Pisa, Archdiocese of

PISA, Archdiocese of. - City and archdiocese of Tuscany. Its suffragan dioceses are Apuania, Livorno, Pescia, Pontremoli and Volterra. The extent of the diocese varied from one age to another, above all because of competition with Lucca; until the beginning of the 19th century it included Livorno and part of its present diocese. Now it has an area of 847 sq km with about 251,000 inhabitants, of whom 248,000 are Catholics; it has 154 parishes, most of which form a compact nucleus around the city, without extending over the whole province of P., but including centers of that of Livorno; the others constitute the two detached nuclei of the Barghigiano and of the Versilia in the province of Lucca. The clergy consists of 232 diocesan priests and 90 regulars; in the archdiocese there are 21 male and 100 female religious communities; there are moreover 1 major and 1 minor seminary.

An ancient tradition, which seems to be enhanced by the results of recent excavations, links the Christian origins of P. to a landing of St. Peter at gradus Arnense, where the basilica of S. Piero a Grado still stands. And there is a very ancient cult of St. Torpé, who is claimed to be Pisan, baptized and a martyr under Nero. It can be said with certainty only that Christianity was already widespread in P. in the 3rd century; the first bishop of whom there is reliable record is Gaudentius, who attended a Roman Synod of 313 (Lanzoni, I, p. 584). Gregory VII, on Sept. 1, 1077, constituted the bishop of P., Landolfo, vicar in Corsica, for spiritual interests; and on the 16th of the same month he informed the Corsicans that he had also given him the task of receiving and governing the island as a domain of St. Peter; the twofold charge was confirmed on Nov. 30, 1078. Urban II granted, on June 28, 1091, Corsica in "lease" to Bishop Daiberto; and on Apr. 21, 1092, as a reward for the fidelity shown by the "glorious civitas" of Pisa to the Papacy, he elevated the Church of P. to an archbishopric, as metropolitan of Corsica. Somewhat later documents affirm that he also conferred on the archbishop the legation in Sardinia. Rights over Corsica appear to have been exercised by the metropolitan of P. at the beginning of the 12th century; but they led to fierce conflicts with Genoa. The papal concession was annulled; then renewed by Honorius II, on July 21, 1126. Innocent II, who stayed for a long time in P. and held a Council here in 1135, divided Corsica between the two metropolitans of P. and of Genoa, assigning to the former the bishops of Aleria, Ajaccio and Sagona; but he also subjected to him as suffragans the Sardinian bishops of Galtelli (Nuoro) and Civita (Tempio) and that of Populonia (later Massa Marittima) and granted him the primacy over the province of Torres (Sassari): the concession, probably made in 1133, was validated by a bull of that Pope, of Apr. 22, 1138, and confirmed by his successors; Alexander III (Apr. 1, 1176) added the primacy over the other two Sardinian provinces of Cagliari and Arborea (Oristano).

Although the primacy over Sardinia was contested by the archbishop of Cagliari and the Sardinian bishops showed themselves impatient of it, in the 12th and 13th centuries there is record of synods convoked and acts of jurisdiction exercised by the archbishop of P. on the island: a solemn visitation carried out in 1263 by Federigo Visconti remained memorable. From a bull of Clement VI, of 1342, it appears moreover that the archbishop still had the right and obligation of vigilance over the bishopric of Ajaccio. But the subjection of Corsica to Genoa and the Aragonese conquest of Sardinia progressively reduced the primacy of the Pisan archbishop to a mere name, although it was still claimed as late as 1639 before the S. Rota, without however obtaining a decision. The archbishop of P. still today styles himself "primate of the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia and in them legate by birth."

The diocese of Massa Marittima was subjected in 1459 to the metropolitan of Siena; P. instead had and still has as suffragans the dioceses of Pontremoli and of Livorno from their foundation (1797 and 1806), of Apuania, with an interval, from 1823, of Volterra and of Pescia from 1855. The parish of S. Piero a Grado also belongs to the archbishop. Of the religious activity of the Pisan bishops a clear testimony is the long series of synods and pastoral visitations, of which there is reliable record from the second half of the 13th century; but which undoubtedly goes back to a much more ancient age.

