Literary sources – Page 7 – Written Camposanto

Pero Tafur (c. 1410-c. 1484), Andanças é viajes (c. 1453/54)

On February 20, 2021

In 15th century, English, Spanish, Travel account

Pero Tafur (c. 1410 –c. 1484) was a nobleman from a Castilian family who participated in military campaigns of the Reconquista before he undertook a long journey around the Mediterrenean and across several parts of central Europe and Italy between 1436 and 1439. Although he visited Jerusalem and Palestine in the first part of his trip, his principal interest was more as an adventurer and religious themes played no particular role. Tafur composed the written account of his journey only several yeas later, in 1453/54. While he visited Pisa on the way to Rome, at the very beginning of his trip, the lengthy description of the city that we reproduce here is included in the very last chapters of the book, when Tafur was en route to Spain. His account of Pisa’s history is very characteristic for the entire book, as it relies exclusively on heresay and is full of phantastic and historically impossible claims. The central aim of this highly ficticious narrative is to give an explanation for Pisa’s decline, from a powerful sea republic to a satellite of Florence. In this framework, Pisa’s decision to sell Jerusalem is seen as the principle reason for its ultimate defeat. Therefore, the Camposanto plays a prominent role here, as a “container” of the holy earth. / DG

Ms_1985_excerpt Source: Manuscript copy, eighteenth century, Salamanca, Biblioteca Universitaria de Salamanca, Ms. 1985.

Edition: Pero Tafur, Andanças é viajes de Pero Tafur por diversas partes del mundo avidos (1435-1439), ed. Marcos Jiménez de la Espada, Colección de libros españoles raros ó curiosos, 8 (Madrid: Miguel Ginesta, 1874), 294-295.

Translation: Pero Tafur, Travels and Adventures 1435-1439, transl. Malcolm Letts (London: Routledge, 1926), 228-229.

“Esta çibdat de Pisa dizen que señoreó antiguamente la isla de Çeçilia, é Çerdeña, é Córçega é otras, é en la tierra firme grandes provinçias; é dizen que porque una vez pasó una nao que levava un cardenal é çiertos perlados de embaxada del Papa al rey de Françia, é porque non fezieron çierta salva acostumbrada, armaron luégo é pelearon con la nao, é dizen que la quemaon é el Papa, de que lo supo, indignado contra ellos, mandóles fazer guerra, é dió cruzada sobrellos, é fiziéronlos muy grant dapño. Mas, á ruego de algunos reyes é prinçpes, ovo el Papa de mitigar su furia, con condiçion que para que ellos fuesen asueltos, que ganasen la Casa Santa de Ierusalem. É ellos disposieron é fizieron una grant flota, é pasaron Ultramar é ganaron á Ierusalem con su terretorio, é la poseyeron çierto tiempo, é al fin, dízese, que porque les costaba mucho tenella, que la vendieron, donde se cree que les ha venido quanto mal tienen, que es dubda si en toda Pisa ay un natural della; é los sobrados les fezieron abaxar, é áun dizen, que, por desonrra, la barreta les fazen traer al revés, é son vituperio de la gente é sojudgados de aquellos que eran sus siervos. En aquella vez que ganaron á Ierusalem, dizen que ansimesmo fueron veneçianos é ginoveses, é quando ganaron á Ierusalem, al partir de aquel tesoro que allí ovieron, fizieron tres partes: en la una pusieron el Santo Grial, que es de una esmeralda, en la otra posieron dos colupnas, en las quales dizen que se veye cada uno el mal que le tractavan é lo que queríe él, en la otra pusieron todo el tesoro; é dizen que echaron suertes é cupo el Santo Vaso á Génova, do agora está, el qual yo ví, é las colupnas con Ierusalem á los pissanos, la quales truxeron á Pisa, é el tesoro á Veneja, é desto dizen que es toda su riqueza; é las colupnas que vinieron á Pisa, despues que vendieron á Ierusalem, perdieron su virtud. É está aquí una yglesia muy notable, é una claustra quel suelo della es de la tierra de aquel Campo Santo que fué comprado por los treynta dineros, que es en Ierusalem, é ainsí le llaman aquí en Pisa el Campo Santo, é dizen que persona que entierren allí non tura más de treynta dias, que la tierra lo gasta; sin dubda, grant fecho era esta çibdad antiguamente.”

