presence as witnesses was desirable. Here mar
riage contracts were signed, here festivals for public
honors were held, and here victories over domestic or
foreign enemies were celebrated with feasts and rejoic
ings. Tower and loggia were the signs of dignity, pow
er, and wealth, and were objects of special pride and
jealous care to the members and retainers of the house
to whose greatness they bore testimony. The gates of
the city, new-built by Arnolfo, were so many fortresses ;
and the strong wall now extending its defence around
the town was furnished, " for beauty as well as for
strength," with towers, at a distance of less than four
hundred feet one from another, no one of them less
than twenty-five feet square or than seventy-five feet
In height, and many much larger and higher. " And
in order," says Giovanni Villani, " that the memory of
the greatness of this city may last forever, and for the
sake of those people who have not been at Florence
and may see this chronicle, we will describe in order
the construction of this wall, and the measures of it as
they were diligently measured at our instance, we, the
writer, being the officer of the commune to superin
tend the walls." * From the account he gives, it would
seem that there must have been more than two hun
dred of these towers on the circuit of the walls. The
walls themselves were nearly forty feet in height and
more than six feet in thickness ; and their construc
tion, begun in 1284 and completed, in spite of many
* Cronica, lib. ix. capp. cclvi. cclvii.

202 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
periods of interruption in their progress, in 1327, is one
of the many proofs of the vigor and riches of the city
at this time. For two hundred years the towers kept
watch and ward around Florence ; but in the days of
her decline and misery, when Pope Clement VII. was
her master, they were thrown down, that the city might
be put in order of defence against the artillery of the
Emperor Charles V. " Within these walls," says Vil
lani, writing in 1324, "there are, w'hat with cathedral
and abbeys and monasteries and other chapels, at least
a hundred churches, and close by every door there is
a church, a convent, or a hospital. And now we will
leave the description of the city of Florence, for we
have said enough of it and will return to our subject."
It is probable that even before Arnolfo's death, in
1 3 10, the means for the building of the Duomo had
fallen off, owing to the confusions and disasters of the
first years of the century. Besides the usual calami
ties and destructions of civic warfare, Florence had suf
fered in 1304 from a conflagration more terrible and
wasteful than she had ever before experienced. In the
heat of a most embittered fight betvi^een the factions
that divided the State, one of the partisans, a priest
Neri Abati by name, a man of lewd and dissolute life,
set fire to two houses near the Mercato Vecchio, the
most crowded part of the city. A high wind was blow
ing from the north ; the flames soon got beyond control,
and, spreading fast wrapped possessions and palaces of
both parties in common destruction. " In fine," says

TROUBLES IN FLORENCE. 203
Villani, with pathetic simplicity, " the fire burned all
the marrow and core and dear places of the city of
Florence, and the number of them, between palaces,
towers, and houses, was seventeen hundred. The loss
of furniture, treasure, and merchandise was Infinite, for
in those places were almost all the merchandise and
precious things of Florence; and that which was not
burned was carried off by thieves, for the fighting was
still going on through the city ; so that many trading
companies and many families were stripped and made
poor by the burning and the robbery. This calamity
happened to our city on the loth of June."
Though the fire had destroyed the core of the city,
it had not killed the worm that had so long been gnaw
ing at it The flames were but the type of the more
malignant fires of rancorous jealousy and hate, of party
and personal passion, which wasted the energies and
consumed the strength of great and small, of noble and
workman alike. Civil anarchy was followed by war
abroad, war abroad by new domestic discords. There
was httle spirit for works that the needs of the time
did not immediately require. Private fortunes demand
ed repair. A new generation had arisen since the ca
thedral was begun — a generation with less zeal for its
construction than that by which it had been under
taken; and after the death of Arnolfo the work came
almost to a stop. At length. In 13 18, through the wise
efforts of a stranger, Count Guido di BattlfoUe, vicar of
King Robert the Good of Naples, a new and better

2QA FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
order was established both in public and in private af
fairs. Quiet was restored to the city, and prosperity
began to return with peace. Old quarrels were made
up, old enmities appeased. Works of Improvement
were taken In hand, and the cathedral was no longer
neglected. A decree was passed assigning for the term
of five years a fifth of all sums paid to the chamberlain
of the commune, for the benefit of the fabric of the Du
omo, which, In the words of the decree, " had for some
time past made slow progress, nay, had been almost
given up through want of money."*
This new supply of funds, and such other supplies
as the piety of the people may have ministered, at once
produced great activity. The superintendents of the
works (offitiales presidentes) presented a petition to the
signory, stating that a large quantity of marble had
been bought by them at Carrara, that they had In
creased the number of master workmen on the build
ing (" ut in eodem opere plus solito laborent "), and
praying that the commune would, according to its wont
(" more solito "), " extend the helping hand," and would
assign one third of the revenues of the " office of the
sin of heresy " in aid of the work.! The petition was
granted. After this sign of. life and activity, there is again a
* "Quae a tempore citra lente processit, immo quasi derelicta est
propter defectum pecuniae." Gaye, Carteggio, i. 452.
t The revenues of "the office of the sin of heresy'' were probably
derived from fines and confiscations of the property of condemned
heretics. The petition is in Gaye, Carteggio, i. 455.

CASTRUCCIO CASTRACANI. 205
wide gap in the records of the Duomo, In 1320
began the most disastrous war in which Florence was
ever engaged. Her enemy was Castruccio Castracani,
Lord of Lucca, who by his energy and extraordinary
ability had raised himself to the head of the Ghibelline
party in Tuscany, and from this time till his death,
in 1328, waged unremitting and relentless war against
Florence and her Guelf allies. A soldier trained by
years of service in France, England, and Lombardy,
embittered against his enemies by experience of ex
ile and wrong at their hands ; a man of popular arts,
but of stern temper, strict in his sense of his own and
others' rights,* full of resource, acquainted with men,
and knowing how to rule them, of large ambition and
of steady mind — he succeeded, during his long strug
gle with Florence, notwithstanding her superior re
sources of wealth and of men, in defeating her armies,
in wasting her territory, and in subjecting her to the
bitterest humlhations.!
The war told with disastrous effect on the trade and
the prosperity of the city. Her merchants became un
able to fulfil their agreements, and In the summer of
1326 there were many commercial failures, the chief
among them being that of the great banking-house of
the Scali and Amieri and the brothers Petri, which
claimed an existence of more than one hundred and
* "Homo probissimus et legalis ultra quam did possit." Chron. Re-
giense. Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, tom. xviii. col. 40.
t " Et tunc (1325) Castrucius equitavit super districtu Florentiae ad
sui libitum depraedando, et comburendo omnia." Id. col. 36.

2o6 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
twenty years, and which was indebted to domestic and
foreign creditors for the enormous sum of more than
four hundred thousand florins — an amount to be meas
ured by the fact that It was not far from that of the or
dinary revenue of the Stlte for two years and a half.
It was a terrible blow to Florence ; for, says Villani,
" every man who had money lost with them, and many
other good companies in Florence were held in sus
picion, on account of this failure, to their great harm."
One event that took place in the next year is too
characteristic of the spirit of the times to be left un-
mentioned. This was the burning as a heretic of mas
ter Cecco d' Ascoli, one of the most learned and en
lightened men of his age, who, in spite of his sharing
in the wide-spread belief in the influence of the stars
upon human fate and fortune, and his profession of
the science of astrology, which he had taught in the
university at Bologna, shows himself in his works as
an original investigator of nature, and as a man of
elevated sentiment His poem entitled Z' Acerba Is,
indeed, rather the work of a student than a poet,
treating in encyclopaedic fashion of the material and
moral world. It was no poem of vain imaginings, such
as that of Dante —
" Qui non si canta al modo del poeta
Che finge imaginando cose vane
:f: :is * ^ *
Le favole mi son sempre nemiche."
He was an old man — seventy years old — when he was

DEATH OF CASTRUCCIO. 207
burned ; and there is hardly to be found a more strik
ing record of party passion and of superstition than that
which, beginning with the condemnation of Dante to the
flames, ends with the death by fire of one of the most
worthy of his contemporaries. That Cecco met his
death manfully may be believed from the testimony of
his own verse. In which he says, " I have had fear of
three things : to be of a poor and mendicant spirit ; to
do harm and to give displeasure to others ; and through
my own fault to lose a friend." *
The war went on with various fortune, but with ht
tle check of Castruccio's rising power. In 1328 he was
lord of Pisa, Lucca, and Pistoia, and of three hundred
castles and fortified places ; he was master of great
part of the seaboard south of Genoa, and held rule over
wide territory. He was planning new victories when.
In the summer of this year, he fell Ifl. On the 3d of
September he died. Florence was safe, relieved from
the most dangerous external foe that ever threatened
her, for the fabric of Castruccio's power was supported
by his mighty hand alone, and, that support withdrawn,
it fell with a crash to the ground. Throughout the
whole period of her adversity, Florence had been sus
tained by the thought which the historian Ammirato
calls " the general comfort of republics," that she was
In a certain way eternal, not depending on the life of
any individual, and able to endure great shocks wlth-
* G. Villani, lib. x. cap. xl. Libri, Histoire des Sciences Mathematiques
en Italic, tome ii. pp. 191-200.

2o8 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
out ruin ; while the power of a prince, depending on
himself alone, was subject to the chance of evil fortune
and of death.* The reflection is a just one as drawn
from the experience of Italy in this age, when tyrant
after tyrant rose by force of personal qualities into
sudden power, which was shattered as suddenly by
his death.
Relieved from war, Florence set to work to reform
her government. Reverting to her old democratic sys
tem, changes of great significance were introduced into
its forms, with the Intent to remedy some of the defects
that experience had shown In it, and with especial aim
to securing greater stability of administration, to ex
cluding unfit persons from ofiice, and to estabhshing
the power of " the party," which was the title now arro
gated by the Guelfs. The bitter Irony of Dante's re
proach ! of his fellow-citizens on their frequent change
of laws w-as indeed deserved, but their fickleness may
be regarded in another light as an indication of their
very intelligence and eager quest of good. They were

* Scipione Ammirato, Istorie Fiorentine, Firenze, 1824, tomo iii. lib.
vii. p. 8.
t " Athens and Lacedaemon, they who made
The ancient laws and were so civilized.
Made towards living well a little sign
Compared with thee, who makest such fine-spun
Provisions that to middle of November
Reaches not what thou in October spinnest.
How oft, within the time of thy remembrance.
Laws, money, offices, and usages
Hast thou remodelled, and renewed thy members?"
Purgatory, vi. 139-147. (Longfellow's Translation.)

FAMINE AT FLORENCE. 209
at the beginning of the long series of experiments, not
yet near its conclusion, to determine the limits and re
lations of law and liberty, the proper functions of gov
ernment, the rights of the individual in society. The
Florentines, forming the most civilized and intelligent
popular community in existence, were trying to dis
cover the modes by which they might secure the bless
ings of good order, prosperity, and strength. Many of
their attempts were childish ; they were impatient
they made many mistakes ; and as in all republics, so
here were many who preferred their personal interests
to those of the State, The conflict between private
selfishness and the public good was sharp, constant,
and often disastrous.
Though Castruccio had failed to become master of
the city, he had wrought desolation around her ; and the
year after his death she, in common with the greater
part of Tuscany, suffered from a distressing famine.
The price of grain rose to triple and quadruple its
usual level. There was great misery among the poor.
Perugia, Siena, Lucca, Pistoia, pitilessly drove the des
titute beggars from their gates. But Florence, with
wise counsel and good foresight " in piety towards
God," opened her gates to all, and, sending at public
cost for shiploads of grain to Sicily, kept the market
supplied with it at a low rate. But this did not suffice
to relieve the suffering, and therefore at length the
commune, withdrawing the grain from market, em
ployed all the bakeries to bake for the public use, and
14

2IO FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
sold the bread every day at a price much below its
cost " The commune of Florence," said Villani, " lost
in these two years " (for the famine, beginning In 1328,
lasted Into the year 1330) "more than sixty thousand
florins of gold in the support of the people," "And
though I, the writer, was not worthy of so great an of
fice, I found myself officer of the commune, with others,
in this bitter time ; and, by the grace of God, we were
inventors of this remedy and method whereby the peo
ple were kept quiet, and violence was prevented, and
the poor folk made content, without scandal or uproar.
And further let this witness to the truth that nowhere
else were such alms ministered to the poor, by power
ful and compassionate citizens, as during this unwont
ed famine were ministered by the good Florentines;
wherefore I firmly reckon and believe that, for the sake
of the said alms and provision made for the poor, God
has guarded, and will guard, our city from great ad
versities." *
Even during the last ten years, strained as the pub
lic resources had been, private luxury seems to have
met with no serious check, while the effeminate refine
ments of fashion, le morbidezze d' Egitto, of which Boc
caccio complains, had increased to a degree that In
dicates a decline in the moral temper and ideals of the
people. The worst calamity attending a long-protract
ed stress of war in a narrow community is the break-
ing-up of the orderly habits of society, while the influ-
* Cronica, lib. x. cap. cxviii.

CHARGE OF DUOMO GIVEN TO THE ART OF WOOL. 3 1 1
ence of its keen excitements leads to the adoption of
irregular and extravagant modes of life.
The war with Castruccio had so diminished the
revenue of the commonwealth that some years passed
after its close before Florence felt able to go on with
the long - interrupted work upon her Duomo. At
length, in 1331, a year of great abundance and prosper
ity, the commune resolved to take the building once
more in hand. A portion of the taxes was assigned to
the work, and the charge of it was committed to the
Art of Wool ; * that is, to the corporation of the dealers
in wool, the richest and most powerful of the Arts of
Florence. It was no new thing to intrust the super
intendence of a public work to one of the Arts. Not
only the building, but the charge and maintenance of
churches, hospitals, and prisons were committed to
them.! For the heads of the Arts — consuls, rectors,
or captains, as they might be called — were men elect
ed by the body of the Art to manage its affairs, and
being chosen by those who knew them well, might be
trusted as of approved capacity and Integrity, trained
to business, and accustomed to the conduct of large
* Villani, Cronica, lib. x. cap. cxcii. In the decree making these provi
sions, the church was spoken of as having been begun " tam formosa
et pulcra, sed remansit iam est longum tempus et est absque hedifica-
tione aliqua.'' See Cavalucci, Cenni Storici sulla Edijicazione della Cat-
tedrale Fiorentina, Firenze, 1871. An ancient inscription inserted in
the wall of the Duomo records the intrusting of the work to the Art
of Wool.
t Ammirato, Istorie Fiorentine, lib. iv. ann. 1293, 1294 ; Paolini, Della
Legitima Liberta del Commercio, tomo i. nota 64 ; Gaye, Carteggio, i. 532,
12 Jun. 1388.

212 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
undertakings. A natural spirit of emulation among the
Arts led them to take pride in the honorable fulfilment
of such trusts, and enlisted the personal interest of each
member in the mode of their discharge. It was an ad
mirable method for securing the best public servants,
and for keeping them under the constant supervision
of a vigorous, sensitive, and Intelligent public opinion.
Florence was the first city of modern times thus to take
advantage of the power that resides in the free but or
ganized opinion of a well-ordered community.
It was long since the most precious building in Flor
ence, its ancient baptistery — Dante's " my beautiful St
John " — had been thus intrusted to the Art of Calima
la, or foreign wool merchants.* St John Baptist was
the special patron of Christian Florence ; the city was
his sheepfold (" ovil di San Giovanni "), and in his church
all her children gained entrance to the kingdom of
Christ. Cacclaguida tells the story of every Florentine
when he says to Dante,
"And in your ancient baptistery, at once
Christian and Cacciaguida I was made."t
* The origin and etymology of the name Calimala are uncertain.
The members of this Art found their gain in purchasing the rough
cloths of Flanders, France, and England, and sending them in bales to
Florence, to be sheared, dyed, and finished, and thence exported to all
parts of Europe and to many parts of the East. The traffic was on
a great scale, and for a long period was one of the chief sources of the
commercial prosperity of the city.
The statute of this Art, as revised in 1337, is to be found in the third
volume of Emiliani-Giudici's Storia dei Comuni ItaUani, Firenze, 1866;
and from it may be gained exact knowledge of the modes of superin
tendence by the Art of the public works intrusted to its charge.
t " My whole history of Christian architecture and painting begins

STATUTE OF THE ART OF CALIMALA. 2n
The third book of the statute of the Art of Calimala
begins with the following rubric : " In the name of God,
Amen. To the honor of the omnipotent God, and of his
Mother, and of the blessed messer St John Baptist and
of messer St Eusebius, and of messer St Minlatus (San
Miniato), and the other saints of Paradise, here below
are writ the rules that relate to the work (opera)* of
St John, that of San Miniato aforesaid, and of the hos
pital or house of St James at St Eusebius's, ruled and
governed under the ancient and modern defence and
firm guardianship of the praiseworthy Art and univer
sity of the consuls and merchants of the Art of Cali
mala in the city of Florence." Following this rubric
come the chapters of the statute concerning the chari
ties to which the Art was held bound. Among others,
every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning the
vice-operaio of St. John, who was to be " a good, dis
creet and trustworthy layman, of sound body, of good
report and condition, and of upright life," was to dis
tribute in the church twenty dozen loaves of bread. In
addition, two good men, appointed for a six months'
term of service, were every week to give alms to the
shamefaced poor (" poveri vergognosi ") in the shape of
grain sufficient for thirty dozen loaves. This grain was
with this baptistery of Florence, and with its associated cathedral," says
Mr. Ruskin, in his Ariadne Fiorentina, p. 59.
* The " opera," used to denote the official board of works. The chief
officer was the operarius or operajo ; he administered the funds of the
opera, was responsible for contracts made in its name, and had the gen
eral oversight of the execution of the works undertaken by it.

2 1 A FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
to be supplied from the funds of the opera, and the two
agents of the Art were required to give the said alms
in company, after diligent inquisition into the condition
of the poor and needy of the different sections of the
city and district of Florence.
The Feast of St. John Baptist, on the 24th of June,
was the chief religious festival of Florence, and was
celebrated with special solemnity and splendor. Every
year, fifteen days before the feast, proclamation was
made through the city that all those who in past time
had been accustomed to make offering on St John's
Day should be ready with their offerings as usual. On
the evening of the vigil of the feast the whole city was
astir. The Podesta and the Captain of the People with
their attendants, the consuls, notaries, and chamberlain
of the Art of Calimala, accompanied by the chief and
best men from each warehouse and shop of the guild,
together with the consuls of all the other Arts, went In
solemn procession to the church, every man bearing a
candle of prescribed weight to be offered at the altar
for the fabric and adornment of the edifice. The pro
cession, representing the dignity and wealth of the city,
was increased by deputations from the villages and
towns of the territory of the State, each under Its re
spective banner, and by the nobles, who came from their
outlying castles and strongholds, with bands of retain
ers, to add their offerings to those of the citizens, and
to manifest their devotion to the saint Two merchants
of the Calimala were deputed to receive the offerings.

SOURCES OF INCOME OF THE OPERA. 215
to keep a list of the places represented and the persons
present at the altar, and, in case of the absence of any
of those accustomed to make offering, to take measures
that the default should afterwards be made good. (Arts.
v. x. xxvii.) The offering was regarded as a debt, and
the whole transaction was conducted on a basis of es
tablished rules. It was provided, moreover, by the
statute of the commune that a portion of the salaries
of the Podesta and the Captain of the People should be
annually set aside for the work. Another source of in
come, however small, arose from the custom of release
by the commune of a certain number of criminals an
nually on St. John's Day, who were presented at the
altar of his church, their pardon being thus granted not
only as an act of mercy pleasing to the saint but also
as involving a pledge on their part thenceforth to live
without offence, for which the most sacred sanction
was required. Every criminal thus released and pre
sented at the altar was obliged to make an offering of
six pence (sei danari) for the use of the church.* (Art.
* This excellent custom prevailed in many of the Italian states. But
in different cities criminals were presented at the altars of diflierent
saints. See ante, p. 134, for the usage in Siena. There is a sonnet by
Guido Orlandi, a contemporary of Dante, in which, speaking of Dante's
own party in the State, he says, for them —
" No pardon can be claimed.
Excepting they be offered to St. John."
And these words are striking because this was the very condition at
tached to that recall to Florence which Dante received with the other
exiles in 1316, and which he rejected with the noblest scorn. There is
not a manlier voice to be heard than Dante's in the letter in which he
refuses terms which would imply that he was guilty towards his coun-

2i6 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
xxvii.) Many were the bequests of the pious, and most
careful provision was made in the statute for the proper
administration of the houses and lands that might thus
come into possession of the opera.
Two of the best merchants of the Art were annually
appointed by the consuls under the title of Officers of
the Mosaic Work of St John Baptist (" Ofiiciali dell'
Opera Moyse di santo Giovanni Battista "), whose
duty it was to provide for the doing of whatever In the
way of building, repair, or ornament might appear to
them for the good and honor of the fabric* The
try : " If Florence is not to be entered by the way of honor, I will never
enter it." " Quidne ? Nonne soils astrorumque specula ubique conspi-
ciam ? Nonne dulcissimas veritates potero speculare ubique sub coelo,
ni prius inglorium, immo ignominiosum populo, Florentinaeque civitati
me reddam ? Quippe nee panis deficiet." This offer of recall came to
Dante at the court of Can Grande at Verona. Many of his companions
in exile submitted to its ignominious terms, and on St. John's Day, the
24th of June, 1317, the Tosinghi, the Manelli, the Rinucci, and others
walked as criminals and penitents in the procession, with mitres as the
mark of their infamy upon their heads, with candles in their hands,
and being presented at the altar, and having made the due offering,
were relieved from the penalties that had been pronounced against
them. This is said to have been the first time at which persons con
demned for political offences were thus freed from punishment.
* These officers derived their name from the mosaics with which
the tribune and cupola of the church were encrusted, and which were
the principal works of the kind in Florence. The earliest of them were
designed and executed, as an inscription in the mosaic reports, by a
Franciscan friar, Fra Jacopo byname, in 1225, and they still remain, al
most as perfect as when first set in place, interesting and instructive
memorials of the practice of the arts at that date in Florence, and of the
types of representation of sacred subjects, derived mainly from Byzan
tine tradition. See Vasari, Vita di Andrea Tafi, and the commentary on
the Life of Tafi, vol. i. p. 287, in the Le Monnier edition of Vasari's Lives,
Firenze, 1846. The inscription referred to closes with these verses :
" Sancti Francisci frater fuit hoc operatus
Jacobus in tali pre cunctis arte probatus."

DUTIES OF THE ART. 217
work was to be " the best and most beautiful that can
be done, for the honor of God and the blessed St John."
(Art xii.) Two good men were also appointed each
year to have charge of the banners which were hung
within the church, as well as of the triumphant carroc
cio, or car of vs^ar, of Florence, which was under the
especial protection and guardianship of St John Bap
tist They were to see to maintaining the carroccio in
good order, with all its due appurtenances, and were to
provide a suitable place for its safe-keeping. Its masts
only being kept within the church itself. (Art xxii.)
The sentiment which the carroccio inspired, and the
honor done to It as the symbol of the warlike power of
the free commune, are well indicated by these provi
sions. To the Florentines the car and its banner were
sacred ; to defend it at all hazards was the highest duty,
to die for its safety was the noblest sacrifice to the
genius of the dear and reverend city, for which no sac
rifice could be too costly.
As a portion of their duty as guardians of the Church
of St John, and trustees of its property, with that of
the other institutions of religion and charity committed
to their charge, the Art of Calimala undertook to de
fend It against the encroachments of the clergy, who, it
would appear from numerous provisions, set up claims
or sought to obtain papal privileges or concessions in
terfering with the rights of the Art The consuls of
the Art were instructed to resist such pretensions by
every means in their power, and, if need arose, were au-

2i8 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
thorlzed to spend a thousand marks of the money of
the Art, or more if they saw fit, to secure " that the said
works should remain free and quiet under their guard
and protection." And In order that the rights of the
said works may be preserved entire, " the consuls shall
be represented by a procurator at the Court of Rome,
who shall zealously appear In audience to oppose who
ever may attempt to obtain any brief or privilege con
trary to these rights." (Art. xvii.) It was still further
ordered that the consuls of the Art should summon
before them the chief and best men of the following
companies of merchants, namely, the Bardi, Peruzzi,
Acciaiuoli, Bonacorsi, BIhottI,* and all others that have
dealings In the Court of Rome ; and should order each,
under oath, and under fitting penalty, without fail to
see to it that the partners of their companies who dwell
in and follow the Court of Rome studiously adopt the
needful measures with their friends that the church
and board of works of St John Baptist may be exempt
and free from every impost procuration, or levy of what
ever nature of the clergy of Florence ; " and that mes
ser the Bishop of Florence, or the clergy of the cathe
dral church of Florence, or any one else, whether In
their name, or his own, or that of any other person,
* The Bardi, the Peruzzi, and the Acciaiuoli were at this time the
leading bankers of Europe. Their establishments were very numerous,
and their affairs as brokers and money-lenders on a vast scale. Their
wealth and credit gave them great power. They received the papal
dues in all parts of Europe, transmitting them through their branch
houses to the head firms in Florence and in Rome.

FURTHER PROVISIONS OF THE STATUTE. 219
shall In nowise intermeddle with or interfere in any
matter concerning the said church or opera, except in
so far as permitted by the consuls of the merchants of
Calimala, and the other men of the said Art under
whose guard and protection the said church and opera
are directed, maintained, and governed with pure faith."
" And the said consuls are further required, every
year. In the month of January, to elect and depute four
of the best and most sensible merchants of Calimala,
with every general and special pov^^er and authority, to
inquire, discourse, treat and arrange with all and sin
gular men, persons, nobles, places, congregations, and
communities of whatever condition or dignity they may
be, how and by what way, mode, and order the opera
and the Church of St John may be best maintained in
honor, beautiful, free, and exempt, and be watched over,
in perpetuo, honorably, to the reverence of Almighty
God, and of his Mother, and of the said St. John, and to
the good state of the commune of Florence and of the
most pure Art of the merchants of Calimala." (Art.
xxiv.) Similar provisions to those of this statute in regard
to the administration of the trust reposed in the Art by
the commune undoubtedly existed in those of the other
chief Arts, The share that the Arts thus took in the
erection, decoration, and preservation of the sacred and
beautiful buildings of the city trained and disciplined
the perceptions of the citizens, and quickened their
sympathies for the works of their artists and artisans.

2 20 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
Every new structure became a school of the eye and
the taste of the Florentines, and the effect was to make
them competent in judgment and quick in interest In
matters of art as no other modern community has been,
while " the chief and best merchants " formed a body
of patrons and employers of artists unmatched in intel
ligence except by the merchant nobles of Venice. No
wonder that the fine arts flourished under such condi
tions, and that the city secured for three centuries such
expression of her sentiment, her creed, and her life as
no other city ever enjoyed for an equal length of time.
The Art of Wool, on receiving charge of the struct
ure of the Duomo, at once proceeded to make provision
for the work, ordering that in every warehouse and shop
of the craftsmen of Florence a box should be kept
wherein a certain sum — the pence of the Lord — should
be put on occasion of every sale or purchase. " In the
beginning," says Villani, " this amounted to two thou
sand lire a year."
The records of the work now undertaken on the
Duomo are lost but on the 12th of April, 1334, a vote
memorable in the history of the building was passed
by the magistracy of the republic, appointing the most
famous artist of all Italy, Giotto, chief master of the
work of the cathedral, and overseer of the construc
tion of the walls and of the other works of the com
mune ; since, so ran the preamble, " in the whole world
no one more competent for these and many other
things can be found than master Giotto di Bondone, of

GIOTTO MASTER OF THE WORKS. 221
Florence, painter, and to the end that he may be re
ceived in his own land as a great master, and one held
dear In the above-named State, and that he may have
reason for making his abode continually in it, by which
very many may profit from his knowledge and teach
ing, and no slight honor result to the city." * Florence
showed her wisdom in thus choosing the most original
and imaginative of her artists for the master of her
works. He justified her selection, and the judgment
of posterity has approved it A hundred years later,
Ghiberti, writing his Commentaries on Art, said, " Giot
to saw that in art whereto others had not attained ; he
brought nature into art, and grace therewith, not over
passing just limits. He was most skilful in every art.
He was the finder and discoverer of the great learn
ing that had lain buried for about six hundred years.
When nature has the will to concede anything, she con
cedes it without stint And this man abounded in all
things,"! Giotto gave himself to his new charge with the ef
fectual ardor of genius. No written record of his work
on the Duomo remains, but the walls themselves seem
to bear witness to It A stretch of wall on the north
and on the south, running eastward from the facade,
more beautiful in composition and design, more ex
quisite In its forms and in the pattern of the slabs of
* Gaye, Carteggio, i. 481.
t Secondo Commentario del Ghiberti. in Le Monnier's edition of Vasari,
vol. i. p. 18.

