In 1161 a squadron of Masters from Lombardy was called to renovate the cathedral of Faenza, which was much ruined. These Masters accepted, and showed themselves most proficient. So says an old writer quoted by Merzario, but whether these very clever architects were the same Antelami branch who worked at Parma cannot be decided.[140] A later Comacine Master at Parma, whose name has come down to us, is Giovanni Bono of Bissone, a little village between Como and Lugano. The grand vestibule of the principal door of Parma cathedral, with its lion-supported columns, its bands of colonnettes and its rich sculpture, was designed by him. In a Gothic inscription over the door deciphered by Sig. Pezzana, we learn that the lions were made by Giovanni Bono da Bissone in 1280, at the time when Guido, Niccolao, Bernardino, and Benvenuti worked in the laborerium.[141]

This inscription, for which I am indebted to Canonico Pietro Tonarelli, is especially valuable, not only in fixing the epoch of Giovanni Buono da Bissoni's work, but as proof of the organization of the lodge and the brotherhood of its members. The word fratrum certainly implies that the laborerium was in the hands of a guild. The Canonico Tonarelli writes in a letter from Parma, that in an estimate in the archives of the Chapter, dated 1354, the Fabbriceria was denominated Domus laborerii seu fabricæ ... majoris Ecclesiæ, and that the administrators were called fratres de Laborerio. In Tuscany they were called Operai, and the office of administrator was the Opera del Duomo. The four names of the fratres, too, have a significance when read in the light I have since found thrown on the organization by the archives of the Opere in Siena and Florence. In those lodges one perceives plainly that the administration of the lodge was placed under four persons, of whom two were Masters of the guild, and two were influential persons of the city, i.e. half the council of administration gave the votes of the architects employed, and the other half those of the patrons who employed them. That the same rule held in this earlier lodge at Parma is confirmed by the fact that Niccolao and Benvenuti are found working together with Giovanni Buono at Pistoja in 1270.[142]

Sometimes a single name stands out among the file of Comacines, and one finds several well-known buildings that have emanated from one mind. Such a Master was Magister Giorgio of Jesi, near Como. His name is graven in the stones of many a church. At Fermo on the Adriatic, a "sumptuous" cathedral was built in 1227; a certain Bartolommeo Mansionarius being the patron. On the left south door was a slab with the inscription—"A.D. MCCXXVII Bartolomeus Mansionarius Hoc opus fieri fecit Per Manus Magistri Georgii de Episcopatu Com".... That the mutilated word is Como we prove by a similar inscription on the cathedral at Jesi (the ancient Æsis where the Emperor Frederick II., grandson of Barbarossa, was born). The ancient cathedral of S. Septimus, a truly Lombard building, still exists in part. Here the inscription runs—"A.D. MCCXXXVII tempore D. Gregorii Papae domini Federici Imperatoris, et domini Severini. episcope. æsini. Magister Georgius de Cumo civis æsinus fecit hoc opus."

Here we get the city as well as the bishopric to which Magister Giorgius belonged. He was a citizen of Jesi in the diocese of Como, and a qualified member of the higher rank of the Comacine Guild. In the little town of Penna in the same province, where the church was ruined in an earthquake, an ancient stone was found with the following inscription in old Latin—"In the name of God. Amen. This work was commenced in the time of the Priest Gualtieri, and completed in that of the Priest Grazia, by Master George of Jesi in the year 1256." By these stones we find that Master George worked in the province of Piceno for thirty years, between Fermo, Jesi, and Penna. To him is attributed the ancient communal palace of Jesi which was rebuilt in the fifteenth century by other Comacine Masters.

