FOOTNOTES:[1]Professor Giuseppe Merzario.—I Maestri Comacini. Storia Artistica di Mille duecento anni, 600-1800.Published in 1893 by Giacomo Agnelli, of 2, Via S. Margherita, Milan. Two vols., large octavo. (Price 12 frcs.)[2]"Si Magister Comacinus, cum collegis suis, domum ad restaurandum, vel fabricandum super se placito finito de mercede susceperit, et contigerit aliquem per ipsam domum aut materiam, aut lapide lapso moti, aut quodlibet damnum fieri, non requiratur domino, cuius domus fuerit, nisi Magister Comacinus cum consortibus suis ipsum homicidium aut damnum componat, qui postquam fabulam firmatam de mercede pro suo lucro susciperit, non immerito sustinet damnum."[3]"Si quis Magister Comacinum unum aut plures rogaverit, aut conduxerit ad operam dictandum, aut solatium diurnum praestandum inter suos servos ad domum aut casam faciendam et contigerit per ipsam casam, aliquem ex ipsis Comacinis mori non requiratur ab ipso, cuius casa est. Nam si cadens arbor, aut lapis ex ipsa fabrica, et occiderit aliquem extraneum, aut quodlibet damnum fecerit, non reputetur culpa magistro, sed ille qui conduxit, ipsum damnum sustineat."—From theEdict of Rotharis—edited by Troyes.[4]Stieglitz,Geschichte der Baukunst, 1827, pp. 423, 424. See also Hope'sHistorical Essay on Architecture, 1835, pp. 229-237.[5]See Hope'sHistorical Essay on Architecture, 3rd edition, 1840, chap. xxi. pp. 203-216.[6]E mandaro al Senato di Roma, che mandassi loro i più sofficienti maestri, e più sottili (subtle) che fossero in Roma: e cosi fu fatto.—Storiadi G. Villani. Libro primo, cap. xlii.[7]Cassiodorus,Variorum, Lib. VI. Epist. vi.Ad Prefectum Urbis De Architecta Publicorum.[8]Morrona,Pisa illustrata nelle Arti del Disegno, p. 160. Pisa, 1812.[9]Instituzioni, riti e ceremonie dell' ordine de' Francs-Maçons, ossia Liberi Muratori.—In Venezia MDCCLXXXVIII, presso Leonardo Bassaglia, Con Licenza de' Superiori.[10]The Charter Richard II. for the year 1396, quoted in theMasonic Magazine(1882), has the following entry—"341 Concessimus archiepiscopo Cantuar, quod, viginti et quatuor lathomos vocatus ffre Maceons et viginti et quatuor lathomos vocatos ligiers ... capere ... possit." Here then at Canterbury is the same thing as at Milan, and all other ancient cathedral-building cities,—the master builders are Freemasons,i.e.of the great and universal guild,—the underlings who assist them have not the same rank and privilege. The Act Henry VI., c. 12, 1444, says in queer mixed parlance—"Les gagez ascun frank mason ou maister Carpenter nexcede pas par le jour IIIJ d. (denari) ovesque mangier & boier ... un rough mason and mesne Carpenter ... III d. par le jour." Here we recognize the same distinction of grades between the master who has matriculated and the mason of lower grade. It is interesting also to note that the master carpenter is equally a Freemason as well as the master builder. In Italy the same peculiarity is noticeable; themagister lignamine, whose work was to make scaffoldings and roofs, is a member of theMaestranze, just as much as themagister lapidorum, and yet a master in wood is never a stonemason. The members seem to have been grounded in all the branches, but only graduated in one of them. The author of the article "Freemason" in theNew English Dictionary on Historical Principles, seems to be perplexed over the expression "maestre mason de franche peer" ("master mason of free-stone"); but this is merely the equivalent of the Latinmagister lapidus vivum, fromSaxum vivum, free-stone, which merely means a sculptor, in distinction to an architect, who wasmagister inzignorum.[11]At one era in Lombard times a law was made that no marble was to be used in building, except by royal persons—which accounts for all the Lombard churches being sculptured inSaxum vivum, or free-stone. There may have been a similar custom in England where marble was scarce.[12]There were other five martyrs of the Masonic guild, whose names have been given as Carpoferus, Severus, Severanus, Victorianus, and Symphorian. I have taken the four "Coronati" from the statutes of the VenetianArte.[13]Mrs. Jameson finds the Santi Quattro illustrated in a predella in Perugia Academy. In one scene they are kneeling before the Emperor with their implements in their hands. In another they are bound to four columns and tortured. In a third they are in an iron cage and being thrown into the sea. In their own church they are represented as lying in one sarcophagus with crowns on their heads. In sculpture they also occur on the façades of several early churches; on the Arco di S. Agostino, and lastly on Or San Michele at Florence, where Nanni di Banco had so much trouble in squeezing the four of them into one niche, that Donatello had to help him. These sculptures were placed by theArteof masons and stone-cutters, and they naturally chose their patron saints.[14]Gregor. Epist.Tom. III. Epist. iv. an. 755.[15]Pietro Giannone, an exile from Naples, contemporary of Muratori, was the first to mention thisMemoratorio, which he said he had seen among the precious codices of the monks at Cava dei Tirreni; that it contained 152 laws, seven of which were added specially for the Comacine Masters.[16]SeeEpistola ad Mustio, 39, lib. ix.[17]Lib. X. Epist. xliii.[18]Muratori,Novus Thesaurus veterum Inscriptorum, Vol. I. chap. vii. p. 526.[19]Antiq. Long. Mil.Tom. I. chap. i. p. 17.[20]Antiq. Long. Mil.vol. i.;Dissertationi, p. 17.[21]Their daughter Gundeberg had a similar life; she married first Ariold, and then Rotharis.[22]Symonds,Renaissance of Art, Fine Arts, chap. ii.[23]Annali d'Italia, tom. iv. pp. 38, 39.[24]The first Roman Basilica was constructed in 231B.C., by Marcus Portius Cato, and was called the Basilica Portia. Marcus Fulvis Nobilior built one, called the Fulvia, in 179B.C.; Titus Sempronius, 169B.C.Then followed a long line of these religio-judicial buildings, up to the Basilica Julia of Augustus, 29B.C., and ending with the Ulpian Basilica of Trajan,A.D.100.—Ricci,Arch. Ital.chap. ii.[25]Dell' Architettura in Italia, vol. i. p. 174.[26]A document, dated 739, in the archives of Monte Amiata, speaks of a certain Maestro Comacino, named Rodpert, who sold to Opportuno for 30 gold solidi, his property at Toscanella (then a Longobardic territory), consisting of a house and vineyard, a cloister, cistern, land, etc.[27]Cattaneo,L' Architettura in Italia, p. 46.[28]Gundiberga ... intra ticinensem Civitatem in honorem Beati Joannis Baptistae construxit.—Paul. Diac.lib. iv. cap. 4. This must not be confounded with the Baptistery which was built by Bishop Damiano in the same century.[29]Several of the Lombard towers in Rome have this peculiar ornamentation.[30]Antichità Romantiche d'Italia, da Difendente e Giuseppe Sacchi, p. 70,et seq.[31]Felice quoque meæ sorori ejus tres annulos transmisi due cum jacintis, et unum cum albula.—Gregor.Epist. ad Teod.lib. xiv.[32]Paulus Diaconus,Sto. Longo.lib. iv. cap. 20.[33]Ibid.iv. 21.[34]Ricci,Architettura d'Italia, Vol. I. ch. viii. p. 221.[35]Paul Diac.Lib. V. ch. xxxiv.[36]Antiq. Long. Milanesi, Tom. I. Dissertation i. p. 46.