222 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
marble and serpentine with which It Is incrusted than
the later work joined to It, may be ascribed with fair
probability to the period of his oversight of the
building.* But Giotto's labor was not limited to the Duomo It
self. In spite of engagements on other work within
and without the city, he speedily designed and began
the construction of the most exquisite building of mod
ern times, the one in which the quality of classic art
is most completely and beautifully harmonized with the
spirit and fancy of the modern times — the unsurpassed
bell-tower of the Dudmo, known and admired by all
men as the Campanile of Giotto, the most splendid me
morial of the arts of Florence.
On the 1 8th of July, 1334, scarcely more than three
months after his appointment the foundations of the
campanile were laid with great pomp and religious
ceremony.! The tower so quickly begun was lifted vigorously,
* These pieces of wall include four windows and a door on each side.
They have the character of the Gothic — " quella maniera Tedesca," as
Vasari calls it — adopted by Giotto in other buildings. The proportions
of these windows and portals are more slender, their ornamentation is
richer and more refined, their gables are more pointed, than those of
the later work. They are also set closer together, between flat buttress
es nearer one to the other than in the rest of the building. Owing to
changes in the construction of the interior, the windows have been
blocked up within.
t Villani, Cronica, lib. xi. cap. xii. Vasari, in his Life of Giotto, gives an
interesting account of the masonry of the foundations, and of Giotto s
designs and models for the tower. He states that Giotto's salary from
the commune was one hundred golden florins annually. In the decree
appointing him, the amount of his salary is not fixed.

DEATH OF GIOTTO. 223
and It may have reached somewhat more than a third
of Its proposed height when. In January, 1337, Giotto,
"who in life," says Vasari, "had made so many and
such beautiful works, and had been not less good
Christian than excellent painter, gave back his soul to
God, to the great grief of ah his feUow- citizens, not
only of those who had known him, but also of those
who had only heard of him ; and he was buried, as his
virtues deserved, with honor, having been loved during
his life by every one, and especially by men excel
lent in all the arts," by Dante, for example, and by Pe
trarch. He was buried In Santa Maria del Fiore, on
the side nearest the campanile.
After his death there Is a wide gap in the annals of
the Duomo.* To his godson and pupil, the noted
painter Taddeo Gaddi, and to the sculptor Neri di FIo-
ravante, was intrusted the oversight of the work on the
campanile. But there Is no evidence concerning its
progress or as to the date of Its completion.!
The plague of 1348 desolated Florence only less
than Siena, Boccaccio, whose famous narrative gives
a most impressive picture of the horrors of the pestl-
* The design of the ornamental fagade which partially covered the
front of the building, and which was taken down in 1588, was long
ascribed by tradition to Giotto. But from documents first published
in 1863, by Signor Cesare Guasti, the keeper of the archives of the opera,
it seems certain that he had no hand in it, and that its execution was
not begun till at least twenty years after his death. See Guasti, Opus
coli di Belle Arti, Firenze, 1874; Della Facciata di S. Maria del Fiore,
pp. 45 seq.
t It was not finished in 1355, as appears from a vote of new sums for
its building. Gaye, Carteggio, i. 508.

2 24 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
lence, declares that between March and July more than
one hundred thousand persons, as is believed, died with
in the walls of Florence. The number may be exagger
ated, but the mortality was frightful In its amount and
terrible in its effect. The spring of vitality in Florence
was, however, unexhausted by It, and after a period of
confusion, dismay, depravity, and recklessness, the city
regained its self-control, and recovered more rapidly
than Its weaker neighbors from the blow which had
checked, but had not destroyed, the sources of its pros
perity.* The plague had been accompanied, as one of
its natural consequences, by a sudden outbreak of pious
superstition. Immense sums had been given and be
queathed by dying men to the Church and to public
charities to purchase salvation. And, when the reg
ular order of life was once more re - established, the
Church found itself richer than ever before, and there
was a general ardent desire to ward off by works of
piety the blows of future evil.
Moreover, as often happens after such calamities, the
reaction from the tension of anxiety and distress dis
played Itself in a changed habit of mind as well as of
life. To the survivors of the plague the world seemed
renewed ; the time had a fresh promise. The tales of
* One consequence of the plague has not been remarked as it de
serves by thehistorians. In the confusion that followed the extinction
of many important families and the enforced vacancy of many offices,
vast numbers of documents were lost or wantonly destroyed. To this
cause is doubtless due the dearth of records concerning the early his
tory of the Duomo.

NEW DESIGN FOR THE DUOMO. 225
the Decameron reveal the light-heartedness of Florence,
Old things had passed away ; old designs appeared un
suited to the new conditions. To such a spirit the
Duomo begun sixty years before, in days of compara
tive weakness, seemed hardly to correspond with the
demands of the more lavish and luxurious age. Flor
ence was more pre-eminent than ever among the cities
of Tuscany, and her Duomo ought to be representative
of her present power and wealth. Accordingly, and
doubtless after much deliberation, it was resolved, " out
of regard to the magnificence of the commune, and the
riches and the fame of the city and the citizens," to
adopt a new design for the Duomo on a grander scale
than that of the building planned by Arnolfo. The
breadth was to remain the same, perhaps in order to
preserve the beautiful side walls already constructed ;
but the walls were to be raised about twenty -one
feet the length was to be increased by more than a
third, and the central area and the eastern end of the
church were to be vastly enlarged. This change of de
sign required not only the destruction of the work
already done within the walls, but also the strengthen
ing of the foundations, and a doubling of the facade
wall* * This reconstruction of the Duomo has been generally overlooked
by the historians of the arts. The belief that the existing church is
constructed according to Arnolfo's original design rests upon the ac
count given by Vasari in his life of that artist. It is curious that Vasari
appears ignorant of this fourteenth-century remodelling. A passage
from the Istoria Fiorentina of Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, who died
in 1385, published by the Padre Ildefonso di San Luigi, in his Delizie
15

2 26 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
Francesco Talenti, sculptor and architect a man of
high capacity but of irregular habits, of whose life lit
tle is known, was the chief master of the works, having
succeeded the famous Andrea Pisano in that post and
to him was probably due in general the character of
the new design. The authorities in charge of the edi
fice took counsel in regard to its execution, according
to well-established custom, with the most sklhed mas
ters and the most Intelligent laymen, and submitted
the plans to popular inspection, publicly inviting criti
cism upon them.*
On the 19th of June, 1357, "in presence of the prov
ost, and all the canons and chaplains and friars, and
masters and citizens who had been of the council with
a great triumph of bells, of organs, and of chants, at
vespers, the digging for the foundation of the new piers
of the church was begun." And on the 5th of July
following, " the Bishop of Narni having blessed and con-
degli Eruditi Toscani, Firenze, 1 781, vol. xiv. p. 30, in which the chroni
cler describes the undertaking of the new building, seems to have lain
unnoticed. The true facts were first brought out by the Cavalier Ca
miUo Boito in a series of papers entitled Francesco Talenti : Ricerche
Storiche sul Duomo di Firenze dal 1294 al 1367. Milano, 1866. They
have since been repeated in a series of interesting communications on
the history of the Duomo, by Signor C. I. Cavalucci, which appeared at
Florence in the newspaper Zff Nazione in the course of 1871, under the
title of Cenni Storici sulla Edificazione della Cattedrale Fiorentina.
* It appears that only a general scheme of the reconstruction was
adopted, leaving the consideration of details until the time when in the
progress of the work a decision in regard to them might become nec
essary. This seems to have been a not infrequent mode of procedure
in the construction of the great mediaeval churches, and thus some of
the incongruities and irregularities apparent in them are to be ac
counted for.

CHANGE IN ARCHITECTURAL STYLE. 227
secrated a block of marble, on which were carved a cross
and the date of year and day, they began. In the name
of God, to lay the foundation of the first column within
the church towards the campanile," with great pomp
and sacred ceremony.
Thus the church that Arnolfo had designed gave
way to a mightier edifice which was to be the perma
nent expression of the pride and the piety of Flor
ence.* The main forms of the new building were in great
part determined by such portion of the old structure
of Giotto's time as was left standing, as well as by the
original scheme of Arnolfo. They were of the Gothic
.style as modified by Tuscan builders, but the spirit
that had vivified the art of Arnolfo and Giotto and
their immediate successors was declining with a grad
ual change in the taste of the age, which displays it
self in an Inclination, not yet clear or decisive, but in
its earliest stages, towards a recurrence to classical
* Probably all that remains of Arnolfo's building are the foundations
and part of the interior brickwork of the fagade, and of the side walls
for about one hundred and seventy-five feet eastward from the front.
As illustrative of the mode of procedure by popular counsel, it is re
corded that in 1357 the operai ordered that the drawing showing the
proposed changes in the fagade be hung upon it on the outside, that
all might see how it was to be built. Guasti, Opuscoli, p. 50. And in the
same year, when the form of the columns within the church was to be
decided, the model selected by the Board of Works was set up for in
spection, and at its foot was written in large letters that if any one
should have fault to find with it, he should within eight days come to
the operai, or to others in their place, and speak his mind, and he
should be graciously listened to. Cavalucci, Cenni Storici, ii. Boito,
Francesco Talenti. p. 30.

228 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
modes of design and construction. The new school of
artists were out of sympathy with their predecessors.
They had still less mastered the principles of Gothic
architecture. They imitated its forms, but were un
aware that the excellence of those forms was essen
tially dependent on the modes of construction in which
they had their origin. They built as Italians upon a
system and method whose traditions reached back to
Roman times. The result was neither good Gothic
nor good classic building.
Its size gives dignity to the church, and Its effect is
powerful from the simplicity and largeness of Its de
sign. A nave of four enormous bays is stopped upon a
vast octagonal space, from which, at the east, the north,
and the south, are built out three pentagonal tribunes
or apses, which, as seen on the outside, give to the
church the common cruciform shape. The propor
tions of the interior are on an enormous scale, by which
the apparent size of the building is diminished rather
than increased.* There is nothing either in the general
conception or in the working-out of the details which
corresponds with that principle, characteristic of the
best Northern Gothic, of complex organization In which
each minor part contributes to the vital unity of the
* "The most studious ingenuity," says Mr. Ruskin, with pardonable
exaggeration, " could not produce a design for the interior of a build
ing which should more completely hide its extent, and throw away
every common advantage of its magnitude, than this of the Duomo of
Florence." Mornings in Florence, p. 99. Yet there is grandeur in the
breadth of its spaces, in the immense span of its vaults, and the extent
of its unadorned walls.

CHARACTER OF THE EDIFICE. 229
whole edifice. The Duomo presents, on the contrary,
an assemblage of separate vast features arbitrarily as
sociated, rather than united by any law of mutual rela
tion into a completely harmonious whole. It does not
display that lavish wealth of fancy in ever-changing va
riety and abundance of detail which gives inexhausti
ble charm to a true Gothic edifice. But it is impres
sive within from its vast open spaces, and from the
stately and simple, though barren, grandeur of its piers
and vaults and walls.
The effect of the building from without is imposing
from its mass, but, in a near view, it is only on the east
that the lines compose into forms of beauty. The
front was to have an ornamental facade, richly adorn
ed with sculpture and mosaic. The side walls are in
crusted, after the old Tuscan style, with simple rec
tangular patterns of white and red marble, interrupted
by the rich decoration of gable and pinnacle over the
doors and windows. It Is all gay and exquisite and
rich ; but without as within there is a lack of fancy, and
even the delicate refinement of the inlaying and the
carving does not compensate for the absence of noble
controlling decorative motives and of harmonious con-
cord of line,*
It is when seen from a distance that the full worth
and power of the great cathedral force themselves upon
* The horizontal lines of surface decoration break injuriously upon
the vertical lines of the windows, and the forms of the highly orna
mented gables are curiously inorganic.

230 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
the beholder. Looking down upon Florence from one
of the neighboring heights, the beautiful city seems to
lie gathered under the shelter of Its mighty Duomo.
The stretch of its wall Is ample for the house in
which the whole people shall gather, and, lifting itself
above the clustering towers and belfries of palaces and
churches, the unrivalled dome crowns the edifice, and
with its noble elliptic lines not merely concentrates the
scattered forms of the buildings beneath and around it
far and near, but to the Inward eye seems equally to
concentrate all the divergent energies of the historic
life of Florence, and lift them along its curves to the
foot of the cross upon Its heaven-reaching summit It
seems of equal date with the mountains that close the
background to the landscape of which it forms the cen
tral interest ; and they seem to look down upon this
work of man as one not unworthy of their guardian
ship. The work begun in 1357 was carried forward stead
ily, but slowly, for the next ten years, when the four
bays of the nave approached completion. It was now
time to proceed with the construction of the tribunes,
and in 1366 and the next two years frequent councils
of the Board of Works and of citizens of good under
standing and repute were held, at which various plans
and models were discussed. The deliberations were
long, the diversities of opinion were great, the decision
was slow. Near the end of 1368 a conclusion was
reached, and work on the eastern tribune, forming the

PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 231
end of the church in that direction, was begun. Fran
cesco Talenti was still chief master, to be succeeded
the next year by his son Simone, But for some years
llttie progress was made, partly owing to the political
confusion due to the discord and violence of the parties
by which the city was divided, as well as to a bitter war
with the Pope, Gregory XI. (1375-78); partly to the fact
that the commune from time to time devoted the funds
intended for the Duomo to other ends of public advan
tage, such as the building of the city walls, and the
erection, from the design of Orcagna, of the beautiful
Loggia de' Lanzi, still one of the chief ornaments of
Florence.* The vigorous vitality of the city was ap
parent in her capacity, in the midst of almost constant
civil distraction, thus to continue to strengthen and
adorn herself. In 1382 the party of the great family
of the Albizzi succeeded in establishing itself as the
ruling power in the city, and In obtaining a position
which it held, on the whole to the advantage of the
State, for the next fifty years, by means of energy, high
character, and political courage and intelligence. It is
probably not a mere accidental coincidence that almost
at once a fresh spirit appears in the building of the ca
thedral, and that the last years of the fourteenth cen
tury and the first years of the fifteenth are marked by
records which Indicate activity in the construction, and
still more in the adornment, of the great edifice. In
* Gaye, Carteggio, etc. i. 521, 527. The Loggia de' Lanzi was begun
in 1376.

T ^

232 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
1383 the building of the chapels around the octago
nal choir was begun ; tracery was inserted in the cen
tral round window of the front; and in the next
years there were many commissions for sculpture with
which the facade and the side portals were to be
adorned. The art of the sculptor was entering on a new de
velopment The spirit of the Renaissance was be
ginning to find expression in it for those more per
sonal moods and emotions which were characteristic
of the change in the moral and intellectual temper
of the times. It was still limited in its field main
ly to sacred subjects; it was still imperfect in Its mas
tery of Its own powers ; still hampered by conven
tional types of representation. Even the genius of
Giotto and of Orcagna had not secured for it entire
freedom and range of expression. But the work they
had done had opened the way of progress, and in the
closing years of the fourteenth century the men were
born who were to enter in and take possession of the
domain of the art with power such as had not been
manifest since the time of the Greeks, and with an
inspiration fresh, original, springing from sources of
which the Greeks had not partaken. The records
of the opera are filled with commissions for statues of
the Madonna and her Child, of apostles, saints, and an
gels. Most of the works of these years have perished,
and their places have been in part taken by the pro
ductions of a later time ; but the few that remain dis-

COMPLETION OF THE WALLS. 233
play the merit of the precursors of Ghiberti, DonateUo,
and Luca della Robbia.*
In 1407, nearly forty years after it had been begun,
the eastern tribune, with its five chapels, was completed.
A more important work was now to be taken in hand.
* Dr. Hans Semper, in his thorough and excellent work DonateUo.
seine Zeit und Schule.^ien, 1875, pp. 49-53, gives a good account of
these works.

IV, — Continued.
FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
II. THE DOME OF BRUNELLESCHI.
In the chapter-house, the so-called Spanish chapel, of
Santa Maria Novella is one of the most Interesting pict
ures of the fourteenth century. It has been ascribed,
rightly or wrongly is of little consequence, to the great
Sienese master Simone Memmi It represents, in a
varied and crowded composition of many scenes, the
services and the exaltation of St. Dominic and his
order. The artist may well have had in his mind the
splendid eulogy of the saint which Dante heard from
St Bonaventura in Paradise, As the type and image
of the visible Church, the painter has depicted the
Duomo of Florence, not unfinished, as It was at the
time, but completed, and representing, we may believe,
in Its general features, the original project of Arnolfo,
although the details are rather in the spirit of the deli
cate Gothic work of Orcagna's school than In that of
an earlier time. The central area of the church is
covered by an octagonal dome that rises from a cornice
on a level with the roof of the nave, and is adorned at
each angle with the figure of an angel.

PROJECT OF A DOME. 235
When the church now, at the beginning of the fif
teenth century, was approaching completion, this orig
inal project of an octagonal dome still seemed the only
plan practicable for the covering of the intersection of
nave and transept ; but the construction of such a work
had been rendered vastly more difficult by the immense
increase in the original dimensions. The area to be
spanned was enormous, for the diameter of the octa
gon was now about one hundred and thirty-five feet.*
The difficulty was the greater from the height of the
walls from which the dome must spring. No Gothic
builder had vaulted such an area as this. Since the
Pantheon was built, no architect had attempted a dome
with such a span ; and the dome of the Pantheon itself,
with a diameter of one hundred and forty-three feet,
rose from a wall that was but seventy-two feet in height
The dome of St. Sophia, the supreme work of the By
zantine builders, with the resources of the Empire at
their command, had a diameter of but one hundred
and four feet, and the height from the ground to its
very summit was but one hundred and seventy-nine
feet The records of architecture could not show such
a dome as this must be. Where was the architect to
be found who would venture to undertake its construc
tion } What were the means he could employ for its
execution ? Such were the questions that pressed upon
* Liitzow, Meisterwerke der Kirchenbaukunst, Leipsic, 1871, p. 418,
gives the diameter as 135 ft. 2 in.; '^e.xgxjASon, History of Architecture,
1867, ii. 321, gives it as 126 ft. The height of the nave is, according to
Liitzow, 139 ft. 5 in.

236 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
those who had the work in charge, and which busied
the thoughts of the builders of the time.
While this problem was still unsolved, a work was
undertaken by the guardians of the baptistery which
was to add a permanent and splendid artistic distinc
tion to the beautiful city that nursed the arts so well,
and which, from the circumstances attending It, was to
have a decisive influence on the further history of the
Duomo. So long ago as 1329, the Consuls of the Art of Cali
mala had resolved that three doors of gilded bronze,
" the most beautiful that could be," should be made
for the baptistery, and had committed the work to
the sculptor Andrea Pisano, who, carrying forward the
sound traditions of the Pisan school, was deemed " the
most vahant, skilful, and judicious master not only in
Tuscany, but in all Italy." *
Andrea, aided by his son Nino, made a single door,
which still remains one of the most precious works of
the art of the fourteenth century, but the others were
not completed. Meanwhile the skill in sculpture and
in bronze-casting had greatly advanced, in the general
rapid progress of the arts ; and in 1401 the deputies of
the Art of Calimala resolved that the remaining doors
should be made, and selected six of the most esteemed
artists each to prepare within a year a bass-relief in
* Vasari, Life of Attdrea Pisano, in Milanesi's edition of the Vite,
Firenze, 1878, i. 487. In regard to the door made by Andrea, see Sem
per, Donatella, seine Zeit und Schule. p. 19.

COMPETITION FOR THE DOORS OF BAPTISTERY. 2 •37
bronze, such as might form one compartment of a door,
with the promise that the work of all should be paid
for, and that to him whose work should be approved
as the best the making of the door should be com
mitted. The subject assigned for the competition was
the sacrifice of Abraham, Among the artists selected
were two youths, Filippo Brunelleschi, then twenty-four
years old, and Lorenzo Ghiberti, four years younger,
both of whom had already given proof of rare ability,
so early did the warm sun of Florence in those days
mature the genius of her children. Each had served
his apprenticeship as goldsmith, an incomparable train
ing of eye and hand and soul for the higher, arts in days
when the love of beauty, refining the taste, required ex
quisite form in personal ornaments, and demanded of
the goldsmith that his art should add a worth far be
yond their own to gold and jewels.
The competition was keen, and excited a lively in
terest among the citizens. When the trial pieces were
shown. It was plain to all that the choice lay between
those of the two young artists. Ghiberti, indeed, in
the brief account of his own life which he wrote in
later years, says, with characteristic vanity, " The palm
of victory was conceded to me by all the experts and
by all the competitors ; the glory was universally con
ceded to me without any exception." But the con
temporary biographer of Brunelleschi relates that the
judges reported to the Board of Works of St John that
both the models were most beautiful, and recommend-

238 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
ed that the commission be divided between the two
sculptors. However this may have been, and whether
or not Brunelleschi, as his biographer says, refused the
proposed division, the making of the door was finally,
on the 23d of November, 1403, assigned to Ghiberti.*
The two trial pieces still exist and are to be seen
In the National Museum in the Palazzo del Podesta at
Florence, and the contemporary judgment is confirm
ed by that of posterity. For while Brunelleschi's piece
shows a more imaginative conception and more real-

* Ghiberti, Secondo Commentario, § xvi., in the first volume of Le Mon
nier's Vasari, p. 30. Vita Anonima di Brunelleschi, pp. 148-151. Va
sari's account of the competition, in his Life of Ghiberti, which is re
peated essentially in his Life of Brunelleschi, is embellished more suo,
and inaccurate. He makes DonateUo one of the competitors, but in
1401 DonateUo was a boy of fifteen. See Semper, DonateUo, p. 231.
The anonymous biography of Brunelleschi was written not long af
ter his death by a contemporary who tells us that he knew him and
had spoken with him. It bears the mark of genuineness, but cannot
be relied on for complete exactness. It was first published in Florence,
in 1812, by the Canonico Domenico Mortni, togtlhe.r viith. & Life of Bru
nelleschi by Baldinucci, preceded by an essay, by Moreni, on the Fine
Arts in Tuscany. In another edition of the same year this preliminary
essay is omitted ; it is to a copy of the latter edition that the citations
in the following pages refer.
Moreni says, in his preface, that the anonymous biography was " al
together unknown " to Vasari ; but this is an error, for Vasari not only
follows it closely in the narration of many facts, but frequently adopts
its very words. It is attributed by Gaetano Milanesi to Antonio Ma
netti, the author of the famous Novella del Grasso Legnajuolo, of which
Brunelleschi is the hero. See his edition of Vasari's Lives, Florence,
1878, tom. ii. p. 329, note.
The Life by Baldinucci is carefully compiled from original sources;
but its value has been diminished by the fuller publication of the doc
uments relating to Brunelleschi's life and works, by Signor Cesare
Guasti, in La Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore illustrata con i Documenti
dell Arehivio dell' Opera Secolare, Firenze, 1857.

RESULT OF THE COMPETITION. 239
istic vigor in the expression and action of the figures
than that of his rival, Ghiberti's composition is richer
and more harmonious in line, more elegant in detail,
and far more skilful in technical execution. In Bru
nelleschi's work the figures were cast separately, and
fastened upon the plate, after the old manner of pro
cedure in bronze-casting ; while Ghiberti, eager in in
vention and quick of wit had adopted a recent improve
ment in the art, and cast his work in a single piece, to
which he had given an unexampled delicacy of finish.
Brunelleschi disappointed, but conscious of the de
fects of his own performance when compared with that
of his rival, and still more when compared with the works
of the ancients, and filled with the enthusiasm for clas
sic antiquity which was the inspiration of the younger
spirits of the time, said to himself, as his contemporary
biographer reports, " that it would be well to go where
the sculptures are good," and accordingly set out for
Rome. He is said to have taken, as his companion, the
young DonateUo, whose expressive and romantic genius
had already displayed Itself in work stamped with a clear
originality, and whose ardor In the pursuit of art was
not less burning and constant than his own.*
* The anonymous biographer and Vasari agree, the latter, however,
probably merely repeating the statement of the former, as to Brunel
leschi's being accompanied by DonateUo. Semper, in his thorough
study of Donatello's life, already cited, expresses no doubt of the fact.
I prefer to believe rather than to doubt it ; but Donatello's name ap
pears in the first agreement made by Ghiberti with the Board of
Works of St. John as that of one of the assistants in the work on the
door, and reappears in a second agreement made in 1407. See Com-

240 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
It cannot noiv be determined, and it is of llttie Im
portance, whether Brunelleschi's object In going to Rome
was as distinctly defined beforehand in his own mind as
Vasari declares in the statement that he had two most
grand designs — one to bring to light again good archi
tecture ; the other to find the means, if he could, of
vaulting the cupola of St. Mary of the Flower," an inten
tion of which he said nothing to DonateUo or any liv
ing soul" — or whether, as the anonymous biographer im
plies, this object gradually took shape in his thought
as he studied the remains of Roman antiquity, ac
quainting himself with the forms and proportions of
classic buildings, and with the unsurpassed methods of
Roman construction. But this journey of Brunelleschi
and DonateUo, that they might learn, and, learning, re
vive, " the good ancient art," is one of the capital Inci
dents in the modern Renaissance. These were the two
men in all Florence, at the beginning of the fifteenth
century, of deepest nature, of most various and original
genius. They were in little sympathy with the temper
of the Middle Ages. For them the charm of its finest
moods was lost The spirit that had given form to
Gothic art had always been foreign to Tuscan artists.
The traditions of an earlier time had never wholly
failed to influence their work. And now the worth and
significance of ancient art first recognized by Niccola
Pisano a century and a half earlier, were felt as never
mentario alia Vita di Lorenzo Ghiberti, Vasari, ed. Le Monnier, vol. iii.
pp. 128, 129.

INFLUENCE OF CLASSIC ART. 341
before. The work of the scholars of the fourteenth
century, in the coUection and study of the fragments
of ancient culture, was bearing fruit For a hundred
years the progress in letters and the arts in Italy had
been quickened by the increasing knowledge of the
past and with each step of advance men had not only
felt deeper and more inspiring delight in the ideals of
the classic world, but had found more and more in
struction in the models which its works presented.
Through the creations of the art of former days nature
herself was revealed to them in new aspects. Their
reverence for the teachings of the ancients was often
uncritical and indiscriminate, but the zeal with which
they sought them was sincere and invigorating. It
was not tin a later time, when the first eagerness of
enthusiasm had given place to a dry pedantry of in
vestigation, that the study of classic models allured a
weaker generation from the paths of nature and inde
pendence into those of artificiality and imitation.
Brunelleschi was the first artist to visit Rome with
fully open modern eyes. From morning till night day
after day, he and DonateUo were at work unearthing
half-buried ruins, measuring columns and entablatures,
digging up hidden fragments, searching for whatever
might reveal the secrets of ancient time. The common
people fancied them to be seekers for burled treasure ;
but the treasure for which they sought was visible only
to one who had, like Brunelleschi, as his biographer
says, " buono occhio mentale," a clear mental eye.
16

242 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
For many years the greater part of Brunelleschi's
life was spent in Rome. He had sold a little farm that
he owned at Settignano, near Florence, to obtain the
means of living; but, falling short of money after a while,
he turned to the art in which he had served his appren
ticeship, and gained his livelihood by work as a gold
smith. The condition of Rome at this time was wretch
ed In the extreme. Nothing was left of the dignity of
the ancient city but Its ruins. There was no settled
civic order, no regular administration of law or jus
tice. Life and property were insecure. The people
were poor, suffering, and turbulent Rome was the
least civilized city of Italy. Its aspect was as wretch
ed as its condition. Large tracts within its walls were
vacant. Its Inhabited portions were a labyrinth of
filthy lanes. Many churches, built in earher centuries,
were neglected and falling to ruin. There was no re
spect for the monuments of former times. Many were
buried under heaps of the foulest rubbish ; many were
used as quarries of stone for common walls; many were
cumbered by -mean buUdings, or occupied as strong
holds. The portico of the Pantheon was filled with
stalls and booths ; the arcades of the Colosseum were
blocked up with rude structures used for the most va
rious purposes ; the Forum was crowded with a con
fused mass of low dwellings. Ancient marbles, frag
ments of splendid sculpture, were often calcined for
lime. The reawakening interest in antiquity which
was inspiring the scholars and artists of Florence, and

GROWTH OF BRUNELLESCHFS REPUTE. 343
which was beginning to modify profoundly the culture
and the life of Europe, was not yet shared by those who
dwelt within the city which was its chief source, and
reverence for Rome was nowhere less felt thafi in Rome
itself. But the example and the labors of Brunelleschi
were opening the way to change. He was the pio
neer along a path leading to modern times. In the
midst of conditions that must have weighed heavily
upon him, he continued the diligent study of the re
mains of ancient art investigating especially such
structures as the Pantheon and the Baths, for the pur
pose of learning the methods adopted in their con
struction. Meantime his repute was slowly advancing at home,
and when, at intervals, he visited Florence, he was con
sulted in respect to the public and private buildings
with which the flourishing city was adorning herself.
The work on the Duomo was steadily proceeding. The
eastern tribune was finished in 1407; the others were
approaching completion. The original plan of a dome
springing from the level of the roof of the nave had
been recognized as unfit for the larger church. Such
a dome would have had too heavy and too low a look.
It had been decided that the dome must be lifted above
the level of the roof upon a massive octagonal drum ;
and already in 141 7 the occhi, or round lights, of the
drum were constructing, and the time was close at hand
when the structure would be ready for the beginning

244 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
of the dome itselt* The overseers of the work were
embarrassed by the difficulty of the task by which they
were confronted, and knew not how to proceed. If a
framework for the centring of the dome were to be
built up from the ground, they stood aghast at the
quantity of timber required for it, and at the enormous
cost, so that It seemed to them weU-nIgh an impossibil
ity, or, to speak more truly, absolutely impossible.!
The Board of Works sought advice from Brunel
leschi " But if the master builders had seen difficul
ties, Philip showed them far more. And some one ask
ing. Is there, then, no mode of erecting it ? Philip, who
was ingenious also in discourse, replied that if the
thing were really impossible, it could not be done ; but
that If it were not so, there ought to be some one in the
¦world who could do the work ; and, seeing that it was a
religious edifice, the Lord God, to whom nothing was
impossible, would surely not abandon it"^ Further
consultations were held, and on May 19, 141 7, the opera
voted to give to Filippo di Ser Brunellesco — " pro bona
gratuitate " — for his labor in making drawings and em
ploying himself concerning the cupola, ten golden
florins. §
* There is no evidence in regard to the author of the design for the
drum from which the cupola should spring, or as to the exact date of
the beginning of the work. The anonymous biographer refers to it. Vita
Anonima, pp. 162, 164, as if Brunelleschi had had nothing to do with it;
but so important a piece of construction, and so essential to the effect
of the future dome, can hardly have been carried out without Brunel
leschi's counsel.
t Vita Anonima di Brunelleschi, p. 163. t ^d. p. 163.
§ For this first payment to Brunelleschi for work relating to the cu-

COMPETITION FOR THE DOME. 345
On the 19th of August of the next year, 14 18, notice
was given by public proclamation through the city that
whoever might wish to make a design or model of the
vault of the chief cupola, or of anything pertaining to
the manner and perfection of Its construction, should
do so within the next month ; and during this time,
should he wish to speak with the authorities in charge
of the work, he should be well and graciously heard.
And if any one should make a design or model that
should be adopted, or in words give advice that should
be afterwards followed In the work, he should be rec
ompensed with two hundred golden florins ; and if any
one should expend labor or make anything for the said
object even though his model were not adopted, his
work should be fairly paid for by the Board of Works.
The term for the preparation of designs and models
was afterwards extended to the 12th of December.*
Fifteen models were presented; one of them was by
Brunelleschi, one by his old rival, Ghiberti, who was still
busy with his long-expected door, the others were by
men of less repute from Pisa and Siena, as well as
from Florence.
No record remains of the deliberations of the opera
pola, see Guasti, Za Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore, Firenze, 1857.
Doc. xvi. p. 17.
* It would seem that the models were placed on view within the
church itself, and that on the 13th of December a grand council was
held for the purpose of examining and considering them. This appears
to be Signor Guasti's opinion ; but the documentary evidence is not so
clear as could be desired. See Guasti, Za C«/o/a, etc.. Doc. xv. p. 16;
and Prospetto Cronologico. p. 191.

