CHAPTER VI

THE ROMAN LODGE

THE ROMAN LODGE

-------+-----------+--------------------------+---------------------------- 1. | A.D. 88 | Magister Mutius | Pliny's architect. | | | 2. | 7th or | M. Sisinius | Architect represented in | 8th | | the ancient frescoes of | century | | the subterranean church of | | | St. Clement, as directing | | | the building of it. | | | 3. | | { M. Alberto } | | | { } | 4. | | { M. Cosma } | His assistants in the | | { } | work. 5. | | { M. Carboncelle } | | | { } | 6 & 7. | | { "Sons of PVTE." } | | | | 8. | about | M. Paschalis, named RITA | Sculptured the marble | 11th | | candlestick and inlaid | century | | pulpit of S. Maria in | | | Cosmedin. | | | 9. | 1148 | M. Paulus | A sculptor in marble. | | | 10. | | M. Johannes } | | | } | 11. | | M. Petrus } | His four sons who carved | | } | the ciborium in S. Lorenzo 12. | | M. Anges (Angelo) } | fuori le mura in 1148. | | } | 13. | | M. Sassone } | | | | 14. | 12th | M. Niccolò, son of | Sculptured the curious | century | Angelo di Paulus | mediæval candelabrum in | | | San Paolo fuori le mura. | | | | | | { Two brothers from the 15. | 1196 | M. Ubert | { lodge at Piacenza, who | | | { cast the bronze doors of 16. | | M. Petrus | { the sacristy of S. John | | | { Lateran. | | | 17. | 1190? | M. Lorenzo (ancestor of | Sculptured the façade of S. | | the Cosmati) | Maria in Falleri, and the | | | pulpit at Ara Cœli in | | | Rome. | | | 18. | 1205-10 | M. Jacopo, his son | Sculptured at Civita | | | Castellana, San Saba, Rome, | | | and at Subiaco. | | | 19. | 1210-77 | M. Cosimo, son of Jacopo | Worked at Anagni. His four | | | sons made the name of | | | Cosimo famous, and were | | | known as the Cosmati. | | | 20. | 1231-35 | M. Luca, eldest son of | Died young. | | Cosimo | | | | 21. | 1231-95 | M. Jacopo, second son | C.M. of Orvieto in 1293. | | | 22. | 1294 | M. Adeodatus, or | Made the ciborium in S. | | Deodatus, third son. | Maria in Cosmedin; the | | | cloister of S. John | | | Lateran, etc. | | | 23. | 1290-1303 | M. Giovanni, fourth son | Made several famous | | | monuments in Rome. | | | 24. | | M. Arnolfo, cum socio } | Made the tabernacle of S. | | } | Paolo fuori le mura. 25. | | M. Petro } | | | | 26. | 1224 | M. Rainaldo | Canon of Anagni, and member | | | of the Masonic Guild. | | | 27. | 13th | M. Bassaletti (written | His name is on the column | century | Vassalecti or Basalecti) | of S. John Lateran, and on | | | a marble lion in the porch | | | of the S. Apostoli in Rome. | | | 28. | 1447 | M. Beltramo da Varese | C.M. of the Roman Lodge | | | in 1447: he designed | | | the restorations of the | | | Campidoglio, and built the | | | Palace of the Conservators. | | | 29. | " | Magister Pietro da | Assisted his uncle. He | | Varese (nephew) | also worked at Orvieto in | | | 1450. | | | 30. | " | M. Paolo da Campagnano | Worked with his | | (near Varese) | fellow-countrymen in | | | 1452-3. Restored the roof | | | at S. Pietro, 1460. | | | 31. | 1455 | M. Antonio di Giovanni | { Joint architects of the | | | { Pontifical Palace in 32. | | M. Paolino da Binasco | { the reign of Pope | | | { Calixtus III. | | | 33. | " | M. Bartolommeo of Como | Directed the works of | | | fortification at Castel S. | | | Angelo. | | | 34. | " | M. Stefano da Bissone of | Sculptured in S. Spirito. | | Como | | | | 35. | 1460 | M. Manfred of Como } | Joint C.M. of the Vatican | | } | from 1460 to 1463. 36. | " | M. Domenico of Lugano } | | | | 37. | " | M. Angelo of Como } | Adorned some of the rooms | | } | of the Vatican. 38. | " | M. Martino Lombardo } | | | | 39. | 1466 | M. Giacomo di Cristoforo | A famous builder and | | | sculptor, C.M. of the | | | _laborerium_ at Rome. He | | | designed Palazzo Venezia. | | | 40. | " | M. Andrea of Arzo | Sculptor working under | | | Giacomo. He carved some | | | inlaid doors at the | | | Vatican. | | | 41. | 1466-70 | M. Giacomo di Giovanni } | | | da Como } | | | } | 42. | | M. Alberto di Giovanni } | | | da Como (his brother) } | | | } | 43. | | M. Nicola di Guglielmo } | | | da Varese } | | | } | 44. | | M. Pietro di } | | | Cristoforo da Bregnano } | All these were Lombard | | } | _Magistri_ receiving pay 45. | | M. Simone di Giovanni } | in the Roman Lodge between | | da Binego } | 1460 and 1470. | | } | 46. | | M. Giovanni di Antonio } | | | da Bellinzona } | | | } | 47. | | M. Michele Lombardo } | | | } | 48. | | M. Benedetto Lombardo } | | | } | 49. | | M. Domenico di Martino } | | | Lombardo (son of } | | | No. 38) } | | | | | | | { Two members of the 50. | 1475 | M. Baccio Pontelli | { Florentine Lodge who were | | | { employed as architects at 51. | " | M. Giuliano da Majano | { the Vatican under | | | { Manfred. | | | | | | { Florentine brothers, 52. | " | M. Giovanni di Dolci | { architects at the | | | { Vatican, the Sistine 53. | " | M. Marco di Dolci | { Chapel, and the fort of | | | { Civitavecchia. | | | 54. | 1484-92 | M. Antonio di San Gallo | A Lombard, naturalized | | | Florentine. He built the | | | Borgia apartment. -------+-----------+--------------------------+----------------------------

NAPLES BRANCH OF THE ROMAN LODGE

-------+-----------+--------------------------+---------------------------- 1. | 1470 | Magister Pietro di | C.M. and designer of the | | Martino Lombardo (from | triumphal arch at Castel | | Milan). | Nuovo. | | | 2. | | M. Isaja da Pisa } | | | } | 3. | | M. Antonio da Pisa } | | | } | 4. | | M. Domenico di } | Sculptors and architects | | Montemignano } | employed by Pietro di | | } | Martino in the work of the 5. | | M. Francesco Arzara } | arch. | | } | 6. | | M. Paolo Romano } | | | } | 7. | | M. Domenico Lombardo } | | | di Sumalvito } | | | | 8. | 1484 | M. Tomaso da Como | Sculptured monuments in | | | Monte Oliveto. | | | 9. | 1509 | M. Giovanni di Tomaso | Built the crypt of S. | | (his son) | Gennaro at Naples. -------+-----------+--------------------------+----------------------------

Mention has been made, in the second chapter, of the early Christian Basilicas erected under Constantine, and the forty-six churches of the same era, which Genseric destroyed, and how the three Basilicas which were then saved--_i.e._ S. Agnese, San Lorenzo, and S. Maria in Cosmedin--have, during subsequent restoration, revealed, in the parts of the original buildings discovered, a style precisely analogous to the Basilicas which sprang up in the north of Italy in the time of the Lombards. The only difference between the fourth-century Roman churches and the seventh-century Lombard ones is not in form or style, but merely a deterioration in workmanship. This may easily be accounted for by the two or three centuries of decadence between the destruction of Rome by Genseric and his successors, in about A.D. 460, when it is supposed the remnants of the _Collegio_ of architects fled to Como, and their revival under the Longobardic kings. During those centuries, no great buildings, or even restoration of edifices, took place. The Eternal City seemed, even when free of invaders, to be perishing in the clutches of time. Charlemagne led the way by rebuilding one or two ancient temples and palaces, and he established several schools, one of which was for Lombards--a proof that he was interested in those architects, and that they still had a seat in Rome, where the church of their four Patron Saints had stood, from the far-off time of Pope Melchiades--A.D. 311.

Pope Adrian I. followed the example of his imperial ally, by restoring several churches, to do which he had to ask Charlemagne for the builders of the guild under his protection; a proof that no _Collegio_ existed in Rome at that time. Among these churches, one of the most interesting was that of S. Agnese fuori le Mura, a beautiful round-arched Basilica, built by Constantine in 324. As it now stands, it is so far below the level of the ground that there is a long descent of forty-five wide marble steps, to reach the vestibule of the church. The Basilica itself is extremely interesting, as it remains in its original eighth-century form, as Pope Adrian I. restored it in 775. The plan is a pure and simple Comacine Basilica, with its nave and two aisles, circular tribune and an upper gallery, with the _cochleus_ or spiral staircase leading to it all complete.

The columns of the nave seem to have been taken from an ancient Roman building. The capitals are all classical except the four nearest the tribune, which are quite Comacine, with their simple upright volutes. But the building space being limited, the extremely tall columns had to be placed in such close juxtaposition, that the round arches between them are diminished out of all harmonic proportion. The triforium gallery, having shorter columns, gives a more pleasing effect.

