The cathedral builders; the story of a great masonic guild

Front matter

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

LIBRARIES

ITHACA, N. Y. 14853

Book I Romano-lombard Architects

CHAP.

I. THE GUILD OF THE COMACINE MASTERS .... 3

II. THE COMACINES UNDER THE LONGOBARDS . . . . 3 1

III. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE UNDER THE LONGOBARDS ... 6o

IV. COMACINE ORNAMENTATION IN THE LOMBARD ERA . . 7 1 V. COMACINES UNDER CHARLEMAGNE 9°

VI. IN THE TROUBLOUS TIMES Io8

Book II First Foreign Emigrations Of The Comacines

I. THE NORMAN LINK 121

11. THE GERMAN LINK 133

III. THE ORIGIN OF SAXON ARCHITECTURE (a SUGGESTION), BY THE

REV. W. MILES BARNES 139

IV. THE TOWERS AND CROSSES OF IRELAND . . . . l6l

Book III Romanesque Architects

I. TRANSITION PERIOD 17^

II. THE MODENA-FERRARA LINK 192

IIL THE TUSCAN LINK. I. PISA 2o6

2. LUCCA AND PISTOJA . . . .225

IV. ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC ORNAMENTATION . . 242

V. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE OF THE ROMANESQUE ERA . . . 256

X CONTENTS

Book IV

CHAP. PAGE

ITALIAN-GOTHIC, AND RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTS

I. THE SECESSION OF THE PAINTERS 265

II. THE SIENA AND ORVIETO LODGES 282

III. THE FLORENTINE LODGE 308

IV. THE MILAN LODGE 345

1. THE COMACINES UNDER THE VISCONTI . . . 349

2. THE CERTOSA OF PAVIA 372

V. THE VENETIAN LINK 383

VI. THE ROMAN LODGE 400

EPILOGUE 423

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED 427

INDEX 429

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Cloister of S. John Lateran, Rome

Comacine Panel from the Church of San Clemente, Rome Frescoes in the Subterranean Church of San Clemente, Rome

Church of Sta. Costanza, Rome

Door of the Church of S. Marcello at Capua

Ancient Sculpture in Monza Cathedral

Comacine Capital in San Zeno, Verona

Basilica of S. Frediano at Lucca

Fa9ade of San Michele at Favia

Tracing of an old print of the Tosinghi Palace, a mediaeval building once

in Florence, with Laubia on the front

Tower of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Rome ......

Byzantine Altar in the Church of S. Ambrc^io, Milan Fresco in the Spanish Chapel, S. Maria Novella, Florence .

Door of the Church of San Michele, Pavia

Comacine Knot on a panel at S. Ambrogio, Milan ....

Sculpture from Sant' Abbondio, Como

Pulpit in the Church of S. Ambrogio, Milan

Door of a Chapel in S. Prassede, Rome

Pluteus from S. Marco dei Precipazi, now in S. Giacorao, Venice .

Comacine Capitals

Exterior of San Piero a Grado, Pisa

Comacine Capital in San Zeno, Verona, emblematizing Man clinging to

Christ (the Palm)

Capital in the Atrium oi S. Ambrogio, Milan

The West Door, St. Bartholomew, Smithfield .... South Side of the Choir, St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield . Palazzo del Popolo and Palazzo Comunale, Todi .... Fiesole Cathedral. Interior

Frontispiece To face page 9 10 12 13 38 44 50 52

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

S. Clemente, Rome. Interior showing ancient screen

Tower of S. ApoUinare Nuovo, Ravenna

Tower of S. Satyrus. Milan ....

S. ApoUinare in Classe, Ravenna ....

Door of the Church of S. Zeno at Verona

Baptistery at Parma, designed by Benedetto da Antelamo

Fa9ade of Ferrara Cathedral

Church of S. Antonio, Padua ....

Tomb of Can Signorio degli Scaligeri at Verona

Interior of Pisa Cathedral

Pulpit in the Church of S. Giovanni Fuorcivitas, Pistoj Church of S. Michele, Lucca ....

Cathedral of Lucca (San Martino) .

Pulpit in Church of S. Bartolommeo, Pistoja Church of S. Andrea, Pistoja ....

Church of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas, Pistoja

Church of S. Maria, Ancona

Door of S. Giusto at Lucca ....