[37]There is a very good instance of this in the Baptistery at Florence, which was also a ceremonial church.[38]This was said to have been built by Agilulf, 591-615, and rebuilt by Luitprand. It was again restored in 1152, when Pope Innocent II. reconsecrated it.[39]In the fifteenth century the fine mausoleum, known as the Arco di S. Agostino, was erected over them by a later Comacine Master, Bonino da Campiglione. In the eighteenth century the church, having fallen into disuse, was turned into a hay store for the army, and the Arco was, in 1786, moved into the modern church of Gesù, where it remained till placed in the cathedral, where it now is.[40]Études sur l'histoire de l'art, vol. ii. p. 157. Paris, 1864.[41]Paulus Diaconus Warnefridi,Chron. de gestis Langobardorum, Lib. V. cap. iii.[42]Antiq. Long. Mil.Tom. I. Dissertation i. p. 68.[43]"Prese molti corpi de' santi dai contorni di Roma, fatti poi trasportare a Pavia."[44]It seems probable that the sandstone capitals alone belonged to the first eighth-century church, and the marble ones to the eleventh-century restoration. There is now a modern church built over the old crypt.[45]Dell' Architettura in Italia, viii. 257.[46]SeeSacchi,Antichità Romantiche d'Italia, p. 98.[47]Ricci (Dell' Architettura, etc.) tells us the spiral column was very anciently used in Asia, and that Rome did not adopt it till Hadrian's return from the East. Under the later Cæsars it became usual, but it fell into disuse in the rest of Italy. The Byzantines used it in some buildings, and in these two early Longobardic imitations of the East, we have a curious masonic link with the ancient traditions of Solomon's Temple, which Josephus tells us was adorned with spiral columns. It may be that they were old Roman columns carried up the mountain from some ruin, but I should rather take them as one of the first instances of the use of the spiral column by the Comacines, a form to which they were devoted in later times. There are endless instances of spiral colonnettes on the façades of Romanesque churches of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.[48]I speak of the time when Signor Difendente Sacchi visited the church in 1828, before writing his work.[49]Probably the root of our word Lobby.[50]I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. i. p. 50.[51]The wordsasseandtavolefor planks of wood still survive in Italy.[52]Hope,Storia dell' Architettura, chap. xxv. p. 179, 180.[53]See theillustrationof the church of S. Frediano, on page 48, for a perfect specimen of Lombard tower.[54]Ant. med. aevi, Tom. I. chap. ii. p. 158.[55]De' real palazzi, ch. i. par. 4.[56]That the Longobards were either metal-workers themselves, or had Italian artificers in their pay, we know from the specimens preserved in Monza Cathedral, and especially the crown of Agilulf, of which theAntichità Longobardica Milanesigives an illustration.[57]Sancti Ambrosii,Comment. in S. Luc.Lib. V. cap. vi.[58]Dell' Architettura in Italia, cap. viii. p. 245.[59]Would this at all explain the Runic knot in Ireland, and in Scandinavia, where there was very early intercourse with the Phœnicians?[60]Amantius, the fourth Bishop of Como, was translated from the See of Thessalonica to that of Como.[61]Antichità Romantiche d'Italia, Vol. I. capo iv. p. 138.[62]"Sophiæ patres, per quædam occulta et audacia enigmata, manifestant divinam, et misticam et inviam immundis veritatum."—Sancti Dionisii,de Theologia Simbolica, Epistola I. ad Titum Pontificem.[63]A very pretty later instance of this myth is in the fresco of the Spanish chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, where the Dominican monks are figured as the "dogs of the Lord" (domini canes—mediæval pun), fighting and overwhelming the hereticalpateriniwhom the monks literally fought with in the streets of Florence. The dog is always used as emblem of fidelity—the hare treated alone is generally used as an emblem of unchastity; when in the chase, as unfaithfulness.[64]I am informed, by a literary Hindoo lady, that Zohak, so graphically described by Southey as the emblem of remorse, is from an ancient Persian legend, and not of Indian origin.[65]The stone is evidently a remnant of the ancient architrave of the façade, where it has been replaced by two modern slabs, and the arch above filled in with masonry.[66]Anglicized from Bigeri Thorlacii et Sebastiani Ciampi. "De septentrionalium gentium antiquitatibus, et literis runicis."—Epistolæ Mediolani.[67]Architettura d'Italia, Fig. 119, p. 201.[68]Cattaneo,L' Architettura in Italia, p. 79.[69]Ermelind was from England, which suggests a very early intercourse between the Lombards and Britain.[70]Cattaneo,L' Architettura in Italia, p. 167.[71]In 1410, when the street was enlarged, it was half destroyed, and the south aisle cut off. The last remains were in 1561 incorporated in the Uffizi by Cosimo I., when the gallery was built. Some capitals may be seen in the wall of the Palazzo Vecchio.[72]See Marchese Ricci,Dell' Architettura in Italia, Vol. I. ch. ix. pp. 302, 342.[73]The family of Polenta, their feudal lords.[74]I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. ch. ii. p. 77.[75]This is probably the church of S. Pietro Somaldi, to which a Lombard, or rather Italian Gothic, front was added in 1203. It was founded by a Longobard named Somualdo in the eighth century, and restored in 1199.[76]A place between Lecco and Brescia.[77]Cattaneo,Architettura Italiana, p. 175.[78]There is a similar stairway in the church of S. Agnese fuori le mura, at Rome, which though originally said to have been founded by Constantine, is not of Greek form, but preserves a perfect Basilican plan. It was enlarged by Pope Symmachus in the fifth century, and he, it is known, employed Italian artists. The spiral stairway (cochlea) is also mentioned at Hexham in England.[79]L' Architettura in Italia, ch. iii. p. 143.[80]Anastasii,Bibliothecarii Vitæ Romanorum Pontificum—in Muratori,Sculptores Rerum Italicum, tom. iii.[81]S. Prassede in Rome, which was standing in the time of Pope Symmachus, when in 477 he held a synod there, has the same peculiarity. The elongated piers are here placed between every two columns, and are transverse,i.e.the greater width across the church. Before this time the roofs were always formed of gable-shaped frames of wood, erected on beams resting on the side walls, but Ricci sees in this the first advance towards the arched roof. We may see the next step in the old Lombard church at Tournus in France, where a succession of arches are thrown across the nave from the piers.[82]The tower, which is in a later Lombard style, was rebuilt two centuries later.[83]Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. cap. ii. p. 79.[84]Hope,Storia dell' Architettura, ch. xxii. p. 159 (Italian translation).[85]Storia estetico-critica della arti del disegno, Lezione iv.[86]The Act exists still, and is quoted in Sagredo's work,Sulle consorterie delle Arti Edificative in Venezia, p. 28.[87]The same form is shown in the contemporary church of St. Victor at Arsago near Milan.[88]Conductis protinus peritissimis artificibus tum amalphitanis, quam lombardis.