CAMPANILE. - It is a structure standing on its own or incorporated into the church and intended to carry the bells at a height suitable for a better expansion of the sound. When the use of bells spread (8th and 9th centuries), structures suited to carrying them were erected.
CANON LAW
The CIC (can. 1169) requires that every church and public oratory be provided with one or more bells; but there are no prescriptions for the erection of a bell tower, and therefore, provided the desired effect is obtained, in each church the bells may be placed in whatever manner is deemed most suitable.
St. Charles, in his Ornatus ecclesiae (ch. 8), requires that the doors of the bell tower be guarded and kept closed, so that no one may abuse the sound of the bells, since they are sacred objects. He then considers it fitting (Instructio fabricae ecclesiae, ch. 56) that a clock be placed on the church tower, to mark the hours.
Bibliography3 works
Filippo Oppenheim
ART
While the examples of the Ravennate campaniles of S. Apollinare Nuovo and S. Apollinare in Classe, which are not contemporary with the churches, are cylindrical towers with openings that grow larger the higher one goes, the first Roman examples built at St. Peter's by Stephen III and by Adrian I must already have had a square plan. One of the oldest examples of a campanile in Italy is that of S. Satiro in Milan (9th century), in which the Lombard type of superimposed cubes with cornices of small hanging arches already appears fixed. This type had, in the Romanesque age, a great variety of forms according to the regions and the situation with respect to the church; for the Lombard variety one may cite, besides the two campaniles of S. Ambrogio in Milan, that of the cathedral of Modena. In Venice and in the zones dependent on it the campaniles, generally slender and devoid of openings, are often crowned, near the bell chamber, by a mullioned window; sometimes they end in an octagonal crowning. The campanile of Pisa receives from the decoration of superimposed little loggias and from the circular plan a new characteristic, to which has been added the unintentional lean due to subsidence. The campaniles of the Roman region depend in scheme on the Lombard ones, but in them the superimposition of the cubes is placed in greater evidence by the terracotta cornices with marble brackets, while particular notes of color depend on the majolica bowls and on the warm tone of the bricks employed. The campaniles of Gaeta, Amalfi, Caserta and generally of the coastal zone present at the base a pierced arch, are encircled by small arches of Arabizing type and have a cylindrical termination. Such influences of the Muslim world are still more evident in Sicily in S. Giovanni degli Eremiti or in the Martorana of Palermo; the arrangement of the two campaniles side by side in the facade of the cathedral of Cefalù is due instead to Norman influence. In Apulia the deformation of the Lombard prototypes occurs especially in the shape of the openings. The great towers placed side by side, already in use in German and French Romanesque constructions, acquire soaring height in the Gothic cathedrals; this type, however, did not prosper in Italy. The campanile of S. Gottardo in Milan has a notable soaring quality accentuated also by its polygonal section, but in substance in it, as in the 14th-century terminations of others at Crema, Cremona, Lodi, etc., the Lombard formula remains almost unchanged. The campanile of the cathedral of Florence, although buttressed at the corners and opened at the top into airy large windows, has an expanse of surfaces accentuated by the polychrome facing that stands opposed to the northern principle of eliminating inert masses. In the early Renaissance the late-Gothic forms persist everywhere, or a return to simpler aspects is outlined, in which the superimposition of the levels remains well defined. At the beginning of the 16th century Bramante intended to frame among four campaniles, with great superimposed cubes, the mass of the basilica of St. Peter's; the superimposition of the architectural orders and the arrangement of the four campaniles finds an immediate reflection in the cathedral of Montefiascone by Sammicheli, in S. Biagio of Montepulciano (only one, however, was built) and in S. Maria di Carignano in Genoa by Alessi, where, however, the bases are not individualized and the termination lightens by assuming local characteristics. In the period of transition to the Baroque the campanile is enriched with various elements, especially in its termination. The two campaniles of St. Peter's by Bernini, with the corners blunted and concave, the free columns and the walls reduced to a minimum, were bold creations full of novelty; those by Borromini of S. Agnese in piazza Navona are still more tormented in their convex lines checked by rigid rectangular framings. The maximum expression of Baroque freedom in the matter of campaniles is represented by that of S. Andrea delle Fratte, soaring toward the sky with caryatids in the last order. More closely adhering to traditional forms are instead those of Longhena at S. Maria della Salute in Venice or of Iuvara at Superga, intended to frame the dome on a receding plane, inverting the Borrominian relationship of S. Agnese. After some elegant affirmations of the 18th-century barocchetto, still Borrominian in spirit, the campanile finds no favor in the Neoclassical age, and in the period of eclecticism it repeats previous motifs, as in S. Maria Ausiliatrice in Turin, or draws inspiration from the Romanesque and the Renaissance in the works of Vespignani and Carimini. In the modern age the campanile, particularly availing itself of new construction systems, has stripped itself of traditional decorations and has asserted itself for its value as mass, often flanking and framing the facade, sometimes inserting itself at its center. - Vedi Tavy. XXXIV-XXXV.