The spiral staircase leading to this is cut in the thickness of a pilaster. The mosaics in the tribune are the original ones of Pope Honorius' time, and of Byzantine style; the decorative paintings over the whole church are mere modern frescoes.

But that the sculpturesque decorations were done by the Comacines, and not by the Greek mosaicists, is suggested by several remains of the ancient decorations of the church, which are preserved on the walls of the stairway descending to it. Here is a _pluteus_, or stone panel, probably from the front of the ancient tribune, and it is a beautiful _intreccio_ precisely like the ones at S. Clemente. Two other panels of the same parapet are of Roman design. One might imagine that the Lombard architect copied them from the inner roof of the Arch of Titus. Probably the guild, being of Roman origin, kept all these classical decorative designs in its _laborerium_.

Now and then, in the ages following Adrian, we find a large-minded Pope, who gave his thoughts to restoring the beauties of Rome: such as Leo III. (796), Leo IV. (845), Innocent III. (1178), Nicholas III. (1277), and Boniface VIII. (1294). This latter was the Pope who consecrated the Duomo of Florence.

The great Lombard Masonic Guild being under the especial protection of the Popes, we should expect to see its members employed in the mediæval buildings of Rome. And truly, after Adrian's time, here they are. Hope, Schmarzow, Ricci, and Boito, besides other writers, have all decided that the ancient cloisters of San Lorenzo--built under Honorius III. in the beginning of the thirteenth century--as well as the primitive churches of St. Peter, S. John Lateran, and S. Lorenzo, were all early Comacine work; and that the exquisite cloister of S. John Lateran, and the churches of S. Paolo fuori le Mura, Ara Cœli, San Giovanni e Paolo, S. Maria sopra Minerva, etc., are all equally Lombard churches of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Several friezes and inscriptions go to prove the truth of this, besides those eloquent lions that crouch beneath the columns in the cloister of S. John Lateran and other places.

As this is not an architectural dissertation, but merely a tracing of the work of this great guild, I will keep more to the inscriptions relative to _Magistri_, than to a description of their works, which has been done by so many writers.

In the old times before the painters and sculptors, and after them the metal-workers, split off and formed companies of their own, every kind of decoration was practised by the Masters. A church was not complete unless it were adorned in its whole height and breadth with either sculpture, mosaic, or paintings, and this from the very early times of Constantine and his Byzantine mosaicists, and of Queen Theodolinda and her fresco-painters, up to the revival of mosaics by the Cosmati, and the fresco-painting in the Tuscan schools. But never were those arts entirely lost.

The ideas which the Lombard architects brought up from Sicily, when working there under the Normans, were the seeds of re-vivification, and caused a tremendous evolution in the art of the guild. They saw the decorative value of mosaic as it was used in the twisted Saracenic columns, and they were charmed by the rich use of sculpture in the graceful arches. From that time, every lodge throughout the land seemed to invent a new style peculiar to itself.

The Romans, with their traditions of classic mosaics, revived the art in Saracenic style as a means of decoration. The Tuscans, with their wealth of coloured marbles, enlarged chromatic decoration into chromatic architecture, and their airy towers and arched churches were all more or less polychrome. The Lombards, having no marbles at hand, took from these same Saracens their rich traceries and cuspings, which they produced in the plastic clay, throwing a veil of ruddy beauty over the façades and arches of their buildings.

The name of the Cosmati family has become generic for the peculiar chromatic sculpture of Rome in the twelfth century; the family were complete masters of the art. But though they may have taken the idea of its revival as a decorative aid to sculpture, it was by no means their invention, or even their monopoly. If you look at a Cosmati pillar or panel, and then at the floor of any Roman church, you will see that Cosmatesque decoration is but an adaptation of the old Roman _opus Alexandrinum_. And we have plenty of proof of the fact that other _Magistri_ of the guild also practised it. The ambone in S. Cesareo in Palatio at Rome, of which we give an illustration, is earlier than any of Cosimo's family.

There exists at Florence (in S. Leonardo) the ancient pulpit from S. Piero Scheraggio, and which was said to have been brought there from Fiesole. Its date is supposed to be before 1000 A.D. Though of a ruder style, we have the Cosmatesque inlaying of glass and marble, as a setting to sculptures distinctly Comacine, and of almost Longobardic antiquity. In Sta. Maria in Cosmedin are two fine pulpits, on one of which is a beautiful candlestick formed of a twisted column, inlaid in the same style. The Comacine lion crouches beneath it, and on the base is the inscription in Gothic letters, telling us that the worthy and learned man Paschalis (called Rita), with great study made this candlestick.[290] Then we have Nicolao di Rannuncio, whose name is inscribed on the door of inlaid marble in the church of S. Maria at Toscanella,[291] and a whole family whose names are inscribed on the ciborium of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura:[292] where it is written--"John, Peter, Angelo, and Sasso, sons of Paul the sculptor, Magisters of this Opera. I, the humble Abbot Hugh, had this work executed"[293] (Johs, Petrus, Angĕs, et. Sasso. Filii. Pauli. Marmōr. Huj'. Opis. Magister Fuer. Ann d. M. CXLVIII. Ego. Hugo. Humilis. Abbs. Hoc. Opus. Fieri Feci.). The tabernacle is of the usual four-pillared form; the columns are ancient porphyry ones adapted; the capitals the usual Comacine mixture of classic and mediæval--acanthus leaves and cornucopiæ with the mystic beasts climbing among them.

Angelo, the third son of Magister Paulus, had a son named Niccolò, and the two together made the candelabrum of S. Paolo; a quaint mediæval piece of sculpture, of the style of Magister Roberto's font, but with some marvellously beautiful interlaced work. There is also Arnolfo with his partner Peter (Arnolfus cum suo socio Petro), who made the inlaid and sculptured tabernacle in S. Paolo fuori le Mura in 1285.

Merzario says that we must not confuse this Arnolfo with the Florentine architect. Camille Boito, however, opines that he is the same. Arnolfo had certainly a taste for the polychrome in architecture, which may or may not have been imbibed in Rome, while working at that lodge with Peter--whom Cavalcaselle considers was one of the Cosmati, and who certainly did the ciborium at S. Paolo, though Arnolfo's name is absent in that work. I have found some other members of the Roman Lodge inscribed above a bronze door in S. John Lateran. On the archivolt is written--"Hui opis Ubert et Petr: [^Fr]s. Māgistri Lausenen. Fece[[^ru]nt." Over another bronze door in the sacristy they are written as--"Ubert Magister, et Petrus. Ei: Fr. Placentini Fecerunt Hoc. op.," and the date A.D. 1196. Boito[294] sees nothing in this but a perplexing contradiction, that in one place the brothers say they are from Lausanne, and in another from Piacenza. It is to me plain enough. They are natives of Lausanne, and consequently Lombards: they are also brethren of the lodge of Piacenza, where they had most likely worked while the cathedral and other buildings were being erected.

The date of the Baptistery door, and the connection of its maker with the guild, are verified by the inscription on the other panel of the bronze door, which says it was done in the fifth year of the pontificate of Pope Celestine III. (_i.e._ 1196), and that Father Giovanni, Cardinal of S. Lucia, the _Jubente_, or _camerarius_ of the _Opera_, had it made.[295]

This door had engraved on it the design of the ancient façade of S. John Lateran--a perfectly Lombard front consisting of two round-arched arcades, with a little pillared gallery above.

The door of the Sacristy must have been cast before that of the Baptistery, as in the first work Uberto is entitled _Magister_, and Petrus only named as his brother, whereas in the second the younger brother must have also graduated, and has in his turn attained to the dignity of _Magister_.

We trace the same gradual progress through the ranks of the Guild in the Cosmati family, whose connection with the Roman lodge we must now trace. Several generations of them were _Magistri_--

Lorenzo | Jacopo (some works, 1205-1210) | Cosimo, 1210-1277 | +------------+------+------+------------+ | | | | Luca Jacopo Adeodatus Giovanni 1231-1235 1231-1293 1294 1296-1303

To Lorenzo belong the façades of Santa Maria in Falleri, and the Duomo in Civita Castellana, besides the pulpit in Ara Cœli at Rome. In all these works his son Jacopo worked with him.

Jacopo alone, with the title of _Magister_, sculptured the smaller doors in the façade of the Duomo at Civita Castellana, and the door of San Saba at Rome in 1205; also the inlaid columns at S. Alessio in Rome, and the Cloister of Santa Scolastica at Subiaco. In Civita Castellana, above the magnificent portal, is inscribed "Laurentius cum Jacobo Filio suo, Magistri doctissimi Romani H(oc) opus fecerunt." This proves my assertion that they had graduated in the Roman Lodge, and if further proof is required, this portal bears the universal mark of the Comacine Masters at this era--its columns rest on lions.

Similar inscriptions are on the ambone of Ara Cœli, and the doorway at Falleri. The inscription on the door of San Saba, dated 1205, is--"Ad honorem domini nostri I͞HU [^XP]I Anno VII. Pontificatus domini Innocentii III. PP Hoc opus domino Johanne, Abbate Jubente[296] factum est per manus magistri Jacobi." Up to this time we have no proof that the family was of Roman origin; they are merely given as members of the Roman Lodge, which we have seen was of Lombard origin. They were afterwards made Roman citizens.

