The very mention of Pisa brings to our minds Niccolò Pisano, whose name stands in all art histories as the fountain-head of that Tuscan development of art which led to the Renaissance. But where was Niccolò Pisano trained and qualified for this high post of honour? A great architect and sculptor does not suddenly become famous and obtain important commissions without having some undeniable credentials.
In those mediæval days, when the arts protected themselves by forming into constituted guilds, no one could call himself a Master unless he were trained and qualified in one of these guilds and had reached the higher grades. To trace Niccolò's place in the great chain of the Masonic Guild, we must go back a little, and gather together the threads of information we have been able to glean, as to the expansion of the guild itself, and here the valuable collections of archivial documents made by Sig. Milanesi from the books and archives of the Opera del Duomo at Siena, and by Sig. Cesare Guasti from those of the cathedral at Florence, will materially assist us. By studying these and putting facts and statements together the whole organization becomes clear, and our former glimpses into the threefold aspect of the lodges at Modena, Parma, and other northern cities become confirmed.
Here in Tuscany we again find the three branches. First: There is the school where novices were trained in the three sister arts—painting, sculpture, and architecture. When pupils were received from outside the guild, they had to pass a very severe novitiate before being admitted as members; but the sons and nephews of Magistri were, we learn, entitled to be members by heritage without the novitiate.[156] The hereditary aspect of the lists of Masters certainly displays this right of heritage very strongly. The qualified Masters were entitled to take pupils and apprentices in their own studios. The large number of pupils who studied under Niccolò Pisano suggests his eminent position in the guild.
Second: There was the laborerium, or great workshop, where all the hewing of stone, carving of columns, cutting up of wood-work was done—in fact, the head-quarters of the brethren who had passed the schools, but were not yet Masters.[157] A graphic sketch from a Masonic laborerium is given by Nanni di Banco, in the relief under the shrine of the Quattro Coronati on Or San Michele at Florence, where the four brethren are all at work. In looking at it, one is reminded of the old story of the block of marble from which Michael Angelo's David was made, which had laid for many years in the stores of the Opera del Duomo at Florence, it having been once assigned to Agostino di Ducci, who was commissioned in 1464 to make a statue for the front of the Duomo, which was blocked out so badly that the marble was taken away from him, and he was expelled from the laborerium.[158]
Third: There was the Opera or Office of Administration, which formed the link between the guild and its patrons. The Freemasons evidently adapted their nomenclature to the dialect of the part they were in. In Tuscany the word for this office was Opera (or Works). There was the Opera di S. Jacopo at Pistoja as early as 1100; and the Opera del Duomo at Pisa, Siena, and Florence. In cities of the Lombard district, such as Modena, Parma, Padua, Milan, etc., the name is Fabbriceria. The members of this Ruling Council are generally four in number, and are called Operai in Tuscany, and Fabbricieri in Lombardy. These were elected periodically, two of them being influential citizens, who acted on the part of the patrons, and two from the Masters themselves. Where the lodge was very small there was only one operaio, as in Pistoja, when in 1250 Turrisianus was overseer (superstans) for a year. Later, when the Pistoja lodge was larger, there were two. At Milan there were more than four. Above these was the Superiore, a sort of president. If there were a reigning Prince, he was usually elected president. In the Opera, all commissions were given, and contracts signed between the city and the Masters, every contract being duly drawn up in legal manner by the notary of the Opera. Here orders were given for the purchase of materials, and estimates considered for the payment of either work or goods. The Opera had to provide the funds for the whole expenses. Usually this was done in the first instance by appropriating to the work the receipts of one or more taxes. In course of time people left legacies, and the Opera had a knack of growing very rich.
Between the Opera and the laborerium was a responsible officer called the Provveditore. Judging from the entries in his private memorandum-book, his responsibilities must have been endless, and his occupations multitudinous.
There was also a treasurer, a secretary, and two Probiviri, sometimes called Buon uomini, who acted as arbiters, for purposes of appeal and verification of accounts.
The identical form of the lodges in the different cities is a strong argument that the same ruling body governed them all. An argument equally strong is the ubiquity of the members. We find the same man employed in one lodge after another, as work required. Unfortunately no documents exist of the early Lombard times, but the archives of the Opere, which in most cities have been faithfully kept since the thirteenth century, would, if thoroughly examined, prove to be valuable stores from which to draw a history of the Masonic Guild.
We will now return to Pisa.
Sig. Merzario asserts that no school of art indigenous to Pisa existed there before the building of the Duomo. He might almost have said before the time of Niccolò, for so far was the half-mythical Buschetto from being a Pisan, that the world has for eight centuries been arguing where he came from! To arrive at Niccolò it is necessary to start from Buschetto. Who was Buschetto? Whence came he? Vasari, in his ignorance of monumental Latin, says, "From Dulichium," and thus the idea was promulgated that he was a Greek. But the inscription (given on next page) on Pisa cathedral says nothing of the kind. It is a flowery eloquence which Cavalier Del Borgo reads as comparing him for genius to Ulysses, Duke of Dulichium, and for skill to Dædalus.