“This city of Pisa, they say, owned at one time the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, with vast provinces on the mainland. But once a ship passed which carried a cardinal and certain prelates, ambassadors from the Pope to the King of France, without giving the accustomed salute. Thereupon the Pisans flew to the arms, and captured and burnt the ship, and the Pope, when he heard of it, was so incensed that he ordered war to be declared and proclaimed a crusade against them, and did them great damage. But on the entreaty of certain kings and princes, the Pope made an end of his wrath, on condition that the culprits should be absolved if they set out and captured the Holy City. Then the Pisans prepared a great fleet and passed over the seas, and took Jerusalem with its dependencies, and remained there some time, but finally they found it was too costly to retain the city and they sold it, from which act all their evils are believed to have come. It is to be doubted if there is now a single natural-born Pisan in the city. They had also to pull down their buildings, and, further, as a mark of dishonour, to wear their helmets reversed. Thus they are disdained by all men and are subjugated to those who were their servants.
It is said that when they captured Jerusalem, the Venetians and Genoese were also there, and after the city was taken they divided the treasure which they found into three parts. In one they placed the Holy Grail, which is made of a single emerald, in the second they placed two columns, in which each one can foresee the evils which are to befall him and whatever he desires, and in the third they placed the treasure. They then threw lots, and the Holy Grail fell to Genoa, where it now is, as I myself have seen, the columns, with the city of Jerusalem, came to the Pisans, which columns they brought to Pisa, and Venice took the treasure which is the foundation of all its wealth, but the columns which were brought to Pisa lost their virtue when Jerusalem was sold.
There is a very notable church and a cloister, the soil of which is from the holy field (Campo Santo) at Jerusalem, which was purchased with the thirty coins, and therefore they call it here in Pisa the Campo Santo. And they say that bodies interred here do not endure more than thirty days, as the earth consumes them. Without doubt, Pisa was formerly a great place.”

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

By camposanto

On February 16, 2021

In 15th century, Chronicle, Italian

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 Piazza del Duomo, and then a sort of inventory of other buildings in the four quarters of the city. Clearly, the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Camposanto and the Leaning Tower are highlighted because they represent the symbolic center of the city and are visual reminders of its glorious past during a historically difficult moment, when Pisa had come under Florentine dominion. As one of the main monuments of the Piazza, the Camposanto is praised for its marble walls, its sarcophagi, and its wall paintings. As in the older chronicles, the name of the Camposanto is explained by the origin story of its holy earth, here said to have been taken from Jerusalem in the crusader period. / DG

Source: Unpublished manuscript, fifteenth century. Florence, Bibliotheca Nazionale, Codice Magliabechiano, Classe XXV, ms. 491, fol. 196-207.

Edition: Igino Benvenuto Supino, Arte Pisana (Florenz: Fratelli Alinari, 1904), 307.

Transcription
“E apresso tra l’ Duomo e San Giovanni sì v’è il Chanpo Sancto, choperto di piombo, dove sono grandissime quantità di sepolture in sul piano di marmo, chon meravigliose istorie nelle mura dipinte ed èvi grandi quantità di sepolture di rilievo.

E nel mezo di decto luogho, allo scoperto, in sul piano della terra, vi sono grandi quantità di sipolture di rilievo sopresse da terra; le quali, innanzi che Chanpo Santo fusse facto, le dicte sepolture stavano dintorno dintorno dal Duomo di fuori, di sopra a cierti muricciuoli di marmo achosta alla chiesa; dapoi furono messe in decto luogho.

