And now we can no longer evade the knotty question of who and what Niccolò was, where did he arise from, and where was he trained in art? There are always those conflicting documents which Milanesi found to be reconciled. The first, in the archives of the Opera di S. Jacopo at Pistoja, dated July 11, 1272, which runs--_Magister Nichola pisanus, filius Petri de_--(here is an illegible word which Ciampi reads as _Senis_[193]). He chose this reading because another document dated November 13, 1272, styles "Niccolò" Magister Nichola, quondam Petri de (Senis) Ser Blasii pisa ... (_hiatus_). Milanesi, however, who found at Siena the contract for Niccolò's pulpit there, dated October 5, 1266, says the word _Senis_ should be read _Sancti_, for in the Sienese contract the words are plainly--_Magister Niccolus de parroccia ecclesie sancti Blasii de ponte de Pisis, etc. etc._ In another document also at Siena, in which Niccolò is commanded to send for his pupil Arnolfo to work with him, we get _Magistrum Nicholam de Apulia_. In two others of the next year, _Magister Niccholus olim Petri lapidum de Pisis_. Now all this is very puzzling, and yet being documentary it must all be true. We will put Siena entirely out of the question, the word proving to be a misreading of _Sancti_, so that instead of the second document meaning Niccolò son of the late Peter son of Ser Blasius or Biagio of Siena, it must read Niccolò son of Peter of the parish of St. Blasius at Pisa. We have then the two different nationalities of his father Pietro--Pisa and Apulia--to account for. Milanesi suggests that Apulia means a little place near Lucca called Puglia. The further light we have found thrown on the peregrinations of _Magistri_ of the guild may assist us to reconcile the conflicting statements. It is certain, as we said before, that Niccolò Pisano was a _Magister_ of the guild, and being a man of genius he became one of its most important members. His membership was moreover hereditary; his father had been also a _Magister lapidum_. Now the Comacines had a lodge in Apulia, from the time of the Longobards, and traces of it still remained after 1100, in a small colony in the valley of Æterno, which preserved as a kind of monopoly the art of building.[194] [Illustration: BAPTISMAL FONT IN CHURCH OF S. FREDIANO, LUCCA. BY MAGISTER ROBERTO, 12TH CENTURY. _See page 246._]