—Cronaca Sacri monasterii Cassinensis, auctore Leone Cardinali Episcopo, Lib. III. cap. xxviii.[89]"Coeperunt ex sua patria, hoc est Italia, multi ad eum convenire. Aliqui lyteris bene eruditi: aliqui diversorum operum magisterio edocti: alii scientia præditi; quorum ars et ingenium huic loco profuit plurimum."—Chron. S. Benigni Divion, quoted by D'Archery inSpicilegio, vol. ii. p. 384.[90]Thomas Hope,Storia dell' Architettura, ch. xxxviii. p. 263.[91]The Saracens invaded Sicily in 832; the author must mean the ninth century.[92]I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iii. p. 121.[93]Storia dei Mussulmani di Sicilia, Vol. III. chap. i. p. 222,et seq.[94]SeeArchivio Storico Siciliano, Nuova serie. Anno ix. 1884.[95]Fergusson,Handbook of Architecture, p. 652.[96]See the Letters of Pope Gregory II., and Life of St. Boniface.[97]Milman,Latin Christianity, Vol. II. chap. v. p. 302, Book IV.[98]See illustrations in Fergusson, pp. 578, 579.[99]See illustrations in Fergusson'sHandbook of Architecture, pp. 589, 590.[100]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. x. p. 282.[101]This chapter was written by my brother in England, with different sources of information to the Italian ones used by myself. It did not reach me till the first half of my work was complete, and it was very gratifying to find our different sources of study had led to almost identical conclusions. I have altered no fact or argument in either. (Leader Scott.)[102]See chapter i., Merzario,I Maestri Comacini.[103]Ibid.[104]Care must be taken not to confuse the signification of the word Greek, as used in two different eras. To the ancient Roman, Greek architecture would mean the classic style of the Parthenon, etc.; to the mediæval Italian, Greek art and architecture meant simply Byzantine, an entirely different thing. (Leader Scott.)[105]"According to Müller (Archæologie der Kunst) corporations of builders of Grecian birth were allowed to settle in foreign countries, and to exercise a judicial government among themselves according to the laws of the country to which they owed allegiance; the principle was recognized by all the legal codes of Europe, from the fall of Rome to late in the thirteenth century. Such associations of builders were introduced into southern Europe during the reigns of Theodoric and Theodosius."[106]Prof. Merzario, in hisMaestri Comacini, Vol. I. cap. ii. pp. 87, 88, gives as his reference for this Bede'sEcclesiasticæ Historiæ gentis Anglorum libri quinque, "Vita S. Benedicti Biscopi Abbatis Vuiremuthensis primi ecc." (L. S.)[107]"Vita Sancti Hugonis Episcopi Lincolniensis."[108]"Vita S. Moduennæ virginis Hibernicæ."[109]Montalembert,I Monaci dell' Occidente, p. 152.[110]SeePlate, Interior of Fiesole cathedral.[111]Conc. Laodic., c. 15.[112]Passio S. Cadoci.[113]SeeChapter II., "The Comacines under the Longobards," which proves Mr. Barnes' conjectures to be true.[114]Alcuin (lib. v. 1488) describes the appointments of the Saxon church at York, which were on a scale of great magnificence. There were two altars covered with plates of gold and silver, and a profusion of gems; the tapestries were of the richest, and the walls of the sanctuary were adorned with foreign paintings.[115]Description of the church built in the monastery of Hexham by Saint Wilfrid, 674-680. See the Appendix to the "Life of St. Wilfrid" in Montalembert's fine work onThe Saints of the West."Igitur profunditatem ipsius ecclesiae criptis et oratoriis subterrancis et viarum anfractibus inferius cum magna industria fundavit."Parietes autem quadratis et bene politis columpnis suffultos et tribus tabulatis distinctos immensae longitudinis et altitudinis erexit. Ipsos etiam et capitella columpnarum quibus sustentantur et arcum sanctuarii, historiis et ymaginibus et variis coelaturarum figuris ex lapide prominentibus et picturarum et colorum grata varietate mirabilique decore decoravit. Ipsum quoque corpus ecclesiae appentitiis et porticibus nardique circumdixit quae, miro atque inexplicibili artificio, per parietes et cocleas inferius et superius distinxit. In ipsis vero cocleis, et super ipsas, ascensoria ex lapide, et deambulatoria, et varios viarum anfractus, modo sursum, modo deorsum, artificiosissime ita machinari fecit, ut innumera hominum multitudo ibi existere et ipsum corpus ecclesiae circumdare possit, cum a nemine tamen infra in eo existentium videri queat. Oratoriaque quam plurima, superius et inferius, secretissima e pulcherrima, in ipsis porticibis cum maxima diligentia et cautela constituit, in quibus altaria in honore Beatae Dei genitricis semperque Virginis Mariae, et Sancti Michaelis Archangeli, sanctique Johannis Baptistae et sanctorum Apostolorum, Martyrum, Confessorum, atque Virginum, cum eorum apparatibus, honestissime praeparari fecit. Unde etiam, usque hodie, quaedam illorum ut turres et propugnacula, supereminent. Atrium quoque templi magnae spissitudinis et fortitudinis muro circumvallavit. Praeter quem in alveo lapideo aquaeductus, ad usus officinorum, per mediam villam decurrebat."—Richardi,Prioris Historia Hagulstadensis Ecclesiae, c. iii., Ap. Twysden,Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores decem., et Raine'sPriory of Hexham, p. 2.[116]SeeChap. V., "Comacines under Charlemagne."[117]Sermo beati Bedæ in natale sancti Benedicti Abbatis.[118]There is a much easier explanation than this. Lombardy was at that time part of Gaul—Cisalpine Gaul. The Comacines appear to have gone to France with Charlemagne; seeChap. V.(Leader Scott.)[119]Dr. Raine of Durham believed, on the authority of the Chronicles of Symeon of Durham, that the churches of Monkswearmouth and Jarrow were rebuilt by the monks of Durham after 1075, and that the church of Wearmouth could not have been built on the same site, because in the account of the House at Wearmouth, 1360, the old church is mentioned incidentally as used for a barn or storehouse (Parker's Introduction); but allowing that to be the case, it is by no means improbable that the old doorway was retained and removed to the new church.[120]"Ibi œdificia minaci altitudini murorum erecta multi proprio, sed et cœmentariorum quos ex Roma veriunt allequant ut qui Hagulstadensem fabricam vident, ambitionem romanam se imaginari jurent."—Malmesbury, De Gest. Pontiff.I. iii., f. 155.[121]This is a decidedly Comacine form of building. All the earliest apses of Italian churches have these perpendicular shafts. At S. Piero in Grado they show signs of having been originally covered with marble. (Leader Scott.)[122]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. ii. pp. 87-89.[123]See Article on the Round Towers inSt. Peter's Magazinefor May 1898.[124]Pisa illustrata nelle Arti del Disegno.[125]Professor Ridolfi,L' Arte in Lucca, p. 74,et seq.[126]Sull' Architettura e sulla Scultura in Venezia nel medio evo sino ai nostri giorni.Studi di P. Selvatico, cap. ii. p. 48.[127]Selvatico,Storia della Scultura, Lib. II. cap. ii.[128]Storia di Como, vol. i. p. 537.