Category: 14th century

The earliest accounts that relate the foundation of the Camposanto to earth brought from the Holy Land are to be found in a group of anonymous chronical texts that were composed in two slightly different versions in 1342 and 1354. As in the Lucca chronicle, they state that the Camposanto had been founded in 1200, together with the Arsenale. But here we read for the first time that the name Camposanto is derived from sacred earth which was brought from the Holy Land after the failure of the Third Crusade, and that Archbishop Ubaldo had a decisive role in both enterprises.

Neither of these slightly differing texts has survived in its original form. Today, they can be found in manuscripts that transmit the chronicle of Pisa in a still later, late-fourteenth and early fifteenth-century version. At this date, authors such as Ranieri Sardo copied the older text and then continued with reporting the events of their own lifetime. This compilatory character of the chronicles has often led to the erroneous attribution of the texts quoted below to Sardo himself. Instead, it has to be emphasized that the texts quoted here must be attributed to authors writing in the mid-fourteenth century. /DG

1. Anonymous, Chronicon Pisanum (c. 1342)

Source: the manuscript used for the Baluze/Mansi edition seems to be lost.

Edition: “Chronicon Pisanum ab urbe condita ad annum 1342:  ab anonymo coaevo scriptum,” in Miscellanea Novo Ordine Digesta Et Non Paucis Ineditis Monumentis Opportunisque Animadversionibus Aucta, ed. Etienne Baluze and Giovanni Domenico Mansi (Lucca: Riccomini, 1761), 448-456.

“Nel 1188. Messer Ubaldo del Lanfranchi arcivescovo di Pissa con 52. navi di Pisani e collo imperadore Federigo Barbarosa andoe al passaggio della terra, lave lo ditto Inperadore annegò e elli ne tornò facendo pogo per di.

[…]

Nel 1200 fue cominciata la tersonaja di Pissa e canpo santo fondatto, e per lo arcivescovo Ubaldo lo terreno conpratto, e al capitulo di duomo asegnato el ditto canpo santo, perché si regò la terra del canpo santo d’oltra mare, quando tornono dal pasaggio i soprascritti, e isparsesi in questo luogo.” (452).

In the year 1188. Master Ubaldo del Lanfranchi archbishop of Pisa set off for a crossing with 52 Pisan galleys and with emperor Frederick Barbarossa for the [Holy] Land, where the emperor drowned, and he [Ubaldo] came back to Pisa with little results. […]

In the year of the Lord 1200 the shipyard of Pisa was begun, and the Camposanto was founded, and the building lot was bought by Archbishop Ubaldo and allocated to the Chapter. Because the earth of the Camposanto was brought from overseas, when the aformentioned returned from the crossing, and was spread in this place.

2. Anonymous, Chronaca Pisana (c. 1354)

Source: Manuscript on paper, early fifteenth century, Florence, Bibliotheca Nazionale, Codice Magliabechiano, Classe XXV, ms. 491, fol. 1-181.

Edition: Ranieri Sardo, Cronaca di Pisa, ed. Ottavio Banti, Fonti per la storia d’Italia, 99 (Rom: Istituto storico italiano per il medio evo, 1963), 36-37.

“Nelli anni domini 1188 missere Ubaldo [de’ Lanfranchi] arciveschovo di Pisa andò al passaggio chollo inperadore Barbarossa chon 52 navili pisani per chonquistare la Terrasancta, in nel quale passaggio v’anneghò lo inperadore Barbarossa, et l’arcivescovo di Pisa si ritornò indrieto a Pisa senza fare fructo.

[…]

Negli anni Domini 1200 fu inchominciata la terzinaia di Pisa, et chanpo sancto fu fondato per lo arcivescovo Ubaldo, et chomperato al Chapitolo lo terreno assengniato; et è decto chanposancto perché vi fu messa della terra sancta d’oltra mare; quando i Pisani tornono dal passaggio predicto l’arecharono et sparsolla per tucto nel dicto luogho a onore di Dio.”

“In the year of the Lord 1188 master Ubaldo archbishop of Pisa set off for a crossing with Emperor Barbarossa, with 52 Pisan galleys, in order to conquer the Holy Land. On this journey, Emperor Barbarossa drowned, and the archbishop of Pisa came back to Pisa without any profit. […]

In the year of the Lord 1200 the shipyard of Pisa was begun, and the Camposanto was founded by Archbishop Ubaldo, and the allocated building lot was bought for the Chapter. And it is called Camposanto because holy earth from overseas was put there. When the Pisans returned from the aforementioned crossing, they brought it and spread it completely in the above-mentioned place for the honor of God.”

3. Anonymous, Cronica di Pisa (c. 1406)

Source: Manuscript on paper, 244 folios, early fifteenth century, Pisa, Archivio di Stato, Fondo Roncioni, 338. There is an early modern manuscript copy: manuscript on paper, 174 folios, 1551. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Pluteo LXI-17.