246 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
concerning these models. The business was of too
great moment to be settled offhand. Brunelleschi
and Ghiberti were, however, as of old, the real com
petitors, and during the next year both were employed
on new models on a large scale. Brunelleschi called
upon DonateUo for assistance In his work^a work
which was the outcome of those Roman studies in
which they had been companions so many years be
fore. DonateUo had already shown of what value those
studies had been to him by works which displayed not
only his mastery of the technical methods of ancient
sculpture, but also the influence of its spirit upon his
modes of conception. His own clearly defined indi
vidual genius had found freedom of expression through
the study of nature in the light thrown upon it by the
models of classic art. His poetic imagination was
deeper than that of Ghiberti, and his conception of
character far more vigorous. His works are the em
bodiments of the spirit of his time ; of its longing at
once for truth of representation and for absolute beauty;
of its mingling of pagan and of Christian conceptions ;
of Its new feeling concerning the life of man ; of the
conflict between the authority of tradition and the in
dependence of the Individual. The mingled emotions
and conflicting aims of the Renaissance appear in
his figures, even in figures of saints that are but the
portraits of his contemporaries. His sculpture is the
image of the real life of Florence when her life was
richer and deeper than any other in the world. When

BRUNELLESCHI'S MODEL. 347
he joined Brunelleschi in the preparation of the model
of the dome, he had already been much employed in
the making of statues for the church, and he had made
more than one of the figures which stUl stand In the
niches of Or San Michele,*
Brunelleschi was also assisted by another sculptor,
Nanni d' Antonio di Banchi, an artist of little genius,
but whose work partook of the inspiration of the time.
The model was of brick, and it was intended to show
" that there was somebody in the world who could do
the work that seemed well-nigh an ImpossIbUity." For
in it Brunelleschi revealed the secret he had won from
the study of ancient building — a secret which the Ro
man builders themselves had not known— that of the
way in which the dome might be built without centring.
So far as is known, no attempt of the kind had been
previously made. It was an invention of Brunelleschi's
own bold genius. It was not surprising that even the
skilful builders of Florence were incredulous when they
first heard of the project.
On the 15 th of November, 141 9, the Consuls of the
Art of Wool, " considering that the time Is at hand for
providing with all solicitude and diligence for the con
struction of the cupola, and considering the importance

* In 141 5 DonateUo and Brunelleschi had been employed together
on a statue for the Duomo. Donatello's first commission from the
opera was as early as 1406. His most famous work, the St. George of
the Or San Michele, was probably executed not far from 1420. He was
then at the height of his power. See Semper, DonateUo. pp. 274 seq.,
85 seq.

248 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
of the work and how much it concerns the honor of
the commune and the aforesaid art," appointed four
citizens to act for six months, as " soUicitatores et con-
ductores hedlfitii prelibati," The precise nature of the
duties of these four citizens is not set forth, but It
would seem that their appointment was intended to
strengthen the body of officials by whom the momen
tous decision in regard to the cupola was at length to
be made, and to give to it the additional weight of their
authority.* During some months the deliberations and discus-
sions of the Board of Works were frequent and earnest
and it was probably in the course of this time that
BruneUeschi presented to the four officials of the cupo
la a description of the mode in Avhich the dome was to
be built according to his model, a paper of special in
terest in the history of architecture, preserved to us,
fortunately, in the pages of the anonymous biographer.!
It is a brief, clear, and precise statement Brunelles
chi's design, as set forth in it, was, in fact to build two
octagonal domes, or cupolas, as he termed them, sep
arated by a space wide enough for passage and stair-
* Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. i. p. 9. The provision for the remu
neration of these four citizens is an illustration of a curious custom
of honorary recompense — "Providentes insuper, quod dicti quatuor
eligendi, in fine eorum offitii, pro aliquali remuneratione habeant et
habere debeant a dicta Arte unum ensenium extimationis et valuta-
tionis librorum decem solid, parv. pro quolibet ipsorum, in croco pipere,
scudellis et aliis, ut est in similibus usitatum " — "a crock of pepper,
with platters and other things, as is customary in like cases."
t It is given by Vasari, with some inconsiderable verbal changes, and
has been several times reprinted in other works.

BRUNELLESCHFS DESCRIPTION OF HIS DESIGN. 2Ag
ways. The outer dome was to be a shell covering the
inner, protecting it from the inclemency of the weather,
and, at the same time, securing to the construction
more magnificent and swelling lines than would be pos
sible with a single solid dome. The cupolas were to
be united by eight strong ribs of masonry at each an
gle, and by sixteen similar but smaller and concealed
ribs on the faces of the vault Circles of solid masonry,
fastened with clamps of tinned iron, and reinforced by
iron chains, were to bind the domes at suitable inter
vals. The ribs and the lower part of each dome were
to be made of heavy hewn stone, the upper parts of
light stone or brick. The domes were to be built with
out armature — that is, without support from a frame
work of wood or iron. They were to diminish in thick
ness as they rose, and were to terminate at a central
eye over which a lantern was to be constructed. The
" design had been carefully matured, and the paper ends
with words of admirable good -sense which might well
be inscribed in every architect's book as one of the
aphorisms of buUding — " Above the height of thirty
braccia (57.44 feet) let it be built in the way that shall
be advised and resolved upon by the masters who shall
then be in charge of it, for m building practice teaches
what is to be done* No more characteristic or remark
able design was produced during the whole period of
the Renaissance than this with which its great archi
tectural achievements began. It was the manifesto of
* " Nel murare la pratica insegna quello che si ha da seguire."

2 CO FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
a revolution in architecture. It marks an epoch in the
art Such a dome as Brunelleschi proposed to erect
had never been built The great domes of former
times — the dome of the Pantheon, the dome of Santa
Sophia — had been designed solely for their interior
effect ; they were not Impressive or noble structures
from without But BruneUeschi had conceived a dome
which, grand In Its interior aspect, should be even more
superb from without than from within, and which in its
stately dimensions and proportions, in its magnificent
lift above all the other edifices of the city of which it
formed the centre, should give the fullest satisfaction
to the desire common in the Italian cities for a monu
mental expression of the political unity and the relig
ious faith of their people. His work fulfilled the high
est aim of architecture as a civic art, in being a political
symbol, an Image of the life of the State itselt As such
no other of the ultimate forms of architecture was so ap
propriate as the dome. Its absolute unity and symme
try, the beautiful shape and proportions of its broad
divisions, the strong and simple energy of its upwardly
converging lines, all satisfied the sentiment of Florence,
compounded as it was of the most varied elements, civic,
political, religious, and Eesthetic.
In March, 1420, the models were once more submit
ted to popular criticism and judgment Finally a con
clusion was reached, and on the i6th of April the con
suls of the Art, the operarii, and the four officers of
the cupola chose Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, and Battista

THE HIGH QUALITIES OF THE FLORENTINES. 2^1
d'Antonio the head master-builders of the Duomo, to
oversee and direct the construction of the cupola, at a
monthly salary of three golden florins each.*
The Florentine men of business had long since
learned the importance, first of choosing capable and
trustworthy agents, and then of leaving them unim
peded in the discharge of the duties committed to
them. The whole course of procedure in regard to
the construction of the cupola indicates the foresight
and good judgment of the men who had it in charge.
It is a fine exhibition of the high qualities of Florence,
at a period when her streets were alive with the varied
activities of flourishing commerce, when her people
were stUl confident in their own powers, full of restless

* The words of the vote run as follows : " Nobiles et prudentes viri
consules Artis et universitatis Artis lane civitatis Florentie, una cum
officio operariorum Opere Sancte Marie del Fiore, et officio quattuor
officialium Cupole maioris dicte ecclesie ; considerantes, qualiter super
novi operis dicte Cupole costructione fuit multoties in diversis tempori-
bus per ipsos officiales Cupole, cum quampluribus ipsius operis intelli-
gentibus magistris et aliis hedificatoribus, praticatum et cum diligentia
discussum, et super ipso opere quamplures modelli et alia quamplura
facta et ordinata, et super ipso pluribus conclusionibus quamplurium
intelligentium intellectis : volentes circa predicta, prout ad presens con-
venire cognoscunt, providere et ipsi costructioni fiende aliquale princi-
pium ordinare . . . providerunt, deliberaverunt atque eligerunt infra-
scriptos Filippum ser Brunelleschi, Laurentium Bartoluccii, et Batistam
Antonii in provisores dicti operis Cupole construendi, et ad providen-
dum, ordinandum, et construi, ordinari, fieri et hedificari faciendum, a
principio usque ad finem, ipsam maiorem Cupolam et hedifitium, illis
hedefitiis magisteriis muramentis modis formis et condictionibus, et
illis sunptibus, et aliis quibuscunque, de quibus et prout et sicut eisdem
videbitur convenire et expedite iudicabunt, predicta eorum intelligentie
atque prudentie conmictentes usque ad ipsius Cupole perfectionem et
conplementum.'' Guasti, La Cupola, etc., Doc. Ixxi. p. 35.

2^2 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
vivacity of mind, and when a group of such artists as
the modern world had never seen were ennobhng her
with the products of the emulous rivalry of their gen
ius. At this time, says the anonymous biographer of
Brunelleschi, our city abounded with men of worth —
" era coplosa de' valenti uominl" The list of those
whom the world still remembers shows the truth of
the assertion. In 1420 Brunelleschi was forty-three
years old, Ghiberti four years younger ; DonateUo was
now thirty-four, and Fra Angelico near the same age ;
Luca della Robbia w^as twenty, and soon to open new
and delightful ways for sculpture ; Masaccio was an
incomparable youth of nineteen, Filippo Lippi a boy
of eight or ten. Nor were these all ; and, though her
genius at this time chiefly displayed itself In the arts,
Florence abounded in men of letters of almost equal
eminence with her artists.* It was a wonderful as
semblage. Each man was stimulated by the work of
his fellows to his best achievement and the commu
nity was quick to recognize the powers exerted for its
* Besides the artists mentioned above, there were, among those whose
names are still noted. Gentile da Fabriano, born about 1 370 ; Antonio
Squarcialupi, the first musician of his time, born in 1380; Michelozzo
Michelozzi, who built for Cosmo de' Medici the palace now known as
the Palazzo Riccardi, born 1391 ; Andrea del Castagno, born about
1390 ; Paolo Uccello, born in 1396. And among the men of letters were
many of the most eminent humanists, such as Leonardo Bruni Aretino,
scholar and statesman, born in 1369 ; the universal genius Leon Battis
ta Alberti, born in 1404 ; and others of less fame, but whose spirits, kin
dled with the new love of learning, gave lustre to Florence, and whose
renown was a part of her glory ; such were Giannozzo Manetti, born in
1396 ; Carlo Aretino, born in 1399 ; and Matteo Palmieri, born in 1405.

CRITICAL SPIRIT OF THE FLORENTINES. 253
service, and to commend and reward. If also to criti
cise, their work. Vasari complains that in Florence
every man claimed to know in matters of art as much
as the skUled masters themselves, " The city has a
good eye and a bad tongue, and every one speaks his
mind," said Vasari's contemporary, Borghini, the author
of // Riposo.* But the artists were the better for this
free speaking. DonateUo gave as his reason for return
ing to Florence from Padua, whither he had gone In
order to make that noble statue of Gattamelata which
Is stUl one of the chief ornaments of the city, that If he
stayed there longer he should forget all he knew, so
flattered was he by every one ; while In Florence he was
sure of blame, which would make him work and acquire
glory.! Doubtless much of the criticism was mere ig
norant carping ; but no people, except the Athenian,
have ever been so sensitive as the Florentine to the
delight of art, or so trained to the study and apprecia
tion of such works as day by day made their city more
beautiful. In the account given by Brunelleschi's anonymous
biographer of the transactions relating to the cupola
already narrated, the bare outline of events is filled out
with many lively strokes of personal delineation. Some
of the detaUs which he reports have, indeed, a mythical
character, but they add entertainment to the narrative
* In a letter, in 1577, to Buontalenti the architect, in Bottari, Raccolta
di Lettere, ed. 1822, vol. i. p. 243.
t Vasari, ed. Le Monnier, vol. iii. p. 258.

3 54 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
as well as to Its value as a picture of contemporary feel
ing and belief concerning the execution of the great
work In which the interests of the community were en
gaged. Vasari adopted this narrative without substan
tial change, adding to it after his wont some touches
of his own invention, and giving a more modern form
to the style. The story as he tells It, after the anony
mous biographer, has long been an accepted tradition,
and as such is part of the history of the Duomo.*
According to his dramatic version of the facts, Bru
nelleschi, having for years devoted himself to solving
the problem of the cupola, had acquired consideration
with the overseers of the work by displaying, on his
visits to Florence, an assurance and spirit in his dis
course concerning It which other masters did not ex
hibit so that at length the Board, having resolved " to
see the end of it," wrote to him at Rome, praying him
to come to consult with them. As he had long fore
seen that they must finally turn to him as the only man
who could do the work, and as he had no other desire
* The lack, in Vasari's Lives of the Artists, of a critical discrimina
tion between fact and fable, and the carelessness in respect to dates and
other details which they often exhibit, detract from their authority.
But these defects, due in great part to the literary conditions of the
period in which they were written, are more than made up for by Va
sari's honest interest in his subject, his zealous collection of such in
formation as he could obtain, and his liveliness as a narrator. Often
when incorrect in detail, he is yet true in general effect. Myth and
tradition are frequently as important for the correct appreciation of the
character of individuals, and of the moral conceptions of a given epoch,
as the literal fact. In spite of errors, which may be corrected, and of
misjudgments, that may be reversed, his Lives will remain an invalua
ble and unrivalled source of information for all students of Italian art.

BRUNELLESCHI'S ADVICE. 355
than to do it, he at once returned to Florence. And
when he had come, the Board of Works of S. Maria
del Fiore and the Consuls of the Art of Wool being
assembled, they told Philip all the difficulties in regard
to the cupola, from the greatest to the least, which were
made by the master builders who were there with them
in his presence at the audience. Whereupon PhUip
said these words : " Gentlemen, overseers of the works,
doubtless great things are always difficult to accom
plish ; and if ever anything was difficult, this affair of
yours is more difficult than you perchance are aware ;
for I do not know that even the ancients ever vaulted
a vault so terrible as this will be. And I, who have
often thought on the armatures required within and
without, and what means could be invented so that
men could work on it with safety, have never succeed
ed in solving the difficulty, and I am dismayed not
less by the breadth than the height of the building.
If, indeed, it could be covered with a spherical dome,
the mode might be adopted which the Romans em
ployed in constructing the dome of the Pantheon at
Rome ; but here we must adopt an eight - sided de
sign, with such joints and bindings of masonry as
will be most difficult to execute. But remembering
that this temple is dedicated to God and to the Vir
gin, I have confidence that we, setting to work in
memory of him. He wIU not fail to Infuse knowledge
where It faUs short and to supply strength and wis
dom and intelligence to whosoever may undertake

2c6 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
the task. But in what can I assist you, the work not
being mine ?"
Brunelleschi finished his address, according to Vasa
ri's report by recommending that the best architects,
not merely Tuscan and Italian, but German and French,
or of whatever nation, should be summoned to meet at
Florence to consider and advise how the work might
best be accomplished. This counsel pleased the con
suls and the Board of Works, and Vasari goes on to
tell how the Florentine merchants who were estab
lished in France, in Germany, in England, and in
Spain were commissioned to obtain from the rulers of
those countries the most experienced and valiant gen
iuses in the land, and to spend whatever sum of money
might be needed for sending them to Florence. Much
time passed before this could be done ; but, at last. In
1420, all these masters from beyond the mountains were
assembled in Florence, together with those of Tuscany,
¦and all the ingenious architects of the city, among them
BruneUeschi hImselL On a certain day they all met at
the works of S. Maria del Fiore, together with the con
suls and the Board of Works and a choice of the most
intelligent citizens, and then one after another spoke
his mind as to the mode in which the dome might be
built " It was a fine thing to hear the strange and di
verse opinions on the matter." Some advised to buUd
up a structure from the ground to support the cupola
while it was in process of building. Others, for the
same end, proposed heaping up a high mound of earth.

BRUNELLESCHFS DIFFICULTIES. 257
in which pieces of money should be buried, so that
when the work was done the common people would
carry away the earth for the sake of what they might
find in it Others, again, urged that the cupola be built
of pumice-stone for the sake of lightness. Only Philip
said that the dome could be built without any such
support of timber or masonry or earth, and was laughed
at by all for such a wild and impracticable notion ; and,
growing hot In the explanation and defence of his plan
of construction, and being told to go, but not consent
ing, he was at last carried by main force from the as
sembly — " fu portato di peso fuori " — all men holding
him stark mad. And Philip was accustomed to say
afterwards that he was ashamed at this time to go about
Florence, for fear of hearing it said, " See that fool there,
who talks so wildly." The overseers of the work were
distracted by the bewildering diversity of councils, and
" Philip, who had spent so many years in studies for the
sake of having this work, knew not what to do, and was
oftentimes tempted to depart from Florence. Yet, wish
ing to win his object, he armed himself with patience,
as was needful, having so much to endure, for he knew
the brains of that city never stood long fixed on one
resolve. PhUip might have shown a little model which
he had below, but he did not wish to show it ; being
aware of the smaU understanding of the consuls, the
envy of the workmen, and the llttie stability of the citi
zens, who favored now this, now that, according to their
pleasure. What then, Philip had not been able to do
17

2c8 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
in the assembly he began to try with individuals ; and,
speaking now to this consul, now to this member of the
Board of Works, and in like wise to many citizens, show
ing them part of his design, he brought them to deter
mine to assign the work either to him or to one of the
foreigners. Whereby the consuls and the Board of
Works and the citizens being encouraged, they caused
a new assembly to be held, and the architects disputed
of the matter ; but they were all beaten down and over
come by Philip with abundant reasons. And here it is
said that the dispute about the egg arose in this man
ner." The other architects urged him to explain his
scheme in detail, and to show them the model he had
made of the structure ; but this he refused, and finally
proposed to them that the man who could prove his
capacity by making an egg stand on end on a smooth
bit of marble should build the cupola. To this they
assented. All tried in vain ; and then Philip, taking the
egg and striking it upon the marble, made it stand.
The others, offended, declared they could have done as
much. "Ay," said PhUip, " and so, after seeing my mod
el, you could build the cupola."
It was accordingly resolved that he should have
charge of the conduct of the work, and he was di
rected to give fuller information concerning his plans
to the consuls and Board of Works.* He accordlng-
* This myth of the egg is not in the Vita Anonima, and the author
gives another account of the preparation of the written statement. Va
sari may have borrowed the illustration from the story told of Colum
bus.

THE WORK ASSIGNED TO BRUNELLESCHI. 259
ly, going home, wrote off a statement which he pre
sented the next morning to the assembly of officials,
"and although they were incompetent to judge of it
yet seeing Philip's readiness of mind, and that none
of the architects marched so boldly as he — ' non an-
dava con migllor gambe' — for he showed himself
as sure of what he said as if he had already built
ten cupolas, they proposed to give it to him, but first
desired to see, by experiment on a small scale, how
the vaulting could be done without armature, for in all
other respects they approved his design. In this re
spect fortune was favorable," for, as Vasari goes on to
relate, Brunelleschi was at this time engaged in build
ing a chapel in the Church of Santa Fehcita, and an
other in Santo Jacopo sopr' Arno, in both of which he
showed how what he proposed could be done. Thus
assured, the overseers of the work assigned to him the
buUding of the cupola to the height of twelve braccia,*
not binding themselves to more before they saw how
the work would succeed. To this Philip agreed, though
disappointed at the condition imposed. When the art
ists and the citizens learned that the work had been
committed to Philip, to some it seemed weU, to others
UI ; and a party was formed among them who remon
strated with the consuls and the Board of Works, rep
resenting that " such a work ought not to be intrusted
to a single person, and that if there were a lack of com-
* A Florentine braccia equals very neariy i foot 1 1 inches, exactly
1.9148 feet, or met. 0.5835.

2 6o FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
petent men, while in truth there was abundance of them,
the decision might be excused ; but that it did not com
port with the honor of the city, seeing that if any mis
fortune were to happen, such as sometimes occurs in
building, they would be blamed as having given too
heavy a charge to one man, without consideration of the
harm and shame that might result from it to the public,
and that therefore, in order to curb the ardor (furore)
of Philip, it were weU to associate some one with him
in the work." Accordingly, Ghiberti and Battista
d' Antonio were appointed as his associates. " What
despair and bitterness took possession of Philip, on
learning of this, may be known from the fact that he
was on the point of flying from Florence ; and if it had
not been for Donato and Luca della Robbia, who com
forted him, he would have gone distracted."
There is, doubtless, a large foundation of truth in the
representation by his biographers of the scepticism
with which Brunelleschi's unheard-of and astonishing
project was received, and of the difficulty with which
he overcame the opposition to his scheme.* The biog-
* Among the persons who were paid for their work or advice con
cerning the cupola in April, 1420, was Messer Giovanni di Gherardo of
Prato. He received three florins, while DonateUo and PeseUo, the
well-known painter, had but one. In the same vote by which Brunel
leschi and his two associates were appointed overseers of the con
struction of the dome he was chosen as second substitute, Pesello being
the first, in case either of the three should resign or be removed by
death or other circumstance. He was at this time the public reader
of Dante at the University of Florence, a position which he held from
1417 till 1425. He had no faith in Brunelleschi's design, and addressed
a scurrilous sonnet to him, in ridicule of the project, which gives no

RIVAL CLAIMS OF GHIBERTI 26 1
raphers may also be trusted in their representation
of the eagerness with which Ghiberti's claim to share
in the work on equal terms was urged, and of the
intense spirit of partisanship displayed by the adhe
rents of each master. There were division of opinion
and hot dispute among the citizens at large, as well as
among the members of the Art of Wool. " The city
kept the feeling about the bronze doors " — teneva dello
umore delle porte di bronzo — is the expressive phrase
of the anonymous biographer. The old rivalry had
slept for eighteen years, but now blazed up with more
than its ancient heat. Brunelleschi and his friends
might well resent the pretensions of Ghiberti. What
experience had he as an architect, what study had he
given to the problems of construction Involved in the
evidence that the poetic style of the author had been affected by the
study of the Divine Comedy. It begins —
" O fonte fonda e nizza d' ignoranza.
Pauper animale et insensibile,"
and goes on to say that no man can do the impossible, as Brunelleschi
is attempting to do — Brunelleschi, who knows neither how to design
nor to construct ;
" Che poco sai ordire e vie men tessere."
To this Brunelleschi replied in a sonnet that opens with a fine verse
that reminds one of Michelangelo :
"Quando dall' alto ci e dato speranza,"
" When from on high we are inspired with hope, man becomes capable
of achieving things not possible to unassisted human powers, and thus
what seems impossible to a dull creature like Giovanni shall yet come
to pass." In 1426 Giovanni di Gherardo addressed a remonstrance to
the Board of Works in regard to the mode of construction adopted by
Brunelleschi. This remonstrance and the sonnets have been edited
and illustrated by Guasti, in his Belle Arti. OpuscoU Descrittivi e Biogra-
fici, Florence, 1874, pp. 107-129.

262 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
work at hand, to justify the notion that he was compe
tent to perform it .? But Ghiberti and his party were too
strong to be resisted, and Brunelleschi was compeUed
to stifle his indignation at having his rival associated
with him at an equal salary, and with the prospect of
dividing with him the credit of an achievement which
would belong rightfully wholly to himselt He was
not of a temper, however, to yield to discouragement.
He had reached the point of desire of many years;
and though he missed the complete fulfilment of hope,
he might trust that what was amiss in the beginning
would be righted in the progress of the undertaking.
On the day of his appointment and that of his two
associates, eight master builders were also chosen for
the work. Preparations for building were at once be
gun. The necessary materials were collected; frame
works and stagings were constructed ; and on the 7th
of August, in the morning, the masons were set to
work, the sum of three lire nine soldi and four denari
being spent for a cask of red wine, a flask of Trebia-
no, bread, and melons, for a collation to celebrate the
event.* The work, once begun, was steadily prose
cuted, Brunelleschi's active genius employed itself
not only in the general oversight, but in attention to
every detail. He invented a new and more service
able machine for hoisting the materials from the
ground to the great height to which they had to be
* Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. 239, p. 85. " Trebbiano. a kind of pre
cious wine in Italic." Florio, Worlde of Wordes.

PROGRESS OF THE BUILDING. 263
raised;* he selected the clay and devised new moulds
for the bricks used in construction;! he visited the
quarries from which stone was brought and directed
the quarrying and the transport of the blocks ;| he
made models for the castings that were required, and
was ready \vith inventive wit to meet every difficulty in
construction as it arose, for, as he had said, " la pratica
insegno quella che si ebbe da seguire."
On the 7th of July, 1422, the day of the vigil of St
John Baptist the walls of the cupola had risen so high
that they were Uluminated in celebration of the feast
and lifted for the first time that circlet of light over the
city which, seen in the night from Fiesole or San Mini
ato, looks like the crown of the fair city reposing in the
darkness below. | In the course of 1423, Brunelleschi
made a model of the great chain of timber and iron
which was to gird and resist the thrust of the inner
dome ; and for this model of one of the essential features
of his design, and one of his most ingenious devices, he
received a gratuity from the opera of one hundred gold
en florins. |1 The building of the chain was not how
ever, begun till two years later, and Brunelleschi deter
mined not to lose the opportunity it afforded to exhibit
* Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. 123 seq. pp. 58 seq. " Nessuna cosa fu
quantunque difficile e aspra, la quale egli non rendesse facile e plana ;
e lo mostro nel tirare i pesi per via di contrapesi e ruote, che un sol
bue tirava quanto arebbono appena tirata sei paia." Vasari, iii. 220.
t Guasti, La Cupola, etc., Doc. 169, p. 69.
X Id. Doc. 109, p. 53. § Id. Doc. 240, p. 85.
1 In La Metropolitana Fiorentina Illustrata. Firenze, 1 820, Tavola vii.,
a profile and a plan of a section of the chain are given.

264 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
Ghiberti's incompetence and to get rid of him as an
associate.* The workmen had come to depend entire
ly on Brunelleschi's directions, and without them were
unable to proceed. Aware of this, Brunelleschi, as his
anonymous biographer reports, one morning stayed in
bed, feigning illness and complaining of severe pain in
the side, so that he had hot cloths and other remedies
applied. In his absence from the works, where he al
ways was wont to be the first-comer, the workmen were
at a loss what to do, and, in their perplexity, resorted to
Ghiberti for instructions. He, unable to direct them,
bade them seek directions from Philip, but Philip made
believe to be too ill to see them, and things went so far
that the works came in great part to a stop, whereat
there was confusion enough at the opera. The friends
of Philip said, " Surely Lorenzo is here. If Philip is IU,
it is not his fault ; no one regrets it more than he." And
those of the other side charged PhUip with pretending
to be ill because he repented of having entered on the
undertaking, and would fain find excuse to be rid of it
After some days, Philip, with apparent difficulty, went
to the ofiice of the works, and said that this might hap
pen again to him if God willed, or even to Lorenzo,
and that It were well, in view of this chance, that the
charge of the special works to be done should be di
vided, so that if either of them were incapacitated the
work should not come to a stop. He went on to say
* " Filippo fece pensiero se con industria e' si poteva levare da dosso
Lorenzo." Vita Anonima, p. 175.