Indications of political authority are found from the end of the 8th century, since there is knowledge of a bishop forced by Charlemagne, in 774, to abandon his see, perhaps because he was suspected of hostility to Frankish rule; and in 796 the bishop is provided with some right of jurisdiction which seems to have been limited later. It does not appear that he ever had the authority of a count nor, apart from individual cases, that of missus. He nevertheless, at the end of the 11th century and in the 12th, took an active part in public affairs, together with the magistracies of the nascent Commune; he represented the city in external relations; he participated in expeditions against the infidels: Deiberto (1089-ca. 1105) was head of the Pisan enterprise in the Holy Land, papal legate in the crusading army, patriarch of Jerusalem (1099); Pietro Moriconi (1105-1119) was with the Pisans in the war of the Balearics; Ubaldo Lanfranchi (1175-1208) led them again into Palestine and it is said that he brought back earth from there for the camposanto of P. Meanwhile the possessions and political rights of the Pisan Church kept expanding; particularly intense was the work of several archbishops of the first decades of the 12th century, among whom Balduino (1137-45), a disciple of St. Bernard, had a reputation for holiness; by the middle of the century the temporal authority of the Church extended over most of the Pisan contado and as far as distant Piombino; Conrad III on July 19, 1139 granted and confirmed feudal rights from Vada and from Livorno to Buti and to Bientina. The fidelity of Archbishop Villano (1146-75) to Alexander III, formerly a canon of P., placed him in conflict with Barbarossa, promoter of the schism, and with the consular government itself, which had allied itself with the Emperor: the archbishop had to leave the city (1167); the see was occupied by an intruder. But as Barbarossa's star waned, Villano returned (1170?) and obtained from the Emperor confirmation of Conrad's diploma (March 9, 1178). In the East, houses, lands and privileges were granted by the Christian princes. In the 13th century Federico Visconti (1254-77) distinguished himself by singular activity in the spiritual and temporal field, holding synods (1260, 1262, 1263). He increased the possessions of the Church, wrote Sermones, which have come down to us.

The Commune had taken advantage of the temporal rights of the archbishop, as of the primacy and legation in Sardinia and Corsica, to extend, under the guise of protection, its authority over the contado and the islands. But, having become stronger, already from the end of the 12th century and more in the 13th, it entered into struggle with him and tore from him, piece by piece, the domain. For a few months, between 1288 and 1289, Archbishop Ruggeri (1278-95), having made himself head of the Ghibelline nobility against Ugolino, he was podestà and captain of the people. But the struggle resumed and intensified: Archbishop Oddone de Sala (1312-23), a most learned Dominican, who had also obtained from Henry VII confirmation of the privileges of the Pisan Church (19 May 1313), was forced to abandon the city, to excommunicate its rulers, and to renounce the see. The relations of the Pisan government with Simone Saltarelli (1323-42) were better, although he had to leave the city temporarily when the Bavarian entered it; he was able to rebuild the palace at his own expense, and received a splendid tomb at S. Caterina and public veneration. The archiepiscopal see gained new dignity when Clement VI (4 Sept. 1343), raising the already ancient Pisan school to a Studium generale, gave the archbishop the faculty of conferring the doctorate. But his political authority had by then declined. The lords of the city, whether internal or external, sought to reduce the archbishop to an instrument of government: Pietro Gambacorti, in 1381, obtained the see for his nephew Lotto, whose pride and greed were not the least cause of the catastrophe of 1392. Later the Florentines, masters of P., wanted some of their fellow citizens installed; Francesco Salviati, elected in 1474 by Sixtus IV against the will of the Medici, did not take possession and, entangled in the Pazzi conspiracy, lost his life (1478); two Riario, Cardinal Raffaele (1479-99) and Cesare (1499-1518), governed the diocese from afar, through vicars. Then there was a return to Florentine archbishops or ones devoted to the Medici, sometimes to members of their family, such as that Cardinal Giovanni di Cosimo (1560-62), whose untimely death gave rise to a legend of fratricide.

