First uprose Master Marco da Campione (Surrexit primus Magister Marchus de Campilione, Inzignerius), and said there was an error in the wall on the side of Via Compedo, the wall being, in one part, "half a quarter" wider than the measure given. He suggested undoing that part to the foundation.
Then the chief architect, Simone da Arsenigo, rose, and proposed to cut the stones down to the ground, but not to remove them.
Maestri Giacomo and Zeno agreed with Maestro Marco, as did Maestro Guarnerio da Sirtori and Ambrogio Pongione.
Then uprose Maestro Bonino da Campione (whom we saw last at work on the Scaligers' tombs at Verona), and said that he not only agreed with the others, but found an error in the piloni in the body of the church, towards the door of the façade.
Gasparolo da Birago, worker in iron, Magistri Ambrogio da Melzo, Pietro da Desio, Filippo Orino, Ridolfo di Cinisello, and Antonio da Trœnzano, all voted with him.
The words "according to the measure given" (justa mensuram super hoc datam), prove that however many architects superintended special parts, there was one supreme Master who made the design.
This was first, as we have said, Simone da Arsenigo, and after him Marco the Frisian of Campione, whose salary is paid on March 31, 1389, naming him as "Mag. Marcho de Campilione dicto de Frixono inzegnerio fabricæ." His name often appears as chief architect till July 10, 1390, when "he died at the Ave Maria in the morning, and was buried with honours the same evening in the church of S. Thecla."[266]
One of Marco's contemporaries in the laborerium was Jacopo da Campione, whose name appears with that of Nicola del Bonaventura, and Matteo da Campione, and others, at a general meeting held on January 6, 1390. Historical authorities say Jacopo da Campione was of the Buono family, and some assign as his father Giovanni Buono. He, too, had a cognomen of Fuxina or Fusina, but whether a family name or a place name I cannot tell. His name first appears in the books of the guild with Zambono, or Giovanni Buono, supposed to be his father, with Magistri Zeno, Andriolo, Lazaro, Rolando, Fontana, Cressino (all from Campione), and with Alberto, Airolo, and Giovanni da Bissone, and Anselmo da Como. These must have been the Masters who responded to the invitation for architects sent out by the Milanese.
On April 15, 1389, Jacopo da Campione was elected chief architect in connection with his friend Marco da Campione.
A competition for designs for the great window of the choir was announced in 1390, and Jacopo da Campione and Niccola del Bonaventura each sent a design, from which the archbishop was to choose. He preferred that of Bonaventura, but the Master fell into disgrace, and his window was never executed. We find that the Administration, on July 31, 1390, "deliberated" to discharge Master Bonaventura, give him the salary due to him, and remove him entirely from the lodge. Jacopo da Campione remained in office till the end of 1395, when he and Marco da Carona retired for rest and change to Lake Lugano. They were not allowed to be away long, for they were recalled on January 9, 1396.