COMACINI, MAESTRI. - Builders originating from the ancient diocese of Como. The expression “Magister Comacinus cum collegantibus suis” and “cum consortibus suis” first appears in two articles of the Edict of Rothari (643); in 741 an appendix entitled “Memoratorium de mercede Comacinum,” consisting of seven articles containing rules and provisions relating to the activities of building craftsmen, was added to the Edict of Liutprand (713). It is therefore reasonable to believe that the m. c., organized into corporations or guilds as evidenced by the cited edicts, continued into the early Middle Ages the tradition of the artisan collegia of classical antiquity: not “aldii” or “servi,” but free citizens legally protected in their associations and in the practice of their craft, as well as in their individual economic transactions.
The territory of Como or Comacino was prolific in builders, architects, sculptors, and carpenters, whose names appear in Burgundy, Switzerland, the Rhine valley, and nearly all Italian regions. These migrations, collective in nature and particularly intense during the Middle Ages up to the threshold of the 15th century, initially corresponded to the spread of certain construction methods. It is, however, difficult to determine whether certain structural architectural features should be considered genuine inventions of the Comacine masters or are instead distant derivatives of Roman imperial buildings or Syrian monuments; hence it would be prudent, rather than focusing on individual elements, to recognize in the art of the c. a stylistic trend that, distancing itself from Byzantine taste and the still-living classical traditions of Roman basilicas, adopted and developed in a rough and embryonic form layouts and solutions that would later find their full expression in Lombard architecture. Indeed, when Lombard architecture in the 15th century had fully matured its stylistic character, one should not speak of Comacine art except in relation to the provenance of individual craftsmen or the workforces employed in specific projects: for once absorbed into the broad current of Lombard architecture, the experiences of the c. lost all autonomous value and were limited to determining particular inflections within a fundamentally unified language, despite the variety of its components.
Among the testimonies of Comacine art are some works that foreshadow features typical of Lombard Romanesque buildings, such as S. Ambrogio in Milan, S. Vincenzo in Prato in Milan, and S. Pietro in Agliate. The c. also played a major role in developing buildings with a central system featuring vaults and domes concealed by a roof, as attested by the baptisteries of Agliate, Biella, and Galliano, and the church of S. Benedetto al Monte di Civita, with its three apses opening onto a rectangular space. — See pl. III.