After these works we find Cosmato, the son of Jacopo, old enough to assist him. That same frontal of the Duomo at Civita Castellana has on the cornice over the portico these words inlaid in letters of gold--"Magister Jacobus civis Romanus cum Cosma filio suo, Fieri fecit hoc opus A. D͠NI. MCCX." Cosmato's name is also inscribed as assisting his father in the door of the church of San Tommaso in Formis at Rome. Next, in 1224, we find young Cosmato a full-fledged _Magister_, working at the cathedral of Anagni, which was in those days an important city, and the residence and birthplace of several Popes. The whole pavement there is a beautiful work of inlaid marbles, and bears an inscription saying that the Venerable Lord Bishop Albert had the pavement made; Magister Rainaldo, Canon of Anagni to Pope Honorius III., and the honourable sub-deacon and chaplain assisting in the expense, which was a hundred gold _oboli_; Magister Cosmato executing the work.[297] Magister Rainaldo, the Canon, must have been one of the ecclesiastic members of the guild, and showed so much respect for the privilege that he preferred the title of _Magister_ to the grander one of _Venerabilis_, to which his office of Canon would have given him right.

After this time, Cosmato is always written as Magister; his name appears on the altar of the crypt of S. Magnus in the cathedral of Anagni, which was also a commission of Bishop Alberto in 1230. Next, we perceive that Cosmato has married and has a goodly family of sons, who, according to ancient custom, are all educated in the guild.

Luca and Jacobo, the two eldest, helped him in the mosaic pavement of the crypt at Anagni, and in the cloister of Santa Scolastica at Subiaco. This is a most beautiful work in transition style. The columns are alternately single and double, the single ones with a wide projecting abacus. Some are slight and straight, others spiral and beautifully inlaid between the sculptured ribs. The arches resting on these fanciful columns are on two sides round, but on the other sides are slightly pointed. Above the arches is a sculptured cornice and a frieze of mosaic. It is altogether very beautiful.

In 1277 Cosmato was employed by Pope Nicholas III. to restore the chapel "Sancta Sanctorum" in the Basilica of S. John Lateran, the altar of which was reserved for the Popes alone. Luca appears to have died young, but Jacopo at eighty years of age was a master builder at the cathedral of Orvieto, where in 1293 he is written in the books as "Maestro de' Muratori Jacopo di Cosma Romano."

The third son, Adeodatus, or Deodatus, rose high in the guild. In the pavement of S. Jacopo alla Lungara, before it was destroyed, the following epigraph was inlaid, which was copied by Crescimbeni--"Deodatus filius Cosmati, et Jacobus fecerunt hoc opus." In a later work, the ciborium once in S. John Lateran, now in the cloister, we find that Deodatus has risen to the rank of _Magister_. It was a commission from the Colonna family, whose arms are sculptured on it. The ciborium in S. Maria in Cosmedin, ordered by Cardinal Gaetani, nephew of Pope Boniface VII., must have been earlier than this, for he has merely signed "Deodat. me fec."

Cosmato's fourth son, Giovanni, first appears in an independent work in 1296, when, on the elegant sepulchre of Bishop Durante, he signs--"Jo͞hs filius Magri Cosmati fec̄ hoc op." Similar epigraphs are on the tomb of Cardinal Gonsalvo in S. Maria Maggiore, and a monument to Stefano de' Surdi in Santa Balbina.

In all these works of the Cosmati, Camille Boito finds signs of Lombard principles, and traces in the development of style from father to son the same gradual movement from older forms towards the Gothic, which we notice between Jacopo Tedesco and Arnolfo, and between Niccolò Pisano and his son Giovanni. Living in Rome, however, the Cosmati never really took up the Gothic style, as it developed further north; but always kept nearer to classical forms, and so prepared Rome for the Renaissance style, which arose from the humanist movement in the Cinque-cento epoch.

The next great patron of the Lombard Guild in Rome was Pope Nicholas V. (Thomas of Sarzana), of whom Gregorovius said--"This man had only two passions--collecting books and building." His dominating idea was the directing of a new Renaissance. According to him, "Rome ought to become the imperishable monument of the Church, or rather the Papacy, and re-arise in admirable magnificence before the eyes of all people."[298] Nicholas V. had the first idea of the rebuilding of St. Peter's, and the Vatican, but one man's life was not long enough for such great works. He, however, restored the Campidoglio, Castel S. Angelo, San Todaro, S. Stefano Rotondo, the palace of S. Maria Maggiore, the fountain of Trevi, the walls of Rome, and several of the State fortresses.

He got some of his architects, such as Leon Battista Alberti and Rossellino, from the Florentine Lodge, but by far the greater part of them were Lombards. The chief of these was Master Beltramo da Varese, of whom we have heard much in the Lombard Lodges. With him were his nephew Maestro Pietro di Giovanni, Maestro Paolo da Campagnano (a village near Varese), and Maestro Giacomo di Cristoforo. Rossellino had begun the works at St. Peter's in a kind of reverse fashion, starting with the apse. The continuation of this tribune was confided to Maestro Beltramo, who set to work in good earnest. He made vast lime and brick furnaces, filled the _laborerium_ with wood, ropes, ladders, etc., engaged sub-architects and _Magistri_ with bands of workmen under them, most of whom came down from the Como region. In fact, there was an army of Lombards.[299] The registers of the _Opera_, now in the Vatican, mark large payments to Magistro Beltramo and his nephew Pietro di Giovanni, who became chief architect after his uncle's death.

Besides the Tribune of St. Peter's, the two relatives were employed to rebuild the Campidoglio. Muntz publishes some notes taken from the registers of the Apostolic Camera, recording payments made between 1447 and 1448 to Maestro Beltramo, and some of his associates (_socii_), for the roof and marble windows of the Campidoglio and the palace of the Conservators. In 1452 Pietro da Varese is found continuing the work alone. The documents recently published from the registers of the Vatican have these entries--

"1452. _December 31._--To Maestro Pietro da Varese, nephew of Maestro Beltramo, 1000 gold ducats for part of the Tower he is building behind the Campidoglio, at the side where they sell salt by retail. T. S. 1452, fol. 216, cf. fol. 194."

"1453. _March 9._--D. 112, b. 56, d. c., for remainder and completion of the contract of the Tower he (Pietro) has made at the Campidoglio, which in full amounts to 1212 ducats, of which he received last year at different times, 1000 (and 100) ... and thus it is registered by Janni di Jordani (Notary V. fl. 126. 10. 93)."[300]

We find Pietro in 1450 sculpturing in the cathedral at Orvieto, where in a public act he is described as a good and clever sculptor ("lapidum sculptor bonus et doctus"), and prayed to remain at Orvieto in the service of the lodge there.

Muntz speaks very highly in praise of the Lombard sculptor, Giacomo di Cristoforo[301] da Pietrasanta, saying that although his name is little known to biographers, he holds a high place in Roman art of the fifteenth century, and merits to be ranked among the most celebrated artists of his time. Many of the buildings which Vasari ascribes to Giuliano da Majano and Baccio Pontelli are in reality due to him; for instance, the Palazzo Venezia, which was rebuilt under Pope Paul II. (Pietro Barbo, who succeeded to the papal throne in 1464). Now Giuliano da Majano only came to Rome towards the end of the reign of Pope Sixtus IV., and could not therefore have been employed by Paul II. In fact, Muntz, after many researches, concludes that the chief architect was Maestro Giacomo da Pietrasanta, who is in the registers of 1467 qualified by the title of _Soprastante_ in the _laborerium_ of the church and palace of S. Marco at Rome, and in 1468 is written as the president of the building of the Palazzo Apostolico or Vatican.[302] In fact, Giacomo da Pietrasanta, the Lombard, was Grand Master of the whole Roman Lodge during these years.

But Maestro Giacomo was not the only Comacine employed in the Palazzo Venezia. A contract dated June 16, 1466, names Magister Manfred of Como and Andrea of Arzo, whom we have seen in Venice, as _magistros architectos_,[303] and the registers reveal a whole army of master builders and sculptors whose names will be found in the list appended. Muntz quotes no less than twenty-five, many of whom have been familiar to us at Milan, Siena, and Florence.

Although when Calixtus III. (Alfonso Borgia) succeeded Nicholas V. in 1455, he had no great ideas about resuscitating the architectural glories of ancient Rome, he nevertheless employed the Lombard Masters to finish the works begun. Maestro Pietro da Varese, and Maestro Paolo da Campagnano, with Maestro Antonio di Giovanni from Milan, and Maestro Paolino da Binasco, were joint architects of the Pontifical Palace. Maestro Bartolommeo da Como, whom we have known at Milan and Pavia, was director of the works of fortification at Castel S. Angelo, while Maestro Stefano da Bissone di Como is named as a sculptor in the church of S. Spirito.

The next Pope, Pius II. (Æneas Silvio Piccolomini), did so much building and embellishing in Siena--where the Lombard Masters divided the honours with their colleagues born in Siena, and trained by them--that he did little for Rome. He employed the same Pietro da Giovanni and Paolo da Campagnano between 1460 and 1463, for the roof of S. Pietro, which menaced destruction. The palace of the Vatican was placed under the architectural superintendence of Maestro Manfred of Como and Domenico of Lugano. The first appears to have been designing architect, and the second master builder, as he commanded squadrons of workmen, and was assisted in ruling them by his brother Antonio.