GHIBERTI'S INCOMPETENCE. 265
that there were now two things pressing to be done —
one, the scaffolds for the workmen in rounding the cu
pola, and the oversight of the masonry ; the other, the
chain to gird it — and that Lorenzo might take in charge
either he chose. Lorenzo was obliged to assent to
this suggestion, and chose the making of the chain, be
cause there was one in the cupola of the baptistery
which he thought he could imitate. To this Philip
made no objection, and Ghiberti proceeded to direct
the construction of a chain. When the work was fin
ished, Philip, seeing that it was good for nothing, showed
to the Board of Works that it would not answer Its pur
pose, so that they resolved it should be done away with,
and Philip was ordered to make the chain according
to his own design.*
The fact of the exposure, about this time, of the In
competence of Ghiberti receives confirmation from the
records. The salaries of Brunelleschi and Ghiberti
had run on for five years at the rate at which they had
been originally fixed; but on the 28th of June, 1425, a
vote was passed by the Board of Works that Ghiberti's
salary should cease from the first day of the coming
July. Now this vote, read in the light of the story, is
in curiously close relation with an entry in the records
on the preceding 6th of June, of the cost of wine bought
for the masters and workmen of the opera " when the
chain was begun," It is a fair inference that the stop-
* Vita Anonitna, pp. 1 75-1 78. Vasari repeats the story after the earlier
biographer, with some characteristic amplifications, vol. iii. pp. 214-219.

2 66 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
page of his salary was the result of Ghiberti's failure in
the execution of the chain. The next January, indeed,
his salary was renewed at the old rate, of three florins
a month, on condition that he should spend at the
works at least one hour of every working day, while
that of Brunelleschi was increased almost threefold — to
one hundred florins a year, on condition that he should
give his whole time to the edifice.* This arrangement
continued tlU 1432, when Ghiberti's salary ends, and his
connection with the work apparently comes to a close.!
* The retention of Ghiberti on the work may have been a piece of
policy to prevent his active opposition, and to secure the voices of his
friends. In 1424 the door for the baptistery, on which he had been at
work so long, was completed and set in place. It received general and
just admiration, and confirmed his repute as the first master of his art.
The account which he gives at the end of his Second Commentary of
his share in the building of the dome is neither candid nor correct, and
its arrogant tone indicates the disposition of the man. " Few things
of importance have been done in our city which were not designed or
ordered by my hand. And specially in the building of the tribune [cu
pola] Philip and I were associates \coticorrenti\ for eighteen years at the
same salary." Vasari, ed. Le Monnier, vol. i. p. xxxvii. The true state
ment would have been " associates for twelve years, and during the first
five our salaries were the same, while during the remaining years mine
was little more than a third of his."
The difficulty of establishing a correct chronology for the lives of
the artists, for which Vasari, with his indifference to exactness, is our
chief authority, is increased by the carelessness of editors. In a note
in his new edition of Vasari, Florence, 1878, tomo ii. p. 358, Milanesi
states that Ghiberti continued to be the associate of Brunelleschi in
the work of the cupola till June, 1446. But Brunelleschi died in April
of that year, and Ghiberti's connection with the work had terminated
fourteen years previously. Milanesi adds to the confusion by going on
to state that Brunelleschi was chosen sole overseer of the cupola in
1443. In that year he was appointed sole overseer of the lantern
which was to be erected upon the dome. He had long been sole over
seer of the cupola.
t Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. 74, p. 38 ; Doc. 242, p. 85 ; Doc. 75-84,
PP- 38-45-

PROGRESS OF THE DOME. 267
Towards the end of the year 1425, in January (it is
to be remembered that the Florentine year began in
March), Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, together with one
of the Officials of the Cupola and the head-master of the
works, united in an important report to the Board, as
to the work in progress and that which was to be next
undertaken. It is plain from it that the difficulties of
building such a vault without centring were increasing
as the curve ascended. On the inner side of the vault
a parapet of planks was to be made, to protect the scaf
folding and to cut off the sight of the masters from the
void beneath them, for their greater security, " We say
nothing of centring," say the builders, "not that it
might not have given greater strength and beauty to
the work," which may well be doubted, " but not hav
ing been started with, a centring would now be un
desirable, and could hardly be made without arma
ture, for the sake of avoiding which the centring was
dispensed with at the beginning." * BruneUeschi's gen
ius was sufficient to overcome all the difficulties met
with in accomplishing the bold experiment which he
had devised, and which in its kind still remains without
parallel. Many entries in the records afford a lively impres
sion of scenes and incidents connected with the build-
* Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. 75, p. 38. The vote in which this re
port is included was first printed by Nelli, Piante ed Alzati di S. Maria
del Fiore, Firenze, 1765 ; afterwards in the Vita di Filippo di Ser Bru
nellesco, by Baldinucci, ed. Moreni, Firenze, 181 2, and again in La Metro
politana Fiorentina. Firenze, 1820.

268 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
ing. With all the precautions that could be taken, the
exposure of the workmen to the risk of falling was
great. Two men were thus killed in the first year of
the work. As the dome rose, the danger increased ; and
a provision was made that any of the masters or labor
ers who preferred to work below might do so, but at
wages one quarter less. Brunelleschi, finding that owing
to the vast height of the edifice, the builders lost much
time in going down for food and drink, arranged a
cook-shop, and stalls for the sale of bread and wine, in
the cupola itself. Thenceforth no one was allowed to
go down from his work oftener than once a day. But
the supply of wine In the cupola caused a new danger,
and an order was issued by the Board that, "considering
the risks which may daily threaten the master masons
who are employed on the wall of the cupola, on ac
count of the wine that is necessarily kept in the cupola,
from this time forth the clerk of the works shall not
allow any wine to be brought up which has not been
diluted with at least one third of water." But the work
men were reckless, and amused themselves, among other
ways, in letting themselves and each other down on the
outside of the dome in mere sport or to take young
birds from their nests, till at length the practice was
forbidden by an order of the Board.
So year by year the work went on ; the walls slowly
rounding upwards. During the first years of the build
ing of the dome, Florence was enjoying a period of un
wonted peace and prosperity. She was tranquil at

WAR ABROAD. DEPRESSION AT HOME. 369
home, and without war abroad. Her trade was flour
ishing, and her commerce extending. But In 1423 the
encroachments of Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan
forced a war upon her, which, beginning with disaster,
soon told with terrible effect upon her resources and
her spirit. It was, indeed, carried on, for the most part,
with mercenary troops, and cost the city far more in
money and in honor than in the blood of her people.
The republic had lost the art of defending herself with
the strong arm of her own children. She had become
dependent upon hireling soldiery; and such depend
ence, sign as it was of the decline of public spirit and of
private character, was a forerunner of the long series of
political calamities which w^as to end in her fall. The
burden of the war pressed heavily upon all classes, es
pecially upon the poor. The taxes became heavier and
heavier ; forced loans were resorted to ; in 1425 many of
the leading bankers and merchants were compelled to
faU ; the revenues of the opera of the Duomo fell off,
and in April, 1426, It was resolved to dismiss twenty-
five out of forty-three master builders employed, and to
diminish other expenses of the work.* Peace was made
in 1428, A new and more equitable system of taxation
had been adopted, and the city began to rejoice in the
return of prosperity. But the breathing-spell was short.
One war was scarcely ended before another began. In
1430 the Florentines were besieging their beautiful
neighbor Lucca, and distressing her territory with even
* Guasti, La Cupola, etc., Doc. 220, p. 81.

3 70 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
more than the usual barbarity of war in which the sol
diers were mere hired ruffians, "At this time there
was in Florence," says Machiavelli, " an eminent archi
tect named Philip di Ser Brunellesco, of whose works
our city is full, so that he deserved that after his death
his image in marble should be placed in the chief tem
ple of Florence, with an inscription beneath, which still,
to such as read U, bears witness of his virtues. He
showed how Lucca might be overflowed, taking into
consideration the site of the city and the bed of the
river Serchio, and finally induced the Ten* to order
that the attempt be made. From which proceeded
naught but confusion to our camp, and security to the
enemy." ! BruneUeschi might better have kept to his
own work, to which he returned on the 12th of June,
after an absence of a hundred days. His failure In the
field did him no service in Florence ; % Ghiberti remained
always jealous ; and there were always people about
says the anonymous biographer, " who made a circle,"
or, in modern phrase, " a ring," and gave him much trou-

* The Ten elected commissioners in charge of the war — " i Died
della Guerra."
t Machiavelli, Istorie Fiorentine, lib. iv. § 23.
X Giovanni Cavalcanti, the fair-minded and trustworthy contempo
rary chronicler of these times, writes, " Egli ebbono alcuni nostri fantas-
tichi, intra quali fu Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, i quali consigliorno con
la loro geometria falsa e bugiarda, non in se, ma nell' altrui ignoranza,
mostrorno che la citta di Lucca si poteva allagare ;" quoted by Gervi-
nus, Geschichte der florentinischen Historiographie, p. 78. Poggio, in
his Hist. Fiorentini Popidi, lib. vi., in Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script, tom.
XX. p. 363, gives a clear account of the project of Brunelleschi — " maxi-
mo omnium ejus tempestatis architecto " — and of its failure.

PROGRESS OF THE DOME. 371
ble with their continual gossip and false reports, sow
ing dissatisfaction among the master workmen. The
result was a strike among the masters for higher wages,
whereupon, one Saturday night Philip dismissed them
all, to the number of forty masters and apprentices, and
engaged eight or ten Lombard masons in their place.
The strikers, finding that they were not indispensable
to the construction, as they had fancied, and lamenting
the loss of their places, made humble submission, and,
after eleven weeks, thirty-nine of them were taken again
upon the works,*
Although they were engaged in such costly under
takings abroad, and the war went against them, yet the
Florentines, as Machiavelli says, " did not fail to adorn
their city." The work on the Duomo was now active
ly pushed forward. The second chain to resist the
thrust of the inner cupola was constructed, and in 1432
the dome had reached such a height that Brunelleschi
was ordered to make a model of the closing of Its sum
mit and also a model of the lantern that was to stand
on it in order that fuU consideration might be given
to the work, and due provision for it made in advance.
Two years more passed, years in which the city was
busied with public affairs of great concern both at home
and abroad, when at length, on the 12th of June, 1434,

* The story first told by the anonymous writer, p. 180, is retold with
more detail by Vasari, pp. 218, 219, and is confirmed by two documents
of December 12 and February 27, 1430 (Florentine style), in Guasti,
La Cupola, etc., p. 83.

3 72 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
just fourteen years from its beginning, the cupola closed
over the central space of the Duomo.* It had grown
slowly, marvellous in the eyes of all beholders, who saw
its walls rise curving over the void without apparent
support held suspended in the air as if by miracle.
Brunelleschi's fame was secure; henceforth his work
was chief part of Florence. But though the cupola had
reached its wished-for end — " devenisse ad optatum
finem sue clausure " — something remained stiU to be
done upon it for Its perfect completion, and other work
was required to bring the whole church into fit condi
tion for public use, which was now ardently desired by
the people of the city. The opera, therefore, determined
to cover the roofs of the tribunes with lead, to make
some necessary repairs in the walls of the older part of
the church, and to build anew certain chapels on each
side of the nave, before proceeding with the erection of
the lantern above the dome.!
In the early summer of 1434, the Pope, Eugenius IV.,
flying from enemies in Rome, was received with great
ceremony and display at Florence. A residence was
* Guasti, La Cupola, etc., p. 199. The date is from Cambi, Storia
Fiorentina, p. 188. Migliore, in his Firenze Illustrata, 1684, p. 13, gives
the date as 12th of January, but this seems a typographical error; see
Guasti, Doc. 260, p. 90. Considering the size and the difficulty of the
work, the time employed on its construction proves the diligence with
which it had been carried on. In the trustworthy Notizie e Guida di
Firenze [da P. Thouar ed E. Repetti], 1841, the height of the cupola is
stated at 61 Florentine braccia, which equals 1 16.80 English ft.; the
height of its spring from the pavement is 93 braccia, or 178.07 ft., mak
ing the total height to its summit about 295 ft.
t Guasti, Id. Doc. 259, p. 89.

THE CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH. 2nx
assigned to him in the conventual buildings attached
to Sta. Maria Novella, and here the papal court was for
the time established, and new interests and new pictu
resqueness were added to the crowded and various ac
tivities of Florentine" life. The Pope, grateful for the
treatment he received from the authorities of State and
for the honors paid him by the citizens, desired to make
such return as was in his power. He bestowed the
Rose of Gold* on St. Mary of the Flower, and he will
ingly undertook, at the request of the republic, to per
form in person the ceremony of the consecration of the
church on the Feast of the Annunciation, the Floren
tine New-year's-day, the 25th of March, 1436. From
the portal of Sta. Maria Novella to the wide steps of
Sta. Maria del Fiore, a distance of more than a quarter
of a mile, a plafform was erected, raised about four feet
from the ground, and about eight feet in width. An
awning of blue and white cloth, the colors of the Pope,
was stretched above it and the posts by which the awn
ing was supported were festooned with boughs of myr
tle and olive, fir and cypress. The floor of the platform
was carpeted, and Its sides hung with tapestries. Along
this decorated way. In view of a vast concourse of citi
zens and strangers, who occupied windows and roofs,
* On the fourth Sunday of Lent, the Pope, in going to and returning
from church, carries in his hand a golden rose, which used afterwards
to be given to the most noble and powerful personage of his court. In
later custom it has been common to'*bestow it as a mark of grace on
monarchs and others in high station. Durandus gives a long account
of the mystical and allegorical significance attaching to it. See his Ra
tionale Divinorum Officiorum. lib. vi. cap. 53, num. 8.
18

2 74 FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
and lined the streets, gay with festal adornments, the
Pope, in his pontifical robes, proceeded with splendid
pageant to the cathedral. Before him was borne the
cross, behind him came cardinals and bishops, and the
whole Court of Rome, prelates and ambassadors from
foreign states, and the Signory and high officers of Flor
ence. The city had seldom witnessed so magnificent
a display. The liking for such shows, and the art to
set them forth with dignity and splendor, were charac
teristic features of the period.
The ceremony of consecration Is one of the most
impressive of the stately and solemn offices of the Ro
man Church. Its symbolic forms, full of a significance
that appeals directly to the imagination, are invested
with associations that touch the deepest Christian sen
timent The consecration of the visible edifice is the
type of the union of the mystic bride with her Lord.
Three times does the consecrating prelate, bishop or
pope as he may be, knock with his pastoral staff at
the closed door, saying, " AttoUIte portas, princlpes, ves-
tras, et elevamini portee sternales : et introibit Rex
gloricC." Then a voice from within asks, " Quis est
iste Rex glorlse?" And the answer is returned in
the words of the psalm, " Dominus fortis et potens ;"
and to the repeated question, answer is made again,
" Dominus virtutum ipse est Rex gloiise." * Then the
* " Lift up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory ?
The Lord strong and mighty. . . . The Lord of hosts, he is the King of
glory.'' Psalm xxiv. 7-10; in the Vulgate, Psalm xxiii.

CEREMONIES OF CONSECRATION. 275
doors are thrown wide open, and the bishop, entering,
says, " Pax huic domui, et omnibus habltantibus in ea,"
thus signifying that peace which Christ wrought be
tween God and man.
On this great day for Florence the cathedral was
decorated with unusual la\'Ishness and splendor. The
Pope consecrated and blessed the high -altar, and the
Cardinal Orsini anointed the twelve crosses painted
upon the four walls, before each of which twelve candles
were burning. With symbolic rites, and with prayer,
with chant and procession, the service lasted for five
hours. But this was not all ; the consecration was fol
lowed by another ceremony in curious contrast — con
trast characteristic of the temper of the time — to the
sacred offices just concluded. The Pope, with intent
to pay still more honor to the city whose support was
of great importance to him, desired that the order of
knighthood should be conferred in his presence, within
the church, upon the Gonfalonier of Florence, Giuliano
Davanzatl The ceremony was duly performed, and the
Pope, after the arming of the knight clasped with his
own hand the coUar of knighthood around his neck, " a
thing never before done to any citizen." Then the Car
dinal of Venice said mass, and finally the Pope gave his
blessmg to the people, conceding to them, and to whoso
ever thenceforth, on the anniversary of that feast should
hear high mass within the Duomo, seven years and
seven times forty days of indulgence. That night the
Gonfalonier gave a grand banquet in the palace, and

2 76 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
the Signory, In recognition of the favors received from
the Pope, voted " to give to him fourteen prisoners of
importance." *
At the time of the consecration of the cathedral,
Cosimo de' Medici was the chief man in the Florentine
commonwealth. His recall from exile in 1434 had been
foUowed by the banishment or death of the prominent
leaders of the party opposed to him in the State, and
from this period tiU his death, in 1464, his influence and
authority were predominant in public affairs. He was
now in the prime of life. His character was strong and
reserved, his will resolute, his Intelligence clear and re
ceptive. The fervent spirit common to the men of the
Renaissance was tempered In him by the solid common-
sense of the Florentine burgher, and by early training
in the business of his father's bank. He had been care
fully educated, and was endowed by nature with a taste
for learning and a powerful memory. He was the lich-

* For the account of the procession, see the eye-witness Vespasiano
da Bisticci's description in his memoir of Eugenius IV., in his Vite di
Uomini Illustri del Secolo XV. These Lives by the bookseller Vespa
siano are one of the most precious books of the century. There is no
other that brings us so closely face to face with the men of Florence.
The simplicity and candor of Vespasiano's character appear in his nar
ratives. The book affords many illustrations of the literary aspect of
the early Renaissance. Unfortunately, Vespasiano seems to have cared
little for the arts except those connected with book -making, such as
calligraphy,* illumination, and binding. But the student of the fine arts
of the Renaissance will find much of incidental interest in Vespasiano's
pleasant pages, See also, in regard to the consecration, Ammirato,
Istorie Fiorentine, lib. xxi., ed. 1826, tomo vi. p. 245, and Machiavelli,
Istorie Fiorentine, lib. v. § 15. In regard to the release of prisoners, see
ante, pp. 134, 215.

COSIMO DE' MEDICI. 377
est man in Italy, but he was not less liberal in the use
than skilful in the acquisition of wealth. His habit of
thought was grave ; he was the friend of scholars and
artists ; and no man in his time did more to stimulate
the zeal for the acquisition of new learning, or to pro
mote the works by which the dignity and the beauty
of Florence were increased. During the stay of Pope
Eugenius in the city, Cosimo, at his suggestion, under
took to rebuild the Convent of St. Mark, and employed
MIchellozzi, a man of genius, second only as an archi
tect to Brunelleschi, for the work. On the walls of
this convent Fra Angelico painted his famous frescos,
and fifty years later one of its cells was occupied by
Savonarola.* It was about this time that Cosimo, having rejected
a plan for a palace designed for him by Brunelles
chi, as too sumptuous and magnificent for a private
citizen, set Michelozzi to building that famous palace,
StiU one of the noblest in Florence, which, according to
Vasari, deserves the more praise because it was the first
In that city built in the modern style with appropriate
distribution of apartments.! On the ornaments of this
* Vespasiano, who was well acquainted with Cosimo, and who, in his
Lives, has drawn an extremely interesting, life-like, and attractive por
trait of him, represents this work as undertaken by Cosimo to relieve
his conscience from the burden of ill-gotten wealth. Vespasiano's ac
count of his various pious buildings, and of the collection of books'with
which he supplied more than one convent library, is both entertaining
and instructive.
t Vasari, Life of Michelozzo Michelozzi, iii. 272. This palace passed, in
the seventeenth century, into the hands of the Riccardi family, by whom
it was enlarged, and it has since been known as the Palazzo Riccardi.

278 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
palace DonateUo was employed, and the walls of Its
chapel were painted by Benozzo Gozzoli with a series
of beautiful pictures representing the Journey of the
Wise Men of the East in which may still be seen the
portraits of Cosimo and other famous men of the time.
Cosimo kept buUders, sculptors, and painters well em
ployed, and his example was followed by many of the
rich citizens. The arts were seldom busier in Flor
ence, their chief modern workshop, than In these years.*
Not long after the consecration of the Duomo, the
work on the cupola was completed,! and on the 30th
* In 1426-27 it seems probable that Masaccio was painting his epoch-
making pictures, "the first of the modern style," in the Capella Bran
cacci ; in 1432 Ghiberti, still at work on his second door, designed the
great tabernacle for the altar in the Uffizio of the Art of Flax-dress
ers, which the next year was painted by Fra Angelico, " di dentro e di
fuori, CO colori oro, azzurro et arieto, de' migliori et piii fini che si truo-
vino, con ogni sua arte et industria." See the memorandum of con
tract in Gualandi, Memorie Originali risguardanti le Belle Arti, ser. iv.
p. no. Bologna, 1843. The tabernacle " painted within and without "
is now in the Uffizi Gallery. In 1434 Filippo Lippi was painting for
the high-altar of Sant' Ambrogio that most lovely " Coronation of the
Virgin '' now in the Academy, and known by its portrait of the painter
and the angel with the scroll bearing the words Is perfecit opus. In these
years DonateUo was busy with tender figures for tombs, and with stat
ues for the Duomo and the Campanile. In 1437 Luca della Robbia was
working on his bass-reliefs, beautiful in design and execution, for the
Campanile. In 1436 Paolo Uccello was painting his big equestrian por
trait of Giovanni Acuto — the adventurer John Hawkwood — on the wall
of the Duomo. Such were some of the works going on ; many scarcely
less beautiful or less interesting, done in these years, have perished or
have dropped from memory. The great moments in history — and
there have been but few of them — are those when a people has much
to express, and finds expression for itself by means of artists sympa
thetic with its higher moods, and capable of giving to them just ut
terance. t In 1434 a commission was given to DonateUo and Luca della Rob
bia to make, each of them, a head in clay, " prout eis et cuilibet eorum

BENEDICTION OF THE DOME. 370
of August 1436, the Bishop of Fiesole, attended by
clergy and people, mounted to the dome in order to
bestow upon it a solemn benediction. Among the en
tries in the journal of expenses of the opera is one for
money spent on that day for a gift to the bishop, and
"for trumpeters and fifers, wine, bread, meat, fruit
cheese and macaroni, and other things," * given to the
masters and workmen, and to the canons and priests,
for the celebration of this feast and benediction.
It was just after the completion of the dome that
Leon Battista Alberti, the most universal genius and
the most accomplished man of his age, one who repre
sented in clearest traits the spirit of the Renaissance,
was restored to Florence, whence his family had long
been banished. The close of his exile was a result of
the revolution accomplished by the return of Cosimo
de' Medici in 1434, The impression which the works
accomplished by the living generation of Florentine
artists made upon this son of Florence born in exile,
who tiU his thirtieth year had never entered his ances
tral city, was very deep, and it finds striking and mem
orable expression in the dedication to Brunelleschi of
his treatise on Painting which was written in the year
1436, ! " I have been accustomed," says Alberti, In this
videbitur melius et pulcrius," to serve as a model for a head to be cut
in stone to be set " in gula clausure cupole magne." Guasti, La Cupola,
etc.. Doc. 252, p. 88.
* Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. 261, p. 90.
t Della Pittura di Leon Battista Alberti Libri Tre, of which the last
and best edition is that of Janitschek, No. XI. of the series of Quellen-

28o FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
dedication, in words that breathe the feeling of the
Renaissance, "both to wonder and to grieve that so
many supreme and divine arts and sciences, w^hich,
alike from their works and from history, we see to have
abounded In those most highly endowed ancients, were
now lacking and almost utterly lost And, indeed, hear
ing from many that this was the case, I thought that
Nature, mistress of all things, now grown old and weary,
even as she no longer brought forth giants, in likewise
no longer produced geniuses such as those most ample
and marvellous spirits which she produced in her youth
ful and more glorious days.
" But since I have been restored, after long exUe, in
which I, Alberti, have grown old, to this our native land,
that surpasseth all others In her adornment, I have recog
nized in many, but chiefly in thee, Philip, and in our near
friend Donato the sculptor, and in those others, Nen
do and Luca and Masaccio, genius capable for every
praiseworthy work, not inferior to that of any ancient
and famous master in the arts.* Wherefore I perceived
that in our own industry and diligence, not less than In
the kindness of nature and of the ages, lay the power
of acquiring praise for every excellence. I acknowl
edge, indeed, that as it was less difficult for the ancients,
schrif ten fiir Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters und der
Renaissance, herausgegeben von R. Eitelberger v. Edelberg. Wien, 1877.
* Nendo was the familiar name of Lorenzo Ghiberti, and this easy
reference to him is pleasant as showing that whatever bitterness of
feeling may have existed between him and Brunelleschi, it did not ren
der the expression of admiration for him difficult in words addressed
to the great architect. Luca is Luca della Robbia.

ALBERTFS DEDICATION. 28 1
having abundant supply of teachers and of models, to
rise to the knowledge of those supreme arts which are •
to-day most laborious for us, even so much the greater
should be our fame if we, without preceptors and with
out examples, invent arts and sciences unheard of and
never before seen. Who is so unfeeling or so envious
that he would not praise Pippo (Brunelleschi), the ar
chitect beholding here a structure so grand, lifted to
the heavens, ample to cover with its shadow the whole
Tuscan people, erected without aid of framework or
multitude of timbers — a work of art in truth, if I judge
rightly, such as, deemed Incredible in these times of
ours, was neither conceived nor known by the ancients.?
But there wUl be another place for reciting thy praises
and the virtue of our Donato, and of the others most
dear to me by their ways. Do thou only persevere in
inventing as thou dost from day to day things by which
thy marvellous genius shaU acquire perpetual fame and
name, and if perchance some leisure shall fall to thee,
it wiU please me shouldst thou look over this little
book of mine on painting, which, inscribed to thee, I
have written In the Tuscan tongue,"
The early part of the fifteenth century has not left
us a more interesting record than this of personal rela
tions, or a better iUustration of the disposition of the
age, and of contemporary criticism upon its chief pro
ductions. The completion of the cupola was not the comple
tion of Brunelleschi's work. Upon the cupola was

282 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
to stand the lantern, that was to form the proper
summit of the whole vast edifice, and on the pro
portions and design of which the effect of the dome
itself would be greatly dependent. The Board of
Works had long had Brunelleschi's model in their
hands, and can scarcely have doubted that he was the
man to put the crown upon his own work ; but the
busy circle of critics and rivals was to be considered,
and. If possible, conciliated. The familiar means was
adopted of asking for models from all such persons as
might desire to make one, and of exhibiting them to
the public. " All the masters who were in Florence,"
says Vasari, " after seeing FUippo's model, set to work
to make one, and even a woman of the house of Gaddi
ventured Into the competition." The opera gave notice
that all the models must be ready by the 15th of Sep
tember of this year, 1436 ; and at that time five models,
besides that of BruneUeschi, were presented, one of
them by Ghiberti, who could not desist from the old
habit of rivalry.
An assembly was convened to consider and pro
nounce upon the models. It was composed of a great
number of masters of theology, of very many doctors,
of architects, goldsmiths, and masters of numerous other
arts, as well as of many citizens, and the general opinion
was in favor of Brunelleschi's design. But this was not
enough. Three meetings of the Board were held, at
which w^ere present two architects, two painters, two
goldsmiths, one mathematician (arismetricus), and two

REPORT ON MODELS OF THE LANTERN. 38,
of the more intelligent citizens of Florence, Ingenious
and versed in the art of architecture, who, after study
ing the matter weU, gave their opinion in writing con
cerning the models ; and, finally, a committee was ap
pointed consisting of seven of the most respected and
notable citizens, among them Cosimo de' Medici, who,
after due deliberation, gave their opinion in the foUow
ing terms : " that having examined the models for the
construction and arrangement of the lantern, and con
sidered diligently the experiments conducted, and the
reports made upon the said models by numerous ar
chitects, painters, goldsmiths, and other inteUIgent citi
zens, it seems to them that the model of Philip Master
Brunelleschi Is best in form, and possesses the best parts
of perfection ; in that it is stronger than the other mod
els, and also lighter in fact and In appearance ; further,
in that it is better lighted ; and, finally. In that it Is well
devised to resist injury from water. And, for these afore
said reasons and causes, it seems to them that the lan
tern should be made and constructed according to the
model of the said PhUip, and that the same Philip should
be Intrusted with the work to put It In execution, with
these conditions, to wit : that the Board of Works should
have Philip before them, and should, committing this
charge to him with such words as may be required, de
sire him to be pleased to lay aside all rancor, if any abide
in him, and to correct and amend such part of the said
model as he may judge to be defective, although in
slight degree ; and to take and adopt into his own de-

284 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
sign what things are good and useful in the other mod
els, to the end that the said lantern may have all Its
parts perfect ; in regard to all these matters laying the
burden upon his conscience. And they give the afore
said advice, taking into account the above-mentioned
counsels, and having regard to the marvellous work of
the great cupola, which by his virtue he has brought to
the desired end." Having given due consideration to
this memorable opinion, the Board of Works, " wishing"
(these were their words) " to make a beginning of such
a lantern as is befitting to a work so magnificent and
admirable as the great cupola, and such as is desired
by the whole people of Florence," proceeded, on the
31st of December, 1436, to a formal and secret vote,
and " unanimously determined and decreed that the
said lantern should be constructed and built accord
ing to the model of the aforesaid Philip Master Bru
nelleschi, and that the ordering and execution of the
work should be committed to Philip in the manner
and form advised by the worthy and eminent citizens
aforesaid." *
The work, being thus completely intrusted to Bru
neUeschi, should have gone forward rapidly; and, Indeed,
fifteen days after his appointment PhUip, accompanied
by three of the masters employed by the opera, made
* These instructive and remarkable proceedings are set forth in full
in the records of the Board of Works. See Guasti, La Cupola, etc..
Doc. 273, pp. 93-95. They afford another illustration of the excellent
spirit and methods of the Florentines in the conduct of great public
works.