The archbishops, when they were not distracted by offices given them by the Grand Duke outside P., attended to spiritual cares, to the implementation of the Catholic Reform, to the protection of studies, and to the splendor of worship. Angelo Niccolini (1564-67) published (1564) the Tridentine decrees; Cardinal Giovanni Ricci (1567-73) erected a college for eight young men of his Montepulciano (1568); Carlo Antonio del Pozzo, of Biella (1582-1607), restored the Cathedral after the fire of 1595 and instituted (1604) the Collegio Puteano for students from his lands. In these years Raffaello Roncioni, canon and archpriest of the Primaziale (d. 1618), was engaged in writing his Istorie pisane and in reorganizing the parchments of the archiepiscopal Archive. Archbishop Giuliano de' Medici (1620-35) distinguished himself by pastoral industriousness, by charitable activity during the plague, and by the completion of the Seminary near the archiepiscopal Palace (1626); he had as vicar Paolo Tronci (d. 1649), an investigator and writer of Pisan history. Two Pannocchieschi of the counts of Elci, Cardinal Scipione (1636-63) and Francesco (1663-1702), left a reputation for outstanding charity. Francesco Frosini (1702-33) celebrated three synods and published their constitutions, fought the Jansenists, donated to the Seminary and richly endowed the Library; Francesco Guidi (1734-78) restored the palace and offered the high altar to the Primaziale; Angelo Franceschi (1778-1806), a valiant supporter of the authority of the Roman Church against Jansenist tendencies and French pretensions, gave the Seminary a new seat in the restored convent of S. Caterina (1789). Great weight in the administration of the diocese and in the very life of the city, especially in the medieval age, was held, even amid frequent struggles with the archbishop and with the communal government, by the canons of the cathedral of S. Maria, whose existence already appears ancient from a document of 958; the Pontiffs granted them singular privileges, such as the dignity of domestic prelates and the use of purple vestments. Another college of Canons Regular was founded in 1073 at S. Pietro ad Vincula (S. Pierino), where the Olivetans came from 1488.

Among the oldest monasteries, that of S. Michele in Borgo is remembered from the 11th century, first (1018) Benedictine, then, from the beginning of the 12th century, a Camaldolese abbey, illustrious both for the learning and virtue of its monks and for its wealth, and made famous by the most learned Father Guido Grandi (1671-1742); that of S. Zenone, also first Benedictine, then (15th century) Camaldolese; those of the Benedictine nuns of S. Matteo, and of the Camaldolese of S. Frediano. At least to the 12th century date the monastery of the Pulsanese Benedictines at S. Michele degli Scalzi, given in the 15th century to the Canons Regular; that of the Benedictines and then of the Vallombrosans at S. Paolo a Ripa d'Arno; that of the Canons Regular at S. Martino, which became in the 14th century a convent of Poor Clares. Almost all these monasteries were later given in commendam and, toward the end of the 18th century, suppressed. Near the city stood the Benedictine nuns at the ancient abbey of S. Donnino, which from 1569 was and is a convent of Capuchins. Farther away, on the small height of Montione, arose, at the beginning of the 12th century, the abbey of S. Savino, Benedictine first, then Camaldolese: the church and remains of the monastery still survive. From the 13th century the Friars Minor had their residence at S. Francesco, where the Conventuals still are; the Dominicans at S. Caterina, which became a center of studies and piety, illuminated by Blessed Giordano, called da Rivalto (d. 1311), by Alessandro della Spina, inventor and disseminator of eyeglasses, by Cavalca, by Bartolomeo da S. Concordio, by Guglielmo da P., and later by Blessed Lorenzo da Ripaltratta (d. 1457). In the second half of that century the Canons Regular were already at S. Jacopo in Orticaia; toward its end the Augustinians came to S. Nicola; outside the city a monastery of Canons Regular arose in 1264 at Nicosia, which passed in the 18th century to the Reformed Friars Minor. In the 14th century the Carmelites settled at the Carmine, among whom was Guido da P.; in 1360 the Certosa di Calci was erected, to which in 1425 the ancient monastery of the Gorgona was united. From the 15th century the Observant Friars Minor are at S. Croce, and the Servites of Mary at S. Antonio; from the 16th to the 18th century, P. was the seat of the equestrian Order of the Knights of St. Stephen. In 1817 the Discalced Carmelites came to the ancient monastery of S. Torpè, in 1897 the Salesians to S. Eufrasia, in 1906 the Oblates to S. Jacopo.