Edition: Cronica di Pisa. Dal Ms. Roncioni 338 dell’archivio di Stato di Pisa. Edizione e commento, ed. Cecilia Iannella, Fonti per la storia d’Italia medievale. Antiquitates, 22 (Rome: Istituto storico italiano per il medio evo, 2005). The edition in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. 15 (Milan 1729), col. 971-1088 is based on the manuscript in the Laurenziana.

“Come li pisani fecieno il passaggio. Nel millecento ottantotto messer Uberto de’ Lanfranchi vescovo di Pisa con settanta navi de’ pisani e collo ‘mperadore Federigo andonno al passaggio della Terrasanta d’oltramare, ladove lo ditto imperadore Arigho e l’arcivescovo di Pisa colli pisani tornonno con poco honore e prode.

[…]

Come fu incomincciata la Tersanaia di Pisa e lo Canposanto. Nel milledugento, 1200, fue incomincciata la Tersanaia di Pisa e Canposanto fondato per l’arccivescho Ubaldo. Lo terreno fu conprato al Capitulo di Duomo asegnato e al ditto Canposanto perché si recò della Terrasanta d’oltramare quando li pisani tornonno dal passaggio e sparsesi in quello luogo, e però si chiama Canposanto.” (pp. 28-29)

“How the Pisans made the crossing. In the year 1188 master Ubaldo de’ Lanfranchi bishop of Pisa set off for a crossing to the Holy Land with 70 Pisan galleys and with Emperor Frederick, where the foresaid Frederick and the Archbishop of Pisa came back with the Pisans with little honor and prowess.

[…]

How the shipyard of Pisa was begun, and the Camposanto. In the year 1200 the shipyard of Pisa was begun, and the Camposanto was founded by Archbishop Ubaldo. The building lot was bought and allocated to the Chapter and to the foresaid Camposanto because holy earth from overseas was brought when the Pisans returned from the aforementioned crossing, and was spread in this place, and for this reason it is called Camposanto.”

The vernacular chronicle preserved in a manuscript in Lucca connects the date 1200 to the start of two important building campaigns: the Arsenale as a fortified port for the city’s warships, and the Camposanto as the new cemetery of the Cathedral. The note about the Camposanto was added as a marginal gloss  by the same writer that composed the main text, and is therefore only slightly later. Different from other mid-fourteenth century chronicles, neither Archbishop Ubaldo nor the earth from the Holy Land are mentioned here. Hence it would seem that the chronicle in the Lucca manuscript represents an earlier stage in Camposanto’s origin story, when the legend of the earth was not yet firmly established. Yet the traditional date of the manuscript – ca. 1340 according to Ottavio Banti – is put into question by the author’s description of the building whose details are incompatible with the cemetery’s state at that time: mentioning walls and a roof covered with lead, the text clearly refers to the Camposanto after its completion in the late fourteenth century. In addition, the transfer of the sarcophagi from the Cathedral to the inner area of the Camposanto,mentioned in the text, could not have happened much earlier than this. /DG

Source: Manuscript, ca. 1340 (?). Lucca, Archivio di Stato, Biblioteca manoscritti, ms. 54.

Transcription

“Nelli anni MCC li Pisani, per conservare le loro galee, ordinarono uno luogho murato di grosso muro, in fortessa in guisa d’uno castello, che lla faccia verso levante era lo muro della cità e lo muro di verso mezodì, in sul fiume d’Arno, razente era posto alla porta della Leghatia di Ponte, dove sotto coperto ordinarono LXXX portichi per tenere ghalee; e questo luogho, volgarmente, si chiama arsanà.”

Marginal gloss: “nel MCC si fundò lo cimitero detto camposanto appresso alla chiesa catedrale e finito fue di murare tutto l’edificio e coperto, la sua copritura di piombo, nell’anno MCCLXXVIII, e tutte le tombe di marmo, ch’erano intorno a’ piè delle mura della chiesa, di qui ne si levorno e poste furo nel chiostro di ditto camposanto, l’una apresso all’autra, intorno alla parete del detto camposanto sichome anchora ogi vegiamo.”

Translation

“In the year 1200, the Pisans, in order to protect their galleys, ordered the construction of a place encompassed by strong walls, fortified in the manner of a castle, whose western part was the city walls, and whose southern wall, along the river Arno, was attached to the Porta della Legazia di Ponte, and under a roof they ordered 80 basins to keep the galleys. And this place is commonly called Arsanà.

In 1200 the cemetery known as Campo Santo was founded, close to the Cathedral. And the walling of its masonry was completed and its roof was covered with lead in the year 1278. And all the marble tombs which had been distributed along the perimeter of the church were taken out of there and located in the cloister of the Campo Santo, each one close to the other, around the wall of the foresaid Camposanto, as we can still see today.”