> CHANGES IN THE FLORENTINE CHARACTER. 28s
a journey to the quarries of Camplglia to see whether
the marble required in the construction of the lantern
could be obtained from them. But the work of actual
building was not begun. Year after year there was de
lay. The cause of this slackness cannot now be ascer
tained. The public temper of Florence had undergone
a great change since the last century. The city was
contentedly submitting to the gradual loss of Its inde
pendence ; it was wearied and exhausted by the turbu
lence and the efforts of many generations. It preferred
quiet and material prosperity, with loss of liberty, to the
strenuous exertions required for self-government and
to the frequent recurrence of disturbances resulting
from such democratic institutions as those of which
it had long had experience. There Is nothing sur
prising in this. The steadiest human motives are
those of a material order. The higher motives are
seldom other than inconstant and irregular incite
ments to the mass of men, even In communities in
which the average of character is high. In Florence
that generous sense of common civic interests which
had inspired and in great measure united her citizens,
in spite of imbittered party divisions, had gradually de
clined. The ancient faith, which had been the support
of morality, was weakened and undermined by the new
thought of the Renaissance. The standard of personal
conduct was lowered. The increase of intelligence was
accompanied with a growth of selfishness. The very
development of individuality which was characteristic

2 86 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
of the period tended to enfeeble the commonwealth.
Men gave themselves up to private ends and enter
prises. They built and adorned palaces rather than
churches.* Moreover, at this time the Florentines were oc
cupied by concerns which, although of high ecclesias
tical significance, gave curious indication of the de
cline in power of religious ideas over the minds and
lives of clergy and laity alike. The Church was dis
tracted by bitter internal discord. There were rival
popes — two opposing Infallibles, There were rival
councils, each claiming to be oecumenical The coun
cil that had met at Ferrara was conspicuous by the
presence of the chief prelates of the Eastern Church,
and of the Emperor of the East John Pafeologus,
whose splendid pretensions and nominal dignities were
in sharp contrast with his shrunken possessions and fee
ble authority. After long intrigue, the Greek bishops,
induced by bribery, compelled by poverty and fear of
the Turks, Influenced by a multitude of considerations,
personal, political, and ecclesiastical, had come with in
tent to defend, indeed, their ancient opinions on the
points of difference by which the Latin and the Greek
Church had for six hundred years been divided, but
* In a noted passage in his.History, Varchi, describing the city of
Florence, says, citing as his authority Benedetto Dei, " a diligent and
sensible person," that between the years 1450 and 1478 thirty palaces
were built. Most of these were magnificent and stately edifices. There
were thirty-five palaces of older date. At the same period there were
one hundred and thirty-eight gardens within the walls. Storia Fioren
tina, lib. ix. §§ 38, 39.

THE COUNCIL OF FLORENCE. 287
prepared finally to yield them for the sake of a union
from which they might hope for at least material benefit.
The age was not one to breed martyrs for mere doc
trine's sake. Driven from Ferrara by the plague. Pope,
Emperor, and Council betook themselves to Florence,
where, in the winter of 1439, they were welcomed with
magnificent hospitality. The city was fiUed with illus
trious guests from many lands. The debates In the
Council were protracted through several months. At
length, " on a solemn day," says the excellent Vespasi
ano — it was the 6th of July — " the Pope, with all the
Court of Rome, and the Emperor of the Greeks, with all
the bishops and prelates, went to St Mary of the Flower,
which had been prepared as beseemed such an occa
sion. The Pope, the cardinals, and the prelates of the
Roman Church took their places on the side where the
Gospel is read, and on the other side was the Emperor
of Constantinople, with all the Greek bishops and arch
bishops." All were arrayed in their richest robes of
ceremony, and " the style of the Greek dresses seemed
far more grave and becoming than that of the Latin
prelates." The Pope sang a solemn mass ; Cardinal
JuUan, and Bessarlon, Archbishop of Nlcaea, read from
the pulpit in their respective tongues, the act of union,
and " mutually embraced in the name and In the pres
ence of their applauding brethren," and before the mul
titude of spectators of so singular and splendid a scene,
who crowded the vast nave of the cathedral, and filled
the space beneath its majestic dome. " All the world

2 88 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
had gathered in Florence to witness an act of such
dignity.",* Many notable ceremonies have been performed, many
striking incidents have taken place, within the walls of
Santa Maria del Fiore, but never was the great church
the theatre of a performance more impressive than that
of this day, from the variety and the character of the
historic and religious associations with which it ap
pealed to the imagination. The Emperor of the East
stood there as the representative of the ancient world,
a solitary and splendid figure, round which were gath
ered the mightiest traditions of the past ; the Pope was
hardly less an image of the past the symbol of that
Mediaeval Church which was giving way before the
spirit of the modern world.
The proper work of the Council failed. The union
of the churches of the East and the West was a de
lusion. But the influence of the Council was neither
transient nor local ; it was one of the chief agencies in
the emancipation of the intelligence of Europe. The
presence in Florence for many months of a number of
learned and eminent men to whom the tongue of an
cient Greece was hardly a dead language quickened
the long-since-awakened zeal of Florentine students to
possess themselves of that " golden key which could
unlock for them the treasures of antiquity."

* Vespasiano's account of the ceremonies is in his Life of Eugenius
IV., §§ 13, 14. Gibbon gives a clear and animated narrative of the pro
ceedings of the Council, ch. Ixvi.

STUDY OF GREEK AT FLORENCE. 389
The eloquence of Bessarlon, the mystical discourses
of the venerable Gemistos Plethon, indoctrinated their
Florentine disciples with the divine teachings of their
common master, Plato. It was a doctrine conformed to
the inherited poetic and religious genius of Florence,
The Platonic Academy was founded by Cosimo de'
Medici, whose own nature was susceptible to the im
pression made by these teachers. The reverence for
Plato led to the study and interpretation of Greek
poetry and philosophy in general ; and when, fifteen
years later, Constantinople, the last refuge of Greek let
ters on their own ground, fell a conquest to the barbaric
Turk, the enthusiasm thus awakened had happily not
abated, and Italy was prepared to offer asylum to schol
ars who brought her the last remnants of ancient learn
ing, and to become the interpreter to Europe of the
thought of Greece, and, by force of kindred genius,
to revivify the Greek spirit in new forms of art. As
Homer admitted Dante to his company of poets, so
the architects of Athens would not have denied their
brotherhood with Brunelleschi, nor would her painters
have refused to Botticelli entrance to their band.
In the year of the Council, little advance seems to
have been made towards the completion of the Duomo.
There was a falling-off in the funds at the disposal of
the Board of Works. The salary of Brunelleschi and of
other masters was reduced one halt* For three years
* This was on tte ground of an impost of two thousand florins laid
on the opera by the magistracy called della Masserizia, or " of Frugal-
19

2 GO FLORENCE. AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
there is no record of work, and it was not tUl April,
1445, that the Consuls of the Art of Wool, desirous
that the lantern should be buIU, and considering the
extreme difficulty of raising stone and marble to the
top of the dome and of supporting it there in sufficient
quantity for the construction, by a fresh vote appointed
" PhUip, who said he could do the work, sole overseer for
the term of his life," but " no longer," adds the cautious
scribe — " pro tempore et termino duraturo eius vita du
rante et donee vixerit et non ulterius" — at a salary once
more of a hundred florins annually.* It is uncertain
whether the work of actual construction was even
then begun. The documents are silent; Baldinucci,
without giving his authority, asserts that the first stone
of the lantern was placed In 1445, and there is no evi
dence to contradict his assertion.! But the master
was not to see his design completed, was not long even
to direct its progress.
" Finally," says Vasari, " Filippo, being now very old,
that is, sixty-nine years old, in the year 1446, on the
1 6th of April, went to a better life, after having toiled
greatly in the performance of works which made him
deserve on earth an honored name, and obtain in heav
en an abode of peace. His country felt infinite grief
for him, and knew and esteemed him when he was
dead far more than it had done while he was living.
ity." The motive of this impost is not stated. Guasti, La Cupola, etc.,
Doc. 88, p. 46.
* Guasti, La Cupola, etc.. Doc. 93, p. 48.
t Baldinucci, Vita di Filippo Ser Brunellesco, Firenze, 1812, p. 126.

DEA TH OF BR UNELLESCHI. 2 9 1
A multitude of friends, artists, wept for him, and chiefly
the poorer among them, to whom he had done good
continually." His body was laid in the campanUe, but in Febru
ary of the next year order was taken that it should be
buried within the cathedral, and that the marble slab
in the pavement above his grave should bear the words
" FILIPPUS ARCHITECTOR."
It was BruneUeschi's chief desire, says Vasari, to bring
back to light good architecture, the good old orders, in
place of the German and barbarous style which had
been in vogue ; and he succeeded. The curves of his
dome clasp the modern to the classic world.
More than twenty years passed after Brunelleschi's
death before the lantern was completed. On the 23d
of AprU, 1467, the last and highest stone was set and
the Signory of the city and the Consuls of the Art of
Wool mounted to the lantern, in order to be present
at its consecration by the archbishop, with his chapter
and aU the canons and chaplains of the Church.*
* Ricordo of Alamanno di Francesco, in Gualandi, Memorie di Belle
Arti, ser. iv. 1845, p. 139. The date is generally given, it is so even by
Guasti (p. 202), as 23d of April, 1461. This error is due to Baldinucci,
who misdates a Ricordo which he cites. Vita di Filippo di Ser Brunel
lesco, p. 126, note. The Record itself should have saved him from the
error, and led to its eariier correction, for it contains the name of the
Gonfalonier present at the consecration of the lantern, Tommaso So
derini. Soderini was Gonfalonier in 1467. Compare Doc. 317 in Guasti,
La Cupola, etc., p. 107, from the records of the opera, dated December 31,
1466, in which are the words " seeing that the lantern is near its perfec
tion,' so that in a short time it will be finished and complete." Milanesi
repeats the error in his new edition of Vasari, Firenze, 1878, tomo ii.
p. 364, note.

2Q2 FLORENCE, AND ST. MARY OF THE FLOWER.
With the completion of Brunelleschi's design, the
interest of the history of St Mary of the Flower as a
work of religious faith, of civic pride, of artistic genius,
comes to an end. Few cities possess a nobler or more
characteristic monument of the great achievements of
their people in the past Few cities have nurtured a
people so worthy of such a memorial as those of Flor
ence.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX I.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA.
The following documents were obtained by me from
the archives in Siena, in 1870. Some of them were
published in an article in Von Zahn's fahrbiic her fiir
Kunstwissenschaft, in May, 1872; but that excellent
journal soon after ceased to appear, owing to the un
timely death of its accomplished editor, and as its
numbers are accessible to few English readers, I have
thought It worth while to reprint those documents
which appeared In it, and to add to them a few that
have never been in print.
The Padre Della Valle, in his Lettere Sanesi (1782),
published a few documents relating to the Duomo.
Others were printed by Von Rumohr in his stIU valu
able Italienische Forschungen (1827). These were re
published, with many printed for the first time, by
Milanesi, in his Documenti per la Storia dell' Arte Se
nese (1854), often referred to In the preceding pages.
The first of the documents I print is an extract from
the earliest existing "Statuto" of the commune, con
cerning the duties of the Podesta in respect to the Du
omo, of which I have given an account on pp. 86-88,

296

APPENDIX.

I.
From Statuto Senese II., f. i.
A.D. CIRCA 1260.
(l .) Dejure operariorum sancte marie.
Et infra unum mensem a principio mei dominatus faciam jurare
operarios opere sancte marie, quod omnes redditus qui ad manus eo
rum pervenerint pro ipso opere, vel eius occasione, reducent in manus
trium legalium hominum de penitentia, quos dominus episcopus eligat,
cum consulibus utriusque mercantie, et prioribus xxillj"' vel cum ma-
iori parti eorum, qui teneantur esse cum domino episcopo ad ipsam
electionem faciendam, de tribus in tribus mensibus, salvo quod possint
inde facere consuetas expensas. Et illos tres cogam recipere super se
omne debitum quod pro ipso opere debetur, si dominus episcopus volu-
erit opus sancte marie et debitum sub sua protectione recipere, et dicti
tres teneantur reddere rationem eorum in consilio campane et populi
de tribus in tribus mensibus, et potestas teneatur facere reddi dictam
rationem a dictis tribus ut dictum est.
(2.) De eodem.
Et faciam consilium campane comunis per totum mensem januarii
de providendo super mittendis hominibus qui revideant rationem red-
dituum et expensarum operis sancte marie, et qualiter procedatur in
dicto opere, et de habendo operario uno vel pluribus ; et quicquid con
silium, vel maior pars, dixerit ita faciam et observabo.
(3.) Dejure eorumdem.
Et faciam jurare operarios sancte marie quod quando habebunt x
libras super facto operis ipsas expendent in amanamento * et facto ope
ris, et illud admanamentum non preste[n]t alicui sine domini episcopi
parabola et mea, et ab inde superius mutabitur in opere ad dictum do
mini episcopi et mei.
(4.) Dejure illorum qui acquirunt pro opere sancte marie.
Et faciam jurare illos qui acquirunt in civitate senarum pro opere
sancte marie quod quicquid ad manus eorum sive ad eos pro ipso opere
perveniet sine diminutione dabitur et reassignabitur in manus domino-
* This is a Latinizing of the word "ammanimento,'' which means "prepara
tion," here used, perhaps, for the getting-together of tools and materials. Com
pare " Ma se le svergognate fosser certe
Di quel che '1 ciel veloce loro ammana." Dante, Purg. xxiii. 106-7.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 297
rum operis vel in manus illorum qui pro opere fuerint electi, et hoc fa
cere teneantur singulis edomadis semel, exceptis illis qui diebus pasqua-
libus acquirunt in ecclesia maiori, et predicta juramenta fiant per to
tum mensem januarii.
(5.) De reducendis marmoribus ad opus sancte marie.
Et si contigerit quod rector et operarii maioris ecclesie rumpi mar
mora fecerint pro opere sancte marie, et ilia voluerint facere reduci ad
illud opus, ilia marmora et portilia faciam deferri expensis comunis, vel
per foretaneos nostre jurisdictionis, usque ad dictum opus, ad inquisi-
tionem operariorum eiusdem opere vel dominorum fraternitatis.
(6.) De tnagistris datidis operi sancte marie.
Et dabo vel dari faciam operi sancte marie x magistros expensis et
pretio comunis senarum, a futuris kalendis januarii ad unum annum,
diebus quibus erit laborandum ad inquisitionem dominorum ipsius ope
ris : et faciam jurare operarios quod ipsi facient jurare magistros labo-
rare in dicto opere bona fide sine fraude sicuti in proprio suo labora-
rent, et quod dicti operarii teneantur accusare dictos magistros apud
camerarium et iiij"' [provisores] comunis senarum si predicta non face-
rent vel non observarent. (7.) Dejure magistrorum opere sancte marie.
Et predictos magistros jurare faciam assidue in dicto opere laborare
tam in estate quemadmodum in yeme, et pro eodem pretio, et quod
nulli alii adiuvabunt ad laborandum sine speciali licentia potestatis, et
tunc pro facto comunis tamen, et hoc idem observetur de omnibus aliis
qui in dicto opere fuerint conducti.
(8.) De deliberando et ordinando quomodo in dicto opere procedatur.
Et de mense januarii tenear ego potestas, et capitaneus teneatur, una
cum consulibus utriusque mercanzie et prioribus xxiiij", deliberare et
videre et ordinare super facto operis sancte marie quomodo et qualiter
in dicto opere procedatur, et quot magistri in ipso opere debeant labo
rare, et quomodo laborent ibi assidue sine interpolatione alterius ope
ris, et super salario eorum, et utrum debeant dicti magistri retinere in
gignoribus * vel non, et super operariis ibidem statuendis, et super acta-
tionibus dicti operis, et super faciendo fieri sedilia sive gradus lapidis
circum circa plateam episcopatus per magistros dicti operis, ut cum fit
contio sive parlamentum gentes possint sedere et morari super ipsis
gradibus ; et generaliter super omnibus et singulis supradictis, et eorum
occasione, et super omnibus utilitatibus faciendis pro dicto opere sicut
* "Gin'nore"= apprentice. See Statuti degli Orafi Sanesi, of 1361, in Gaye,
Carteggio, tomo i. p. 8. ,

298

APPENDIX.

eis videbitur, et quicquid de predictis fecerint et statuerint sit ratum et
firmum non obstante aliquo constituto.
(9.) De inveniendo loco pro cappeUa construenda ad honorem dei et beate
virgitzis.
Et teneantur priores .xxiiij" et camerarius et iiij""' provisores comunis
senarum et consules utriusque mercantie, si exinde fuerint requisiti
a domino episcopo senensi, invenire et videre et ordinare locum unum
in quo eis videretur magis conveniens pro construendo et faciendo fieri
expensis operis sancte marie unam capellam ad honorem et reverentiam
dei, et beate marie virginis, et illorum sanctorum in quorum solempni-
tate dominus dedit senensibus victoriam de inimicis, cum oporteat cap-
pellam sancti jacobi destrui pro ornatu episcopatus ; et in illo loco quem
predicti ordines approbaverint et ordinaverint dicta cappella fiat ex
pensis operis sancte marie.
(10.*) De revidendis et apt land is domibus que sunt circa operam sancte
marie.
Et per totum mensem februarii faciam consilium campane in quo
proponam et consilium petam de facienda platea, et revidendis et emen-
dis et aptiandis domibus et hedificiis que sunt circa operam sancte
marie maioris ecclesie senensis ex parte posteriori, et quicquid exinde
consilium vel maior pars dixerit ut eius expensis debeat fieri, ita fa
ciam et complebo. (11.) De emenda domo filiorum dainelli.
Cum per domum emptam a comuni senarum que fuit filiorum trojani
platea que est post opus beate marie virginis, dicta platea non possit
iam explanari ut homines et persone possint comode ingredi dictam
ecclesiam, et sic expense ille sint ammisse et nullius valoris, statuimus
et ordinamus quod domus filiorum dainelli de arbiola ematur a comu
ni senarum pro explananda et actanda platea ad hoc, ut facilius ingres-
sus sit omnibus volentibus inde intrare dictam ecclesiam ; et dicta emp-
tio fiat secundum extimationem trium bonorum hominum qui eligan-
tur per camerarium et quatuor provisores comunis senarum ; et dicti
tres sit unus de civitate veteri, et alius de valle sancti martini, et alius
de terzerio camollie ; que domus destruantur et mittantur per totum
mensem aprilis, et aptetur ita dicta platea quod homines et persone li
bere et facile possint intrare dictam ecclesiam ; lateres vero et hedificia
dictarum domorum vendantur pro comuni senarum et pretium eorum
detur in emptionem dictarum domorum, et dicti tres jurent de novo
bona fide sine fraude facere rectam et legalem extimationem dictarum
domorum, et predicta fiant non obstante aliquo capitulo constituti.
* This and the following rubric have been cancelled by an ancient hand.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 299
(l2.) De compellendis habentibus bestias pro salmis reducere marmora
operis sancte marie.
Et compellam omnes et singulos habentes bestias ad somam in civi
tate senarum bis in anno reducere vel reduci facere marmora operis
sancte marie, et hoc faciam si dominus episcopus fecerit uni cuique
eorum indulgentiam unius anni de iniuncta sibi penitentia pro una qua-
que salma.
(13.) Dejudice dando super cognoscendis legalis factis operi sancte onarie
et fratribus predicatoribus et minor ibus et aliis locis religiosis.
Et dabo seu delegabo operi sancte marie de senis et eius sindico vel
procuratori unum judicem qui summatim et extra ordinem, sine so-
lempnitate judiciorum, et sine libello et petitione, cognoscat de judiciis
factis dicte opere, et ad solutionem compellat eos qui solvere debent
vel debebunt. Et hec eadem observabo de relictis factis fratribus pre
dicatoribus et fratribus minoribus de senis, et monasterio sancti galga-
ni, etidominabus de sancta petronilla, et de sancto prospero, et hospi-
tali sancte marie et malagdis de terzole, de corpore sancto et heremitis
et dominabus de sancto laurentio, et servis sancte marie, et administra-
toribus et curatoribus pauperum civitatis senarum, et dominabus de
sancto mamilliano, et aliis locis religiosis ; etiam quod supradictis om
nibus valeant dispositiones facte coram tribus testibus masculis puberi-
bus sicut valerent pro civibus senensibus, et quod potestas vel consules
placiti, seu iudex comunis, teneantur ad petitionem seu relationem ju-
dicis positi super hoc exbamnire et exbamniri facere illos qui tenentur
et debent dictis locis relicta et judicia et dare tenutas et possessiones
ad voluntatem sindici predictorum locorum, sine alia pronuntiatione
seu sententia lata a dicto judice, et quod teneatur dictus judex termi-
nare questiones coram se ceptas de predictis infra mensem postquam
cepte fuerint, nisi remaneret parabola conquerentis.

The next document shows how the magistracy of
Siena dealt with a town under the dominion of the
commune that was refractory in the discharge of the
service required of it for the opera. See text p. 98.
II.
A.D. 1262.
Die sabbati xiij kalendas iunii.
Facto et congregato consilio xxiiij" in domo Mini Pieri ad sonum

,QO APPENDIX.
campane grosse populi ad ritocchum, a nobili viro domino Gherardino
de Piis, Dei et regia gratia Capitaneo populi et Comunis Senarum, ut
moris est. In quo consilio lectis diligenter licteris infrascriptis que
mictuntur illis de Monticiano, dicte lictere per dictum consilium fue-
runt firmate, et sic mitti voluerunt et observate. Forma quarum licte-
rarum talis est : — Gherardinus de Piis, Dei et regia gratia Capitaneus
populi et Comunis Senarum, et ipsi Priores vigintiquatuor, providis
viris Rectori, Camerario, Consilio et Comuni de Monticiano salutem et
amorem sincerum. Recolimus vobis alia vice nostras licteras desti-
nasse ut lignamina que expediunt operi sante Marie pro iusto et de-
centi pretio Senas deferre deberetis, cumque mandatum nostrum transi-
eritis surda aure grave ferimus et molestum ; quare vobis universis et
singulis firmiter et districte precipiendo mandamus, ad penam et ban-
num centum marcharum argenti Comuni vestro, et viginti quinque li-
brarum denariorum senensium ab uno quoque vecturalium terra vestre
auferendum; precipiendo mandamus quatenus lignamina dicta ubicura-
que sunt pro dicto opere deferatis pretio condecenti, alioquin contra
VOS ad exbanniendum et condennandum acriter procedemus ; ita quod
de vestra inobedientia nullum cognoscetis comodum reportare. Nos
autem faciemus vobis solvi de labore vestro pro ut iustum fuerit atque
decens. Consiglio Generate, tomo x. f. 35.

Documents III. and IV. relate to the choice of the
operaio and of a committee of the works,*
III,
A.D. 1272.
Anno Domini Millesimo cclxxij indictione xiiij die vij mensis maii.
Appareat omnibus manifeste quod congregato generali Consilio Comu
nis Senarum in ecclesia Sancti Cristofori, more solito congregatum ad
* The first operaio of whom I find mention was Frater Vernaccius, or Fra
Vernaccio, of San Galgano, in the year 1257-8. (Perg. 221, in the series of the
Opera Metropolitana di Siena.) San Galgano was a monastery of the Cistercian
order in the diocese of Volterra. It continued to supply operaii to the Duomo of
Siena for almost half a century. Fra Vernaccio was succeeded in 1259-60 by
Fra Melano (see text, p. 102), who remained at the head of the works for sixteen
or seventeen years, during which the greater part of the old Duomo, so called,
was erected. In 1277 the name of Fra Villa appears as that of the operaio (Perg.
374). _ He was succeeded in 1280 by Fra Magio, or Maso (Perg. 391) ; and he, in
turn, in 1290, by Fra Giacomo (Libro della Biccherna, Oct^ 1290) ; and he, in 1292,
by Fra Chiaro (Perg. 476) ; and he, in 1298, by Fra Fazio (Perg. 626) — all from the
same monastery. To these Cistercians the old cathedral owes all that is best in
its construction.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 30 1
sonum campane et per bannum missum, dominus Orlandinus de Canos-
sio, Dei et regia gratia Potestas Comunis Senensis, cum consilio, con
sensu, et expressa parabola et auctoritate domini Renaldi domini Re-
naldini camerarii, et Bartolomei Crescenzi, domini Tomagii iudicis,
Gonterii domini Palmerii, et domini Scotie de Talomeis, quatuor pro-
visorum Comunis dicti, et consensu et auctoritate dicti Consilii, et eius
dem voluntate expressa, et ipsi iidem camerarius et quatuor provisores
Comunis, et Consilium predictum fecerunt, constituerunt, creaverunt et
ordinaverunt Fratrem Melanum, Monasterii Sancti Galgani ordinis
Cestelli, licet absentem, factorem, ordinatorem et operarium opere seu
operis Sancte Marie Maioris Ecclesie Senensis, ad facendum fieri, ope-
rari, et compleri dictam operam et omnia que fuerint opportuna dicte
opere. Et fecerunt, constituerunt et ordinaverunt ipsum sindicum, ac-
torem, factorem, et procuratorem predicte opere, ad petendum et exi-
gendum, recolligendum et recipiendum, nomine dicte opere et pro ea,
omne et quolibet debitum, legatum seu relictum ipse opere et eius causa
a quacumque persona et loco ; et ad liberandum et absolvendum omnes
et singulos debitores eiusdem ; et ad cedendum iura et ad facendum
instrumenta et cartas seu apocas de soluto et de cessionibus iurium ; et
ad transigendum, componendum finem, et refutationem facendum, et
ad cipiendum mutuum pro dicta opera, et ad obligandum bona ipsius ;
et ad vendendum bona prefate opere, et ad omnia et singula faciendum
que cognoverit utilia expedite dicte opere. Et dederunt, concesserunt
et mandaverunt eidem Fratri Melano generalem et liberam administra-
tionem in predictis et circa predicta, et que verus et legictimus opera
rius et administrator et factor facere potest. Et promiserunt quod
quicquid per eum factum fuerit ratum et firmum habere, et tenere, et
contra non venire aliqua ratione, iure vel occasione, sub obligatione bo
norum dicti Comunis.
Actum Senis in ecclesia Sancti Cristofori, coram Martino Guarrerii
et Gilio coiario \lacund\ castaldis Comunis Senensis testibus pre-
sentibus. Ego Bonaventura notarius, olim Bonaguide, nunc Comunis Sen., scri-
ba, predictis interfui, et quod super legitur, mandato predicte Potestatis
et Consilii, scripsi et publicavi.
Ego Guido Rubeus quondam Jannis, iudex et notarius, que supra con
tinentur vidi et legi in instrumento autentico et illeso per dictum Bo-
naventuram notarium publicato, et ea ex inde sumpsi, et nichilo addito
vel dempto prefer signum ipsius notarii, in hac pagina fideliter exem-
plavi et scripsi, et una cum Bartolomeo Cerigi notario et dicto autenti
co diligenter legi et auscultavi ; et facta de predictis insinuatione dili-
genti, Senis in ecclesia Sancti Cristofori, in anno Domini Millesimo
ducentesimo septuagesimo secundo, indictione prima, die duodecimo
kalendas octubris, in presentia domini Bonaguide iudicis filii quondam

,Q2 APPENDIX.
Gregorii Boccaccii, et Bonensegne quondam Ugolini, qui vocatur Bo-
nensegna Unctus, consulum placiti Senarum, in ecclesia dicta, more so
lito, pro tribunali sedentium, et apud ipsos huic insinuationi auctorita-
tem suam prestantes, coram Bernardo notario quondam Ranerii Torto-
nis, Ugolino quondam Ranerii Guinisio, Diotisalvi vocato Nigli Ciolo
quondam Provenzani, et Jacobino Benzi testibus presentibus de ipso
rum consulum mandato mihi facto, coram testibus eisdem loco et die
proxime dictis, in publicam formam redegi et meum signum apposui.
Opera Metropolitana di Siena.
IV,
A.D. 1280.
Die tune xvj decembris.
In nomine Domini amen. — Factum est generale Consilium campane
Comunis Senarum choadunatum ad sonum campane et per bannum mis-
sum in palatio filiorum Jacobi de Platea posito in Galgaria, ab illustri
et magnifico viro domino Matheo Rubeo de filiis Ursi, Dei gratia Po-
testate Senarum, in quo proposuit et consilium petiit. Quod cum audi-
veritis legi capitulum statuti quod loquitur : — et faciam Consilium Co
munis Senarum per totum mensem januarii de providendo ut ponantur
iiij"' homines inter quos sit unus ex consulibus mercatorum qui revi
deant rationem reddituum, proventuum et expensarum operis Sancte
Marie et qualiter in dicto opere procedatur et de habendo operario uno
vel pluribus. . . .
Rustichettus Guidonis Jacobi consuluit et dixit, quod iiij"'' qui debent
eligi super providendo debito operis Sancte Marie eligantur per do
minum Potestatem et eius curiam et Ouindecim secundum formam
statuti Senarum, et quod per eos factum fuerit teneat et sit firmum. . . .
Jacobus Sardus super providendo de debito operis Sancte Marie et
super eligendis iiij"'' inter quos sit unus ex consulibus mercatorum con
suluit, quod eligantur secundum formam statuti, et quod ipsi idem electi
habeant revidere rationem reddituum et proventuum dicti operis, et
quod sit in eorum provisione de habendo uno operario tantum. . . .
Dominus Bandinus judex, super facto operis consuluit, quod eligantur
dicti iiij""' secundum formam statuti, et per eos rationem redituum dili
genter debeat revideri. . . .
Consilium super revidendo ratione redituum operis Sancte Marie
fuit in Concordia cum dicto Rustichetti.
Consiglio della Campana, tomo xxiv. f. 7.