La lungheza di questo Chanpo Sancto si è passi 200 per lo lungho, et per lo largho passi 67; et vi sono 5 altari murati dove si dicie messa: 3 altari sono in testa et due in due chapelle. El dicto Chanpo Sancto da’ pisani si fu messo della Terra Sancta asai quantità quando acquistorono Gerusalem; ed à due porti, l’una istà senpre serrata ed è chosa di marmo choperta di pionbo, ed è chosa maravigliosa.”

Translation
And close to the Cathedral and San Giovanni there is the Camposanto, covered with lead, where huge numbers of tombs can be found inserted into the floor from marble, and marvellous scenes painted on the walls, and huge numbers of sculpted tombs [= the antique sarcophagi] raised above the earth.

Before the Camposanto was built, the foresaid tombs stood outside around the Duomo, on certain small walls along the church. Later they were put in the aforementioned place.

The measures of this Camposanto are 200 footsteps on the long side, and 67 footsteps on the narrow side, and there are 5 altars where masses are celebrated: three altars are on the front side [= the wall of the eastern gallery] and two in two chapels [= the Cappella Ammannati and the Cappella Aulla in the north gallery]. The Pisans put a huge amount of Holy Earth [Terra Sancta] in the foresaid Camposanto when they conquered Jerusalem. And it has two gates of which one is always locked. And it is made of marble and covered with lead, and a marvelous affair.

Pisan Chronicles from the mid-fourteenth century

By camposanto

On February 9, 2021

In 13th century, 14th century, Chronicle, Italian

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.”

Anonymous, Chronaca di Pisa (c. 1340)

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On February 9, 2021

In 14th century, Chronicle, Italian

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

Cronaca Lucca Ms. 54

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.”

Anonymous, Breviarium Pisanae Historiae (c. 1269)

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On February 9, 2021

In 13th century, Chronicle, Latin

Like other early sources, this text comes from an intense activity of local chronicling by typically-anonymous authors who compiled older material and expanded it with material from their own lifetime. In contrast to later versions of the fourteenth century, this chronicle gives us an idea of how the role of the Pisan fleet in the Third Crusade was recorded before the earth from Jerusalem came into play. In the sequence of events following the election of Clement III in Pisa, emphasis is put on Uberto’s investiture as a representative of the pope at the crusade. While the route of the Pisan fleet across the Mediterranean is described in great detail, the subsequent events of the crusade and the return to Pisa are left out. For the year 1200, that would later be recorded as the date of the Camposanto’s foundation, only the military activity of the Pisan Republic is mentioned. / DG

Breviarium Pisanae Historiae

Source: Manuscript of the early eighteenth century, copy of a now lost fourteenth century manuscript which was formerly kept in the Archivio segreto della Repubblica di Lucca, which was made for Muratori by the Pisan canon Angelo d’Abramo, Pisa, Archivio capitolare, ms. C 101.

Edition: “Breviarium Pisanae Historiae auctius & emendatius nunc primum prodit ex MSto Lucensi,” in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, ed. Ludovico Antonio Muratori, vol. 15 (Milan 1725), col. 163-198.

Transcription

“Anno 1186. Papa Gregorius VIII ingressus est urbem Pisanam IV idus Decembris, ab eisdem Pisanis magno honore receptus. Mortuus est Pisis XVI Cal. Januarii, et sepultus in Ecclesia Majori. Et XIV Calendas eiusdem mensis Cardinalis Paulus Praenestinus Episcopus in eadem Ecclesia Pontifex Summus est electus, levatus ab Hospitio Sancti Pauli de Ripa Arnis, et largiente Domino, Clemens III vocatus est. Pontifex iste in praefata Maiori Ecclesia Pisana petiit, rogavit et exoratus est Pisanos, ut sucurrerent ad recuperandam Hierusalem Sanctam. Et propriis manibus dedit vexillum Santi Petri Domino Ubaldo Pisano Archiepiscopo, ut esset Vexillifer exercitus, et omnium Christianorum, et Legatus Apostolicae Sedis in omnes Christianos. Egressus est dictus Archiepiscopus, et Populus Pisanus in exercitu navium L medio Septembris, hyemavit in Messana Siciliae civitate, et octavo Idus Aprilis pervenit Tyrum. Tunc Antiochia robur accepit, ut ex pacto subiiceretur Saladino.