Of the many charitable works, one may recall here: the Misericordia, which is traced back to 1053 and certainly existed at the beginning of the 14th century; the new Hospital of S. Chiara, which dates back to 1257 and united most of the many hospitals remembered in that century; the Monte Pio of the 15th century; the Hospital of the Innocents, which gathered in the same century more ancient hospices; the Hospice of the Compagnia della Carità (16th century), from which the two orphanages originated; the Hospice of mendicity (1861); the Cottolengo. In 1852 Frédéric Ozanam founded in P. the conference of St. Vincent de Paul.

The Cathedral of P. is dedicated to the Assumption and has as co-patron St. Reparata; there the ancient image of the Madonna below the organs is greatly venerated. The principal patron of the city is St. Ranieri (1118-6; feast on 17 June), a Pisan nobleman, who gave himself to austere penance.

In our own age Giuseppe Toniolo (1845-1918), professor at the University, was a distinguished master of science and of Christian social justice, and led a life of goodness, piety, and toil; Ludovico Coccapani (1849-1931) distinguished himself by his fervor of Vincentian charity.

Giovanni Battista Picotti

COUNCIL OF PISA

The Council of 1409 was convoked by the cardinals delegated by Gregory XII and by Benedict XIII to put an end to the Western Schism. Gregory XII had been elected in Rome in 1406 with the precise commitment to resolve the conflict that divided the Church. After vain attempts at a meeting with the Avignon Benedict XIII, to whom the French national Council had confirmed obedience, the cardinals of the Roman Pope went to P. to negotiate with the French.

While the efforts made by the two Popes to convoke two separate councils were failing, and the position of both appeared weakened, because France, a supporter of Benedict XIII, had now declared itself neutral, and the Diet of the Empire at Frankfurt had done the same with regard to Gregory XII, the delegated cardinals decided to assemble at P. an ecumenical Council that would gather all the representatives of the two obediences. The Council, convoked for 25 March, in order to legitimize its own action declared the two Popes schismatic and deposed on 5 June, and their jurisdiction transferred to the cardinals, who could thus, sede vacante, elect another Pontiff, who was Pietro di Candia: Alexander V. The latter confirmed the decrees of the Council and closed it on 7 August. But with this the schism was not concluded, because the Council of P. had, albeit with the immediate aim of restoring the unity of the Church, applied that doctrine of the superiority of the Council over the Pope which until then had been only theoretically upheld by the theologians of the University of Paris (a doctrine contrary to the customs of the Church). Therefore the two deposed Popes refused the competence of the Council, and thus the schism, instead of being resolved, was aggravated. Alexander V was not recognized by all the States. On his death John XXIII was elected, who, fulfilling the commitment made by his predecessor, convoked the Council of Constance of 1414, where Martin V was named, and he put an end to the schism.

CONCILIABOLO OF 1511. — During the conflict between Julius II and the Duke of Ferrara, the Pope launched the interdict against the allies of the Este. Louis XII, who was among these, sought to fight him also in the spiritual sphere, repeating the attempt to which, after the Councils of Constance and Basel, the States in conflict with the Church had recourse several times: he procured the assembly at Tours of a gathering of bishops, who decided that the Pope could be disobeyed and appealed to a Council.