[129]In a work by Luigi Mazara (Temple antédiluvien découvert dans l'île de Calypso, Paris 1872) there are two engravings of gateways, one a subterranean one at Alatri in Latium, which is said to have been the work of Saturn, and is called the Porta Sanguinaria; the other of Cyclopean architecture was also in Latium, and called Porta Acuminata; both of them are pointed arches. This would carry the invention back to 2000B.C.Many of the subterranean aqueducts of Rome have acute arches for purposes of strength.[130]Seroux,Histoire de l'art par les monuments, p. ii. Paris.[131]Hope,Storia dell' Architettura, cap. xxxiii.[132]Selvatico,Sull' architettura e scultura in Venezia dal medio evo, p. 90. Venezia, 1874.[133]Affò,Storia di Parma, tomo iii. p. 14.[134]SeeBorgo S. Donnino e suo Santuario, pp. 59 and 112, by an anonymous author.[135]"Dicta ecclesia fundata fuit anno Dominicæ Incarnationis millesimo centesimo III gesimo septimo sub dom Papa Innocentio II., sub Episcopo Rogerio, Regnante Rege Lothario, per Magistrum Fredum."—Storia della Città e Chièsa di Bergamo, Tomo III. lib. x.[136]The contract, which is preserved in the archives of Bellano, is dated July 18, 1348—"Indictione prima in burgo Bellano, Magister Johannes filius quondam Magistri Ugonis de Campilione, et Magister Antonius filius quondam Jacobi de Castelatio de Pelo Vallis Intelvi, et Magister Comolus filius quondam Magistri Gufredi de Hosteno plebis Porleciae, qui omnes tres magistri de muro et lignamine laboraverunt ad laborem Ecclesiæ novæ," etc.[137]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 145.[138]Documents exist which mention it in King Luitprand's time,A.D.713, and in that of the Emperor Otho, 989.[139]Arbitrio duorum magistrorum antelami seu fabricorum murariorum eligendorum per magistratus.—Quoted by Merzario, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 168.[140]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. v. p. 171.[141]Storia di Parma, tom i. Appendix, p. 43. "In mille ducto octuago p. mo indictione, nona facti fuere leones per Magistrum ianne bonum d. bixono et tpore fratrum guidi, nicolay, bnardini et bevenuti di Laborerio."[142]This Giambono or Giovanni Buono was, I believe, the founder of the Lodge at Pistoja, or at least Master of it in about 1260. His works in Tuscany are many and important, as will be seen when the Tuscan link is under consideration.[143]"Anno itaque MXCIX ab incolis præfatæ urbis quæstum est ubi tanti operis designator, ubi talis structuræ edificator invenire posset: et tandem Dei gratia inventus est vir quidam nomine Lanfrancus mirabilis ædificator, cujus concilio indicatum est ejus basilicæ fundamentum."—From Muratori, quoted by Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 168.[144]Seechapterheaded "Troublous Times."[145]This tower, which is almost as light and elegant as that of Giotto in Florence, became historically famous in the wars between Modena and Bologna in 1325, when the famous Secchia was hidden there—the subject of that curious heroi-comic poemLa Secchia rapita.[146]Calvi,Notizie sulla vita e sulle opere dei principali architetti, pittori e scultori, etc., vol. i. p. 39.[147]Frix is an abbreviation of Frixones, a name we find two centuries later in an artist of the same guild, working at Milan cathedral, Marco da Frixone a Campione. Another Frix worked at Ferrara a century later.[148]Seechapteron "The Florentine Lodge."[149]Artisti Lombardi del Secolo XV, di Micheli Caffi.[150]I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 161.[151]The silence of that learned St. Thomas was so proverbial that his fellow-students called him the "Bue muto" (the dumb bull). Apropos of this, Albertus Magnus made his famous witty prophecy—"Tomaso may be a dumb bull, but the day will come when his bellowing will be heard throughout the world."[152]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. viii. p. 243.[153]Difendente Sacchi,L'arca di S. Agostina illustrata, etc.[154]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. viii. p. 248.[155]V. Vairina,I Scriptiones Cremonenses Universæ, p. 14, N. 53.[156]Thomas Hope,Historical Essay on Architecture, chap. xxi.[157]In the older papers and deeds of Lombard times these were classically calledcolligantesorfratres; in the later ones they were Italianized asfratellior brethren.[158]SeeTuscan Studies, by Leader Scott, pp. 18, 19.[159]Some very early Latin authors write the name Bruschettus.[160]These two lines, which are partly effaced, have been said to read originally thus—"Busketus iacet hic qui motibus ingeniorum Dulichio fertur prevaluisse Duci."[161]Dædalus was called by the ancients the Father of architecture and statuary. He was also the inventor of many mechanical appliances. In short a good prototype of a Comacine Magister.[162]"Concorsero da straniere parti Maestri piú accreditati a prestare la loro opera in si importante Edifizio, sotto la direzione di Buschetto."[163]Book signed with the number 38, entitledSantuario Pisano, in the archives of the Riformazione, Firenze.[164]"Ildebrando del Giudice, Uberto Leone, Signoretto Alliata e Buschetto da Dulichio che fu Architetto; il capo di detti fu Ildebrando e gli altri furono Ministri e Uffiziali dell' Opera, come si trova nell' Archivio di detta Opera."[165]Baldinucci, Dec. 4, sec. 6, p. 292.[166]Among these were the two porphyry columns now at the door of the Baptistery in Florence. They were taken by the Pisans 1107 from the Saracens in Majorca, and as they were especially valuable, being miraculous, the Florentines claimed them as the spoils of war in 1117. They were said to guard people against treachery.[167]There was a Diotisalvi, a Judge at Pisa in the year 1224, and a Diotisalvi, son of Bentivenga, is mentioned in a deed executed in 1250, in the Port of Pisa. These may have been some of the architect's distant descendants, but we have no clue as to his ancestors. The name would seem to have been a nickname, and not his baptismal one, for in another round church which he built in Pisa, the Knights Templars' church of S. Sepolcro, it is engraved, "Hugius operis FabricatorD͞STESALVETnominatur." The author ofLettere Senesiderives the name from the motto of the Petroni family in Siena.[168]Morrona,Pisa Illustrata, vol. i. p. 383.[169]Vasari, edited by Milanesi, vol. i. p. 137.[170]Morrona,Pisa Illustrata, vol. i. pp. 142, 143.[171]Morrona,Pisa Illustrata, vol. i. p. 407. "Si trova in antiche scritture dell' Opera, che fu la vigilia di S. Lorenzo il giorno, in cui fu dato principio alla fabbrica; e son precisamente indicati i due citati Architetti, se non che in vece di Guglielmo Tedesco, si dice Giovanni Onnipotente di Germania per la mala interpetrazione della parola Œnipons, o Œnipontanus, che significa nativo d'Innspruck."[172]Morrona,Pisa Illustrata nelle arti, vol. i. p. 170.[173]Ibid.vol. ii. pp. 106-211.[174]From "Una scultura di Bonaiuto Pisano," inArchivio storico Siciliano, Nuova Serie, Anno IX., pp. 438-443, 1884.[175]Ciampi,Archivio del Duomo di Pisa.[176]The inscription, still preserved in the passage leading to the sacristy of the church, runs thus—
[1]Professor Giuseppe Merzario.—I Maestri Comacini. Storia Artistica di Mille duecento anni, 600-1800.Published in 1893 by Giacomo Agnelli, of 2, Via S. Margherita, Milan. Two vols., large octavo. (Price 12 frcs.)