Pilaster of the Door of the Cathedral of Beneventum Baptismal Font in Church of S. Frediano, Lucca . Pulpit in the Church of Groppoli near Pistoja

Pulpit in Siena Cathedral

The Riccardi Palace, built for Lorenzo dei Medici . Tomb of Mastino II. degli Scaligeri, at Verona . Capital of a Column in the Ducal Palace, Venice Doorway of the Municipal Palace at Perugia

Palazzo Pubblico at Perugia

Court of the Bargello, Florence ....

Tower of Palazzo Vecchio at Florence

Eighth-century Wall Decoration in Subterranean Church of S. Clemente,

Rome

Frescoes of the eighth century in the Subterranean Church of S.

Clemente, Rome, with portraits of the Patron Beno di Rapizo and

his Family

Interior of Church of San Piero a Grado near Pisa, with Frescoes of the

ninth century

Figures from paintings in Assisi by Magister Giunta of Pisa

Fresco at S. Gimignano ...

Front of Siena Cathedral

Door in Orvieto Cathedral

Monument to Cardinal de Braye

Palazzo Vecchio, Florence ........

Shrine in Or San Michele, Florence

Small Cloister of the Certosa of Pavia . . ...

Tofacepag iS2

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Xlll

Marble Work on the Roof of Milan Cathedral To face

Capital in Milan Cathedral

North Door of Como Cathedral, sculptured by Tommaso Rodari . Renaissance Front of the Church of the Certosa at Pavia .

Fagade of Monza Cathedral

The Cathedral and Broletta at Como

The Ca d'Oro, Venice

Ducal Palace at Venice. The side built by the Buoni Family .

Court of the Ducal Palace at Venice

Apse of the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo on the Coelian Hill, Rome

Basilica of S. Va.Ao fum-i k mura, Rome

Pulpit in Church of S. Cesareo in Palatio, Rome. Mediaeval Sculpture

inlaid in Mosaic .

Candelabrum in S. Paolo at Rome . . . . .

408 412

Chapter I

In looking back to the great church-building era, i. e. to the centuries between iioo and 1500, do not the questions arise in one's mind, " How did all these great and noble buildings spring up simultaneously in all countries and all climates ? " and "How comes it that in all cases they were similar to each other at similar times ? "

In the twelfth century, when the Italian buildings, such as the churches at Verona, Bergamo, Como, etc., were built with round arches, the German Domkirchen at Bonn, Mayence, Treves, Lubeck, Freiburg, etc. ; the French churches at Aix, Tournus, Caen, Dijon, etc. ; and the English cathedrals at Canterbury, Bristol, Chichester, St. Bartholomew's in London — in fact, all those built at the same time — were not only round-arched, but had an almost identical style, and that style was Lombard.

In the thirteenth century, when pointed arches mingled with the round in Italy, the same mixture is found contemporaneously in all the other countries.

Again in the fourteenth century, when Cologne, Strasburg, and Magdeburg cathedrals were built in pure Gothic ; then those of Westminster, York, Salisbury, etc., arose in England ; the Domes of Milan, Assisi, and

Florence in Italy ; and the churches of Beauvais, Laon, and Rouen in France. These all came, almost simultaneously, like sister buildings with one impronto on them all.

Is it likely that many single architects in different countries would have had the same ideas at the same time ? Could any single architect, indeed, have designed every detail of even one of those marvellous complex buildings ? or have executed or modelled one-tenth of the wealth of sculpture lavished on one of those glorious cathedrals ? I think not.

The existence of one of these churches argues a plurality of workers under one governing influence ; the existence of them all argues a huge universal brotherhood of architects and sculptors with different branches in each country, and the same aims, technique, knowledge and principles permeating through all, while each conforms in detail to local influences and national taste.

If we once realize that such a Guild must have existed,' and that under the united hands of the grand brotherhood, the great age of church-building was endowed with monuments which have been the glory of all ages, then much that has been obscure in Art History becomes clear ; and what was before a marvel is now shown to be a natural result.

There is another point also to be considered. The great age of church-building flourished at a time when other arts and commerce were but just beginning. Whence, out of the dark ages, sprang the skill and knowledge to build such fine and scuplturesque edifices, when other trades were in their infancy, and civic and communal life scarcely organized ?

It is indeed a subject of wonder how the artists of the early period of the rise of Art were trained. Here we find men almost in the dark ages, who were the most splen-

THE GUILD OF THE COMACINE MASTERS s

did architects, and at the same time sculptors, painters, and even poets. How, for instance, did Giotto, a boy taken from the sheep-folds^ learn to be a painter, sculptor, and architect of such rank that the city of Florence chose him to be the builder of the Campanile? Did he learn it all from old Cimabue's frescoes, and half Byzantine tavole ? and how did he prove to the city that he was a qualified architect ? We find him written in the archives as Magister Giotto, consequently he must have passed through the school and laborerium of some guild where every branch of the arts was taught, and have graduated in it as a master.