Maestro Angelo da Como, and a certain Martino Lombardo, rebuilt the chambers which had been destroyed by fire, and adorned the "Hall of the Pavilion" and "Hall of the Parrot."

In the time of Sixtus IV. (Francesco della Rovere, 1471-1484) the Lombards of the Roman Lodge were joined by their brethren from Florence, and now we find the two groups inextricably mixed. Baccio Pontelli and Giuliano da Majano work together with Manfred the Lombard and Paolo da Campagnano in the administration of the works of the Vatican; while Francesco and Andrea, both Lombards, are found carving in wood and executing beautiful doors in _intarsia_, together with Giovanni and Marco di Dolci, Florentines; Giovanni de' Dolci with his colleagues (chiefly Comacines) worked at the Sixtine Chapel, some parts of the Vatican, and the fortress of Civita Vecchia, which Baccio Pontelli finished. Pope Innocent VIII. (Cibo, 1484-92) added the Loggia Belvedere to the already immense palace of the Vatican, and Alexander VI., a Spaniard, built the Borgia apartment, for which he employed Antonio di San Gallo, or from St. Gall, a Lombard naturalized Florentine, whose assistants in the work seem to have been chiefly Lombards.

It was this influx of Florentines, who were fresh from the humanistic influences of the classic revival of literature under the Medici, and therefore more open to further inspirations from the influences of antique Rome, which brought about the revival of classic forms in architecture in Rome. Bramante and San Gallo began it in 1503, Raphael and Michael Angelo carried it on; and such hold did the Renaissance style take on the minds of people in the late Cinque-cento era, that it spread, and overpowered the Gothic from end to end of Italy.

Vasari raved about the faults of the old architecture and its _goffissima_ style, upholding the chastened order of the new, but whatever may have been the merits of Renaissance, as Bramante and Michael Angelo practised it, their later followers committed quite as many sins against reason and good taste as any Comacine or Romanesque architect ever did. Look, for instance, at the church of S. Carlo, in the Corso at Rome, with its gigantic pilasters running up the whole height of a front, which is, by its square windows, cut up into three storeys, giving the lie to the unity of space implied by the mock columns; and at San Firenze in Florence, where half an arch runs up into the air and stops short, as a defiance to all laws of gravity. Arches or pediments, with a _hiatus_ where the key-stone should be, and which, logically speaking, can support nothing, are the most common blots on a late Renaissance building.

But we have nothing to do with this era. It was only a late survival of a side issue of the Comacine Guild which had been practically dissolved before Michael Angelo's time, although the influence of its smouldering ashes vivified the art even of that great genius.

The great family of sixteenth-century architects, the Fontana, was of Comacine origin, though I believe the guild was dissolved by their time. Domenico Fontana was born at Melide near Como; his elder brother Giovanni, famous for his stucco work, had preceded him in Rome, but Domenico was an artist of a wider kind. The Cardinal Felice di Montalto soon discovered his capacities, and entrusted him with the erection of the Cappella del Santissimo in S. Maria Maggiore. Here a very unusual episode occurred. The Cardinal had not means enough to finish the work, and the brothers Fontana, instead of suing him for their pay, lent him 1000 scudi. Of course the Cardinal was their great patron after this, and recommended them to Pope Sixtus V., who employed them in the Vatican to build the Belvedere and the Library. Domenico also enshrined the Scala Santa at S. John Lateran; he placed the obelisks on Piazza S. Giovanni and Piazza S. M. Maggiore; set up the Castor and Pollux on the Quirinal; built the bridge at Borghetto, the hospital of S. Sisto, and restored the Alessandrini-Felice aqueduct; embanked the Fiumicino near Porto; made the water conduit at Civita Vecchia, which implied tunnelling under a mountain; and the great aqueduct of Acqua Paola from Bracciano to Rome, thirty-five miles long; besides constructing fountains everywhere, in Rome and Frascati.

In fact, he nearly made Cinque-cento Rome. His brother Giovanni was nominated architect in general to Pope Clement VIII.; and Paul V. made him chief architect of St. Peter's, with his nephew Carlo Madernò. He too was employed in Ferrara. For a century the name and race of Fontana flourished in Rome, some of the family emigrating to Naples, where they became equally famous. The number of their buildings was legion; they and the family Della Porta, who also came to Rome from Lake Lugano, divided the renovation of Rome between them. Girolamo della Porta, like the Fontanas, was a naturalized Roman.

The Fontana family forms a link with Naples, though not the only connection of that city with the guild. The Comacine Masters kept up their connection with Naples long after the time of the Normans, when Maestro Buono built the Castel Capuana for William I. Merzario claims for one of his descendants, Buono dei Buoni, the credit of having first invented painting in oils, which he is supposed to have taught privately to Antonello of Messina.[304] Several names of the Solari family, so famous at Milan and Venice, turn up at Naples in the fifteenth century, and then a famous work was put into Lombard hands. When Alphonso of Aragon made his entry in 1443, the governors of the city decreed that a triumphal arch should be built to commemorate the event. It was placed at the entrance of Castel Nuovo, and consists of two round towers, with an arch between them, supported on Corinthian columns. The arch is surmounted by a frieze and cornice, with a parapet above, enriched with bas-reliefs representing the entry of King Alphonso. The whole is surmounted by statues of saints and the cardinal virtues.

The construction of this fine arch has been attributed to Giuliano da Majano, but as he was at the time only a boy of ten or twelve years old, this could not be. Sig. Miniero Riccio, after a diligent search in the Neapolitan archives, has found some acts, which give the names of sculptors employed on this. We find Pietro di Martino from Milan, head architect; Isaja da Pisa, Domenico di Montemignano, Antonio da Pisa, Francesco Arzara, Paolo Romano, and Domenico Lombardo. This authorship is confirmed by the epigraph in the church of S. Maria la Nuova in Naples, dated 1470, in memory of Pietro di Martino, Milanese, who, for his merit in erecting the arch at Castel Nuovo, was created Cavalier by King Alphonso, and a sepulchre was given in this church for him and his descendants.[305]

If the date had only been a little later, we might have supposed this to be Pietro Lombardo, son of Martino Solario, who had won such fame in Venice; but as he died in 1512, it is scarcely likely he would have been well-known enough to have obtained such an important commission in 1440. Knowing how a certain succession of names was, and is, kept up in Italian families, this Pietro and Martino might have been the father and grandfather of the Martino da Carona, father of Pietro Lombardo, especially as they had Domenico, also a Solari, with them.

King Alphonso was a good patron to the Comacine Masters, and greatly appreciated them. On February 16, 1456, a gentleman at Terracina wrote to the Duke Francesco Sforza, saying that _some master builders from Como_, in leaving the realm of Naples, had been made to forfeit 190 ducats, on which they appealed to the King. Alphonso ordered the restitution of the money, excepting a small tribute to the confiscators, which he made good to the Comacine Masters out of his own purse.[306]

From 1484 to 1508, a Maestro Tomaso da Como, sometimes called _Tomaso delle parti di Lombardia_, master sculptor, was living in Naples. He was paid for the carving of the principal door of the church of the Annunziata, which his son Giovanni finished after his death. His will still exists. It is dated July 2, 1508, and says that "Mastro Tomaso de Sumalvito (now Sanvito) de la terra de Como de la parti di Lombardia, marmorario habitante in Napoli: istituisce herede Joan Thomaso de Sumalvito de Napoli suo figlio," and declares besides that a debt of three ducats is still owing to him on the work for the great doorway of the church of the Annunziata. The fine monument to Signor Antonio d'Alessandro and his wife, Maddalena Riccio, in the church of Monte Oliveto, and that of the Bishop of Aversa in the same church, were sculptured by Tommaso de Sanvito, as he is called in the books of Orvieto, where he was head architect.

His son Giovanni built, in 1509, the fine chapel of the Macellai in the church of S. Eligio, and the "Confession" of S. Gennaro under the tribune of the cathedral of Naples, where the yearly miracle of the liquefaction of the blood of S. Gennaro takes place. Even the beautiful Royal Palace at Capodimonte was built by a Lombard, Domenico Fontana of Melide, near Como, whose family we have seen was more famous in Rome than in Naples? Domenico, however, died in Naples in 1607, and was buried in S. Anna dei Lombardi, where his sons Sebastian and Julius Cæsar (Giulio Fontana) wrote on his tomb--"Patritius Romanus, Summus Romae Architectus. Summus Neapolis." Like so many of his predecessors in the guild, he had been given the citizenship of the towns he had embellished. It is this which makes it so difficult to trace the artists--the same man may appear successively as being a citizen of Rome, of Orvieto and Siena, and yet have been born at Como in spite of all.