[2]"Si Magister Comacinus, cum collegis suis, domum ad restaurandum, vel fabricandum super se placito finito de mercede susceperit, et contigerit aliquem per ipsam domum aut materiam, aut lapide lapso moti, aut quodlibet damnum fieri, non requiratur domino, cuius domus fuerit, nisi Magister Comacinus cum consortibus suis ipsum homicidium aut damnum componat, qui postquam fabulam firmatam de mercede pro suo lucro susciperit, non immerito sustinet damnum."
[3]"Si quis Magister Comacinum unum aut plures rogaverit, aut conduxerit ad operam dictandum, aut solatium diurnum praestandum inter suos servos ad domum aut casam faciendam et contigerit per ipsam casam, aliquem ex ipsis Comacinis mori non requiratur ab ipso, cuius casa est. Nam si cadens arbor, aut lapis ex ipsa fabrica, et occiderit aliquem extraneum, aut quodlibet damnum fecerit, non reputetur culpa magistro, sed ille qui conduxit, ipsum damnum sustineat."—From theEdict of Rotharis—edited by Troyes.
[4]Stieglitz,Geschichte der Baukunst, 1827, pp. 423, 424. See also Hope'sHistorical Essay on Architecture, 1835, pp. 229-237.
[5]See Hope'sHistorical Essay on Architecture, 3rd edition, 1840, chap. xxi. pp. 203-216.
[6]E mandaro al Senato di Roma, che mandassi loro i più sofficienti maestri, e più sottili (subtle) che fossero in Roma: e cosi fu fatto.—Storiadi G. Villani. Libro primo, cap. xlii.
[7]Cassiodorus,Variorum, Lib. VI. Epist. vi.Ad Prefectum Urbis De Architecta Publicorum.
[8]Morrona,Pisa illustrata nelle Arti del Disegno, p. 160. Pisa, 1812.
[9]Instituzioni, riti e ceremonie dell' ordine de' Francs-Maçons, ossia Liberi Muratori.—In Venezia MDCCLXXXVIII, presso Leonardo Bassaglia, Con Licenza de' Superiori.
[10]The Charter Richard II. for the year 1396, quoted in theMasonic Magazine(1882), has the following entry—"341 Concessimus archiepiscopo Cantuar, quod, viginti et quatuor lathomos vocatus ffre Maceons et viginti et quatuor lathomos vocatos ligiers ... capere ... possit." Here then at Canterbury is the same thing as at Milan, and all other ancient cathedral-building cities,—the master builders are Freemasons,i.e.of the great and universal guild,—the underlings who assist them have not the same rank and privilege. The Act Henry VI., c. 12, 1444, says in queer mixed parlance—"Les gagez ascun frank mason ou maister Carpenter nexcede pas par le jour IIIJ d. (denari) ovesque mangier & boier ... un rough mason and mesne Carpenter ... III d. par le jour." Here we recognize the same distinction of grades between the master who has matriculated and the mason of lower grade. It is interesting also to note that the master carpenter is equally a Freemason as well as the master builder. In Italy the same peculiarity is noticeable; themagister lignamine, whose work was to make scaffoldings and roofs, is a member of theMaestranze, just as much as themagister lapidorum, and yet a master in wood is never a stonemason. The members seem to have been grounded in all the branches, but only graduated in one of them. The author of the article "Freemason" in theNew English Dictionary on Historical Principles, seems to be perplexed over the expression "maestre mason de franche peer" ("master mason of free-stone"); but this is merely the equivalent of the Latinmagister lapidus vivum, fromSaxum vivum, free-stone, which merely means a sculptor, in distinction to an architect, who wasmagister inzignorum.
[11]At one era in Lombard times a law was made that no marble was to be used in building, except by royal persons—which accounts for all the Lombard churches being sculptured inSaxum vivum, or free-stone. There may have been a similar custom in England where marble was scarce.
[12]There were other five martyrs of the Masonic guild, whose names have been given as Carpoferus, Severus, Severanus, Victorianus, and Symphorian. I have taken the four "Coronati" from the statutes of the VenetianArte.
[13]Mrs. Jameson finds the Santi Quattro illustrated in a predella in Perugia Academy. In one scene they are kneeling before the Emperor with their implements in their hands. In another they are bound to four columns and tortured. In a third they are in an iron cage and being thrown into the sea. In their own church they are represented as lying in one sarcophagus with crowns on their heads. In sculpture they also occur on the façades of several early churches; on the Arco di S. Agostino, and lastly on Or San Michele at Florence, where Nanni di Banco had so much trouble in squeezing the four of them into one niche, that Donatello had to help him. These sculptures were placed by theArteof masons and stone-cutters, and they naturally chose their patron saints.
[14]Gregor. Epist.Tom. III. Epist. iv. an. 755.
[15]Pietro Giannone, an exile from Naples, contemporary of Muratori, was the first to mention thisMemoratorio, which he said he had seen among the precious codices of the monks at Cava dei Tirreni; that it contained 152 laws, seven of which were added specially for the Comacine Masters.
[16]SeeEpistola ad Mustio, 39, lib. ix.
[17]Lib. X. Epist. xliii.
[18]Muratori,Novus Thesaurus veterum Inscriptorum, Vol. I. chap. vii. p. 526.
[19]Antiq. Long. Mil.Tom. I. chap. i. p. 17.
[20]Antiq. Long. Mil.vol. i.;Dissertationi, p. 17.
[21]Their daughter Gundeberg had a similar life; she married first Ariold, and then Rotharis.
[22]Symonds,Renaissance of Art, Fine Arts, chap. ii.
[23]Annali d'Italia, tom. iv. pp. 38, 39.
[24]The first Roman Basilica was constructed in 231B.C., by Marcus Portius Cato, and was called the Basilica Portia. Marcus Fulvis Nobilior built one, called the Fulvia, in 179B.C.; Titus Sempronius, 169B.C.Then followed a long line of these religio-judicial buildings, up to the Basilica Julia of Augustus, 29B.C., and ending with the Ulpian Basilica of Trajan,A.D.100.—Ricci,Arch. Ital.chap. ii.
[25]Dell' Architettura in Italia, vol. i. p. 174.
[26]A document, dated 739, in the archives of Monte Amiata, speaks of a certain Maestro Comacino, named Rodpert, who sold to Opportuno for 30 gold solidi, his property at Toscanella (then a Longobardic territory), consisting of a house and vineyard, a cloister, cistern, land, etc.
[27]Cattaneo,L' Architettura in Italia, p. 46.
[28]Gundiberga ... intra ticinensem Civitatem in honorem Beati Joannis Baptistae construxit.—Paul. Diac.lib. iv. cap. 4. This must not be confounded with the Baptistery which was built by Bishop Damiano in the same century.
[29]Several of the Lombard towers in Rome have this peculiar ornamentation.
[30]Antichità Romantiche d'Italia, da Difendente e Giuseppe Sacchi, p. 70,et seq.
[31]Felice quoque meæ sorori ejus tres annulos transmisi due cum jacintis, et unum cum albula.—Gregor.Epist. ad Teod.lib. xiv.
[32]Paulus Diaconus,Sto. Longo.lib. iv. cap. 20.
[33]Ibid.iv. 21.
[34]Ricci,Architettura d'Italia, Vol. I. ch. viii. p. 221.