All these things will become more and more clear as we follow up the traces of the Comacine Guild from the chrysalis state, in which Roman art hybernated during the dark winter of the Middle Ages, through the grub state of the Lombard period, to the glorious winged flights of the full Gothic of the Renaissance.

And first as to the chrysalis, at little Como. The origin of the name Comacine Masters has caused a great deal of argument amongst Italian writers new and old. Some think it merely a place-name referring to the island of Comacina, in Lake Lario or Como ; others take a wider significance, and say it means not only the city of Como, but all the province, which was once a Roman colony of great extension. Others again, among whom is Grotius, suggest that it is not a place-name at all, but comes from the Teutonic word Gemachin or house-builders. As the Longobards afterwards called them in Italian Maestri Casarii, which means the same thing, there is perhaps something to be said for this hypothesis.

The first to draw attention to the name Magistri Comacini, was the erudite Muratori, that searcher out of ancient MSS., who unearthed from the archives an edict, dated November 22, 643, signed by King Rotharis, in which are included two clauses treating of the Magistri Comacini and their colleagues. The two clauses, Nos. 143 and 144, out of the 388 inscribed in crabbed Latin, are, when anglicized, to the following intent —

"Art. 143. Of the Magister Comacinus. If the Comacine Master with his colliganti (colleagues) shall have contracted to restore or build the house of any person whatsoever, the contract for payment being made, and it chances that some one shall die by the fall of the said house, or any material or stones from it, the owner of the said house shall not be cited by the Magister Comacinus or his brethren to compensate them for homicide or injury ; because having for their own gain contracted for the payment of the building, they must sustain the risks and injuries thereof."^

"Art. 144. Of the engaging or hiring oi Magistri. If any person has engaged or hired one or more of the Comacine Masters to design a work {conduxerit ad operam dictandam), or to daily assist his workmen in building a palace or a house, and it should happen that by reason of the house some Comacine should be killed, the owner of the house is not considered responsible ; but if a pole or a stone shall kill or injure any extraneous person, the Master builder shall not bear the blame, but the person who hired him shall make compensation."^

V

^ " Si Magister Comacinus, cum coUegis suis, domum ad restaurandum, vel fabricandum super se placito finito de mercede susceperit, et contigerit aliquem per ipsam domum aut materiam, aut lapide lapso moti, aut quodlibet damnum fieri, non requiratur domino, cuius domus fuerit, nisi Magister Comacinus cum consortibus suis ipsum homicidium aut damnum componat, qui postquam fabulam firmatam de mercede pro suo lucro susciperit, non immerito sustinet damnum."

^ " Si quis Magister Comacinum unum aut plures rogaverit, aut conduxerit ad operam dictandum, aut solatium diumum praestandum inter suos servos ad domum aut casam faciendam et contigerit per ipsam casam, aliquem ex ipsis Comacinis mori non requiratur ab ipso, cuius casa est. Nam si cadens arbor, aut lapis ex ipsa fabrica, et occiderit aliquem

These laws prove that in the seventh century the Magistri Comacini were a compact and powerful guild, capable of asserting their rights, and that the guild was properly organized, having degrees of different ranks ; that the higher orders were entitled Magistri, and could " design " or " undertake " a work ; — i. e. act as architects ; and that the colligantes worked under, or with, them. In fact, a powerful organization altogether ; — so powerful and so solid, that it speaks of a very ancient foundation. But when and how did it originate ?

Was it a surviving branch of the Roman Collegium ? a decadent group of Byzantine artists stranded in Italy ? or was it of older Eastern origin ? A clever logician could prove it to be all three.

For the Roman theory, he could base his arguments on the Latin nomenclature of officials, and the Latin form of the churches.

For the Byzantine theory, he would have the style of certain ornamentations, and the assertions of German writers, such as Miiller, and Stieglitz,

For the ancient Eastern theory, he might plead their Hebrew and Oriental symbolism.