Enough has been said to show that at Rome and Naples, as well as in other cities, the great Lombard Guild led the way. The guild, which may be looked on as the flower of the Renaissance, had, however, reached the period when its blossoming time was over; its many petals, too much spread, were falling from all its branches. Some had dropped off long since, and new suckers formed in the painting academies, and the sculptors' companies, at Siena, Florence, Venice, and other parts. These suckers had, by the fifteenth century, grown into independent plants, that threatened to overshadow and choke the ancient trunk. Art knowledge of all kinds had now become dispersed outside the jealous custody of the once secret Freemasonry, and the Cinque-cento artist stood alone on his own merit, without needing the _cachet_ of the Masonic title of _Magister_. There were, after this time, Masters in every other art or trade guild, the nomenclature of this most ancient and universal of guilds having been adopted by all other guilds whatsoever; so that even in our own England we find Master Humphrey the iron-worker, or Master Ambrose the cloth-weaver; and in Italy Maestro Giorgio the maker of majolica, and Maestro Pollajuolo the metal-worker; and in Germany the "Little Masters," who, I opine, were a German group of painters, who, like their brethren of the South, seceded from the Masters _par excellence_, i.e. the great Masonic Guild.

FOOTNOTES:

[290] VIR P(RO)BUS. | DOCT' PASCA- | LIS RI | TA, VO CAT: S͞VMO CUM STUDIO | C͞ODIDIT | H͞UC CEREVM:

[291] Marchese Ricci, _Dell' Architettura in Italia_, Vol. I. chap. ii. p. 467.

[292] _Ibid._

[293] _Ibid._

[294] Boito, _Architettura del Medio Evo. I Cosmati_, p. 124.

[295] † ANNO V̊ PONT[^IF] [^DN]I CELESTINI III [^PP] [^GE] GIO CA͠DIN LUCE ET DE [^DN]I PP CAMERARIO JUBENE OPUS ISTUD FACTÛ Ê.

[296] This Giovanni, _Jubente_ or President of the lodge, would probably be the same one under whom the bronze doors of the Baptistery of S. John Lateran were made. By this date he has risen to be Abbot.

[297] D͠NS. Albertus. Venerabilis an agnin e͞ps fecit hoc fieri paviment͠u pi (pro illo) construendo magister Rainaldus anagnin canonicus, DNI. Honorii III. PP. subdiacon' et capellan' C obolos aureos erogavit. Magist. Cosmos hoc op fecit.

[298] _Storia della città di Roma nel medio evo_, translated into Italian by Renato Manzato, vol. vii. p. 744. Venice, 1875.

[299] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. II. chap. xxxviii. p. 413.

[300] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. II. chap. xxxvii. p. 415.

[301] Probably the son of Cristoforo di Milano, who worked so much in Venice and Udine. He may have been employed by the Medici in their buildings at Pietrasanta.

[302] "Superstans marmorariis laborantibus, lapides marmoreas pro ecclesia et palatio Sancti Marci presidens fabrice palatii apostolici."--Muntz, _Les Arts à la Cour des Papes_, vol. i. p. 606. It is interesting to note that the head of the _laborerium_ bore the same title as in A.D. 1250, when Guido da Como wrote on his pulpit, "Superstans Turrisianus."

[303] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. II. chap. xxxviii. p. 424.

[304] Merzario, _I Maestri Comacini_, Vol. II. chap. xxxvi. p. 359.

[305] "Petrus de Martino Mediolanensis ob triumphalem arcis novæ arcum solerter structum et multa statuariæ artis suo munere hinc œdi oblata, a divo Alphonso rege in equestrem adscribi ordinem et ab ecclesia hoc sepulcro pro se ac posteris suis donari meruit MCCCCLXX."--Merzario, _Op. cit._ Vol. II. chap. xxxvi. p. 375, note 4.

[306] Milanese State Archives. Documents of the Dukes Sforza.

EPILOGUE

When I began writing this work, my object was to prove that the Comacine Masters were the true mediæval link between Classic and Renaissance Art. The results have been greater than I then foresaw. In attaching this link in its true place, the chain of Art History takes a new and changed aspect, and instead of several loose strands with here and there detached links, it becomes one continuous whole, from early Christian Rome to the Rome of Raphael and Michael Angelo.

The famous artists who formed the rise of the different schools of the Renaissance, were not each a separate genius inspired from within, but brethren of one Guild, whose education was identical, and whose teachers passed on to them what they received from their predecessors--the accumulated art-teaching of ages.

I am aware that in tracing the progress of this great Guild, the weak points are the derivation of the Comacines of Lombard times from the Roman public architects, who built for Constantine and Pope Adrian; and the connection of this Lombard Guild with the early Cathedral builders of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Between each of these transitions there lies a century or two of decadence, during the barbaric invasions and general demoralization which I have indicated in the earlier chapters. But I think I have given arguments enough to prove these affinities. For the first, we have the identity of form and ornamentation in their works, and the similarity of nomenclature and organization between the Roman _Collegio_ and the Lombard Guild of _Magistri_. Besides this, the well-known fact that the free republic of Como was used as a refuge by Romans who fled from barbaric invasion, makes a strong argument.

For the second, we may plead again the same identity of form and ornamentation, and a like similarity of organization and nomenclature. Just as King Luitprand's architects were called _Magistri_, and their grand master the _Gastaldo_, so we have found the great architectural Guild in Venice, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, using the very same titles, and having the same laws.

In the Tuscan schools which have been traced direct from Lombard times, we have the same offices with the titles translated into a more mediæval Italian--or late Latin--form; the _Gastaldo_ here becomes _Arch Magister_. In some Lodges it is more significant still, the ancient Roman _Superstans_ is modified into _Soprastante_, thus forming a very suggestive connection between early Christian Rome and Tuscany. Again, the hereditary descent is marked by the patron saints of the Lombard and Tuscan Lodges, being four martyr brethren from a Roman _Collegio_. All these and other indications are surely as strong as documental proof.

The lists of the Comacine Guild begin with a few masters, who are seemingly members of three or four families only, the men of the Buoni, Antelami, and Campione schools forming the aristocracy of the Guild.

We have seen how, as the church-building era developed, the brotherhood grew and multiplied.

The Antelami family founded Lodges in Parma, Padua, and Verona; the Campione at Modena, Bergamo, and Cremona; the Buoni family spread eastwards to Venice, and southwards to Tuscany, founding everywhere _laboreriums_ and schools.

Three hundred years later we see the descendants of the Buoni and Campione artists together, building the Gothic and Renaissance palaces at Venice; masters of the Graci and Antelami families rearing the cathedrals of Siena and Orvieto; and in all the ages dispersing about Italy from north to south. We have seen how all these schools increased; native artists joining the Lombard ones, and working together with them, and though a distinctive local style was the characteristic of each school, yet in their fundamental principles they all had one rule and one teaching.

As the Guild increased and multiplied, in the times of the foundation of rival Communes, all vying with each other in building glorious churches, noble palaces, and fine houses, it frequently happened that the primitive Lombard element was overpowered by the newer local one, and then schisms and disintegration took place.

Separate local Guilds were thus formed at Venice, Siena, and Florence.

The painters next seceded, and started painting as an art independent of church decoration; and thus the Academies of Art were formed. This split took place so late after the city _Arti_ or Guilds were established, that the painters of Florence, having left the Freemasons, had no Guild of their own; and if they wished to enjoy civic privileges, they had to enroll themselves in the Company of the Gold-workers, or that of the Apothecaries. Here we get at once a clear explanation of the goldsmith painters in Florence.

This disintegration reached its climax when Brunellesco defied the _Maestranze_ or Masonic Magisters, proving that the Freemasons had not the exclusive right to genius; and that genius had its own claims to be heard, even without the pale of that monopolizing Guild. I think that his dome literally crushed out the almost effete institution of Freemasons, and that the Florentine Lodge was broken up soon after; for by Michael Angelo's time the Medici had to supply a school for sculptors, which we have seen was placed under the instruction of old Bertoldo,--a lingering relic of the great company.

At first sight it might appear that this revelation of the universal fraternity would materially alter the history of art. In some aspects it does; for we can no longer say that Maitani built Siena cathedral, or Arnolfo that of Florence, nor assert that St. Mark's at Venice was entirely Byzantine, or Milan cathedral the work of a German architect. They were all the joint labours of the same brotherhood of artists, the plans made by the first Arch-master being modified a score of times as the centuries went on, and art developed. But in the great points the story of Art remains as it was. Certain masters still stand out as leaders and founders of schools, and every school had its own separate bias and special development of style; but Niccolò di Pisa's influence on future ages is not lessened by our finding out the masters who trained him; the Lorenzetti, Memmi, and Gaddi are not the less famous because their frescoes illustrated with divine truths the walls built by the hands of their brethren of the great Guild.

The recognition of the complex brotherhood only renders history more compact and concentrated, giving it a rich and perfect unity, and showing a gradual and consistent development, like some perfect flower which grows leaf by leaf, bud by bud, until the petals fall from its own over-blossoming. But its seeds are left to future ages.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED

TROYA. "Codice diplomatico Longobardo."

"Antichità Longobardico-Milanese."

DIFENDENTE E GIUSEPPE SACCHI. "Antichità Romantiche d'Italia. Saggio primo intorno all' Architettura Simbolica civile e militare usata in Italia nei secoli VI, VII, e VIII." Milano, 1828. 8vo.

PROF. MERZARIO. "I Maestri Comacini." Milano, 1893. Two volumes, large 8vo., published at Milan by Giacomo Agnelli. "Via S. Margherita," No. 2; price 12 frs.

MARCHESE GIUSEPPE ROVELLI. "Storia di Como."

CESARE CANTÙ. "Storia di Como." Como, 1829. Ostinello.