Having obtained the adherence of Maximilian, on 16 May 1511 some cardinals convoked the Council from Milan, which was held at P. in November. Only 4 cardinals and 18 bishops and abbots took part, almost all French, who confirmed the Gallican theory of the superiority of the Council over the Pope; then, having moved to Milan, they declared the Pope and his authority to have been assumed by the Council. They then moved on to Asti and from there to Lyon, where they dissolved. Julius II had responded by deposing and excommunicating the rebellious cardinals, concluding the Holy League and convoking the Fifth Lateran Council for the reform of the Church. The gathering of P. had the effect of arousing in Julius II an irreconcilable hostility toward Florence, which had granted the rebels the use of that city.

Roberto Palmarocchi

ART

If one excludes the so-called "Bath of Nero" (2nd century AD), which constitutes a notable testimony of Roman architecture, one does not encounter in P. any manifestations in the artistic field before the Romanesque period, when the city acquired political importance. At that time, into the maritime Republic of P. flowed Lombard, classical, Armenian, and Muslim influences, and they fused into an architectural style which, although having affinities with that of Florence through the common classical component, had its own original physiognomy and spread with great success throughout Tuscany, Sardinia, and Corsica. An architect, Buscheto, probably the same one who erected the Vatican obelisk in Rome, began in 1063 the construction of the Cathedral, which was consecrated, even before being brought to completion, in 1118. Buscheto was then succeeded by Rainaldo, who attended to the arrangement of the facade, completed in the 13th century. Nevertheless, the essential lines of the building and also the general scheme of the decoration certainly go back to Buscheto's original idea. Oriental and Muslim influences are evident in the elliptical dome, in the blind arcades, in the lozenges inscribed within them, in the high piers of the arches, and in almost all the elements of the decoration which, harmoniously fused, animate the exterior, while the Lombard motif of the small loggias, repeated in the facade, determines its upward thrust and lightness. Of classical inspiration is the interior, spacious and luminous, with five naves, a transept with three, and matronea. The columns and capitals were largely replaced after the fire of 1595. Closely linked to the forms of the Cathedral are the bell tower, begun by Bonanno in 1173, which due to a settling of the ground has taken on its characteristic inclination, and the Baptistery, complex in plan, with two domes set one within the other, begun in 1153 by Diotisalvi and completed in the 14th century in its exterior decoration. To the architect Diotisalvi is also attributed the church of S. Sepolcro, octagonal, with a dome of segments set on a high drum, and close in scheme to the Baptistery. From the Cathedral furthermore depend S. Matteo, S. Niccolò, S. Paolo a Ripa d'Arno, S. Michele degli Scalzi. Other churches, such as the pieve of Vicopisano, S. Cassiano (in which recurs a type of facade with hanging arches and a bifora) can give an idea of what the primitive facade of the Cathedral must have been. Characteristic of the civil architecture of this period are the so-called "casetorri" (house-towers), for which, given the scant compactness of the ground, a framework of stone arches was devised, within which the rooms were carved out (houses in via S. Maria and in via della Sapienza).

The numerous Etruscan reliefs preserved in the city directed the Pisan sculptors of the Romanesque period toward a decided plastic research. They furthermore underwent Lombard and Provençal influences, and those of Oriental classicism. The fusion of these elements can be grasped in the pulpit of the Cathedral (later transferred to the cathedral of Cagliari) sculpted by Guglielmo in 1162. To Guglielmo is also attributed the David with the cithara on the exterior of the Cathedral. In the orbit of Guglielmo gravitates a certain number of sculptors, some of whose names are known: Filippo, Gruamonte, Biduino. Around 1180 Bonanno da P. sculpted the main door, later destroyed, and the minor doors of the Cathedral, thinning the plastic form into an unrealistic suggestion of pictorial impressions, in which he fused the elements of his vast culture. At the beginning of the 13th century one encounters in P. vivid reflections of Byzantine neo-Hellenism, in the portals of the Baptistery and in the portal of S. Michele degli Scalzi. The plastic tradition of the Lombards then returns in the baptismal font of the city, executed in 1246 by Guido Bigarelli da Como. Toward the middle of the century there arrives meanwhile in P. Nicola da Puglia, who in the pulpit of the Baptistery (1260) gives beginning to the great current of Pisan sculpture.