In regard to the following document, see the preced
ing text p. 135, concerning the release of prisoners on

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 303
the Feast of the Assumption, and the proposal to leave
to Pier Pettignano the choice of captives to be freed.*
V.
A.D. 1282.
Die martis xj augusti.
In Dei nomine amen. Factum est generale Consilium campane Comu
nis Senarum, Dominorum xv, Gubernatorum^ Comunis et populi Sena
rum, ad eorum requisitionem et petitionem, in palatio filiorum Talome-
orum et filiorum Serre Jacobi de Platea, ad sonum campane et per ban
num missum publice per civitatem Senarum ut moris est, coadunatum
a nobili et prudenti viro domino Oddo Altoviti de Florentia Judice,
nunc in loco magnifici et illustris viri domini Guidonis Salvatici, Dei
gratia in Tuscia Comitis Palatini, et nunc eadem gratia honorabilis
Potestatis Senarum, facta prius de infrascriptis imposita de conscientia
camerarii et iiij""- provisorum Comunis Senarum, apud palatium ipsius
domini Comitis Potestatis, secundum formam statuti Senarum. In quo
quidem consilio proposuit et consilium petiit, quod cum dicatur quod
sit consuetudo in civitate Senarum in festivitatibus beate Marie sem
per virginis de mense agusti, quod festum principaliter celebratur per
Comune et homines civitatis Senarum ad reverentiam Jesu Christi et
matris eius sanctissime ac beate Virginis Marie, et ad exaltationem
Comunis et civitatis Senarum et eius districtus, relaxare aliquos ex
carceratis Comunis Senarum, — si placet vobis quod aliqui ex carceratis
Comunis Senarum in proxima festivitate beate ac gloriose Marie sem
per virginis huius mensis relaxentur et relaxari debeant per Comune
Senarum, qui et quot, et per quos inveniantur illi qui debuerint relaxari
de carceribus Comunis Senarum ; quid vobis videtur quod faciendum
sit super predictis pro meliori et utiliori Comunis Senatum in dei no
mine consulatis. . . .
Jacobus domini Renaldi Gilii consuluit et dixit, quod Pierus Pettina
rius hinc ad diem beate Marie Virginis debeat invenire x ex pregioni
bus Comunis Senarum pauperioribus quos invenire poterit et illi quos
invenerit relaxentur. . ...
Dominus Bartalomeus Seracini consuluit et dixit, quod relaxentur ex
* Mr. Forsyth, who was in Siena at the festival of the Assumption in 1802, wit
nessed the celebration of the Beatification of Pier Pettignano. He says, in his
lieniarks on Italy — a book still eminent among the many volumes of Italian travel
— "The Pope had reserved for this great festival the Beatification of Peter, a Se
nese comb-maker, whom the Church had neglected to canonize till now. Poor
Peter was honored with all the solemnity of musick, high-mass, an officiating car
dinal, a florid panegyrick, pictured angels bearing his tools to heaven, and comb
ing their own hair as they soared ; but he received five hundred years ago a
greater honor than all, a verse of praise from Dante."

304 APPENDIX.
pregionibus pauperibus et pro minori culpa detentis, qui eligentur per
guardianum minorum et fratrum predicatorum, et cum deliberatione do
minorum XV, sub ista condictione, quod non relaxentur aliqui ex prodito-
ribus civitatis Senarum, vel qui dederint in prodictione auxilium vel fa-
vorem, nee aliquis qui alia vice fuerit oblatus per Comune Senarum. . . .
Johannes Provinus consuluit et dixit, quod de carceratis relaxentur
usque xviij pro minori et leviori culpa, et ad inveniendum eos sit et
esse debeat unus frater de predicatoribus et unus de minoribus quos eo
rum priores voluerint, et compagnus domini Episcopi, et Pietrus Pet
tinarius. . . .
Dominus Ricovarus judex consuluit et dixit, quod ad honorem Dei
et beate Marie Virginis relaxentur usque x de pauperioribus pregioni
bus qui sunt in carceribus Comunis, exceptis de hoc numero proditori-
bus et rebellibus et condempnatis pro maleficiis et pro robbariis strata-
rum, et quod isti x eligantur et cernantur per [dominos] xv, et quod, in-
ventis de xv, legantur in consilio generali eorum nomina et pronomina,
et postea pro quolibet fiat scrutinium per palloctas ita quod quilibet
qui habuerit plures palloctas quod debeat relassari relaxetur, et aliter
non, et non vult quod relaxentur aliqui qui alias fuerint oblati. . . .
Soczus domini Bandinelli consuluit et dixit, quod relaxentur xx de
carceratis Comunis hoc modo, quod eligantur et cernantur per dominos
XV et per ordines civitatis, inter quos vult quod sint homines Guelfi qui
fuerint defensores pacifici status Comunis Senarum et officii domino
rum XV ; inter quos non vult quod possit esse aliquis proditor vel rebel-
lis Comunis Senarum, nee aliquis alias relaxatus vel oblatus, nee aliquis
de Licignano Aretii, sed de amicis et pauperioribus et pro levi culpa
detentis, et excipit illos qui fuerint ad prelium in civitate Senarum con
tra Comune et populum Senarum, et illos qui steterint in turri ad fa
ciendam guerram, et quod postea dicti xx sic electi legantur in consilio
campane. . . .
Consilium fuit in concordia in predictis omnibus cum dicto Soczo
domini Bandinelli.
Cotisiglio della Compana, tomo xxvi. f. ii.

Donation by the Commune of eight hundred lire for
the prosecution of the work on the Duomo. See text
p. 140. VI.
A.D. 1290.
Die 20 mensis octubris.
In nomine Domini amen. Factum est generale Consilium campane
Comunis Senarum, consulum militum, consulum mercatorum, consu-

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA.

305

lum artis lane et dominorum artium, et L per terzerium, a magnifico et
potenti milite domino Johanne domini Arcorimboni de Camerino, Dei
gratia honorabili Potestate Senarum, facta primo imposita de infra
scriptis de conscientia et voluntate camerarii et quatuor provisorum
Comunis Senarum, apud palatium dicti domini Potestatis secundum for
mam constituti senensis, congregatum in palatio Comunis Senarum, de
mandato dicti domini Potestatis, ad sonum campane et per bannum
missum ut moris est, — in quo proposuit et consilium petiit quod cum
operarius operis beate Virginis Marie petat a Comuni Senarum certam
quantitatem pecunie pro dicto opere et necessitate dicti operis, quam
pecuniam dictus operarius non habet, et sine dicta pecunia in dicto
opere procedi non possit, et laborerium jam inceptum non posset ad
laudem effectui produci, et firmatum sit per dominos xviij, Guberna-
tores et defensores Comunis et populi Senarum, facto partito ad scrup-
tineum per palloctas secundum formam constituti, quod de pecunia et
auro Comunis operario supradicto pro predicto opere et necessitate
dicti operis donentur viij" libre denariorum senensium ad voluntatem
dicti operarii, et postmodura sequente die sit similiter firrriatum per
ordines civitatis, silicet per dominos xviij et quattuor provisores comu
nis et consules militum et consules mercatorum, facto partito ad scrupti-
neum et per palloctas secundum formam constituti, quod dicte viij" li
bre denariorum donentur dicto operario pro dicto opere faciendo ad
eius voluntatem et requisitionem, de pecunia et avere Comunis Senarum
prout firmatum et stantiatum est per ordines supradictos, Unde si placet
vobis quod dicta pecunia donetur ut dictum est in Dei nomine consulatis.
Dominus Albertus Syndicus comunis senarum contradixit supradicte
imposite secundum formam constituti senensis.
Dominus Nerius judex consuluit et dixit, quod dicte viij' libre dena
riorum ob honorem et reverentiam beate Marie semper Virginis de-
fenditricis et gubernatricis Comunis et populi Senarum donentur de avere
et pecunia Comunis Senarum dicto Operario pro dicto opere faciendo
et ad laudem et efiectum producendo, ad voluntatem et requisitionem
dicti operarii, et quod camerarius et quattuor teneantur dictam quanti
tatem pecunie dicto operario dare, et quod debeant omnia contenta in
imposita per dominos potestatem et dominos xviij et camerarium et
quattuor ex comuni mandari.
Consilium fuit in concordia cum dicto dicti domini Neri judicis, facto
et misso partito secundum formam constituti et ad scruptineum, ipso
scruptineo diligenter facto, quia in Bossolo del «'fuerunt invente ccxviiij
pallocte et in ilia del tio xij pallocte per duas partes et plus.
Consiglio della Cattipana, tomo xl. f. 50.

The following document does not bear directly on
20

3o6 APPENDIX.
the story of the Duomo ; but it affords such interesting
Ulustration of the conditions of the times, and relates
to a character so well known, that It deserves to be
printed. Chin di Tacco has received immortality from
Dante and Boccaccio. Dante speaks of " le braccia
fiere di Ghin di Tacco,"* and Boccaccio, in an excel
lent story of his dealings with the Abbot of Cligni, de
scribes him as " a man famous for his bold and insolent
robberies, who, being banished from Siena, caused the
town of Radlcofani to rebel against the Church, and
lived there while his gang robbed all who passed that
way." t " This terrible Ghino di Tacco," says Mr,
Longfellow, in his note on Dante's verse, " was a noble
man of Asinalunga, in the territory of Siena; one of
those splendid fellows who, from some real or imagi
nary wrong done them, take to the mountains and
highways to avenge themselves on society. He is the
true type of the traditionary stage bandit the magnan
imous melodramatic hero who utters such noble sen
timents and commits such atrocious deeds,"
VII.
De castro constructo per D. Ghinum Tachi inter Asinam Longam et
Guardavalle. A.D. 1297.
Die mercurii iiij" decembris.
In nomine Domini amen. Ex precepto nobilis militis domini Acti de
Corinatto Dei gratia honorabilis Potestatis Senarum, et nobilis militis
domini Cervii de Bonatteriis de Bononia eadem gratia honorabilis Ca-
pitanei Comunis et populi Senarum, generali consilio campane Comunis
et populi supradicti, cum adiuncta quinquaginta per terzerium de rado-
ta, in palatio dicti Comunis, ad sonum campane et vocem preconum
more solito congregato, facta prius imposita de infrascriptis de conscien
tia et consensu domini camerarii et duorum ex quattuor provisoribus
* Purgatorio, vi. 14. t Dscamerone, Nov. 92.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 307
dicti Comunis, apud palatium dicti Comunis, secundum formam statuti,
prefati domini Potestas et Capitaneus proposuerunt in dicto consilio et
consilium petierunt : —
Quod cum ad audientiam dominorum Novem, gubernatorum et de-
fensorum Comunis et populi Senarum, relatu pervenerit plurimorum
quod per dominum Ghinum Tachi inter Asinam longam et Guarda
valle construebatur quedam fortellitia seu castrum, et ipsi domini No
vem, volentes de hiis scire plenarie veritatem, ad dictum locum mise-
runt aliquos bonos homines et legales per quos redacta fuerunt in
scriptis ea que reperierunt de predictis, sicut legi audivistis in presenti
consilio, super quibus dicti domini Novem per se ipsos nolunt aliquid
providere, sed habito consilio et tractatu super predictis cum pluribus
sapientibus et bonis hominibus civitatis extitit per eos concorditer sta-
bilitum, quod hec omnia ad presens consilium ponerentur, et sicut super
hiis placeret presenti consilio providere et ordinare ita fient et debent
executioni mandari ; — Quid super hiis et circa ea pro bono et pacifico
statu civitatis, comitatus et jurisdictionis Senarum, et ad evitandam om
nem materiam dubii, scandali et erroris sit agendum, in Dei nomine
consulatis. Mens Ormanni super facto domini Ghini Tachi dixit et consuluit,
quod per dominos Novem eligantur iiij""' boni homines et legales per
terzerium qui stare debeant in palatio Comunis Senarum et sentire et
invenire novitatem que sit per dictum dominum Ghinum Tachi, et, ea
inventa et scita, postea super dicto negotio provideant, ordinent et fa-
ciant ea omnia que pro honore et statu Comunis Senarum viderint et
cognoverint convenire, et quicquid ipsi in ipso et de ipso negotio provi
derint, ordinaverint et fecerint observetur et fiat et executioni mande-
tur. . . .
Jacobus domini Renaldi Gilii super facto domini Ghini Tachi dixit
et consuluit, quod pro parte Comunis Senarum precipiatur hominibus
de contrata ubi sit dicta fortillitia sive castrum, et illi seu illis qui fa-
ciunt vel fieri faciunt dictum castrum, quod ipsi in dicto loco non fa-
ciant nee fieri faciant aliquam fossam, carbonariam, murum castella-
num, sive aliquam fortillitiam, et si predicti ab ipso precepto in antea
facerent vel fieri facerent novitatem, quod dominus Potestas et Capita
neus et Novem qui nunc sunt, vel pro tempore fuerint, mictant ad partes
illas masnadam Comunis, que masnada capiat personaliter quoscumque
invenerit in loco predicto, et, ipsis captis, postea suspendantur per gulam
ita quod moriantur ; et vult quod si ibi est facta aliqua novitas prefer
muros domorum et domos quod talis novitas usque funditus destrua-
tur. . . .
Tuccius Alexi super facto domini Ghini Tachi consuluit, quod pro
parte Comunis Senarum per quemdam numptium dicti Comunis preci
piatur illi seu illis qui faciunt vel fieri faciunt novitatem predictam.

3o8

APPENDIX.

quod in ipso loco non faciant amplius novitatem, et si a dicto precepto
in antea aliquid novi fieret, quod talis novitas destruatur expensis illo
rum qui talem facerent vel fieri facerent novitatem, hoc salvo, quod si
illi qui faciunt vel fieri faciunt ipsam novitatem voluerint comparere
coram domino Potestate et domino Capitaneo et dominis Novem et ali
quid petierint ab eisdem, quod tunc fieri possit in eo loco id quod de
ipsorum dominorum processerit voluntate et non ultra.
Ser Jacobus Sardus dixit et consuluit super facto domini Ghini, quod
super dicto negotio fiat scruptinium hoc modo, quicumque vult quod
novitas facta et que fit per dominum Ghinum tollatur et destruatur et
non procedatur ulterius in ipso facto mictat palloctam in pisside albo,
et quicumque vult quod fiat ipsa novitas et fieri possit mittat palloctam
in pisside nigro, et sicut tunc per palloctas obtentum fuerit ita fiat et
executioni mandetur.
Frederigus domini Renaldi de Tholomeis super facto domini Ghini
Tachi dixit et consuluit, quod dictum negotium totum remictit in domi
num Potestatem et Capitaneum Comunis Senarum, et quod super dicto
facto, tam in faciendo destrui ipsam novitatem quam dimittendo esse,
procedant et faciant quicquid eis pro honore et statu Comunis Senarum
viderint et cognoverint convenire, et quicquid ipsi in predictis et circa
ea providerint et ordinaverint observetur et fiat et executioni mandetur.
Rustichettus Guidi de Cortabrachis super facto domini Ghini Tachi
dixit et consuluit, quod quidam numptius Comunis Senarum pro parte
dicti Comunis mictatur ad locum ubi fit novitas supradicta, et per ipsum
numptium precipiatur pro parte Comunis Senarum illi seu illis qui fa
ciunt vel fieri faciunt novitatem predictam, quod ipsam novitatem et
quiquid factum est in loco predicto incontinenti destruant, et plus non
faciant uUo modo, et si per eum vel eos qui faciunt vel fieri faciunt no
vitatem predictam dictum preceptum observabitur et adimplebitur
bene quidem ; alias domini Potestas et Capitaneus Comunis Senarum
omnino procurent et faciant sic et taliter quod dictum preceptum in
omnibus observetur et executioni mandetur.
Gerius Montanini super facto domini Ghini Tachi consuluit et dixit,
quod ipse erat in concordia cum dicto et arengamento Jacobi domini
Renaldi salvo quod non placet ei, nee se concordat cum eo, quod pro
cedatur ad suspensionem hominum aliquorum.
Dominus Arrigus judex sindicus dixit et consuluit, quod pro parte
domini Potestatis Senarum moneatur dominus Ghinus Tachi quod cum
dicta possessio ubi fit novitas supradicta sit Comunis Senarum, ipsam
possessionem dimictat et ibi amplius non faciat aliquam novitatem, et
hoc fiat si reperitur quod dicta possessio sit Comunis.
Consilium fuit in concordia super facto domini Ghini Tachi cum
dicto et arengamento Rustichetti Guidi de Cortabrachis.
Cotisiglio della Campana, tomo Iii, f. io6.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA, ogg
I have, in a note on p. 154, spoken of the new com-
pUation of the statutes of Siena in 1337, and given an
extract from it ; but for the purpose of comparing the
provisions concerning the Duomo with those of the
statute of 1260, I print them here in full
VIII,
A.D. 1337.
In nomine Dei amen. Incipit prima distinctio constituti Comunis
Senarum. De protectione et defensione maioris ecclesie beate Marie virginis, et
episcopatus Senensis. et eorum bonorum et iurium, et quod in opere
dicte ecclesie continuo sit unus custos, et unus operarius et unus scrip-
tor et sex consiliarii, et de ipsorum officio.
Maiore ecclesia episcopatus Senensis vacante pastore, teneatur Po
testas Comunis Senarum ad requisitionem capituli dicte ecclesie, de
fendere et conservari facere bona dicte ecclesie et episcopatus. Item
ad custodiam operis et laborerii dicte ecclesie continue moretur unus
custos qui habeat ab operario dicti operis expensas, et a Comuni Sena
rum quolibet mense pro suo salario soldos xx. Sitque continue ad
dictum opus complendum unus operarius sciens legere et scribere qui
habeat pro suo salario quolibet mense libras quinque denariorum ; et
possit dare libere de vino dicti operis servientibus in dicto opere prout
eidem videbitur pro melioramento ipsius operis. Sit etiam continue ad
ipsum opus unus bonus scriptor qui habere debeat de bonis dicti operis
pro quolibet mense pro sua mercede iiij'"' libras denariorum et non ul
tra. Et [sint] sex boni et legales viri, videlicet duo de quolibet terzerio
civitatis Senarum, in consiliarios dicti operarii et operis ; quorum con
silio et provisione omnia et singula facienda in dicto opere dictus ope
rarius facere debeat. Et nullum novum opus dictus operarius vel ma
gistri in dicto opere existentes possint incipere, ordinare, facere aut
fieri facere, vel aliquis eorum, sine expressa licentia dictorum consilia-
riorum et capud-magistri, vel duarum partium ipsorum ad minus. Et
si dicti operarius et magistri vel aliquis eorum contrafaceret in aliquo
intelligatur omnes expensas et costum de suo proprio donasse, et eo
casu dicti consiliarii denuntient vinculo juramenti contrafacentem ma
iori syndico Comunis Senarum, qui syndicus cogat contrafacientem
ipsas expensas integras satisfacere et restituere dicto operi, et ad obser-
vantiam omnium predictorum. Data dictis consiliariis bailia providendi
in augmentando et fieri faciendo dictum opus, et de numero magistro
rum qui sint in dicto et pro dicto opere, et generaliter in omnibus spec-

3IO APPENDIX.
tantibus ad dictum opus, prout eis vel duabus partibus ipsorum videbi
tur convenire ; et necessitate eisdem imposita revidendi bis in anno
ad minus, videlicet quibuslibet sex mensibus, rationem totius introitus
et expensarum dicti operis, ac et semel ad minus quolibet mense eorum
officii in simul conveniendi ad tractandum ea que honori et utilitati
ipsius operis crediderint convenire ; ipsorum quolibet qui negligens vel
remissus fuerit in faciendo predicta condempnando in xxv libris de
nariorum pro qualibet vice per maiorem syndicum supradictum iuxta
excusationem {sic) semper salva. Teneantur insuper consiliarii ante-
dicti qualibet ebdomoda semel convenire simul cum dicto operario,
vinculo juramenti, pro negotiis operis antedicti. Et omnis provisio que
per dictos consiliarios vel duas partes eorum fiet de aliquo novo opere
faciendo debeat registrari per scriptorem dicti operis in libro ipsius
operis, ipso operario presente, et secundum sic dictam provisionem in
ipso opere procedatur, et non aliter vel alio modo, sub dicta pena. Quo
libet ex dictis consiliarii[s] vacanti a dicto officio ab exitu sui officii ad
duos annos, \lacuna'] dictis et scriptore et sex consiliariis eligendis per do
minos duodecim gubernatores Comunis Senarum et Consules mercantie,
quolibet anno, de mense julii et de mense decembris, de sex in sex men
ses, et prout eis videbitur. Quorum operarii et scriptoris officium nullam
habeat vacationem. Et teneantur dicti scriptor et operarius et eorum
quilibet per se ordinate scribere in quodam libro omnes introitus et
proventus ipsius operis, et omnes expensas et exitus ipsius operis, et
tempus, scilicet mensem et diem, et causas et a quibus proveniunt in
troitus et quibus hunt expense. Et teneantur iiij"'' provisores Comunis
ad requisitionem dicti operarii dare calcinam necessariam dicto operi.
Possitque dictus operarius libere marmora, portilia, pretaria et lapidi-
cinia fodere et fodi facere, reducere et reduci facere ad dictum opus ex
pensis Comunis Senarum, vel per comitatinos quo \lacund\ ad reductio-
nem predictam, de quocumque loco vel possessione invito eo cuius esset
locus vel possessio ilia vel jus eorum, dum modo dictus operarius det
suum et consuetum drictum domino dicte possessionis seu loci vel jus
habenti ; pena C. librarum denariorum applicanda Comuni Senarum imi-
nenti, contrafacienti vel ut dictum est fieri predicta non permictenti ;
et nichilominus cogendo permictere fodi et reduci dicta marmora
et lapides ut dictum est. De electiotie operarii.
Per dominos duodecim et consules mercantie civitatis Senarum eli
gantur tres boni viri de civitate predicta, qui tres sic electi scruptinen-
tur in generali consilio campane Comunis Senarum. Et qui ex eis
plures voces habuerit, sit operarius dicti operis, et duret predictum eius
ofBtium per unum annum a die introitus sui officii computandum. Qui
operarius nullam licentiam possit concedere alicui de extrahendo, vel

DOCUMENTS RELA TING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA.

311

consentire quod extrahatur aliquod lavorium de petra vel marmore de
petraria dicti operis ullo modo. Cui operario magistri dicti operis, qui
de cetero iverint unus vel plures pro aliquo salario ad aliquam divisio-
nem faciendam, teneantur dare, et dictus operarius ab eis auferre tenea
tur, dimidiam partem pretii quod recipient pro dicta divisione in utili
tatem operis convertendam. Et teneatur operarius antedictus si ca-
pomagister dicti operis inprehenderit aliquod opus alicuius singularis
persone, et non steterit continue ad servitium operis, retinere pro rata de
salario suo sicut aliis magistris, et faciat custodiri ita quod opus taglie
non possit decipi, scribendo quemlibet diem et punctum in quo magis
tri aut manuales, vel aliquis eorum, stabunt extra dictam operam, et ex-
computet pro rata temporis sicut consuetum est.
De oblationibus faciendis in vigilia et festo gloriosissime beate Marie vir
ginis de ttiense augusti.
Exceptis paupertate, hodio vel infirmitate detentis, omnes habitantes
in civitatis Senarum burgis et subburgis majores annis xviij et a Ixx
annis infra, videlicet quilibet cum hominibus sue contrate in qua habi-
taret, teneantur ire in vigilia Sancte Marie virginis de mense augusti ad
maiorem ecclesiam Senensem, de die et non de nocte, et cum ceris et
non doppieris, pena centum solidorum denariorum portanti vel facienti
portare doppierum, et offerre dictos ceros operi dicte ecclesie, et venire
et stare in dicta vigilia in civitatem. Item quelibet comunitas comita
tus et jurisdictionis Senarum teneatur oflEerre, in die festivitatis beate
predicte ad dictam ecclesiam, operi dicte ecclesie, tot libras cere in ceris
in quot centinariis librarum denariorum comunitas est alibrata Comuni
Senarum. Et de tribus partibus dicte cere fiat unus cerus fogliatus
quam pulcrior, et de residuo tot ceri quorum quilibet sit unius libre
cere quod fieri possunt deferendi et offerendi per tot massarios illius
comunitatis quot sunt ceri supradicti. Comunitas vero alibrata in mi
nori quantitate C. librarum teneatur deferre et offerre tantum unum
cerum unius libre. Et nullus possit sotiare deferentes dictos ceros
comunitatis in dicta vigilia vel festo, pena C. soldorum denariorum, et'
medietas pene predicte sit cuiuslibet accusatoris. Liceat tamen Potes-
tati de Monte Alcino, de Montepulciano, de Lucignano vallis Clane, vel
eius filio, cum xx sotiis sotiare deferentes ceros dictarum comunitatum
dicto tempore in eundo et redeundo ad dictam ecclesiam, dictis ceris
folliatis ponendis in altum in dicta ecclesia, et sic custodiendis per an
num, et in sequenti festo novis ceris ponendis et illis elevandis.
Quod oblata applicentur operis (sic) Sancte Marie.
Omnesqueceri qui offeruntur in dicta ecclesia in festo beati Bonifatii
et beati Ansani, et pro censu Comunis Senarum quocumque tempore,
ac etiam feudum dandum Comuni Senarum a comuni de Monte Alcino

3J2 APPENDIX.
quolibet anno xxx librarum denariorum, et etiam quicquid acquiritur
in civitate Senarum pro dicto opere, excepto eo quod acquiritur in ec
clesia majori diebus pascalibus, sint operis dicte ecclesie. Omnibus ac-
quirentibus pro dicto opere cogendis jurare per dominum Potestatem
de mense januarii de assignando sine diminutione in manus dicti ope
rarii que ad eorum manus pervenerint.
Statuti del Comune di Siena, tomo xxv (num. ant.), f. 7.

See text, ante, p. 1 70.

IX.