We will take the Byzantine theory first. Miiller {Archaeologie der Kunst, p. 224) says that : " From Constantinople as the centre of mechanical skill, a knowledge of art radiated to distant countries, corporations of builders of Grecian birth were permitted to exercise a judicial government among themselves according to the laws of the country to which they owed allegiance;" and Stieglitz, in his History of Architecture, records a tradition that at the time the Lombards were in possession of Northern Italy, i. e. from the sixth to the eighth century, the Byzantine builders

extraneum, aut quodlibet damnum fecerit, non reputetur culpa magistro, sed ille qui conduxit, ipsum damnum sustineat." — From the Edict of Rotharis — edited by Troyes.

formed themselves into guilds and associations, and that on account of having received from the Popes the privilege of living according to their own laws and ordinances, they were called Freemasons.^ Italian and Latin writers, however, place the advent of these Greek artists at a later period ; they are supposed to have been sculptors, who, rebelling against the strict Icorioclasm of Leo, the Isaurian — 718 A.D. to 741 — came over to Italy where art was more free, and joined the Collegia there.

But at this time most of the chief Longobardic churches were already built by the Comacine Masters, and were Roman in form, mediaeval in ornamentation, and full of ancient symbolism. Herr Stieglitz must have pre-datedhis tradition. Besides this I can find no sign in Italian buildings, or writers about them, of any lasting Byzantine influence. Indeed pure Byzantine architecture in Italy seems sporadic and isolated, not only in regard to site, but in regard to time. The Ravenna mosaics, a few in Rome, a little work in Venice, is all one can call absolutely Byzantine ; and the influence never spread far. The Comacine ornamentation indeed has qualities utterly distinct in spirit, though in some of its forms allied to Byzantine. It is possible that some of these Eastern exiles joined the Comacine Guild, but there is quite enough in the communications of Como with the Greeks, to account for their having imbibed as much as they did of Byzantine style. Some of the Bishops who were rulers of Como before and after Lombard times were Greeks ; notably Amantius the fourth, who was translated there from Thessalonica, and his successor, S. Abbondio. Also through the Patriarch of Aquileja, under whose jurisdiction they were brought later, the guild was put into contact with the Greek sculptors then at Venice, Grado, and Ravenna.

^ Stieglitz, Geschichie der Baukunst, 1827, pp. 423, 424. See also Hope's Historical Essay on Architecture, 1835, pp. 229 — 237.

CoMACiNE Panel from the Church of San Clemente, Rome. The Lattice-viork is made of «. .SINGLE strand INTERLACED. Date, 6th CENTURY. [To ace page g.

We will leave the Oriental theory aside as too vague and traditional for proof, depending as it does on a few Oriental symbols, and certain forms of decoration, and will look nearer home — even to Rome, with which a connection may certainly be found, and that in a form visible to our modern eyes.

Rome is almost as full of remains of what is now styled Comacine architecture, as it is of classic and pagan ruins, and they are nearly as deeply buried. Go where you will, and in the vestibules or crypts of churches, now of gaudy Renaissance style, you will find the sign and seal of the ancient guild. Investigate any church which has a Lombard tower — and they are many — and you will discover that the hands which built that many-windowed tower have left their mark on the church. In that wonderful third-century basilica, which was discovered beneath the thirteenth-century one of S. Clemente ; in the almost subterranean basilica of S. Agnese fuori le mura ; in the vestibule of the florid modern SS. Apostoli ; in Santa Maria in Cosmedin ; and various other buildings, are wonderful old slabs of marble with complicated Comacine knots on them. Our illustration is from a slab in San Clemente, which was evidently from the buried church, though used as a panel in the parapet of the existing choir. A marvellous piece of basket-work in marble, which, if studied, will be found composed of a single cord, twined and intertwined. An almost identical panel is preserved in the wall of the staircase to S. Agnese, another has just been found reversed, and the back of it used for the thirteenth-century mosaic decoration of the pulpit in S. Maria in Cosmedin.

Then in the later Lombard churches of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, SS. Giovanni e Paolo, S. John Lateran, etc., one may see the crouching Comacine lions, now mostly minus their pillars, and shoved under square door-lintels, or built into walls, where they remain to tell of the ancient builders whose sign and seal they were.

lo THE CATHEDRAL BUILDERS

And here and there we get a name.

In the vestibule of the SS. ApostoU is a red marble lion, on the base of which in Gothic letters is the name BASSALECTI. Beneath it is an old inscription, " Opus magister Bassalecti Marmorari Romano sec, XIII." This same Magister's name, spelt Vassalecti, has lately been discovered inscribed on the capitals of some columns in the nave of S. John Lateran.

