Then came more troublous times for the Comacines in their own country. From 1118 to 1127 A.D. the republic of Como was at fierce war with the Milanese. A long poem by a Comacine poet, quoted by Muratori, describes the workmen and artisans fighting in the streets in their working dress, and wielding any tool or weapon they could find. The masons and builders worked as sappers and miners, dug the trenches, built up barricades, and destroyed the enemy's houses and castles. One of these brave citizens, named Giovanni Buono, is especially mentioned by the ancient poet, and he is peculiarly connected with the Comacine Masters as the first of a long line of _Magisters_ of the Buono family. He forms a tangible link between the half-traditional Comacines of Lombard times, and the more clearly defined guild of the Romanesque epoch. From that to the Italian Gothic period their identity is traceable by documents. A warlike bishop, Guidone, was the leader of the Comacines, but after three years' war he fell ill, and on his death-bed prophesied the fall of his fatherland. The Comacines were indeed at the end of their resources, they were exhausted of means, of food, and of warriors; and after several victories at length fell under the power of the Milanese, becoming a tributary state. But it was not till Milan had called in the aid of several other cities that brave little Como succumbed to her on August 27, 1127. She was not enslaved even then, and must have retained her political freedom, for we find her siding with Frederic Barbarossa in 1167, against the whole Lombard League, to her cost, for she was a great sufferer in the battle of Legnano on May 29, 1176. Barbarossa tried to make some compensation, by ceding to Como the castles of Baradello and Olona. A coin exists, of the Como mint of that time, with an eagle and _Imp. Federicus_ on one side, and _Cumanus populus_ on the other. Frederic had reason to cultivate the Comaschi, for they sent 200 ships to the Venetian war for him. An edict of Barbarossa's in 1159, and another dated 1175, shows that he allowed the Comacines to rebuild their walls and city at that date, _civitatem in cineres collapsam funditos re ædificavimus nos_. This occupied them a long time. The tower towards Milan bears the date of 1192. The round tower that of 1250. There were eight gates in these new walls. FOOTNOTES: [83] _Maestri Comacini_, Vol. I. cap. ii. p. 79. [84] Hope, _Storia dell' Architettura_, ch. xxii. p. 159 (Italian translation). [85] _Storia estetico-critica della arti del disegno_, Lezione iv. [86] The Act exists still, and is quoted in Sagredo's work, _Sulle consorterie delle Arti Edificative in Venezia_, p. 28. [87] The same form is shown in the contemporary church of St. Victor at Arsago near Milan. [88] Conductis protinus peritissimis artificibus tum amalphitanis, quam lombardis.--_Cronaca Sacri monasterii Cassinensis_, auctore Leone Cardinali Episcopo, Lib. III. cap. xxviii. BOOK II