Raffaele Maffei (1451-1522), Commentariorum urbanorum (1506)

Raffaele Maffei was an Italian humanist, historian and theologian. He was also a member of the Servite Order. The Commentariorum urbanorum from 1506 is an encyclopedia. It consists of three parts: in “Geography,” Maffei writes about history and the whole world arranged by location; the second part, “Anthropology,” is devoted to contemporaneous history; and the…Continue reading

Antonio Felice Mattei (1726-1794), Ecclesiae pisanae historia (1768)

In the Ecclesiae pisanae historia from 1768, Antonio Felice Mattei describes the history of the Pisan church and he writes about the important figures that were part of the church in Pisa. In his chapter on Ubaldo Lanfranchi, he briefly mentions the founding of the Camposanto in the year 1200, and that it was Ubaldo…Continue reading

Paolo Tronci (1585-1648), Memorie Istoriche della Citta di Pisa (1682)

Paolo Tronci writes about the power of the earth in the Camposanto and how the earth got to Pisa. He also says that the holy earth was spread out next to the church of S. Giovanni al Gaetano and that it has the same ability to decompose bodies in a very short amount of time.…Continue reading

Raffaello Roncioni (1553-1618), Delle Istorie pisane (1592-1606)

Raffaello Roncioni was born in Ranieri in the middle of the sixteenth century. In his Delle Istorie pisane from 1592 to 1606, Roncioni tells the story of Pisa. For our concerns, it is important that he writes about the founding of the Camposanto. He describes how the holy earth got to Pisa thanks to Archbishop Ubaldo…Continue reading

Anonymous, Historia di Pisa di Ranieri Sardo Cittadino Pisano (c. 1430)

This text is the continuation of Ranieri Sardo’s chronicle finished in 1399, though it was composed by another writer at a somewhat later date (ca. 1430). Instead of a chronological series of historical events, it presents an abridged building history of the city since biblical times, a detailed description of the major buildings on the…Continue reading

Pisan Chronicles from the mid-fourteenth 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,…Continue reading

Written Camposanto