A.D. 1353.
In nomine Domini amen. Anno sue salutifere incarnationis Mille
simo iii'liij Indictione vj die veneris vij junii. Congregato et convo-
cato generali consilio campane. . . .
Item cum audiveritis legi ad intelligentiam in presenti consilio quan-
dam petitionem operarii opere Sancte Marie infrascripte continentie
et tenoris, videlicet : Dinanzi da voi Signori Nove, governatori e di-
fensori del Comune e del Popolo de la Cita di Siena, e cum reverenzia,
si dimanda per parte del operaio del uopera Sante Marie, doe de la
chiesa magiore de la Cita di Siena, che concio sia chosa che i Signori
quatro provisori de la bicherna del detto Comune non ano pagato gia
sono cinque anni o piii al uopera Sancte Maria la limosina ordinaria
la qual dovieno pagare per riformasgione di Consiglio di Campana del
decto Comune, e sichome elli e molto manifesto la gloriosa Vergine
Maria madre di Dio e suta, e e, e sara sempre, si a Dio place, guida,
guarda, e defenditrice di questa Cita e del suo contado, e per tanto la
detta magiore ghiesa del duomo Sante Marie, la quale e edificata e con
tinuo s'edifica a honore e a reverenzia della decta Vergine gloriosa, el
Comune tucto, e ciascheuno singulare cittadino e tenuto di mantenere
e da cresciere quanto allui e possibile ; e ancho concio sia chosa che
la decta ghiesa non puo avere perfectione se non se prende col muro
d'essa ghiesa parte del palazo del veschovado, e messer lo Veschovo di
Siena a risposto al operaio sopradetto molto gratiosamente di volere
in do operare ogni chosa che sia honore e grandeza de la detta chiesa
e piacere del Comune di Siena e de ciascheuno buono cittadino, adon-
qua acio che la sopradetta ghiesa la detta perfectione possa avere a
honore e a reverenzia de la detta Madre di Dio vergine gloriosa, — ^vi
piaccia di fare reformare nei consigli channo balia, che Signori quactro
provisori de la bicherna del Comune di Siena, ei quagli entraranno all'
offitio in Kalende Lulglio proximo che viene, e successivamente cias
cheuno offitio di quattro de la detta bicherna, sia tenuto e debba, a la

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 313
pena di cento fiorini d'oro per ciascheuno di loro, da tollare per Misser
lo Capitano de la guerra del detto Comuno, se nelle dette chose fossero
negligenti, de la detta moneta e limosina, la quale dal detto Kalende
luglio adirietro si doveva pagare a la detta uopera Sancte Marie e non
e pagato, paghino e pagar debbano al operaio de la detta uopera Sancte
Marie ; ricevendo pella detta uopera oltra la limosina usata e douta a
la detta uopera pello tempo avenire if fiorini d'oro, infine a tanto che
la detta moneta e limosina chosi ritenuta sia compiuta di pagare.
L'onipotente Dio e la detta sua gloriosa Madre vi conceda gratia di
fare quello che sia loro santissima laude e reverentia, e sia honore e
buono stato pacifico de la vostra Cita.
Insuper cum audiveritis legi in presenti consilio deliberationes habi-
tas super dicta petitione, quarum talis est tenor, videlicet : Die v mensis
junii lecta fuit presens petitio in presentia dominorum Novem, Potesta
tis, et Capitanei populi, et deliberatum fuit per eos quod presens petitio
ponatur ad consilium ordinarii et executorum gabelle. Die vj mensis
junii lecta fuit presens petitio in presentia dominorum Novem, ordi
narii et executorum gabelle, et deliberatum fuit per eos quod dicta pe
titio ponatur ad generale Consilium Campane. Si igitur videtur et
placet dicto Consilio et consiliariis statuere, sancire, ordinare et re
formare prout in dicta petitione continetur, non obstantibus aliquibus
statutis, ordinamentis, provisionibus et reformationibus Comunis Sena
rum, in Dei nomine consulatur. . . .
Item simili modo et forma facto et misso distincte partito ad lupinos
albos et nigros, secundum formam statuti, \lacunci\ proposita operarii
Sancte Marie et consilio dato super ea, fuit obtentum, statutum, sanci-
tum et reformatum quod plene fiat prout in ipsa continetur per clxxviiij
consiliarios eiusdem consilii dantes eorum lupinos albos del si, et se
cum dicta proposita et consilio concordantes, non obstantibus xv con
siliariis dantibus eorum lupinos nigros del no, et se discordantibus a
predictis. Consiglio della Campana. tomo civ. f. 28.

The two following documents relate to the means
taken to secure the necessary supplies for the work
towards the end of the fourteenth century. The first
is an ordinance directing notaries called on to draw
up a will that they should urge the testator to leave a
legacy to the works. The last is an ordinance regu
lating the contributions of wax to be made annually by

314 APPENDIX.
the citizens, and it affords curious and interesting in
formation concerning the occupations of the people,
and the trades carried on in the city,
X.
A.D. 1388, tnarzo 28.
In nomine Domini amen. Anno dominice incarnationis mccclxxxviij"
Indictione xj^ die xxviij mensis martii. Convocato et congregato gene
rali Consilio campane Comunis et populi civitatis Senensis in consueto
palatio, et magna sala palatii inferioris dicti Comunis, ad sonum Cam-
pane vocemque preconis ut moris est, in sufficenti numero secundum
formam statutorum Senensium, et cetera : Dixit et proposuit honora
bilis et sapiens vir Nannes Petri Johannini de numero Dominorum, de
licentia et mandato Domini prepositi Dominorum prefatorum, in hac
forma, videlicet ; —
Laudabile apud Deum et honorabile apud homines certum est eccle-
sias honorare, manutenere, pariter et augere. Testatur enim scriptura :
Iionora Deum de substatitia tua, quod recte fit cum domus eius et cul-
tus divinus in illis honorantur ab hominibus, et manus illis extenditur
elemosinas largiendo. Nulli quidem dubium est quod maior ecclesia
cathedralis civitatis Senensis inter cetera civitatis prefate locale pul-
crum est et honorabile, cuius opera temporum malignitate in introiti-
bus deficit, et sicut liquet in expensis quasi indeficientibus aggravatur.
Unde non deberet preterire quin cives et comitatini Senenses in mortis
articulo constituti aliquid relinquere deberent opere supradicte, quod
contingere creditur quare homines non recordantur neque fiunt me-
mores per alios circumstantes. Ne igitur bonum hoc per negligentiam
hominum depereat, ad laudem omnipotentis Dei et matris sue glorio
sissime, et in remedium animarum omnium testatorum qui finem uni
verse carnis absolvunt, — si videtur et placet dicto consilio et consiliariis
dicti consilii providere, ordinare et reformare, et quod provisum, ordi
natum et reformatum sit et esse intelligatur, auctoritate presentis con
silii, validaque et perpetua ac irrevocabili lege firmatum : Quod omnes
et singuli notarii civitatis, comitatus et districtus Senarum vel aliunde
rogantes in civitate, comitatu et districtu Senarum aliqua testamenta,
debeant singulariter talem testatorem memorem facere et persuadere
eidem si aliquid vult relinquere opere Sancte Marie de Senis secundum
ipsius testatoris liberam voluntatem. Et ad hoc ut dare sciri et videri
possit quod sic fecerint, teneantur dicti notarii in eorum scripturis et
rogationibus talium testamentorum de predictis facere mentionem et
singulare capitulum, in presentia testium vocandorum et adhibendorum.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 31 c
in qua scriptura distinguatur utrum talis testator aliquid reliquerit
dicte opere vel non reliquerit, pena decem librarum denariorum pro
quolibet notario contrafacente, et qualibet vice ; applicandarum pro di
midia Comuni Senensi et pro alia dimidia dicte opere. In Dei nomine
consulatur. Super quibus omnibus et singulis et cetera ; —
Unus ex consiliariis dicti consilii in ipso consilio surgens ad dicito-
rium consuetum dixit atque consuluit super dicta proposita quod sit, fiat
et executioni mandetur pro ut et sicut in ipsa proposita continetur.
In reformatione cuius consilii dato, facto et misso partito ad lupinos
albos et nigros secundum formam statutorum Senensium, victum, ob
tentum et reformatum fuit quod sit, fiat et executioni mandetur pro ut
et sicut in ipsa proposita continetur, per trecentos quatordecim consili
arios dicti consilii dantes ipsorum lupinos albos pro sic. Non obstanti
bus quadraginta nigris datis in contrarium predictorum.
Ego Andreas, quondam Justi Cenni de Vulterris, publica, apostolica
et imperiali auctoritatibus notarius, Cesareaque autoritate iudex ordi-
narius, et nunc notarius Reformationum Comunis Senensis, predictis
dum agerentur interfui, et ea rogatus scripsi et publicavi.
Opera Metropolitana di Siena.

XI,
A.D. 1389.
In nomine Domini amen. Anno dominice incarnationis mccclxxxviiij
Ind. xij die tertiadecima mensis aprilis. Convocato et congregato
generali consilio campane Comunis et populi civitatis Senarum . . .
dixit et proposuit honorabilis et sapiens vir Nannes Mini Neri' de
numero dominorum Priorum. . . .
Cum in honorem et augumentum maioris ecclesie Senarum per non-
nullos prudentes cives Senarum data fuerit quedam petitio in hac for
ma, videlicet : Dinanzi a voi, magnifici signori, signori Priori, Governa
tori del Comune e Popolo de la citta di Siena, et a voi venerabili e cari
cittadini del consiglo : con ogni reverentia debita si spone per alcuno
vostro cittadino, quello che sia honore de l'onipotente Idio e della sua
madre santissima, et accrescimento de la vostra chiesa maggiore, e sia
honore de la vostra magnifica Signoria e di tutta la citta di Siena.
Considerando che da uno tempo in qua I'entrata del huopara de la
vostra chiesa maggiore e molto diminuita, e mancata, e ridocta a meno
che per meta, e per questa cagione et inpotenza de la decta huopara,
la sopradetta vostra chiesa maggiore non puo accrescere ne bonificare,
ad honore de la gloriosa vergine Maria e come si richiederebbe a una
si facta chiesa, e per questa impotentia non si puo riparare al campa-

3i6

APPENDIX.

nile, che senza niuno rimedio e per cadere, e se hon si guasta e per pe-
ricolare tutta la sopradetta chiesa ; et accio che la detta chiesa vengha
in quello bonificamento che voi desiderate senza danno dei cittadini, e
proveduto in questa forma che disocto e scripto.
Che tutti e cittadini di Siena et habitanti in essa citta e tutti quelli
de le masse sieno tenuti e debbano ogn'anno fare o mandare una volta
offerta a la sopradetta chiesa maggiore di quella quantita di cera et in
quelli tempi et in quelli modi che qui di sotto sono scritti, non lassando
pero ne diminuendo I'ofierta di madonna santa Maria del mese d'agosto.
Et intendasi che la detta offerta, avendo prima riparato overo rifacto
el sopradetto campanile, sia deputata solo in accrescere la sopradetta
chiesa maggiore, et maximamente in fare uno campo santo, doe luogo
di sipolture, in quella forma e modo che e quello di Pisa, el quale e
delle nobili cose di cristenita che a chiesa s'apartenghano. El quale
campo santo si faccia nel duomo nuovo, overo la dove para a I'operaio
et a maestri che meglio stia. E questo facendo la vostra chiesa ne
verra in grandissima magnificenza e buono stato et honore grandissimo
di tutta la citta.
In prima che tutti e gentigliomini e piaczesi da xiiij anni in su deb
bano portare et offerire a la sopradetta chiesa maggiore ciaschuno uno
cero d'una libbra o piu, e la detta offerta debano fare la mattina de la
pasqua de la Resurressione del nostro Signore Geso Cristo proxima che
verra anni domini mccclxxxviiij, e cosi debbano poi ogn'anno fare. Et
che essi debbano andare a offerire in questo modo doe : che ciascuno
terzo vadano di per se raunandosi prima a una chiesa del decto terzo
la quale alloro piaciera.
Ancho che tutti e mercatanti et artefici di tutta la citta sieno tenuti
e debbano, e i capomaestri e compagni, offerire ogn'anno uno cero d'una
libbra o di piu per ciaschuno ; e tutti e factori o garzoni loro da xiiij anni
in su debbano offerire ciaschuno uno cero di meza libbra o di piu, la
quale offerta facciano ogn'anno a la sopradetta chiesa maggiore in
quelli di e per quelle feste che qui di sotto sono dichiarate.
Banchieri, orafi, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di \lacund\.
Lanaiuoli, tiratori, tappetari, cardaiuoli, tintori, e tutti e loro sottoposti
debbano offerire el di di Santo Jacomo e San Filippo, di primo di mag-
gio. Ritaglieri, calzettai, e cimatori, e tutti loro sottoposti debbano offerire
el di di San Barnabe apostolo, di xj di giugno.
Mercatanti grossi, ferraiuoli, pizzicaiuoli, e loro sottoposti debbano of
ferire el di di San Giovanni Battista, di xxiiij di giugno.
Setaiuoli, zendadai, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di di San
Piero et San Pavolo apostoli, di xxviij di giugno.
Dipentori e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di di Santo Jacomo e
San Cristofano, a di xxv di luglo.

DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DUOMO OF SIENA. 317
Maestri di legname- e di pietra, e cavatori e manovali, e tutti e loro
sottoposti debbano offerire el di di San Lorenzo, di x d'agosto.
Calzolari, scarsellari, correggiari e borsari, e loro sottoposti debbano
offerire el di di San Bartolomeo, di xxiiij d'agosto.
Coiari, cerbolattari, cartari, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di di
S. Giovanni Battista DicoUato, di xxviiij d'agosto.
Fabbri grossi, chiavari, spadari, agutari, padellari, armaiuoli e sbraghi-
eri, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di de la nativita di nostra Don
na, di viij di settembre
Pannilini, ligrettieri, linaiuoli, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di
\lacuna\ Medici di fisica e cirusici, spetiali, barbieri, e loro sottoposti debbano
offerire el di di Santo Luca, di xviij d'octobre.
Giudici, avocati e notari e procuratori, e loro sottoposti debbano of
ferire el di di San Simone e Giuda, di xxviij d'octobre.
Pellicciari, sartori, farsettari, bambagari, e loro sottoposti debbano of
ferire el di d'ogni santi, di primo di novembre.
Mercatanti di bestie, carnaiuoli, e pesciaiuoli, e loro sottoposti debbano
offerire el di di Santa Caterina, di xxv di novembre.
Fornieri, e panicuocoli, e loro sottoposti debbano offerire el dl di
Santo Andrea apostolo, di xxx di novembre.
Barlectari, balestrieri, tornatori, fusari, e loro sottoposti debbano of
ferire el di di Santa Lucia, di xiij di decembre.
Bastieri, sellari e tavolacciari, e tutti loro sottoposti debbano offrire
el di di San Thome apostolo, di xxj di dicembre.
Orciolari, pignattari, coppari, fornaciari di mattoni, e bichierai, e tutti
loro sottoposti debbano offerire el di de la nativita di Cristo, di xxx di
dicembre. Biadaiuoli, farinaiuoli, portatori, tractori, crivellari, e loro sottoposti
debbano offerire el di de la circumcisione de nostro Signore Geso Cristo,
di primo di- gennaio.
Maliscalchi, cozoni, e chi presta ronzini debbano offerire el di della
pasqua di Befania, di vj di gennaio.
Albergatori, tavernieri, pollaiuoli, soffrittai debbano offerire el di di
sancto Anthonio, a di xvij di gennaio.
Ancho che quelli de la compagna di Munistero perche non sono arte
fici debbano offerire ogni capo fameglia de la detta compagna uno cero
d'una lira o di piii ogn'anno el di de la festa di Santa Maria candelora,
di ij di ferraio, e vadano tutti in sieme.
Ancho che tutte e tre le masse de la citta debbano offerire per ciascu
no terzo cento ceri di lira I'uno o piu a la detta chiesa el di di santo
Mathia apostolo, a di xxiiij di ferraio.
Ancho perche I'arte de pizicaiuoli bonifichara che la detta arte deb
bano agiognare a la loro offerta uno cero grosso fiorito di peso di xxv

3i8

APPENDIX.

lire con sei lire di fiori, e quattro doppieri con istaggiuoli di peso di xx
lire o di piii in tutto.
E sia tenuto ciascuno cittadino di Siena e de le masse e habitante in
essa citta la sopra detta offerta ogn'anno fare o facci fare ne detti di
diputati a la pena di x lib. per ciascuno e per ciascuna volta, a pagare
in biccherna chi corttrafacesse.
E tutti e Rectori e Camarlenghi de le dette arti sieno tenuti le sopra-
dette offerte ne sopradetti di fare e facciano fare ogn'anno a la pena
di xxv lire per ciaschuno e per ciaschuna volta che contrafacesse, a
pagare in biccherna. E ch'el Podesta sia tenuto le sopradette pene
fare pagare a la pena di cento fiorini. E ch'el Camarlingho sia tenuto
ritenere del suo salario. E ch'el detto misser Podesta abbi la quarta
parte de le sopradette pene le quali facesse pagare a chi contrafacesse.
Si igitur dicto consilio et consiliariis dicti consilii videtur et placet
providere, ordinare et reformare, et quod provisum, ordinatum et refor
matum sit et esse intelligatur, auctoritate presentis consilii, prout et si
cut in dicta proposita continetur, non obstantibus in predictis vel ali
quo predictorum aliquibus statutis, reformationibus, provisionibus et
ordinamentis Comunis Senarum in contrarium disponentibus, in Dei
nomine consulatur.
In reformatione quorum consiliorum, dato, facto, et misso partito ad
lupinos albos et nigros secundum formam statutorum . . . proposita
offerte obtenta fuit per cccj lupinos albos, non obstantibus Ixxxviij
nigris. Cotisiglio della Cattipana, tomo cci. f. io6.

APPENDIX II.

IRREGULARITIES OF CONSTRUCTION IN ITALIAN
BUILDINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
In his Seven Lamps of Architecture, published in
1849, Mr, Ruskin, speaking of the Romanesque and
early Gothic, says that in buildings of these styles " ac
cidental carelessnesses of measurement or of execution
are mingled undistlnguishably with the purposed de
partures from symmetrical regularity, and the luxurl-
ousness of perpetually variable fancy, which are emi
nently characteristic of both styles. How great how
frequent they are, and how brightly the severity of ar
chitectural law is relieved by their grace and sudden
ness, has not I think, been enough observed ; still less
the unequal measurements of even important features
professing to be absolutely symmetrical," He proceeds
to illustrate the fact of purposed departures from sym
metrical regularity by the subtle arrangement of the
seven arched compartments of the base of the western
front of the Cathedral of Pisa, and by the exquisite del
icacies of change in the proportions and dimensions of
the apparently symmetrical superimposed arcades of
the same front, and also by the " determined variation
in arrangement which is exactly like the related pro-

320 APPENDIX.
portions and provisions in the structure of organic
form " in the Romanesque Church of San Giovanni
Evangelista at Pistoia, and in the west front of St
Mark's at Venice, " I imagine," he concludes, " I have
given instances enough, though I could multiply them
indefinitely, to prove that these variations are not mere
blunders, nor carelessnesses, but the result of a fixed
scorn, if not dislike, of accuracy in measurements, and,
in most cases, I believe, of a determined resolution to
work out an effective symmetry by variations as subtle
as those of Nature." *
In the second volume of his Stones of Venice, pub
lished In 1853, he Illustrates the subject still further by
instances of " the peculiar subtlety of the early Vene
tian perception for ratios of magnitude," and of " an In
tense perception of harmony In the relation of quan
tities on the part of the Byzantine architects," drawn
from the church at Murano, from some of the Byzan
tine palaces in Venice, and again from the Church of
St Mark.t
The subject although of especial interest as IUus
trating the methods of building of the mediaeval archi
tects, and as exhibiting the refined artistic feeling and
delicate perception which were the source of the finest
effects of beauty in their work, has not received the at
tention which it deserves. Few of the writers on the
architecture of the Middle Ages refer to it Burck
hardt, in his Cicerone, attributes the irregularities in
symmetry to " an indifference to mathematical exact
ness pecuhar to the early Middle Ages," \ which seems
* The Seven Lamps of Architecture (London, 1849), pp. 144-153.
t The Stones of Venice (London, i85i-53),vol. ii. pp. 37-43, and 1 21-128.
XDer Cicerone (2d edition, Leipzig, 1869), p. 102.

ITALIAN BUILDINGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 321
to exclude the idea of a guiding aesthetic sentiment
and an exquisite aesthetic result
In an interesting paper that appeared in Scribners
Monthly, New York, August 1874, entitled A Lost Art,
Mr. W. H, Goodyear has made the most important con
tribution to the topic since Mr. Ruskin wrote. From
an ingenious examination of the group of cathedral
buUdings at Pisa, the Duomo itself, the Baptistery, and
the Leaning Tower — those buildings which Forsyth
well calls " fortunate both in their society and their soli
tude " — he comes to the conclusion that the various
curves and inclinations visible in them, the noticeable
deviations from exact symmetry in generally corre
spondent parts, and the many irregularities of construc
tion which they present were " intended to produce op
tical effects, perspective iUusions," for the purpose, in
part at least of the apparent increase of dimensions ;
and he advances the theory that the science upon which
the buUders proceeded was a tradition handed down
from the ancient Greeks through the Byzantines to the
Byzantine architects of Italy. The evidence of inten
tion in many of the irregularities is ample ; the motive
suggested for them by Mr, Goodyear, and his theory
of derivation, seem to me questionable. There are
similar divergences from symmetry, and simUar de
signed irregularities, in buildings in regions where the
influence of Byzantine modes of construction was never
strongly felt
The whole matter demands thorough investigation,
based upon numerous and careful measurements of
buildings in all parts of Italy. It presents curious
problems, the solution of which deserves the labor and
time it may require, 21

32 2 APPENDIX.
I am inclined to believe that while many of the ir
regularities which give so peculiar an aspect and often
so great a charm of life and variety to the architecture
of Italy In the early Middle Ages are due to the artistic
sense of the buUders (as, Indeed, it seems to me, Mr. Rus
kin has proved), others are due to the sinking of foun
dations and to carelessness In construction, such as we
have evidence of in the erection of the cathedral at
Siena ; still others to the irregular supply of material, as
well as to the variety of material brought from ancient
buildings and worked into the new, as was frequently
the case, for instance, in St Mark's (see ante, p. 56);
and others still to a change of design on the part of
successive builders in works which, like the cathedrals
of Siena and Florence, were labors continued through
many generations.
We should have, then, to make two great distinc
tions — first, of the originally designed artistic irregu
larities, productive often of effects of great beauty and
baffling intricacy, the result of fine architectural skill
and feeling ; and, second, of originaUy undesigned ir
regularities, often injurious to the character of the edi
fice, and displeasing to the eye, the result of accident,
wilfulness. Incompetence, or change of plan. The his
tory of the building of the Duomo of Siena affords, as
the preceding pages show, many illustrations of the
operation of the latter set of causes of irregularity.

INDEX

INDEX.

A.
Aachen, church at, 5.
Abati, Neri, sets fire to Florence, 202.
Agnolo di Tura, extract from his chron
icle concerning plague at Siena, 166.
Alberti, Leon Battista, returns to Flor
ence from banishment, 279 ; dedica
tion of his treatise on Painting to
Brunelleschi, ib.
Alexander III., Pope, strife with Fred
eric Barbarossa, 66 ; legend concern
ing, 67.
Architects, Italian, their sense of value
of propordon, 162.
Architectural design in Italy during the
eleventh century, 25.
Architecture, from the eleventh to thir
teenth century, the clearest expression
of the distinction between modern and
ancient civilization, 10.
 history of, during the Dark Ages
analogous to that of language, 12.
• the year 1000 marks the revival

of, 13.

¦ influence of the Church upon, 13.
 Romanesque style of, 22.
 methods of construction in me
diaeval, 24.
evolution of Gothic, from the

Romanesque, 27.
¦ color in, a special gift of the Ve

netians, 56.
 character of Gothic, in Tuscany,
92, 136. • dome of Brunelleschi marks an

epoch in, 250.
¦ the dome the most appropriate

form in, for a political symbol, 250.
Arnolfo di Cambio intrusted with the
work upon the Duomo of Florence,
192; his recompense, 194; death of
(1310), 199; his works in Florence,
ib.
Art, loss of the sense of the worth of an
cient, 4.
 classic, influence of, upon artists

of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen
turies, 241.
Arts, efforts of Charlemagne to restore
life and order to the, 5.
 date ofthe reawakening of the, 11.
 practice of the, during the Mid
dle Ages by laymen, 26.
¦ field of the, not limited to the

Church during the Middle Ages, 30.
 united in the church edifice, 31.
 change in character ofthe, 156.

B.
Battista d' Antonio, chosen to oversee
construction of dome in Florence, 251.
Beauty, mediaeval ideal of, 28.
Beccafumi, Domenico, his pavement of
Duomo at Siena, 176.
Bocca degli Abati, his treachery, 119.
See Dante.
Boniface VIII., Pope, commissions
Charles of Valois to restore peace in
Florence, 196.
Brigata spendereccia, 157. See Datite.
Brunelleschi, Fihppo, competes for the
making of the bronze door ofthe Bap
tistery of Florence, 237; fails, 238;
his biographers, ii., note ; leaves Flor
ence for Rome, 239 ; gains a living as
goldsmith, 242 ; studies in Rome,
243 ; his repute increases, ib. ; com
petitor for the dome of the Duomo,
246 ; asks aid from DonateUo, ii. ;
assisted by Nanni d' Antonio di Bi
anchi, 247 ; his model for the dome,
ii. ; a committee appointed by the
Art of Wool to judge the model, 248 ;
description of model by, ii. ; chosen
to oversee construction of dome, 251 ;
advice to the Board of Works, 255 ;
difficulties, 257 ; story ofthe egg, 258 ;
building ofthe dome assigned to, 259 ;
opposition to, ii. ; Ghiberti and Bat
tista d' Antonio appointed assistants,
260 ; grief and anger of, ib. ; rivalry
with Ghiberti, 261 ; preparations for
building the dome, 262 ; determination

326

INDEX.

to rid himself of Ghiberti, 264 ; salary
increased, 266 ; his report to Board
of Works, 267 ; his failure before
Lucca, 270 ; his model of lantern,
282 ; his design adopted, 284 ; ap
pointed overseer for life, 290 ; his
death, ib. C.
Cacciaguida, his picture of the condition
of Florence, 156. See Dante.
Campanile of Florence, 222. See Flor
ence.
Capelletto, Company del, ravages of,
174; defeat of, 175.
Carroccio, description of, no, note;
masts of, in Duomo of Siena, 123 ; at
Florence under charge of the Art of
Calimala, 217.
Castracani, Castruccio, his character and
career, 205 ; his war with Florence,
205-208 ; death of, 207.
Cathedrals of Mainz, Speier, and Worms,
monuments of the eleventh century,
20.
Cecco d' Ascoli, burning of, 206.
Charlemagne, his influence, and services
to civilization, 5.
Charles of Valois enters Florence, 196.
Christianity, influence of, in uniting dif
ferent nationalities, 6.
Church, universal obedience claimed by
the, 7 ; her discipline and observances
as elements of unity, ib.
 ideal of the, in the Middle Ages,
14 ; her doctrines, ii. ; the popular in
stitution ofthe Middle Ages, 15.
 position of the, in Italy during
the eleventh century, 20.
 condition of the, in the fifteenth
century, 236.
Church-building, general zeal for, at the
close ofthe tenth century, 16.
 testimony of Rudolphus Glaber
concerning, ig.
 interest of the secular clergy in,
during the eleventh century, 19.
¦ zeal for, in Germany during first

half of the eleventh century, 19 ; in
Italy during the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, 21.
• civic records afford material for

history of, 30.
 comparatively little information
concerning, of the Middle Ages, 32.
 want of sympathy in, of the poets
ofthe Middle Ages, 32.
 notable exceptions to the gen
eral lack of information concerning,
during the Middle Ages, 34.

Churches, great number of monastic,
built in the eleventh century, 17.
essential likeness in the style of,

throughout Europe during the elev
enth and twelfth centuries, 22.
Civilization in Western Europe, wreck
of ancient, after fall of Roman Em
pire, 3.
 traditions of old, preserved in
Italy after fall of Roman Empire, 4.
Clement VII., Pope, towers of Florence
thrown down by order of, 202.
Cologne, Cathedral of, reference to, in
romance of Renaut de Montauban, 33.
Commerce a source of unity, 9.
Compagni, Dino, chronicle of, 195 ; its
authenticity doubted, ii.. note.
Constantinople, Villehardouin's Chron
icle ofthe conquest of, 73.
 pillage of, 82.
Construction, irregularities in, 125, 319.
Corruption of Italy in fourteenth cen
tury, 164-5.
Crusade, urged by Innocent III., 71.
envoys sent from France to Italy

to make arrangements for the, 72.
• reception of envoys by the Doge

of Venice, 73.
 answer of the Doge to the en
voys, 74.
 acceptance by the envoys of the
conditions made by the Doge, 75.
• assembly in St. Mark's with re

gard to, 76.
 consent ofthe people to join the.

77-

departure of crusaders from
France, May and June, 1202, 78.
¦ fleet prepared by Venice for the.

79-

discord among those who had
joined the, 79.
¦ failure on the part of the crusad

ers to make the promised payments
to Venice, 79.
 resoludon ofthe Doge of Venice
not to abandon the, 80.
• want of success ofthe, 81.

Culture, Italian, desire of communities
and individuals for monumental build
ings, a marked feature of, 188, tiote.
D.
Dandolo, Andrea, chronicle of, 46.
Dandolo, Enrico, elected Doge 1192, 71 ;
reception of French envoys by, 73 ;
part taken by, in crusade, 74 ; council
of, 75 ; speech of, in St. Mark's, 77 ;
takes the cross, 80 ; blindness of, 81.
Dante, prior of Florence, 194 ; sent as

INDEX.