In the under church of S. Clemente, an ancient fresco of the eighth century takes us further back than this. Here we see a veritable KomSin Magister directing his men. He stands in magisterial toga (and surely one may descry a masonic apron beneath it!), directing his men in the moving of a marble column, and with the naive simplicity of the primitive artist each man's name is written beside him. Albertel and Cosmaris are dragging up the column with a rope, the sons of Pute, who are possibly novices, are helping them, while Carvoncelle is lifting it from behind with a lever. These men are all in short jerkins, but the master, Sisinius, is standing in his toga, directing them with outstretched hand.

Here is the Magister of a Roman Collegium embalmed and preserved for us, that we may see him and his men at work as they were in the early centuries after Christ. We know that Masonic Collegia were still existing in Rome in the time of Constantine and Theodosius ; we know that Constantine built the ba"feilica of S. Agnese, afterwards restored by Pope Symmachus ; also those of S. Lorenzo — at least the round-arched part of it — enlarged by Galla Placidia in the fifth century ; S. Paolo fuori le Mura, and other ancient churches. We see from remains recently brought to light, that these were originally of the exact plan of the churches built "in the Roman manner" at Hexham and York in England, and of the Ravenna churches, and S. Pietro in Grado at Pisa, also nearly contemporary. We

Frescoes in the Subterranean Church of San Clemente, Rome. Upper line, Byzantine,

4TH century; under ones, Comacine, 8th century. [To face page lo.

THE GUILD OF THE COMACINE MASTERS ii

further realize that all of these were identical in style with the finer specimens of Lombard building some centuries later. There is only the natural decline of art which would have taken place in the century or two of barbarian invasion, between the two epochs, but the traditionary forms, methods, etc., are all reproduced in the Lombard-Comacine churches. Compare the fourth-century door of the church of S. Marcello at Capua with the eighth-century one of S. Michele at Pavia, and you will find precisely the same style of art. Compare the Roman capitals of the church of Santa Costanza, built by Constantine, with the capitals in any Comaicine church up to 1200, and you will see the same mixture of Ionic and a species of Corinthian with upstanding volutes. Some of the Comacine buildings have these upright volutes plain instead of foliaged. The effect is rude, but I think these plainer capitals were not a sign of incapacity in the architects of the guild, for one sees richly ornate ones on the same building. It was only the stock design of the inferior masters, when funds did not allow of payment for richer work.

Therefore it may be inferred: (i) That architects of the same guild worked in Rome and in Ravenna in the early centuries after Christ ; (2) that though the architects were Roman, the decorators up to the fourth century were chiefly Byzantine, or had imbibed that style as their paintings show ; (3) that in the time when Rome lay a heap of ruins under the barbarians, the Collegium, or a Collegium^ I know not which, fled to independent Como ; and there in after centuries they were employed by the Longobards, and ended in again becoming a powerful guild.

Hope, the author of an historical Essay on Architecture, had a keen prevision of this guild, although he had no documents or archives, but only the testimony of old stones and buildings to prove it. After sketching the formation of the Roman Collegia, and the employment of their members as Christian architects under the early Popes, he says "that a number of these, finding their work in Rome gone in the times of invasion, banded together to do such work in other parts of the world." He seems to think that the nucleus of this union was Lombardy, where the superiority of the architecture, under the Lombard kings, was such that the term Magistri Comacini became almost a generic name for architects. He says that builders and sculptors formed a single grand fraternity, whose scope was to find work outside Italy. Indeed distance and obstacles were nothing to them ; they travelled to England under Augustine, to Germany with St. Boniface, to France with Charlemagne, and again to Germany with their brother magister, Albertus Magnus ; they went to the east under the Eastern Emperors, to the south under the Lombard Dukes, and in fact are found everywhere through many centuries. The Popes, one after another, gave them privileges. Indeed the builders may be considered an army of artisans working in the interest of the Popes, in all places where the missionaries who preceded them had prepared the ground for them. Diplomas and papal bulls confirmed to the guild the privileges they had obtained under their national sovereigns, and besides guaranteed their safety in every Catholic country which they visited for the scope of their association. They assumed the right to depend wholly and solely on the Pope, which absolved them from the observance of all local laws and statutes, royal edicts, and municipal regulations, and released them from servitude, as well as all other obligations imposed on the people of the country. They had not only the power of fixing their own honorarium, but the exclusive right of regulating in their own lodges everything that appertained to their own internal government. Those diplomas and bulls prohibited any other artist, extraneous to the g^ild, from establishing any kind of competition with them. . . . Encouraged by such a special protection, the

Church of Sta. Costanza, Rome. Built in the 4Th century. {From a photograph by Alznarz.)