[35]Paul Diac.Lib. V. ch. xxxiv.
[36]Antiq. Long. Milanesi, Tom. I. Dissertation i. p. 46.
[37]There is a very good instance of this in the Baptistery at Florence, which was also a ceremonial church.
[38]This was said to have been built by Agilulf, 591-615, and rebuilt by Luitprand. It was again restored in 1152, when Pope Innocent II. reconsecrated it.
[39]In the fifteenth century the fine mausoleum, known as the Arco di S. Agostino, was erected over them by a later Comacine Master, Bonino da Campiglione. In the eighteenth century the church, having fallen into disuse, was turned into a hay store for the army, and the Arco was, in 1786, moved into the modern church of Gesù, where it remained till placed in the cathedral, where it now is.
[40]Études sur l'histoire de l'art, vol. ii. p. 157. Paris, 1864.
[41]Paulus Diaconus Warnefridi,Chron. de gestis Langobardorum, Lib. V. cap. iii.
[42]Antiq. Long. Mil.Tom. I. Dissertation i. p. 68.
[43]"Prese molti corpi de' santi dai contorni di Roma, fatti poi trasportare a Pavia."
[44]It seems probable that the sandstone capitals alone belonged to the first eighth-century church, and the marble ones to the eleventh-century restoration. There is now a modern church built over the old crypt.
[45]Dell' Architettura in Italia, viii. 257.
[46]SeeSacchi,Antichità Romantiche d'Italia, p. 98.
[47]Ricci (Dell' Architettura, etc.) tells us the spiral column was very anciently used in Asia, and that Rome did not adopt it till Hadrian's return from the East. Under the later Cæsars it became usual, but it fell into disuse in the rest of Italy. The Byzantines used it in some buildings, and in these two early Longobardic imitations of the East, we have a curious masonic link with the ancient traditions of Solomon's Temple, which Josephus tells us was adorned with spiral columns. It may be that they were old Roman columns carried up the mountain from some ruin, but I should rather take them as one of the first instances of the use of the spiral column by the Comacines, a form to which they were devoted in later times. There are endless instances of spiral colonnettes on the façades of Romanesque churches of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
[48]I speak of the time when Signor Difendente Sacchi visited the church in 1828, before writing his work.
[49]Probably the root of our word Lobby.
[50]I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. i. p. 50.
[51]The wordsasseandtavolefor planks of wood still survive in Italy.
[52]Hope,Storia dell' Architettura, chap. xxv. p. 179, 180.
[53]See theillustrationof the church of S. Frediano, on page 48, for a perfect specimen of Lombard tower.
[54]Ant. med. aevi, Tom. I. chap. ii. p. 158.
[55]De' real palazzi, ch. i. par. 4.
[56]That the Longobards were either metal-workers themselves, or had Italian artificers in their pay, we know from the specimens preserved in Monza Cathedral, and especially the crown of Agilulf, of which theAntichità Longobardica Milanesigives an illustration.
[57]Sancti Ambrosii,Comment. in S. Luc.Lib. V. cap. vi.
[58]Dell' Architettura in Italia, cap. viii. p. 245.
[59]Would this at all explain the Runic knot in Ireland, and in Scandinavia, where there was very early intercourse with the Phœnicians?
[60]Amantius, the fourth Bishop of Como, was translated from the See of Thessalonica to that of Como.
[61]Antichità Romantiche d'Italia, Vol. I. capo iv. p. 138.
[62]"Sophiæ patres, per quædam occulta et audacia enigmata, manifestant divinam, et misticam et inviam immundis veritatum."—Sancti Dionisii,de Theologia Simbolica, Epistola I. ad Titum Pontificem.
[63]A very pretty later instance of this myth is in the fresco of the Spanish chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, where the Dominican monks are figured as the "dogs of the Lord" (domini canes—mediæval pun), fighting and overwhelming the hereticalpateriniwhom the monks literally fought with in the streets of Florence. The dog is always used as emblem of fidelity—the hare treated alone is generally used as an emblem of unchastity; when in the chase, as unfaithfulness.
[64]I am informed, by a literary Hindoo lady, that Zohak, so graphically described by Southey as the emblem of remorse, is from an ancient Persian legend, and not of Indian origin.
[65]The stone is evidently a remnant of the ancient architrave of the façade, where it has been replaced by two modern slabs, and the arch above filled in with masonry.
[66]Anglicized from Bigeri Thorlacii et Sebastiani Ciampi. "De septentrionalium gentium antiquitatibus, et literis runicis."—Epistolæ Mediolani.
[67]Architettura d'Italia, Fig. 119, p. 201.
[68]Cattaneo,L' Architettura in Italia, p. 79.
[69]Ermelind was from England, which suggests a very early intercourse between the Lombards and Britain.
[70]Cattaneo,L' Architettura in Italia, p. 167.
[71]In 1410, when the street was enlarged, it was half destroyed, and the south aisle cut off. The last remains were in 1561 incorporated in the Uffizi by Cosimo I., when the gallery was built. Some capitals may be seen in the wall of the Palazzo Vecchio.
[72]See Marchese Ricci,Dell' Architettura in Italia, Vol. I. ch. ix. pp. 302, 342.
[73]The family of Polenta, their feudal lords.
[74]I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. ch. ii. p. 77.
[75]This is probably the church of S. Pietro Somaldi, to which a Lombard, or rather Italian Gothic, front was added in 1203. It was founded by a Longobard named Somualdo in the eighth century, and restored in 1199.
[76]A place between Lecco and Brescia.
[77]Cattaneo,Architettura Italiana, p. 175.
[78]There is a similar stairway in the church of S. Agnese fuori le mura, at Rome, which though originally said to have been founded by Constantine, is not of Greek form, but preserves a perfect Basilican plan. It was enlarged by Pope Symmachus in the fifth century, and he, it is known, employed Italian artists. The spiral stairway (cochlea) is also mentioned at Hexham in England.
[79]L' Architettura in Italia, ch. iii. p. 143.
[80]Anastasii,Bibliothecarii Vitæ Romanorum Pontificum—in Muratori,Sculptores Rerum Italicum, tom. iii.
[81]S. Prassede in Rome, which was standing in the time of Pope Symmachus, when in 477 he held a synod there, has the same peculiarity. The elongated piers are here placed between every two columns, and are transverse,i.e.the greater width across the church. Before this time the roofs were always formed of gable-shaped frames of wood, erected on beams resting on the side walls, but Ricci sees in this the first advance towards the arched roof. We may see the next step in the old Lombard church at Tournus in France, where a succession of arches are thrown across the nave from the piers.
[82]The tower, which is in a later Lombard style, was rebuilt two centuries later.
[83]Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. cap. ii. p. 79.
[84]Hope,Storia dell' Architettura, ch. xxii. p. 159 (Italian translation).
[85]Storia estetico-critica della arti del disegno, Lezione iv.
[86]The Act exists still, and is quoted in Sagredo's work,Sulle consorterie delle Arti Edificative in Venezia, p. 28.
[87]The same form is shown in the contemporary church of St. Victor at Arsago near Milan.
[88]Conductis protinus peritissimis artificibus tum amalphitanis, quam lombardis.—Cronaca Sacri monasterii Cassinensis, auctore Leone Cardinali Episcopo, Lib. III. cap. xxviii.