CHAPTER II
THE MODENA-FERRARA LINK

THE CAMPIONESE SCHOOL AT MODENA

1.1050Magister Ersati di Ligorno
2.1099 M. Lanfranco, son of ErsatiChief architect at Modena in 1099. His son Ubertinoforms a link with Padua,where he worked at thechurch of S. Antonio in 1263.
3.1130M. Guglielmo or Vigilelmo Sculptors on the façades of Modena and Ferrara cathedrals
4. M. Ambroxius, his son
5. M. Nicolaus
6.12th centuryM. Meo di Cecco, andAssist in the façade of Ferrara cathedral. There wasa Marco di Frixone da Campione at Milan a centurylater in 1300, probably adescendant of this one.
7.M. Antonio di Frix of Como
8.1209M. Anselmo da CampioneSculptured the porch ofModena cathedral; was chief architect in 1181.
9.1244M. OttaccioSons of Anselmo daCampione, who was also called Anselmo Tedesco.The office of head architect was made hereditary in thefamily.
Jacopo is supposed to be theJacopo Tedesco, reputedfather of Arnolfo.
10. M. Alberto
11. M. Jacopo
12."M. Arrigo, son of M. OttaccioArrigo was head architect in 1244.
13.1322M. Enrico, grandson of M. ArrigoBuilt the tower and sculpturedthe pulpit at Modena.

At Modena, which was once a prosperous Roman colony, and then an independent commune, we find a most interesting family of Comacines, who for more than two centuries worked at the cathedral there, son succeeding father, and nephews following their uncles as architects. The building of a worthy church was the first thought of the newly-made commune in 1099. In Muratori's copy of the Acts of the translation of the body of S. Gemignano to Modena, we read—"So then, in the year 1099, the inhabitants of the said city began to demand where they could find an architect for such a work, a builder for such a church; and at length, by the grace of God, a certain man named Lanfranco, a marvellous architect, was found, under the counsels of whom the foundations of the Basilica were laid."[143]

Lanfranco is a name very frequent in Lombardy, but this man, probably from his already acquired fame, was the same Magister Lanfrancus filius Dom. Ersatii de Livurno (Ligurno), who built the cloister of Voltorre, near Lake Varese, in the neighbourhood of the Antelami.[144] The fact remains that all his successors were Comacines, and from places near Ligurno. There is also a similarity of style between the cloister at Voltorre, and the older parts of S. Gemignano at Modena, both showing a grafting of Gothic on the Romano-Lombard style. A curious document exists, a kind of contract, quoted by Tiraboschi in his Codice Diplomatico in the Appendix to the historical memorials of the building of the cathedral, long after Lanfranco's part was done. It runs, when Anglicized—"In the name of Christ, in the year of His nativity, 1244, in the second indiction, on the day of Mercury (Wednesday), the last of the month of November. It has been recorded that between Ser Alberto, once treasurer to the Opera et Fabbrica, and the late Master Anselmo da Campione in the episcopate of Como (Magistrum Anselmum de Campilione, Episcopatus Cumani), a contract was made, by which the said Magister and his heirs in perpetuo should work at the said church of Modena, and either the said Master, or any other Master, his descendant, should receive every day, six imperials in the days of May, June, July, and August, but five imperials only in those of the other months, for their recompense and their work. Ser Ubaldino, now Administrator of the said Fabbriceria, seeing and considering that the said stipend or remuneration does not seem sufficient according to the course of these and succeeding times, has deliberated and taken counsel with the venerable Bishop Signor Alberto, and with Ser Giovanni, Archpriest of Modena, at the instance and petition of Magister Arrigo (Henry), son of Magister Ottaccio, who was the son of Anselmo aforesaid; and in the presence of the aforementioned Signori, Bishop, and Archpriest, and of the subscribing witnesses, promises and agrees that to the said Magister Arrigo, for himself and his sons and heirs, and for Magister Alberto and Magister Jacopo, his paternal uncles (patruis suis), and the sons and heirs of the same, shall be given over and above to them, and to their said sons, or successors, who shall be masters in that art (qui magistri fuerint hujus artis), eight imperials for each day they work, from the calends of April to the calends of October. In the days of the remaining months in which they shall have worked at the will of the Administrator of the building, they should, and shall have, only six imperials, receiving nevertheless their food from the said lodge, not only on festal days, but on all others, as they have from the beginning been accustomed to have. And if at the will of the said Administrator they shall bring other competent Masters necessary to the said works, these shall receive seven imperials for each day, from the said calends of April to those of October, but in other months only five imperials per diem."