[See Pixge ir-

Door of the Church of S. Marcello at Capua, 4TH century. [To/ace page 11 or 13, [From a photograph by Aimayi'.)

Romans in great numbers entered the Masonic Guild, particularly when they were destined to accompany the missionaries sent by the Pope to countries hitherto unvisited by them. The Greeks also did not delay to take part. The Exarchate of Ravenna, first detached from the Greek Empire by the power of the Lombard princes, had by King Pepin been given to the Popes. . . . The commercial relations and communications of all kinds maintained with Constantinople by the many cities of Northern Italy, daily attracted many Greeks to this city ; finally, the political turbulence of Constantinople, and chiefly the fanaticism of the Iconoclasts, continued to associate Greek artists with Italy, and many of these were received in the lodges, whose number constantly increased.

As civilization became more diffused, the inhabitants of northern countries, French, Germans, Belgians, and English, were admitted to form part of these guilds. Without this concession they would probably have had to fear a perilous competition, encouraged by the sovereigns of other countries. . . . These corporations were always in league with the Church, which in those times of war and constant struggle, of military service and feudal slavery, was the only asylum for those who wished to cultivate the arts of peace. Therefore we see ecclesiastics of high rank, abbots, prelates, bishops, exalting the respect in which the Freemasons were held, by joining the guild as members. They gave designs for their own churches, overlooked the building, and employed their own monks in the manual labour.

Such is broadly the substance of Hope's account of the great Lombard Guild. It shows remarkable insight, for when he wrote, the documentary evidences which have lately been collected were wanting.^ It also explains precisely the close connection with monks and the Church,

1 See Hope's Historical Essay on Architecture, 3rd edition, 1840, chap, xxi. pp. 203 — 216.

which appears in all the story of the guild, and it accounts for the Greek influence in the ornamentation.

In all the course of the history of building we see that each country or province had to obtain its architects from this Collegium at Rome, as Villani says all the cities of Italy did, and were obliged to apply to the Grand Master of the whole guild. Thus the early Popes had to beg architects for Rome from the Lombard kings ; Pope Adrian had to apply to Charlemagne for builders ; and so on up to the time when all the church-building Communes had to seek architects from some existing lodge.

Giovanni Villani shows us the intimate connection of the Roman Collegium with Florence. He says that after Caesar had destroyed Fiesole he wished to build another city to be called Cesaria, but the Senate would not permit this. The Senate, however, gave his Generals Macrinus, Albinus, Cneus Pompey, and Martius equal power to build, and between them they founded Florence, bringing the water from Monte Morello by an aqueduct. Villani says the Magistri came from Rome for all these works. That was in the days when the great masonic company had their Grand Lodge in Rome, before the martyrdom of the Santi Quattro, afterwards their patron saints.

In Chapter XLII. Villani relates how when the citizens of Florence wished to build a temple to Mars, they sent to the Senate of Rome to beg that they would supply the most capable and clever Magistri that Rome could furnish. This was done,^ and the Baptistery was erected in its first form.

Again whilst Charlemagne and Pope Adrian were employing the Comacines to rebuild the ruins of Rome, we find from Villani (lib. iii. chap, i) that Charlemagne

* E mandaro al Senate di Roma, che mandassi loro i piii sofficienti maestri, e piti sottili (subtle) che fossero in Roma : e cosi fu fatto. — Sioria di G. Villani. Libro primo, cap. xlii.

sent some Romans with "all the masters there were in Rome " (e vennero con quanti maestri n'avea in Roma per piu tosto murarla) to fortify Florence, which had appealed to him for succour against the Fiesolans. In this manner, says Villani, " the Magistri who came with the Romans began to rebuild our noble city of Florence."

As early as the fifth century Cassiodorus seems to refer to the work of the Comacines when writing about the " public architects " — the very expression implies a public company — and admiring the grand Italian edifices with their " airy columns, slight as canes," he adds, " to be called Magister is an honour to be coveted, for the word always stands for great skill." ^

This brings us to the question of the Latin nomenclature. No really qualified Comacine architect is ever mentioned either in sculptured inscription, parchment deed, or in the registers of the lodges, without the prefix Magister, a title which Cassiodorus, for one, respected. It was not a term applied indiscriminately to all builders, like murarius ; and we find that the subordinate ranks of stone-cutters or masons were called by the generic name of operarius. I take it that the word, as applied to the higher rank of the Comacine Guild, has the same value as the title of Master in the old trade guilds of London, i. e. one who has passed through the lower rank of the schools and laborerium, and has by his completed education risen to the stage of perfection, when he may teach others.