MARCHESE AMICO RICCI. "Storia dell' Architettura in Italia dal secolo IV al XVIII." Modena, 1857. 3 vols. large 8vo.

RAFFAELLO CATTANEO. "L' Architettura in Italia dal secolo sesto al decimo." Venezia, 1889. Ferdinando Ongania.

DOTT. GAETANO MILANESI. "Documenti per la storia dell' Arte Senese." Siena, 1854. Porri. 2 vols. 8vo.

DOTT. GAETANO MILANESI. "Annotazioni alle opere di Vasari." Florence, 1882. Sansoni. 8 vols. large 8vo.

JAMES FERGUSSON, M.R.I.B.A. "Handbook of Architecture." London, 1859. Murray.

ALESSANDRO DA MORRONA. "Pisa illustrata nelle arti del disegno." Livorno, 1812. 3 vols.

CAV. FRANCESCO TOLOMEI. "Guida di Pistoja per gli amanti delle Belle Arti." Pistoja, 1821.

CESARE GUASTI. "La Cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore." Illustrata con i documenti dell' archivio. Barbera. Florence, 1857.

CESARE GUASTI. "Santa Maria del Fiore." La costruzione della chicesa del campanile, secondo i documenti tratti dall' archivio dell' opera secolare e da quello di stato. Firenze. Ricci, 1887.

AGOSTINO SAGREDO. "Sulle Consorterie delle Arti Edificative in Venezia. Studi storici con documenti inediti." Venezia, 1857.

TOMMASO HOPE. "Storia dell' Architettura." Italian translation of Hope's "Historical Essay on Architecture," by Sig. Gaetano Imperatori. Milano, 1841.

"Archivio storico Siciliano." Nuova serie, Anno IX. "Una scultura di Bonaiuto Pisano."

"Archivio storico Longobardico," 1898. "Descrizione di una chiesa antica sul monte di Civate."

GIOVANNI VILLANI. "Storia di Fiorenza." Filippo e Jacopo Giunti, 1587.

MURATORI. "Annali d'Italia." Milano, 1744. 13 vols. quarto.

MURATORI. "Scriptores Rerum Italicarum."

CAMILLO BOITO. "I Cosmati" (pamphlet).

DOTT. GIOVANNI GAYE. "Carteggio inedito d'artisti dei secoli XIV, XV e XVI." Firenze, 1839. Molini. 3 vols. 8vo.

DOTT. CARLO DELL' ACQUA. "Dell' insigne reale Basilica di S. Michele Maggiore in Pavia." Pavia, 1875. Fusi.

FATHER MULROODY. "The Basilica of San Clemente."

DEL ROSSO. "L' Osservatore Fiorentino." Third Edition. 1821. Ricci. Florence. 8 vols. 8vo.

CIAMPI. "Archivio del Duomo di Pisa."

"Instituzioni, riti e ceremonie dell' ordine dei Francs-maçons, ossia Liberi Muratori." Venezia, 1788. Bassaglia.

MRS. JAMESON. "Sacred and Legendary Art." London, 1879. Longmans, Green and Co.

PAULUS DIACONUS. "Storia dei Fatti dei Longobardi." Udine, 1826. Mattiuzzi.

JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS. "Renaissance of Art: Fine Arts." London, 1877. Smith and Elder.

MONTALEMBERT. "The Monks of the West" (Italian translation).

PIETRO SELVATICO. "Storia estetico-critica dell' arti del disegno."

PIETRO SELVATICO. "Sull' architettura e sulla scultura in Venezia nel medio evo sino ai nostri giorni." Venice, 1847. Ripamonte.

MILMAN. "A History of Latin Christianity."

"Borgo San Donnino e suo Santuario" (anonymous).

AFFÒ. "Storia della città di Parma," sino al 1347. Parma, 1837. Carmignana.

DIFENDENTE SACCHI. "L' arca di S. Agostino illustrata."

MICHELE RIDOLFI. "Sopra alcuni monumenti delle belle Arti di Lucca." Lucca, 1844. Guidotti.

INDEX

Abadia on Lake Maggiore, 114

Abbondio, S., bishop of Como, 34, 142

Accademia delle Belle Arti, Florence, 280

Adelgiso, son of Desiderius, 56

Adrian I., pope, 403

Agilulf, king, marries Theodolinda, 33; shelters St. Columban, 86

Alachi, duke of Brescia, 47, 54

Alba Fucense, its pulpit, 238

Albertus Magnus, 12, 134, 137, 201

Alboin, enters Italy, 31, 32

Alexander II., pope, 226

Alfonso, duke of Calabria, 304

Alfred, king, founds Ripon cathedral, 150

Alphonso of Aragon, 419

Amalasunta, queen, her hospital, 107

Amantius, bishop of Como, 34, 78

Anagni, 410

Ancona, the Pieve at, 242, 243

Andrea Pisano, 211, 328

Andrea from Serra di Falco, 114

Annex, a German, 355

Anselberga, daughter of King Desiderius, 56

Ansige, abbot of Fontanelles, 103

Antelami (Magistri), 188, 189, 232, 424

Antonio di San Gallo, 416

Antonio, S., 200

Aquisgrana (Aix-la-Chapelle), the Basilica, 103

Arca di S. Agostino, 50, 202 _et seq._

Arches, first pointed, 178, 179; cusped arch, 252

Ardoin, 128

Arezzo, its palace, 234

Aribert II., 46

Arichi, duke of Lombardy, 44

Arnolfo di Cambio, 224, 291, 313; his death, 325

Arte della Lana, 337, 343

Arte dei Maestri di Pietra, Senese, 286

Arte dei Maestri di Pietra, at Florence, 338, 343

Arte de' Medici e Speziali, 273

Arte degli Orafi, 339, 425

Arte della Seta, 338, 343

Arte dei tajapiere, Venice, 387 _et seq._

Assisi, first parts Gothic, 252; painting, 272

Asteno, near Porlezza, its church, 184

Astolfo, king, 55

Autharis, king, takes Comacina, 28, 141; marries Theodolinda, 32; builds church of Farfa, 35

Ava, the Longobard, 285

Azzo Visconti, 381

Baptisteries, their form, 115

Barbarossa, Frederic, 116

Bargello at Florence, 61, 149

Barnack church, 149

Basle, Comacine work there, 135

Beneventum, dukes of, 114; cathedral of, 246

Benozzo Gozzoli, 276

Berengarius, the house of, 109

Bertharis, king, dethroned and recalled, 45; saved by his servants, 53

Bianchi and Neri factions, 236

Biscop (Benedict), abbot of Wearmouth, 150

Boniface, St., his mission to Germany, 133

Bradford-on-Avon, 149, 157

Bramante, 416

Bregno, Antonio, 393

Brixworth, 147

Broletto at Como, 382

Brunellesco, Filippo, 321; his dome, 340 _et seq._, 428

Buono, Giovanni, fights for Como, 116; his descendants, 233, 239

Buono (Maestro), 236, 237. _See_ Gruamons, 393

Buschetto, 209 _et seq._

Byzantine work, compared with Comacine, 75, 158

Cadoc, St., 147

Cambio, or Exchange, 315

Campione school, 196 _et seq._, 232, 352, 425

Carloman, 58

Casciano, San, near Florence, the pulpit, 225

Castel Capuana, 233

Castle of Branigola, 41

Castle of Perleda, 40

Castle of Tivoli, 260

Certosa at Pavia, 358 _et seq._

Charlemagne, emperor, rebuilds Rome, 15; defeats Desiderius, 58, 97; takes Comacines to France, 105

Churches: S. Abbondio, Como, 84 S. Agatha al Monte, Pavia, 45 S. Agnese _fuori le mura_, 9, 97, 152, 403 S. Ambrogio, Milan, 83, 84; its pulpit, 88, 148; its atrium, 112, 147, 244 S. Andrea, Pistoja, 233, 249 S. Antonio, Padua, 199 S. Apollinare in Classe, 153, 157 Ara Cœli, 409 S. Bartholomew, Smithfield, 124, 125 S. Bartolommeo, Pistoja, 153, 230, 235, 249 S. Benigno at Dijon, 122, 123 S. Cassiano, near Pisa, 222 S. Clemente, panel of altar, 9; fresco, 10; door, 156; paintings, 266 S. Croce, 277, 333 S. Donato at Polenta, 92, 93 S. Donnino, near Parma, 181 S. Fedele, Como, 81, 104 S. Francesco at Assisi, 179 S. Fredianus, Lucca, 48, 49, 94, 246 S. Gemignano, Modena, 193 S. George, Brescia, 47 S. Giovanni in Borgo, Pavia, 42 S. Giovanni Evangelista Fuorcivitas, Pistoja, 223, 234, 236 S. Giovanni Laterano, 408 S, Giovanni e Paolo, Rome, 65 S. Giusto, Lucca, 244 S. Julia at Bonate, 40, 41 S. Lorenzo _fuori le mura_, Rome, 407 S. Lorenzo in Lucca, 99 S. Lorenzo, Verona, 96, 153 S. Marco dei Precipazi, 84 S. Maria in Cosmedin, 97-99, 404, 405, 411 S. Maria _foris portam_, 46 S. Maria dei Fiori, Florence, 312 _et seq._, 337 S. Maria Novella, Florence, 278 S. Maria Maggiore, Bergamo, 182 _et seq._ S. Maria Maggiore, Brescia, 47 S. Maria Maggiore, Toscanella, its pulpit, 89 S. Maria del Tiglio, at Gravedona, 40, 152 S. Martino at Lucca, 226 S. Michele in Borgo, Pisa, 223, 245 S. Michele, Lucca, 228, 243 S. Michele, Monza, 37 _et seq._ S. Michele, Pavia, 50 _et seq._; its façade, 77-80 Monreale cathedral, 127 Or San Michele, Florence, 333 S. Paolo _fuori le mura_, Rome, 407 S. Paolo, Pistoja, 240 S. Pier Scheraggio, 91; its pulpit, 406 S. Piero in Grado, 37, 50; its foundation, 100; its form, 101, 173, 268 S. Piero Maggiore, Pistoja, 240 S. Pietro in Ciel d'oro, Pavia, 50 S. Pietro le Dome, Brescia, 47 S. Pietro di Monte Civate, 56 _et seq._ S. Prassede, 97, 148 SS. _Quattro Coronati_, 22 S. Salvatore, Pavia, 46 S. Sofia, Beneventum, 248 S. Sofia, Constantinople, 69, 70 S. Tommaso at Lemine, 41 S. Zeno, Verona, 95, 96, 111

