The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic GuildScott, Leader
History
The Cathedral Builders: The Story of a Great Masonic Guild
Scott, Leader
Cathedrals; Church architecture; Guilds
Fergusson, however, blames the false principles of design. He says the
four upper storeys are only built to conceal a dome, which is covered
by a flat wooden roof. The roof seen from above seems to be a flat
tiled roof, and it has a pretty solid bell-turret in the centre. The
little arches forming the upper range are slightly pointed. This
Baptistery, as well as the pulpit in the Duomo, bears the signature of
the builder and sculptor, and the date 1196.
"Bis binis demptis annis de mille ducentis.
Incepit dictus opus hoc sculptor Benedictus."[137]
Val d'Antelamo, the native place of Benedictus, is a valley near Lago
Maggiore towards Laveno. It seems probable that a branch school or
lodge of the Comacines existed here, of which Benedetto was at this
epoch at the head,[138] and gave the name to his pupils. They must
have emigrated like other branches of the guild, for in the ancient
statutes of Genoa we find several mentions of experts in architecture,
called _Magistri da Antelamo_, who were called in by the city
magistrates, when any building work had to be valued or judged.[139]
As early as 1181 in the archives of S. Giorgio, one finds the names
Martino and Ottoboni, Magistri Antelami, and as late as Nov. 27, 1855,
a sentence was given at the Collegio dei Giudici at Genoa by a Maestro
Anteramo. The substitution of r for l is to this day a very common
error among Italians.
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]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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