327

envoy to Boniface VIII., 197; con
demned to death, 198 ; answer to his
sentence, ii. ; conditions attached to
pardon offered to, 215, note.
Dante's Divine Comedy, passages illus
trated of:
Inferno, x. 36, Farinata degli Uberti
106.
" Jl. 86, the Arbia, in.
" xxix. 122, gente vana of Siena,
88.
" xxix. 130, la brigata spenderec
cia, 157.
" xxx. 78, Fonte Branda, 89.
" xxxii. 81, Montaperti, 121.
" xxxii. 106, Bocca degli Abati
ng.
Purgatorio, vi. 14, Ghin di Tacco, 306.
" vi. 139-47, Florentine fic
kleness, 208.
" xi. 121, Provenzan Salvani.
112.
" xi. 134, Campo di Siena, 89
" xiii. 153, la Diana, 88.
" XX. 71, Charles of Valois,
196.
Paradiso, xv. gg, Florence in the time
of Cacciaguida, 156.
" XV. 134, xvi. 25, Church of
St. John Baptist at Flor
ence, 212.
" xxv. 1-9, Dante's answer to
the sentence condemn
ing him to death, 198.
Diocletian, palace of, at Spalato, 21, 23.
Documents relating to Duomo of Siena,
App. L 295-318.
Doge, the election of a, 63.
 admonition of Venice to the, on
his election, 59, 64.
DonateUo, genius and works of, 246.
 St. George by, 249, note.
 employed on palace of Cosimo
de' Medici, 278.
Duccio di Boninsegna, his character as
a painter, 140 ; his altar-piece in Duo
mo of Siena, 142-6. E.
Eugenius IV., Pope, flies to Florence,
272; consecrates the Duomo, 273;
knights Giuliano Davanzati, 275 ;
at the Council of Florence, 287.
F.
Faliero, Vitale, Doge, inscription on the
tomb of, 65.
Farinata degli Uberti at Siena, 106. See
Dante.
Festival of the espousals of the sea by

Venice, date of origin of, 70 ; legend
concerning the, ii.
Florence at the close of the thirteenth
century, 181.
arts of, 183 ; statute of the Art

of Cahmala, 184, 213, 219 ; influence
of, in public affairs, 186 ; activity of
the, 187 ; various trusts committed to
.the, 211; officers appointed by the
Art of Calimala to oversee the work
on Duomo, 216; their duties, 217;
measures taken to prevent interference
by the clergy, 217.
aspect of, in the fourteenth cen

tury, 200.
¦ Baptistery of, gilded bronze doors

of the, 236 ; competition for the doors
of, 237 ; the door awarded to Ghiber
ti, 238. Boniface VIII., Pope, commis

sions Charles of Valois to restore
peace to, ig6.
 Campanile of, 222.
 carroccio of, 217.
¦ Charles of Valois enters (1301),

196.

• civil discord in, ig4.
 commercial morality of, 185.
 Council of, 287 ; failure of, 288.
 Dante, prior of, ig4.
 decline in character of the peo
ple of, 285.
Duomo of (Sta. Maria del Fio

re), appropriations made for repair
ing, and the renewal of Sta. Reparata,
188 ; decree for rebuilding Sta. Repa
rata, i8g ; new structure determined
upon, ii. ; foundation of St. Mary of
the Flower, igo ; measures for pro
curing means to build the, 191 ; Ar
nolfo di Cambio intrusted with the
work upon the, 192 ; Gothic forms
employed, 193 ; work upon, continued
in spite of civic disturbances, 197;
work upon, brought almost to an end
by troubles in Florence, 203 ; super
intendents of the work petition for
funds, 204 ; the Art of Wool intrusted
with the renewed work upon, 211 ; of
ferings made on the Feast of St. John,
214; various sources of income for
building, 215 ; release of prisoners
upon St. John's Day, ii. ; Giotto ap
pointed master of the works of, 230 ;
new design for, 225 ; Francesco Ta
lenti master of the works of the, 226 ;
new design begun, ib. ; character of
new design, 227-30; progress of work
upon, 23 1 ; tribune of, completed, 833 ;
picture of, in Spanish chapel of Sta.

328

INDEX.

Maria Novella, 234 ; project for a
dome, 235 ; difficukies in constructing
a dome, 244 ; proclamation ordering
designs for a dome, 245 ; meeting of
foreign artists to give their opinion,
256 ; progress of dome, 267 ; incidents
during the building, 268 ; strike among
the workmen, 271 ; closing of dome,
271 ; consecration of the, 273 ; bene
diction ofthe dome, 279 ; competition
for lantern of dome, 281 ; report on
models for lantern, 282 ; lantern of
Brunelleschi accepted, ib. ; delay in
completion of dome, 289 ; lantern com
pleted, 291.
Florence, famine in, 209 ; efforts to re
lieve suifering caused by, ii.
 feuds of, picture of, by Cacciagui
da, 195.
 conflagration in, 202.
 Greek studies in, 289.
 luxury in, 210.
¦ men of eminence in, at the be

ginning ofthe fifteenth century, 252,
 Ordinances of Justice, 182.
 Plague of 1348, 223 ; recovery
from, 224 ; loss of records and docu
ments due to, 224, note.
 Podesta and magistrates of, 184.
 reforms frequent in the govern
ment of, 208.
 St. John the Baptist, patron of,
212; Feast of, 214.
¦ Santa Reparata, appropriations

made for, 188; decree for rebuilding,
189.
 towers of, thrown dowm by order
of Clement VII., 202.
 walls and towers of, 201.
- war with Castruccio Castracani

(1320), 205 ; disastrous effect of, 205.
¦ war with Filippo Maria Visconti

of Milan (1423), 269.
Florentines, high qualities of the, 251 ;
their critical spirit, 253.
Foulques of Neuilly preaches the crusade
of Innocent III., 72.
Fra Angelico, frescos in Convent of St.
Mark by, 277.
Fra Melano, operaio of Duomo at Siena,
102 ; his contract for pulpit with Nic
cola Pisano, 128.
Frederic II., effect of his death on Ital
ian parties, 105.
Frederic Barbarossa, reconciliation of,
with Pope Alexander III., 66; signif
icance of their meeting, 67 ; legend
concerning it, ii. ; paintings of it, 69,
tiote.
Funds for building, sources of, 97 : lega

cies, directions to notaries concerning,
191,314; candles and wax, contribu
tions of, 97, 100, 125, 214, 315 ; subsi
dies from the commune, 97, 140, igi,
204, 211, 296, 304, 311, 313 ; tribute
from dependent communities and bar
ons, 98, 214.

Gaddi, Taddeo, intrusted with work upon
the Campanile of Florence, 223.
Gerard de Roussillon, account of the
foundation ofthe church atVezelay,33.
Ghiberti, Lorenzo, opinion of, concern
ing Giotto, 221 ; making of the doors
ofthe Baptistery of Florence awarded
to, 238 ; competes with Brunelleschi
for the dome, 246 ; chosen to oversee
the construction ofthe dome, 251 ; ap
pointed assistant, 260 ; rivalry with
Brunelleschi, 261 ; ordered to make
a chain for girding the cupola, 265 ;
fails, ii. ; dismissed by the Board of
Works, zA
Ghin di Tacco, debate in Council ofthe
Bell concerning his stronghold, App.
I. Doc. vii. 306. See Dante.
Giotto di Bondone, appointed master of
the works ofthe Duomo of Florence,
220; his genius, zA ; Ghiberti's opin
ion of, 221 ; portion of the Duomo
built by, ii. ; his design for campa
nile of, 222 ; his death, 223 ; his burial
in Sta. Maria del Fiore, ii.
Gothic style, development of, 27 ; Ital
ian practice of, 92, 136.
Gozzoli, Benozzo, paintings by, 278.
Guelf and Ghibelline, opposing princi
ples of, 104.
Guido di Battifolle, Count, establishes
order in Florence, 204.
H.
Harry of Astimberg, his right to deliver
the first stroke in battle, 119.
Horses, history of the bronze, on the
front of St. Mark's, 82.
I.
Innocent III., elected Pope, 71 ; his char
acter, ii. ; crusade incited by, ii.
Italy, change in fourteenth century in
.the spirit ofthe people of, 156.

Lando di Pietro, sent for to superintend
work on new Duomo at Siena, 160;
his death, 163.
Language and art, parallel in the condi
tions of, II.

INDEX.

329

Louis, Count of Blois, joins the crusade
of Innocent IIL, 72.
M.
Maitani, Lorenzo, his advice concerning
work on baptistery, and project of new
Duomo at Siena, 147.
Manfred, takes Siena under his protec
tion, 107 ; sends troops to her aid,
108 ; indignity to his banner, 109 ;
sends more troops, ib.
Medici, Cosimo de', his position and
character, 276; recalled from exile,
ii. ; rebuilt Convent of St. Mark, 277;
palace of, ib. ; death of (1464), 276.
Michele, Vitale, Doge, inscription upon
the tomb of the wife of, 65.
Michelozzi, architect of Convent of St.
Mark, 277 ; of palace of Cosimo de'
Medici, ii.
Middle Ages, contrast in conditions of
the, to those of the ancient world, 8.
Montaperti, battle of, 1 18-21. See Dante.
Morality and beauty inseparable in the
highest forms of human expression, 29.
Murano, date of the Duomo of, 12, note.
N.
Nanni d' Antonio di Banchi assists Bru
nelleschi in the work upon dome, 247.
National consciousness, beginnings of, in
Europe during the tenth century, 6.
Nature, result of the study of, upon
Gothic design, 29.
Neri di Fioravante intrusted with work
upon the Campanile of Florence, 223.
O.
Oblates, 151 ; Giovanni Pisano offered
as an oblate, 139, note.
Orseolo, Pietro, Doge, rebuilds the pal
ace and church of St. Mark, 50.
Otho, son of Frederic Barbarossa, taken
prisoner by the Venetians, 68.

Palseologus, John, Emperor of the East,
meets Pope Eugenius IV. at Florence,
286.
Pettignano, Pier, his good deeds, 135 ;
proposal in Council ofthe Bell to em
power him to select prisoners for of
fering on the Feast of the Assumption,
App. I. Doc. vi. 303. See Dante.
Pisano, Giovanni, his design for fa9ade
of Duomo of Siena, 137 ; fine imposed
upon him, 139 ; offered as an oblate
to the Virgin, ii., note.
 Niccola, his genius and works,
128 ; his pulpit at Siena, 128-33.

Plague of 1348 at Siena, 165 ; at Flor
ence, 223.
Priesthood, influence of the, throughout
Europe, 16.
Provenzano Salvani, his counsel, 112.
See Dante. R.
Release of prisoners, or criminals, on
religious festivals, 134, 215. See
Dante.
Renaut de Montauban, romance of, 33 ;
the hero engages as common laborer
on the Cathedral of Cologne, ii.
Roman Empire, the name of, the source
of the main political theory of the
Middle Ages, 7.
Roman law, influence of, on the unity of
European civilization, 8.
Rome, tradition of right of, to the gov
ernment of the world, 7 ; condition of,
at the early part of the fifteenth cen
tury, 242.
Rose of gold, 273, note.
Rudolphus Glaber, testimony of, con
cerning church-building, 17.
S.
Sculpture, new development in, 232.
Selvo, Domenico, Doge, completes St.
Mark's, 50.
Siena, Archives of, 94, note.
 Baptistery of, demolition of the
old Church of St. John Baptist, 146 ;
foundadons of the new, its site, its de
sign, 147 ; unfavorable judgment upon
the work, 148 ; prosecution of the de
sign, 150; fa9ade left incomplete, 151 ;
interior completed, 176.
 brigata spendereccia, 157.
¦ Campo di, laid out in 1 194, 89.

See Dante.
 carroccio of, 1 10.
 character of her people, 88.
¦ condition of, in twelfth and thir

teenth centuries, 87.
 Council of the Bell, 95.
¦ decline in spirit and character

of, in fourteenth century, 164, 174.
 Diana's well, search for, 88. See

Dante.
 Duomo of, its site, 90 ; a civic
work, gi ; beginning of its construc
tion, zA, g3 ; date of its campanile, gi ;
consecration, 92 ; character of its ar
chitecture, 93 ; records concerning or
igin and progress of design deficient,
94 ; /' opera, ii.; ordinances regulating
duties of the magistracy in respect to
the building, ii. ; funds for building.

330

INDEX.

whence derived, 97 ; offerings at Feast
of the Assumption, ii. ; dedicated to
Madonna ofthe Assumption, ii. ; can
dles sold for benefit of building-fund,
100; legacies, 101,314; earliest exist
ing records concerning the building,
loi ; action of Council of the Bell,
102 ; Fra Melano master ofthe works,
ib., 300, note; progress ofthe work in
1260, 103 ; services in, before the bat
tle of Montaperd, 113; dedication of
the city to the Madonna, 114; thanks
giving for victory, 122 ; two captains
buried in, ib,; inscriptions, 123; masts
of carroccio set up within, ib. ; ordi
nance concerning offerings of wax re
newed, 125,315; cupola completed,
125 ; irregularities of construction of
cupola, ii. ; Fra Melano contracts
with Niccola Pisano for a pulpit, 12S ;
description of pulpit, 130 ; release of
prisoners on Feast ofthe Assumption,
134 ; design by Giovanni Pisano for
thefayade, 137 ; description of fagade,
138; grant of funds by the commune,
140 ; altar-piece by Duccio di Bonin
segna, 142 ; celebration on taking the
altar-piece to the church, 144 ; fate of
the altar-piece, 145 ; new baptistery,
extension of choir, 147 ; work pro
nounced unsatisfactory, 148 ; recom
mendation to construct a new church,
ib. ; resolve of Council to proceed
with work already begun, 149 ; slow
progress, 150; oblates, 151 ; enact
ments in statute of 1334 in regard to
the opera, 153 ; new designs, 159 ; re
solve to build a new nave, 160 ; Lan
do di Pietro superintendent of work,
ii. ; beauty of new design, 162 ; work
checked by the plague of 1348, 169 ;
falling-off of funds, 170; defects in
new construction, ii. ; deliberations
concerning the work, 171 ; project of
new nave abandoned, 172; demolition
of great part of recent work, 173 ; com
pletion ofthe building on the old plan,
176; minor works of adornment, liec-
cafume's pavement, ii., tiote ; close of
the history, 177.
Siena, epidemic of 1340, 162.
 Feast of the Assumption, cele
bration of, gg.
 Florence, reception of Ghibelline
exiles from, 106; breach of treaty with,
107 ; war with, 108.
 Fonte Branda, construction of,
8g. See Dante.
 ¦ — Fonte Gaia, water brought to,
163.

Siena, Ghibellinism of, 106, 124.
luxury of, in fourteenth century.

157-

• Manfred takes the city under his

protection, 107.
Montaperti, preparations for bat

tle of, 111-17; battle of, 117-21 ; re
joicings after, 122; results of, 124.
 plague of 134S, 165 ; effects of,

 statute of 1260, form of, g4; ar
ticles of, relating to Duomo, ii.,2<^^;
revisions of, 153.
trades of, list of, in ordinance

regulating their contributions to the
Duomo, App. I. Doc. xi. 315.
tribute of subject communities

and barons, gS.
• Virgin, dedication of city to the.

114.

• wax, offerings of, for benefit of

Duomo at Feast ofthe Assumption,
97- 125,315. • wealth and power of, increase of,

in fourteenth century, 156, 158, 164.
-year, beginning of Sienese, March

25, 102, note.
Simon de Montfort joins the crusade
of Innocent III., 72.
Speier, Cathedral of, 20.
Sta. Maria del Fiore. See Florence.
Sta. Maria Novella, picture of Duomo
of Florence in Spanish chapel of, 234.
Sta. Reparata. See Florence.
St. John the Baptist, the patron of Flor
ence, 212 ; Feast of, 214; release of
prisoners on the Feast of, 215.
St. Mark. See Venice.
St. Mark's. See Venice.

Talenti, Francesco, master of the works
ofthe Duomo of Florence, 226 ; suc
ceeded by his son Simone, 231.
Thibaut, Count of Champagne, takes
part in crusade of Innocent III., 72.
Tintoretto, paintings of miracles of St.
Mark, 48, tiote.
Torcello, Duomo of, 23.
Towers in Italian cities, 91, note.
V.
Vasari, Giorgio, his Life of Brunelleschi,
238, note; his account of Brunelleschi's
dome, 254 ; character of his Lives of
the Artists, ii., note.
Venetian taste, change in, in the fifteenth
century, 61.
Venetians, character ofthe, 40 ; affected
by their relations with the East, 41.

INDEX.

331

Venice, admonition of, to a Doge on his
election, 64.
 affection of her people for, 40.
 appeal of, to the poetic imagina
tion, 39.
 belief in the perpetuity of, 43. .
 Dandolo's Chronicle of, 46, note.
 Doge, election of, 63.
 envoys sent from France to, con
cerning crusade of Innocent III., 72 ;
proceedings of envoys to, 73-79.
 festival of the espousals of the
sea, 70.
 fleet prepared by, for crusade,
79-

¦ Frederic Barbarossa and Alex
ander III. at, 1177, 66.
¦ honesty in conduct of public af

fairs in, 64.
 houses, private, in, 42.
¦ independence of ecclesiastical au

thority of, 44,
 interests of, 41.
 legend of, 44.
 moral history of, 62.
 nobles of, 42.
 pillage of Constantinople by, 82.
¦ rank of, in the history ofthe arts,

52.

¦ St. Mark, peculiar relation of, to
Venice, 45 ; legend of, ii. ; legend con
cerning the translation of the body
of, from Alexandria in 829, 46 ; mira
cles of, represented in pictures by Tin
toretto, 48, note ; disappearance ofthe
body of, 51 ; miraculous discovery of
the body of, in 1094, ii.; the relics of,
placed in the crypt of St. Mark's, 53.
- St. Mark's, date of, 12, note; want

of documents relating to the history
of, down to fifteenth century, 49, note ;
first church built about 829, destroyed
by fire 976, 49 ; rebuilt by Doge Pie
tro Orseolo, 50 ; remodelled by Dome
nico Contarini in 1042-51, ii.; finished
by Domenico Selvo in 1071, ii.; dedi
cation, October 8, 1094, 51 ; originality
ofthe design, 52 ; architect unknown,

53 ; plan, ii.; form of cross, domes,
and decorations borrowed from the
East, 54; Romanesque character of
crypt and apses, ib. ; mosaics and dec
orations, ii. ; centre of Venetian life,
55 ; variety of materials in, an indica
tion of the prevalence of genuine ar
tistic spirit in Venice, 2A; effect of col
or in, 56; additions, 57; fagade, ii.;
mosaic decoration of, a means of relig
ious instruction, 58; inscriptions on the
walls, 59-60 ; scheme and subjects of
pictorial decoration, 59 ; complete at
the beginning of the twelfth century,
60 ; campanile of, 61 ; additions from
1 125-1350, ii. ; various uses of, 63 ;
slabs of red marble in vestibule, 67 ;
assembly in, to consider crusade of In
nocent IIL, 75 ; memories of, second
ed appeal of envoys, 76 ; bronze horses
on front of, 82 ; story of, an epitome
of story of Venice, 83.
Venice, traditions of the old civilization
linked to the conditions ofthe new by,
39-
Vezelay, story of the foundation of
church at, in the Romance of Gerard
of Roussillon, 33.
Villani, Giovanni, description by, of the
walls and towers of Florence, 201 ;
of conflagration, 203.
Villehardouin, Geoffroi de, chronicle of,
of the conquest of Constantinople,
73 ; sent as envoy to Venice, ib. ; ad
dress of, to the Venetians, 76 ; his ac
count of proceedings of the envoys,
73-81.
Visconti, Filippo Maria, Duke of Milan,
at war with Florence, 269.
W.
Worms, Cathedral of, 20.

Ziani, Sebastiano, Doge, brings about
meeting between Frederic Barbarossa
and Pope Alexander III., 66 ; inscrip
tion on his tomb, 66.

THE END.

VALUABLE AND INTEEESTING WOEKS
FOE
PUBLIC & mum LIBRAEIES,
Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.

US" For a full List of Books suitable for Libraries published by Harper & Brothers,
see Harpers' Catalogue, which may be had gratuitously on application to thi
Publishers personally, or by letter enclosing Nine Cents in Postage stamps.
C^- Harper & Brothers will send their pziblications by mail, postage Repaid, on re
ceipt of the price.

MACAULAY'S ENGLAND. The History of England from the Ac
cession of James II. By Thomas Baeingtok Macatjlat. New
Edition, from new Electrotype Plates. 8vo, Cloth, with Paper La
bels, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, 5 vols, in a Box, $10 00 per set.
Sold only in sets. Cheap Edition, 5 vols, in a Box, 12mo, Cloth,
$2 50 ; Sheep, $3 75.
MACAULAY'S LIFE AND LETTERS. The Life and Letters of
Lord Macaulay. By his Nephew, G. Otto Tkevel-?an, M.P. With
Portrait on Steel. Complete in 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges
and Gilt Tops, $5 00 ; Sheep, $6 00 ; Half Calf, $9 50. Popular
Edition, two vols, in one, 12mo, Cloth, $1 75.
aUME'S ENGLAND. The History of England, from the Invasion
of Julias Csesar to the Abdication of James IL, 1688. By David
Hume. New and Elegant Library Edition, from new Electrotype
Plates. 6 vols, in a Box, 8vo, Cloth, with Paper Labels, Uncut
Edges and Gilt Tops, $12 00. Sold only in sets. Popular Edition,
6 vols, in a Box, 12mo, Cloth, $3 00 ; Sheep, $4 50.
GIBBON'S ROME. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Ro
man Empire. By Edward Gibbon. With Notes by Dean Milman,
M. Guizot, and Dr. William Smith. New Edition, from new Elec
trotype Plates. 6 vols., 8vo, Cloth, with Paper Labels, Uncut Edges
and Gilt Tops, $12 00. Sold only in sets. Popular Edition, 6 vols.
in a Box, 12mo, Cloth, $3 00 ; Sheep, $4 50.
HILDRETH'S UNITED STATES. History of the United States.
First Series : From the Discovery of the Continent to the Organi
zation of the Government under the Federal Constitution. Second
Series : From the Adoption of the Federal Constitution to the End
of the Sixteenth Congress. By Richard Hildreth. Popular Edi
tion, 6 vols, in a Box, 8vo, Cloth, with Paper Labels, Uncut Edges
and'Gilt Tops, $12 00. Sold only in sets.

2 Valuable Works for Public and Private Libraries.
MOTLEY'S DUTCH REPUBLIC. The Rise of the Dutch Repub
lic. A History. By John Lothrop Motlet, LL.D., D.C.L. With
a Portrait of William of Orange. Cheap Edition, 3 vols, in a Box,
8vo, Cloth, with Paper Labels, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $6 00.
Sold only in sets. Original Library Edition, 3 vols., 8vo, Cloth,
$10 50 ; Sheep, $12 00 ; Half Calf, $17 25.
MOTLEY'S UNITED NETHERLANDS. History of the United
Netherlands : from the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve
Years' Truce— 1609. With a full View of the English-Dutch Strug
gle against Spain, and of the Origin and Destruction of the Spanish
Armada. By John Lotheop Motlet, LL.D., D.C.L. Portraits.
Cheap Edition, 4 vols, in a Box, 8vo, Cloth, with Paper Labels, Un
cut Edges and Gilt Tops, $8 00. Sold only in sets. Original Li
brary Edition, 4 vols., Svo, Cloth, $14 00 ; Sheep, $16 00 ; Half
Calf, $23 00.
MOTLEY'S LIFE AND DEATH OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD.
The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland :
with a View of the Primary C.iuses and Movements of "The Thir
ty-years' War." By John Lothkop Motley, LL.D., D.C.L. Illus
trated. Cheap Edition, 2 vols, in a Box, Bvo, Cloth, with Paper La
bels, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $4 00. Sold only in sets. Origi
nal Library Edition, 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $7 00; Sheep, $8 00 ; Half
Calf, $11 50.
BENJAMIN'S CONTEMPORARY ART. Contemporary Art in Eu
rope. By S. G. W. Benjamin. Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, $3 50.
BENJAMIN'S ART IN AMERICA. Art in America. By S. G.
W. Benjamin. Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, $4 00.
THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC. A Review of Amer
ican Progress. Svo, Cloth, $5 00.
HUDSON'S HISTORY OF JOURNALISM. Journalism in the
United States, from 1690 to 1872. By Frederic Hudson. Svo,
Cloth, $5 00 ; Half Calf, $7 25.
JEFFERSON'S LIFE. The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson:
Compiled from Family Letters and Reminiscences, by his Great-
granddaughter, Sarah N. Randolph. Illustrated. Crown Svo,
Cloth, $2 50.
SQUIER'S PERU. Peru : Incidents of Travel and Exploration in
the Land of the Incas. By E. George Squier, M.A., F.S.A., late
U. S. Commissioner to Peru. With Illustrations. Svo, Cloth, $5 00.
MYERS'S LOST EMPIRES. Remains of Lost Empires : Sketches
of the Ruins of Palmyra, Nineveh, Babylon, and Persepohs. By P.
V. N. Mtees. Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, $3 50.

Valuable Works for Public and Private Libraries. 3

KINGLAKE'S CRIMEAN WAR. The Invasion of the Crimea: its
Origin, and an Account of its Progress down to the Death of Lord
Raglan. By Alexander William Kinglake. With Maps and
Plans. Three Volumes now ready. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00 per vol.
LAMB'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Charies Lamb.
Comprising his Letters, Poems, Essays of Elia, Essays upon Shak-
speare, Hogarth, etc., and a Sketch of his Life, with the Final Memo
rials, by T. Noon Talfourd. With Portrait. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth,
$3 00.
LAWRENCE'S HISTORICAL STUDIES. Historical Studies. By
Eugene LawHence. Containing the following Essays : The Bish
ops of Rome. — Leo and Luther. — Loyola and the Jesuits. — Ecu
menical Councils. — The Vaudois. — The Huguenots. — The Church of
Jerusalem. — Dominic and the Inquisition. — The Conquest of Ireland.
— The Greek Church. Svo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops,
$3 00.
LOSSING'S FIELD-BOOK OP THE REVOLUTION. Pictorial
Field-Book of the Revolution : or, Ill'.7Strations by Pen and Pencil
of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the
War for Independence. By Benson J. Lossing. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth,
$14 00; Sheep or Roan, $15 00; Half Calf, $18 00.
LOSSING'S FIELD-BOOK OF THE WAR OF 1812. Pictorial
Field-Book of the War of 1S12 : or, Illustrations by Pen and Pencil
of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the last
War for American Independence. By Benson J. Lossing. With
several hundred Engravings on Wood by Lossing and Barritt, chiefly
from Original Sketches by the Author. 1088 pages, Svo, Cloth,
$7 00 ; Sheep, $S 50 ; Roan, $9 00 ; Half Calf, $10 00.
FORSTER'S LIFE OF DEAN SWIFT. The Eariy Life of Jonathan
Swift (1667-1711). By John Forster. With Portrait. Svo, Cloth,
Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $2 50.
HALLAM'S MIDDLE AGES. View of the State of Europe during
the Middle Ages. By Henry Hallam. Svo, Cloth, $2 00 ; Sheep,
$2 50.
HALLAM'S CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The
Constitutional History of England, from the Accession of Henry VII.
to the Death of George II. By Henry Hallam. Svo, Cloth, $2 00;
Sheep, $2 50.
HALLAM'S LITERATURE. Introduction to the Literature of Eu
rope during the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. By
Henry Hallam. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Sheep, $5 00.
GREEN'S ENGLISH PEOPLE. History of the English People. By
John Richard Geeen, M.A. 3 volumes ready. Svo, Cloth, $2 60
per volume.

4 Valuable Works for Public and Private Libraries.
SCHWEINFURTH'S HEART OF AFRICA. The Heart of Africa.
Three Years' Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of
the Centre of Africa — from 1S6S to 1871. By Dr. Georg Schwein-
fubth. Translated by Ellen E. Frewer. With an Introduction
by WiNWOOD Reade. Illustrated by about 130 Wood - cuts from
Drawings made by the Author, and with two Maps. 2 vols., Svo,
Cloth, $S 00.
M'CLINTOCK & STRONG'S CYCLOPEDIA. Cyclopsedia of Bib
lical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Prepared by the
Rev. John M'Clintock, D.D., and James Strong, S.T.D. ^vols.
now ready. Royal Svo. Price per vol., Cloth, $5 00 ; Sheep, $6 00 ;
Half Morocco, $S 00. {Sold by Subscription.)
MOHAMMED AND MOHAMMEDANISM : Lectures Delivered at
the Royal Institution of Great Britain in February and March, 1 874.
By R. Bosworth Smith, M.A., Assistant Master in Harrow School;
late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. With an Appendix contain
ing Emanuel Deutsch's Article on "Islam." 12mo, Cloth, $1 50.
MOSHEIM'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, Ancient and Modern ;
in which the Rise, Progress, and Variation of Church Power are con.
sidered in their Connection with the State of Learning and Philos
ophy, and the Political History of Europe during that Period. Trans
lated, with Notes, etc., by A. Maolaine, D.D. Continued to 1826,
by C. CooTE, LL.D. 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $4 00 ; Sheep, $5 00.
HARPER'S NEW CLASSICAL LIBRARY. Literal Translations.
The following volumes are now ready. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50 each.
C^SAR. — Virgil. — Sallust. — Horace. — Cicero's Orations.^
Cicero's Ofeices, etc. — Cicero on Oratory and Orators.—
Tacitus (2 vols.). — Terence. — Sophocles. — Juvenal. — Xeno-
phon. — Homer's Iliad. — Homer's Odyssey. — Herodotus. — De
mosthenes (2 vols.). — Thucydides. — iEscHYLUs. — Euripides (2
vols.). — LivY (2 vols.). — Plato [Select Dialogues].
PARTON'S CARICATURE. Caricature and Other Comic Art, in
All Times and Many Lands. By James Parton. With 203 Illus
trations. Svo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $5 00 ; Half Calf,
$7 25.
NICHOLS'S ART EDUCATION. Art Education applied to Indus
try. By George Ward Nichols. Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, $4 00 ;
Half Calf, $6 25.
VINCENT'S LAND OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT. The Land
of the White Elephant : Sights and Scenes in Southeastern Asia. A
Personal Narrative of Travel and Adventure in Farther India, em
bracing the Countries of Burma, Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin-China
(1871-2). By Frank Vincent, Jr. Illustrated with Maps, Plans,
and Wood-cuts. Crown Svo, Cloth, $3 50.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 02531 6762