Cimabue, 271, 274; his scholars, 275, 278, 323

Cione family, 331 _et seq._

Clement VIII., pope, 418

Cloisters, San Lorenzo, Rome, 65; S. John Lateran, 66; Voltorre, 115; S. Zeno, Verona, 66

Colle in Val d'Elsa, 316, 318

Collegia, Romana, 7, 10, 11, 138 _et seq._, 403

Cologne, churches at, 136

Colonies, Lombard, in Sicily, 128, 129

Comacina island a refuge for Romans, 23

Comacine Masters, who they were, 5 _et seq._

Comagene, now Eufratisia, 69

Como, a Roman colony, 5, 141; its antiquities, 25, 26; is besieged, 116; its war with Milan, 233; its cathedral, 381 _et seq._

Confraternity of painters at Florence, 280

Constantine the Great, 53; his Basilica, 403

Constantinople, 142

Contract of apprenticeship, 292

Convents, Comacine, their form and style, 65

Corneto Tarquinia, 227; ciborium there, 238

Cortelona, Luitprand's villa, 54

Cosimo I., Grand Duke, 280

Cosimo Rosselli, 275

Cremona, its cathedral, 185, 186

Crosses: Bewcastle, 147 Clonmacnoise, 166 Collingham, 147 Kells, 166 Kirkdale, 147, 148 Whalley, 145 Yarm, 147

Cunibert, king, 47; goes to Lucca, 48; fights Alachi, 54; erects tomb to Theodata, 87

Desiderius, abbot, 114, 210

Desiderius, king, 55 _et seq._

Diotisalvi, Pisan architect, 214

Donatello, 306, 337

Donnino, Borgo San, its church, 181

Duccio of Siena, 276

Edwin, king, builds York cathedral, 145

Eginbert, biographer of Charlemagne, 103

Eriprand, duke of Cremona, 45

Ermelind, queen, 87

Ethelred, king, rebuilt Oxford cathedral, 159

Fabiola, her hospice, 107

Faliero, Doge Marino, 390

Falleri, 409

Fermo cathedral, 190

Ferrara, its cathedral, 198

Fiesole destroyed, 14; its cathedral, 236

Filippo Maria Visconti, 382

Florence founded, 14; its baptistery, 213 _note_; its Duomo, 312 _et seq._

Fontana family, 417 _et seq._

Fontana, Giovanni, 258

Fontana, Melide, 258

Fortresses, Comacine, 66; Baradello, 68; Civita Vecchia, 416

Fortunato, patriarch, of Grado, 113; employs Comacines, 175, 176

France, Lombard architecture in, 131, 132

Francesco del Coro, 300

"Franchi Artefici," meaning of the term, 113

Frederic, emperor, 128, 318

Fredianus, S., bishop of Lucca, 48, 164

Freemasons in mediæval times, 12, 13

Freemasons, seventeenth century, Italian, 16 _et seq._; English building Freemasons, 18

French Masters in Italy, 359

Frescoes, early Christian, 266 _et seq._; Byzantine, 268; Tuscan, 405, 426

Galeazzo, Gian, 351 _et seq._, 358; his death, 364, 373, 381

Gastaldo, Grand Master, 86, 388 _et seq._, 424

Genseric destroys Roman churches, 403

German Masters in Italy, 320, 358, 360 _et seq._

Germany, Lombard architecture there, 133 _et seq._; its cathedrals, 216

Ghiberti employed at the Duomo, 341 _et seq._

Ghini family, 331

Giotto, 278, 323, 326 _et seq._

Giovanni da Gratz, 369

Giuliano da Majano, 414, 416, 419

Giunta di Pisa, 271; his scholars, 276

Glass, early manufacture of, 156

Grado, near Pisa, church at, 100 _et seq._

Grado, near Venice, its Basilica, 113, 174

Greek Masters in Italy, 74, 273

Gregory, pope, 143, 144

Grimoald, duke of Beneventum, 45, 47

Groppoli, near Pistoja, its pulpit, 249

Gruamonte, 234 _et seq._

Guazetta, 335

Guido da Siena, 272, 275

Guidotti dal Colle, 271

Guillaume, S., abbot of S. Benigne, 122, 126, 175

Gundeberg, queen, 42; builds churches, 42; her rings, and the ring fair, 43, 44

Gunduald, Luitprand's doctor, 54

Heinrich or Ulric of Gmunden, 361, 369, 374

Heinrich of Ulm, 361, 362

Hexham church, 150 _et seq._

Honorius, Bishop of Canterbury, 145

Hospices, 106, 107

Iconoclastic edict, 73

Justinian, emperor, rebuilds Sta. Sofia, 69

Laborerium, 207: at Canterbury, in fourth century, 148 Certosa di Pavia, 376 _et seq._ Cremona, 186 Florence, 207, 319, 339; closed, 344 Lucca before 1000 A.D., 20 Milan in 1383, 20; fifteenth century, 355 _et seq._ Modena under the Campione Masters, 19, 195, 198 Parma in 1200 A.D., 19, 186, 189, 238 Pisa, 211, 214, 223, 231, 312 Pistoja, 190, 231, 233, 236, 238, 241, 247 Rome, 410 _et seq._ Siena and Orvieto, 285 _et seq._, 305

Leo III., the Isaurian, 73, 74

Leonardo da Vinci, 369

Lion of Judah, sign of Comacine work, 243, 244

Loggie (Lodges), 19, 61, 201, 208, 288, 305

Lombard colonies in Sicily, 128

Lombard kings, chronological table of, 30

Lombard Masters, table of, 31

Lombards in Rome, 412; in Venice, 386; Siena, 301, 305

Lombardi Solari family, 395 _et seq._

Lorenzo il Magnifico, 280

Lothaire, bishop, his church of S. Zeno, 96

Lothaire, king, his wars, 108

Lucca, 225 _et seq._, 246

Luitprand, king, his laws for Comacines, 24, 44, 63 _et seq._, 160; his foot, 50; his churches, 50 _et seq._

Magister, what the term means, 15; Arch Magister, 17; Magisters in Sicily, 129; Magistri frati, 200, 287; different kinds, 265

