Maestro Francesco di Giorgio Martini holds a large share in the correspondence of the Sienese government and of the Opera in the latter part of the fifteenth century.
On December 26, 1486, we find him first entering the pay of the Sienese Commune as public architect. He has a salary of 800 florins, and is bound to fix his home at Siena. He was recalled from Urbino for the purpose, having orders to arrive within six months, but the Duke Guidobaldo was not at all willing for him to leave. On May 10, 1489, the Duke writes to say that the absence of his architect (mio architector) would be a serious injury to him.
During the time Francesco remained in Umbria he seems to have done the Commune good political service by keeping them informed of the dangers that threatened Florence from the offensive alliance between Lorenzo de Medici and the Pope Innocent VIII., who designed to take Città di Castello for Francesco Cibo. This would have endangered the peace of Siena, so the architect warned them to be prepared.
After this, Magister Francesco became the bone of contention among several princes and republics. The Duke of Milan wrote, on April 19, 1490, to the Signoria of Siena, begging them to send the "intellexerimus magistrum Franciscum Giorgium Urbinatem" (see how the place he last worked at is named as his residence!) to Milan to give his opinion on the mode of placing the cupola. The Commune gave the permission, and on June 27, 1490, we find Magistro Francisco di Georgi di Siena (here again at Milan he is styled of Siena), with Magistro Johantonio Amadeo (Omodeo) and Johanjacobo Dolzebono (Gian Giacomo Dolcebono), elected as a supreme council of three, and giving their advice on the erection of the cupola at Milan, with the exact plan and measurements which would harmonize with the building as it then stood. He did not remain to see the plans carried out, but was on his recall to Siena remunerated with one hundred florins by the Fabbrica (Opera) of Milan.
On October 24 of the same year, Giovanni della Rovere, the Prefect of Rome, wrote to the Signoria of Siena praying for the service of their architect, and on November 4, 1490, Virginio Orsino, Duke of Bracciano, begged him to go and build a fortress at Campagnano.
Next Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, wanted him at the Castle of Capua, where he went between February and May 1491, and in August of the same year the Anziani, Lords of Lucca, petitioned for him. And so he is called from end to end of Italy, and wherever he goes he is received with honour as a grand architect.[232]
At Orvieto we find the same preponderance of Lombards as in Siena. The register of the Opera there for August 30, 1293, gives the salaries of the Magistri in the Loggia (lodge) of the Fabbrica. Here we find many of our Sienese friends; Magistro Orlando and Guido da Como receive six soldi a day; Magistro Martino da Como seven. We find also Pietro Lombardo, Giacomo and Benedetto da Como, sculptors; Martino, Guido, and Aroldo as successive chief architects in the Fabbrica or Opera.
In 1305 the camarlengo had to write to Lombardy for more builders and sculptors, for, says Della Valle, "la fama di volo ne spargesse il grido fin oltre ai confini d'Italia," and in December four Magistri arrived—"Mag. Franciscus Lombardus, Mag. Marchettus Lombardus, Mag. Benedictus Lombardus, and Johannes de Mediolano (Milan)." I do not know which of these sculptured the door of which we give an illustration, but the artist has set the sign of his fraternity on it in the lions beneath the pillars. (One is now missing.)
The Lodge of Orvieto, sometimes spelt Loya or Loja, is described as a large, spacious, and airy building, in which the sculpturing of stones and marbles was done, and where the stores and the schools were.[233]
The use of the word "Lodge" for this complicated organization seems a sign of Freemasonry, and suggests that the Comacines followed the ancient rules of Vitruvius, and kept up the organization of the Roman Collegium.