The painting of the 12th century is largely represented in P. by a remarkable number of monumental painted crosses which are preserved in the Museo civico and in the churches of the diocese. In the years 1229, 1241, and 1254 the presence in the city of Giunta Pisano is documented, the most notable personality of Tuscany at the beginning of the 13th century. The churches of S. Ranierino and of S. Paolo a Ripa d'Arno preserve two of the four crucifixes attributed to Giunta (v.). The memory of Giunta's art is alive also in Cimabue, who is in P. in 1301, to paint a Maestà for the church of S. Chiara, and in 1302, when he executes the figure of St. John the Evangelist in the apse mosaic of the Cathedral. In the architecture of the 14th century, alongside the clear and simple forms of Florentine Gothic, which asserts itself in the churches of S. Caterina and of S. Francesco, complex Gothic forms develop in P., with a florid taste for decoration, of which the exterior of the Baptistery is an example. This decorative taste comes to link itself to the local Romanesque tradition, and an example of harmonious fusion between Romanesque and Gothic forms is the monumental Camposanto, begun in 1278 by the architect Giovanni di Simone and finished in the 14th century. In sculpture, Giovanni son of Nicola welcomes the language of the Gothic world, purifying it of every ornamental inflection, and overturns the composed paternal forms with an impetuous luministic style, which brings out the dramatic accents of the representation. Pisan sculpture now spreads throughout all Italy, through the followers of Nicola and of Giovanni, Arnolfo, fra' Guglielmo, Tino di Camaino, Giovanni di Balduccio. This school then concludes with Andrea Pisano and with his son, Nino.

In the field of painting, on the other hand, P. lacks, in the 14th century, a school that could rival those of Siena and Florence. However, artists of notable quality work there, among whom excels Francesco Traini, of whom P., in the Museo civico and in S. Caterina, preserves the only two panels.

A personality of great prominence is furthermore that of the "Master of the Triumph of Death," who executed in the Camposanto the celebrated frescoes, even if one cannot establish with certainty whether or not he was a Pisan. The other minor ones generally follow the Sienese, such as Giovanni di Nicola, Cecco di Pietro, Jacopo di Michele called il Gera; some instead follow the Florentines, such as Bernaldo Nello di Giovanni Falconi and the two Turino Vanni. To P., however, flow artists from all parts of Italy, and the presence in the city of Simone Martini, Lippo Memmi, Taddeo Gaddi, Andrea Bonaiuti, Antonio Veneziano, Spinello Aretino, Barnaba da Modena is documented by works executed there. During the Renaissance, political decline greatly attenuated the quality and quantity of artistic production, and it was Florentine architects, especially in the orbit of Vasari and of Buontalenti, who erected buildings in P. and gave it the face that it still preserves today (Palazzo and church of the Cavalieri, Palazzo della Canonica, Palazzo dell'Orologio). Also in sculpture, it was predominantly Florentines who worked in P., first of the school of Donatello, then of the Cividali. Notable work of introduction to the 17th century are the bronze doors of the Cathedral, with Stories of Christ and of Mary, sculpted after 1595 by followers of Giambologna, such as Pietro Tacca, Pietro Francavilla, Gaspare Mola, and Gregorio Pagani. Cosimo Pagliani, who built the Palazzo Lanfrauducci called "alla Giornata" and the loggia of the market, represents the Baroque in this city, while in the 18th century one must remember the architect Mattia Tarocchi who executed the facade of S. Apollonia. - See plates CVI-CVII.

Maurizio Calvesi