[89]"Coeperunt ex sua patria, hoc est Italia, multi ad eum convenire. Aliqui lyteris bene eruditi: aliqui diversorum operum magisterio edocti: alii scientia præditi; quorum ars et ingenium huic loco profuit plurimum."—Chron. S. Benigni Divion, quoted by D'Archery inSpicilegio, vol. ii. p. 384.
[90]Thomas Hope,Storia dell' Architettura, ch. xxxviii. p. 263.
[91]The Saracens invaded Sicily in 832; the author must mean the ninth century.
[92]I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iii. p. 121.
[93]Storia dei Mussulmani di Sicilia, Vol. III. chap. i. p. 222,et seq.
[94]SeeArchivio Storico Siciliano, Nuova serie. Anno ix. 1884.
[95]Fergusson,Handbook of Architecture, p. 652.
[96]See the Letters of Pope Gregory II., and Life of St. Boniface.
[97]Milman,Latin Christianity, Vol. II. chap. v. p. 302, Book IV.
[98]See illustrations in Fergusson, pp. 578, 579.
[99]See illustrations in Fergusson'sHandbook of Architecture, pp. 589, 590.
[100]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. x. p. 282.
[101]This chapter was written by my brother in England, with different sources of information to the Italian ones used by myself. It did not reach me till the first half of my work was complete, and it was very gratifying to find our different sources of study had led to almost identical conclusions. I have altered no fact or argument in either. (Leader Scott.)
[102]See chapter i., Merzario,I Maestri Comacini.
[103]Ibid.
[104]Care must be taken not to confuse the signification of the word Greek, as used in two different eras. To the ancient Roman, Greek architecture would mean the classic style of the Parthenon, etc.; to the mediæval Italian, Greek art and architecture meant simply Byzantine, an entirely different thing. (Leader Scott.)
[105]"According to Müller (Archæologie der Kunst) corporations of builders of Grecian birth were allowed to settle in foreign countries, and to exercise a judicial government among themselves according to the laws of the country to which they owed allegiance; the principle was recognized by all the legal codes of Europe, from the fall of Rome to late in the thirteenth century. Such associations of builders were introduced into southern Europe during the reigns of Theodoric and Theodosius."
[106]Prof. Merzario, in hisMaestri Comacini, Vol. I. cap. ii. pp. 87, 88, gives as his reference for this Bede'sEcclesiasticæ Historiæ gentis Anglorum libri quinque, "Vita S. Benedicti Biscopi Abbatis Vuiremuthensis primi ecc." (L. S.)
[107]"Vita Sancti Hugonis Episcopi Lincolniensis."
[108]"Vita S. Moduennæ virginis Hibernicæ."
[109]Montalembert,I Monaci dell' Occidente, p. 152.
[110]SeePlate, Interior of Fiesole cathedral.
[111]Conc. Laodic., c. 15.
[112]Passio S. Cadoci.
[113]SeeChapter II., "The Comacines under the Longobards," which proves Mr. Barnes' conjectures to be true.
[114]Alcuin (lib. v. 1488) describes the appointments of the Saxon church at York, which were on a scale of great magnificence. There were two altars covered with plates of gold and silver, and a profusion of gems; the tapestries were of the richest, and the walls of the sanctuary were adorned with foreign paintings.
[115]Description of the church built in the monastery of Hexham by Saint Wilfrid, 674-680. See the Appendix to the "Life of St. Wilfrid" in Montalembert's fine work onThe Saints of the West.
"Igitur profunditatem ipsius ecclesiae criptis et oratoriis subterrancis et viarum anfractibus inferius cum magna industria fundavit.
"Parietes autem quadratis et bene politis columpnis suffultos et tribus tabulatis distinctos immensae longitudinis et altitudinis erexit. Ipsos etiam et capitella columpnarum quibus sustentantur et arcum sanctuarii, historiis et ymaginibus et variis coelaturarum figuris ex lapide prominentibus et picturarum et colorum grata varietate mirabilique decore decoravit. Ipsum quoque corpus ecclesiae appentitiis et porticibus nardique circumdixit quae, miro atque inexplicibili artificio, per parietes et cocleas inferius et superius distinxit. In ipsis vero cocleis, et super ipsas, ascensoria ex lapide, et deambulatoria, et varios viarum anfractus, modo sursum, modo deorsum, artificiosissime ita machinari fecit, ut innumera hominum multitudo ibi existere et ipsum corpus ecclesiae circumdare possit, cum a nemine tamen infra in eo existentium videri queat. Oratoriaque quam plurima, superius et inferius, secretissima e pulcherrima, in ipsis porticibis cum maxima diligentia et cautela constituit, in quibus altaria in honore Beatae Dei genitricis semperque Virginis Mariae, et Sancti Michaelis Archangeli, sanctique Johannis Baptistae et sanctorum Apostolorum, Martyrum, Confessorum, atque Virginum, cum eorum apparatibus, honestissime praeparari fecit. Unde etiam, usque hodie, quaedam illorum ut turres et propugnacula, supereminent. Atrium quoque templi magnae spissitudinis et fortitudinis muro circumvallavit. Praeter quem in alveo lapideo aquaeductus, ad usus officinorum, per mediam villam decurrebat."—Richardi,Prioris Historia Hagulstadensis Ecclesiae, c. iii., Ap. Twysden,Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores decem., et Raine'sPriory of Hexham, p. 2.
[116]SeeChap. V., "Comacines under Charlemagne."
[117]Sermo beati Bedæ in natale sancti Benedicti Abbatis.
[118]There is a much easier explanation than this. Lombardy was at that time part of Gaul—Cisalpine Gaul. The Comacines appear to have gone to France with Charlemagne; seeChap. V.(Leader Scott.)
[119]Dr. Raine of Durham believed, on the authority of the Chronicles of Symeon of Durham, that the churches of Monkswearmouth and Jarrow were rebuilt by the monks of Durham after 1075, and that the church of Wearmouth could not have been built on the same site, because in the account of the House at Wearmouth, 1360, the old church is mentioned incidentally as used for a barn or storehouse (Parker's Introduction); but allowing that to be the case, it is by no means improbable that the old doorway was retained and removed to the new church.
[120]"Ibi œdificia minaci altitudini murorum erecta multi proprio, sed et cœmentariorum quos ex Roma veriunt allequant ut qui Hagulstadensem fabricam vident, ambitionem romanam se imaginari jurent."—Malmesbury, De Gest. Pontiff.I. iii., f. 155.
[121]This is a decidedly Comacine form of building. All the earliest apses of Italian churches have these perpendicular shafts. At S. Piero in Grado they show signs of having been originally covered with marble. (Leader Scott.)
[122]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. ii. pp. 87-89.
[123]See Article on the Round Towers inSt. Peter's Magazinefor May 1898.
[124]Pisa illustrata nelle Arti del Disegno.
[125]Professor Ridolfi,L' Arte in Lucca, p. 74,et seq.
[126]Sull' Architettura e sulla Scultura in Venezia nel medio evo sino ai nostri giorni.Studi di P. Selvatico, cap. ii. p. 48.
[127]Selvatico,Storia della Scultura, Lib. II. cap. ii.
[128]Storia di Como, vol. i. p. 537.