Anno 1200. Pisani fuerunt apud Vulturnum cum galeis XX in servitio Imperatoris.

Anno 1204. Constantinopolis a Pisanis et Venetis capitur.” (191).

Translation

“In the year 1186 [1187]. Pope Gregory VIII (1187) entered the city of Pisa on December 10, and was received by the Pisans with great honor. He died in Pisa on December 17, and has been buried in the Cathedral. And on December 19, Cardinal Paolo [Scolari], bishop of Palestrina, was elected Pope in the same church, raised from the hospice of San Paolo di Ripa d’Arno, and named Clemens III. In the same cathedral, this pope asked, solicited and begged the Pisans to help regain Jerusalem. And with his own hands he gave Ubaldo, the archbishop of Pisa, the standard of Saint Peter, that he might be the standard bearer of the army of all Christians, and legate of the Apostolic See for all Christians. The aforementioned archbishop and the people of Pisa left with a fleet of 50 galleys in mid-september, they stayed in the city of Messina in Sicily, and on April 6 they reached Tyre. Then they arrived at the base of Antioch, in order to free it from Saladin’s assault.

In the year 1200. The Pisans were at Volturno with 20 galleys in the service of the emperor.

In the year 1204. Constantinople was taken by the Pisans and the Venetians.”

John Boyle (1707-1762), Letters from Italy (1754/1773)

By camposanto

On January 27, 2021

In 18th century, English, Travel account

John Boyle’s book is a collection of letters, just like many travel accounts of his time. Interestingly, his letter starts from Lyons, France and ends with annecdotes from Florence without mentioning Rome or other Italian cities. As 5^th earl of Cork, it seems that he was in connection with distinguished members of the society during his trip. John Duncombe, the editor of this book, writes in the preface that Boyle presented Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language to the Accademia della Crusca while residing in Florence.
Although Boyle mentions Camposanto, his description of it is quite short. He does not even specify, what kind of “miracles” take place in the sacred ground. It seems that the power of the holy earth consuming dead bodies was well-known, as Boyle states, the miracles are “undoubtedly recorded by many legendary writers.” Editor’s notes in the book are worth paying attention in this book. Duncombe refers to Tobias Smollett and Edward Wright in the Letter IX, which manifests that he actively consulted other previously published travel books. / DJ

Letters from Italy_Boyle_Pisa Source: John Boyle, Letters from Italy, in the Years 1754 and 1755, by the Late Right Honourable John Earle of Corke and Orrery, Published from the Originals, with Explanatory Notes, ed. John Duncombe (London: B. White, 1773), 102-103.

“The burying –place [Il campo santo] is encompassed by a Gothic cloister, like that of Westminster, but in an oblong square [note by the editor: Its inner area is filled with earth which was brought from Jerusalem, in 1228, as ballast, in the galleys of the Pisans, when they returned form warring with the Turks, and from thence takes its name: it was begun to be built in the year 1200, and was finished in 1278. It is the property of the Jerusalem-earth to reduce a body to skeleton in twenty-four hours. Wright]. Miracles attend every inch of the sacred ground. They are undoubtedly recorded by many legendary writers. I will not add to the number.
Around the walks of the cloister, are ranged many sarcophagi, some very fine, in alto relievo. They were found in different parts of Europe, and brought hither, as to a repository, by the purchase and command of the former great dukes of Tuscany.”