Magistri: Adam, atrium of S. Ambrogio, 112 Adam, de Arogno, 182 Agostino da Siena, 298 Albertinus Buono, 239 Albertus Buono, 239 Ambrogio Lenzo, 334 Andrea Fusina, 371 Andrea da Modena, 352 _et seq._ Andrea di Pisa, 211, 220, 224 Anselmo (Tedesco) da Campione, and Arrigo, Alberto, and Jacopo, his sons, 194 _et seq._ Antonio of Como, 260 Antonio Mantegazza, 378 Antonio da Padernò, 369 Antonio Rizo, or Riccio, 391, 392, 397 Apollonius, 273 Arnolfo, 224, 291, 313, 407 Auripert, a painter, 55 Bartolo Fredi, 276 Bartolommeo Buono, 253, 260, 390, 393, 398 Bartolommeo de Gorgonzola, 368 Bartolommeo di Pisa, bronze worker, 221 Beltramo, 413 _et seq._ Benedetto da Antelamo, 187, 188, 245 Bernardino da Bissone, 386, 391 Bernardo da Venezia, 374 Bertrando of Como, 260 Biduinus, 222 Bonaiuto di Pisa, 223 Bonanno, 220, 221 Bonino da Campione, 203 Buono, 236, 237, 238 Cellini, 239 Cimabue, 274 Cosmato, and his family, 409 _et seq._ Cristoforo Gobbo, 371, 379 Cristoforo Mantegazza, 378 Diotisalvi of Pisa, 214, 250, 291 Dolcebono Rodari, 368, 377 Enrico Buono, 239 Filippino degli Argani, 364 _et seq._, 366 Francesco di Giorgio Martini, 303, 370 _et seq._ Francesco Talenti, 328 _et seq._, 334 Franciscus da S. Simone, 276 Fredus, 183 Giacomo Dolcibuono, 370 Giacomo da Pietrasanta, 414 Giorgio degli Argani, 366 Giorgio da Iesi, 190 Giovan Antonio Amadeo, 370, 377 Giovanni di Ambrogio, 336 Giovanni Balducci di Pisa, 225 Giovanni Buoni da Bissone, 189, 233, 385 Giovanni Buono, 253; builds Ca d'Oro, 389 Giovanni da Campilione, 184 Giovanni da Carona, 366 _et seq._ Giovannino dei Graci, 363, 375 Giovanni di Lapo Ghino, 328 _et seq._, 334 Giovanni Pisano, 222, 224, 291, 293 _et seq._ Giovanni Solari, 377 Graci, 237; a later one, 291 Gufredo, 182 Guglielmo Tedesco, 220, 223 Guglielmo, his porch at S. Zeno, 112; façade at Modena, 196; at Ferrara, 198 Guidetto, his works at Lucca, 227-231 Guido da Como, 227, 249, 250 Guiniforte, 367, 378, 395 Jacobus Porrata, 186, 251 Jacopo da Campione, 257 _et seq._, 375 _et seq._ Jacopo Dagurro da Bissone, 261 Jacopo della Quercia, 298 _et seq._ Jacopo (Tedesco) da Campione, 197, 252, 294, 315 _et seq._ Jacopo da Tradate, 363; his sons, 364 Lando, 297 _et seq._ Lanfrancus, 115, 193 Lorenzo di Mariano, 302 Lorenzo de' Spazi, 382 Luca Fancelli, 369 Manfredo of Como, 260 Marco da Carona, 356, 358, 365 Marco da Frixone, 353 _et seq._ Martino di Giorgio da Varenna, 302 Matteo da Campione, 197, 363, 386 _et seq._ Niccolao Pela, 336 Niccolò Pisano, 211, 222, 247, 250, 291 Nicolaus, his porch at S. Zeno, 112; façade at Modena, 196; Ferrara, 198 Nino di Pisa, 224, 225 Pantaleone Buono, 393 Paolo da Campagnano, 260 Paulinus, 145 Paulus and his sons, 407 Philippus, an Englishman, 69 Piccone, 54 Piero di Beltrami, 301 Pietro di Apulia, 221, 247 Pietro Lombardi and his descendants, 395 _et seq._, 398 Pietro da Varese, 413 _et seq._ Rainaldo, 212 Rainaldus, sculptures façade of Pisa cathedral, 16 Ramo da Paganelli, 293 Roberto, 246 Simone da Arsenigo, 352 _et seq._, 354 Simone Talenti, 331, 336 Fra Sisto and Fra Ristoro, 125, 318 Tommaso di Como, 420 Uberto and his brother Pietro, 408 Ugone da Campione and his sons, 183 Urbano da Cortona, 306 Ursus, his ciborium, 85 Zeno da Campione, 363

Majorca, 213

Manfred, king, 318

Maniace, Lombard colony there, 128

Margaritone of Arezzo, 275

Maximilian, emperor, 138

Mellitus, the monk, 144

Michael Angelo, 416

Milan, its Duomo, 350 _et seq._

Missions (early) to Normandy, 123 _et seq._; to Germany, 133 _et seq._; to England, 143 _et seq._; to Ireland, 160 _et seq._

Modena, its Duomo, 116, 193

Monasteries: S. Abbondio at Bercela, 54 S. Fredianus, Lucca, 48 S. George, 47, 48 Sta. Giulia, Brescia, 53 Monte Barro, 40 Palazzolo at Lucca, 54 Subiaco, 179

Monkswearmouth, Durham, 156

Monreale, its cathedral, 127

Monte Cassino, convent, 66, 114

Monza, its church, 380 _et seq._

Mosques, El Haram and Amrou, 179

Murano, its church, 113

Mythic sculpture, 75, 80

Nanni di Banco, 337

Nicholas V., pope, 412

Nicknames, their common use, 235 _note_

Nino di Pisa, 225

Norman architecture, 123, 126, 130

Normans, their connection with Sicily, 121, 128

Oil paintings, 277, 418

Opera. _See_ Laborerium

Orcagna, 329, 332 _et seq._

Orseolo (Doge Pietro), 390

Orsino (Virginio), Duke of Bracciano, 304

Orso Orseolo, patriarch of Aquileja, 122

Orvieto, its Duomo, 224, 300 _et seq._; Chapel of Three Kings, 301, 414

Otho, emperor, confirms Comacine privileges, 27

Otho, his decree, 27, 28; he conquers Italy, 109, 135

Otho Orseolo, Doge of Venice, 122

Padua, church of S. Antonio, 199, 237

Painters of the Guild, their secession, 265 _et seq._

Palaces (private), Florentine, 258; Venetian, 260

Palace of Desiderius at S. Gemignano, 62, 257

Palace, Luitprand's, at Milan, 62

Palazzo Pubblico, 256; at Perugia, 257; at Todi, 257; at Udine, 258; Capodimonte, 421

Palazzo Vecchio (Florence), 61, 259

Palazzo Venezia (Rome), 415 _et seq._

Palermo, its cathedral, 126, 213

Papal forts, 260, 261, 415

Parma, 238

Paulinus, assists St. Augustine, 145

Pavia, its church, 50, 77 _et seq._; its castle, 202; its Certosa, 373 _et seq._

Penna, inscription there, 191

Pepin, king, founds church of S. Lorenzo, 96

Peter Martyr, St., his tomb, 225

Piacenza, its walls, 106

Pisa, beginning of the Duomo, 173, 209 _et seq._; baptistery, 214

Pistoja, 223, 225 _et seq._; its baptistery, 240

Pius II., pope, 260

Pliny's villa at Como, 26

Prato, its Duomo, 229

_Provveditore_, his office, 208 _et seq._; his books, 322 _et seq._

_SS. Quattro Coronati_, 20; inscription to them, 21; sculptures representing them, 207; their _fête_, 289

Quercia, Jacopo della, 337

Rahere, founder of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield, 124

Rainaldo, Magister at Pisa, 211, 212

Raphael, 416

Ratchis, king, becomes a monk, 55

Ravenna, towers at, 153, 154

Richard, prior of Hagustald, 160

Richard II., of Normandy, duke, 123, 158

Roger I., duke, 126

Roger II., king of Apulia, 126

Rome, Comacine fortresses near, 260; Lombards in Rome, 412 _et seq._

Rotharis, king, his laws, 5, 6, 160

Runic inscriptions, 148

Saints: Augustine, 143, 145 Boniface, 133, 271, 233, 239 Columban, founds convent at Bobbio, 86, 164, 167 Cumianus, his tomb, 86 Fredianus, 48, 164 Gregory, 264 Hugh of Lincoln, 143 Luke, the company of, 280, 332 Modwen, 143 Nilus, his letter, 81 Patrick, 163

Sansovino, Jacopo, 394

Saracenic architecture, 121, 177, 406

Saxon architecture, Book II. ch. iii.

Sculptured animals, their meaning, 72, 73

Scuola di S. Giovanni Evangelista, 396

Scuola di San Marco, 396, 399

Sforza, Francesco, 365, 367, 420

Sicily, the revival there, 126 _et seq._, 175, 406

Siena cathedral, 224, 285 _et seq._

Sixtus IV., pope, 261, 416

Sixtus V., pope, 418

Solari family, 395 _et seq._

Solomon's knot, its meaning and origin, 72, 82, 243

Spanish chapel, 278, 326

Statutes of the Masonic Guild in Siena, 287, 291

Steepleton church, Dorset, 149

Stilicho the Goth, his tomb, 89

Strasburg, Freemasons there, 137

Symbolism of the Comacine Guild, 71 _et seq._

Talenti, Francesco, 328 _et seq._

"Tedesco," what the word means in architecture, 216, 218

Theodata, her tomb at Pavia, 87

Theodolinda, her marriages, 32 _et seq._; her churches, 37-40

Theodosius, his laws on building in marble, 81

Toller Fratrum, Dorset, 149

Tomb of: Can della Scala, Verona, 203, 204, 252 Cardinal Longhi degli Alessandri, 185 S. Domenico, Bologna, 223 Folchino de Schicci, 204 Gian Galeazzo Visconti, 254 Mastino II., dei Scaligeri, 253 The Bishop of Siena, 301 Theodoric at Ravenna, 218

Tommaso de Mutina (Modena), 275

Torcello, 73

Torriano family of Milan, 385

Toscanella, pulpit there, 89

Towers, Comacine, their form, 67, 153; San Marco, Venice, 233; round towers of Ireland, 161 _et seq._; Pisa, 219, 220; Fiesole, 237

Trent, its cathedral, 181 _et seq._

Turrisianus of Pistoja, 230, 238

Vatican, 414 _et seq._

Vecchietta, 306

Venice, 8, 113; its fifteenth-century restorations, 385 _et seq._, 397

Verona fortified by Charlemagne, 106

Visconti family, 349, 364, 373 _et seq._

Vitale, 300

Voltorre, its cloister, 115, 193

Wenceslaus, king, 350

Wilfrid, bishop of York, 150, 155

William of Normandy, 123

Winchester tower, 153

Zambono, northern Italian for Giovanni Buono, 237

Zohak, emblem of remorse, 79

Zurich, the Gross Münster, 135

THE END

_Richard Clay & Sons Limited, London & Bungay._