[129]In a work by Luigi Mazara (Temple antédiluvien découvert dans l'île de Calypso, Paris 1872) there are two engravings of gateways, one a subterranean one at Alatri in Latium, which is said to have been the work of Saturn, and is called the Porta Sanguinaria; the other of Cyclopean architecture was also in Latium, and called Porta Acuminata; both of them are pointed arches. This would carry the invention back to 2000B.C.Many of the subterranean aqueducts of Rome have acute arches for purposes of strength.
[130]Seroux,Histoire de l'art par les monuments, p. ii. Paris.
[131]Hope,Storia dell' Architettura, cap. xxxiii.
[132]Selvatico,Sull' architettura e scultura in Venezia dal medio evo, p. 90. Venezia, 1874.
[133]Affò,Storia di Parma, tomo iii. p. 14.
[134]SeeBorgo S. Donnino e suo Santuario, pp. 59 and 112, by an anonymous author.
[135]"Dicta ecclesia fundata fuit anno Dominicæ Incarnationis millesimo centesimo III gesimo septimo sub dom Papa Innocentio II., sub Episcopo Rogerio, Regnante Rege Lothario, per Magistrum Fredum."—Storia della Città e Chièsa di Bergamo, Tomo III. lib. x.
[136]The contract, which is preserved in the archives of Bellano, is dated July 18, 1348—"Indictione prima in burgo Bellano, Magister Johannes filius quondam Magistri Ugonis de Campilione, et Magister Antonius filius quondam Jacobi de Castelatio de Pelo Vallis Intelvi, et Magister Comolus filius quondam Magistri Gufredi de Hosteno plebis Porleciae, qui omnes tres magistri de muro et lignamine laboraverunt ad laborem Ecclesiæ novæ," etc.
[137]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 145.
[138]Documents exist which mention it in King Luitprand's time,A.D.713, and in that of the Emperor Otho, 989.
[139]Arbitrio duorum magistrorum antelami seu fabricorum murariorum eligendorum per magistratus.—Quoted by Merzario, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 168.
[140]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. v. p. 171.
[141]Storia di Parma, tom i. Appendix, p. 43. "In mille ducto octuago p. mo indictione, nona facti fuere leones per Magistrum ianne bonum d. bixono et tpore fratrum guidi, nicolay, bnardini et bevenuti di Laborerio."
[142]This Giambono or Giovanni Buono was, I believe, the founder of the Lodge at Pistoja, or at least Master of it in about 1260. His works in Tuscany are many and important, as will be seen when the Tuscan link is under consideration.
[143]"Anno itaque MXCIX ab incolis præfatæ urbis quæstum est ubi tanti operis designator, ubi talis structuræ edificator invenire posset: et tandem Dei gratia inventus est vir quidam nomine Lanfrancus mirabilis ædificator, cujus concilio indicatum est ejus basilicæ fundamentum."—From Muratori, quoted by Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 168.
[144]Seechapterheaded "Troublous Times."
[145]This tower, which is almost as light and elegant as that of Giotto in Florence, became historically famous in the wars between Modena and Bologna in 1325, when the famous Secchia was hidden there—the subject of that curious heroi-comic poemLa Secchia rapita.
[146]Calvi,Notizie sulla vita e sulle opere dei principali architetti, pittori e scultori, etc., vol. i. p. 39.
[147]Frix is an abbreviation of Frixones, a name we find two centuries later in an artist of the same guild, working at Milan cathedral, Marco da Frixone a Campione. Another Frix worked at Ferrara a century later.
[148]Seechapteron "The Florentine Lodge."
[149]Artisti Lombardi del Secolo XV, di Micheli Caffi.
[150]I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. iv. p. 161.
[151]The silence of that learned St. Thomas was so proverbial that his fellow-students called him the "Bue muto" (the dumb bull). Apropos of this, Albertus Magnus made his famous witty prophecy—"Tomaso may be a dumb bull, but the day will come when his bellowing will be heard throughout the world."
[152]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. viii. p. 243.
[153]Difendente Sacchi,L'arca di S. Agostina illustrata, etc.
[154]Merzario,I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I. chap. viii. p. 248.
[155]V. Vairina,I Scriptiones Cremonenses Universæ, p. 14, N. 53.
[156]Thomas Hope,Historical Essay on Architecture, chap. xxi.
[157]In the older papers and deeds of Lombard times these were classically calledcolligantesorfratres; in the later ones they were Italianized asfratellior brethren.
[158]SeeTuscan Studies, by Leader Scott, pp. 18, 19.
[159]Some very early Latin authors write the name Bruschettus.
[160]These two lines, which are partly effaced, have been said to read originally thus—"Busketus iacet hic qui motibus ingeniorum Dulichio fertur prevaluisse Duci."
[161]Dædalus was called by the ancients the Father of architecture and statuary. He was also the inventor of many mechanical appliances. In short a good prototype of a Comacine Magister.
[162]"Concorsero da straniere parti Maestri piú accreditati a prestare la loro opera in si importante Edifizio, sotto la direzione di Buschetto."
[163]Book signed with the number 38, entitledSantuario Pisano, in the archives of the Riformazione, Firenze.
[164]"Ildebrando del Giudice, Uberto Leone, Signoretto Alliata e Buschetto da Dulichio che fu Architetto; il capo di detti fu Ildebrando e gli altri furono Ministri e Uffiziali dell' Opera, come si trova nell' Archivio di detta Opera."
[165]Baldinucci, Dec. 4, sec. 6, p. 292.
[166]Among these were the two porphyry columns now at the door of the Baptistery in Florence. They were taken by the Pisans 1107 from the Saracens in Majorca, and as they were especially valuable, being miraculous, the Florentines claimed them as the spoils of war in 1117. They were said to guard people against treachery.
[167]There was a Diotisalvi, a Judge at Pisa in the year 1224, and a Diotisalvi, son of Bentivenga, is mentioned in a deed executed in 1250, in the Port of Pisa. These may have been some of the architect's distant descendants, but we have no clue as to his ancestors. The name would seem to have been a nickname, and not his baptismal one, for in another round church which he built in Pisa, the Knights Templars' church of S. Sepolcro, it is engraved, "Hugius operis FabricatorD͞STESALVETnominatur." The author ofLettere Senesiderives the name from the motto of the Petroni family in Siena.
[168]Morrona,Pisa Illustrata, vol. i. p. 383.
[169]Vasari, edited by Milanesi, vol. i. p. 137.
[170]Morrona,Pisa Illustrata, vol. i. pp. 142, 143.
[171]Morrona,Pisa Illustrata, vol. i. p. 407. "Si trova in antiche scritture dell' Opera, che fu la vigilia di S. Lorenzo il giorno, in cui fu dato principio alla fabbrica; e son precisamente indicati i due citati Architetti, se non che in vece di Guglielmo Tedesco, si dice Giovanni Onnipotente di Germania per la mala interpetrazione della parola Œnipons, o Œnipontanus, che significa nativo d'Innspruck."
[172]Morrona,Pisa Illustrata nelle arti, vol. i. p. 170.
[173]Ibid.vol. ii. pp. 106-211.
[174]From "Una scultura di Bonaiuto Pisano," inArchivio storico Siciliano, Nuova Serie, Anno IX., pp. 438-443, 1884.
[175]Ciampi,Archivio del Duomo di Pisa.
[176]The inscription, still preserved in the passage leading to the sacristy of the church, runs thus—