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 period to another, especially because of its rivalry with Lucca; until the beginning of the 19th century it included Livorno and part of its present-day diocese.

It now has an area of 847 sq km, with approximately 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 across the entire province of P., but including centres in the province of Livorno; the others constitute the two detached nuclei of the Barghigiano and Versilia in the province of Lucca. The clergy consists of 232 diocesan priests and 90 religious; in the archdiocese there are 21 male and 100 female religious communities; there are also 1 major and 1 minor seminary.

An ancient tradition, which seems to have been reinforced by the results of recent excavations, connects the Christian origins of P. with a landing by St Peter ad gradus Arnense, where the basilica of S. Piero a Grado still stands. There has also been an extremely ancient cult of St Torpé, who is said to have been a Pisan, baptised and martyred under Nero. It can be stated with certainty only that Christianity was already widespread in P. in the 3rd century; the first bishop of whom there is reliable information is Gaudenzio, who attended a Roman Synod in 313 (Lanzoni, I, p. 584). On 1 September 1077 Gregory VII appointed the bishop of P., Landolfo, vicar in Corsica for spiritual affairs; and on the 16th of the same month he informed the Corsicans that he had also entrusted him with the task of receiving and governing the island as a dominion of St Peter; the dual commission was confirmed on 30 November 1078. On 28 June 1091 Urban II granted Corsica to the bishop Daiberto on «lease»; and on 21 April 1092, as a reward for the loyalty shown to the Papacy by the «gloriosa civitas» of Pisa, he raised the Church of P. to an archbishopric, as the metropolitan church of Corsica. Some considerably later documents state that he also conferred upon 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 bitter conflicts with Genoa. The papal grant was annulled and then renewed by Honorius II on 21 July 1126. Innocent II, who stayed for a long time in P. and held a Council there in 1135, divided Corsica between the two metropolitans of P. and Genoa, assigning to the former the bishops of Aleria, Ajaccio, and Sagona; but he also placed under him as suffragans the Sardinian bishops of Galtelli (Nuoro) and Civita (Tempio), as well as the bishop of Populonia (later Massa Marittima), and granted him primatial authority over the province of Torres (Sassari): the concession, probably made in 1133, was validated by a bull of that Pope dated 22 April 1138 and confirmed by his successors; Alexander III (1 April 1176) added primatial authority over the other two Sardinian provinces, Cagliari and Arborea (Oristano).

Although the primacy over Sardinia was contested by the archbishop of Cagliari and the Sardinian bishops showed themselves displeased with it, there is evidence in the 12th and 13th centuries of synods convened and acts of jurisdiction exercised on the island by the archbishop of P.: a solemn visitation carried out in 1263 by Federigo Visconti remained particularly memorable. A bull of Clement VI from 1342 shows that the archbishop still possessed the right and obligation to supervise 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 title, although it was still claimed before the Holy Rota as late as 1639, without obtaining a decision. The archbishop of P. still bears the title «primate of the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia and born legate therein».

The diocese of Massa Marittima was placed under the metropolitan church of Siena in 1459; P., on the other hand, had and still has as suffragans the dioceses of Pontremoli and Livorno from their foundation (1797 and 1806), Apuania, with an interval, from 1823, and Volterra and Pescia from 1855. The parish of S. Piero a Grado also belongs to the archbishop. The religious activity of the Pisan bishops is clearly attested by the long series of synods and pastoral visitations, of which reliable information exists from the second half of the 13th century, though they undoubtedly go back to a much earlier period.

Indications of political authority are found from the end of the 8th century, since it is known that in 774 Charlemagne forced a bishop to abandon his see, perhaps because he was suspected of hostility to Frankish rule; and in 796 the bishop was granted some jurisdictional rights, which seem to have been restricted later. There is no indication that he ever possessed the authority of a count or, except in individual cases, that of a missus. Nevertheless, at the end of the 11th century and in the 12th, he took an active part in public affairs, together with the magistracies of the emerging Commune; he represented the city in external relations; and he participated in expeditions against the infidels: Deiberto (c. 1089–1105) was leader of the Pisan expedition to the Holy Land, papal legate in the crusading army, and patriarch of Jerusalem (1099); Pietro Moriconi (1105–1119) accompanied the Pisans in the war of the Balearic Islands; Ubaldo Lanfranchi (1175–1208) once again led them into Palestine, and tradition says that he brought back the earth for the cemetery of P. Meanwhile, the possessions and political rights of the Pisan Church were expanding; the activity of several archbishops in the first decades of the 12th century was particularly intense, among them Balduino (1137–45), a disciple of St Bernard, who acquired 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; on 19 July 1139 Conrad III granted and confirmed feudal rights from Vada and Livorno to Buti and Bientina. The loyalty of the archbishop Villano (1146–75) to Alexander III, formerly a canon of P., brought him into conflict with Barbarossa, the 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 declined, Villano returned (1170?) and obtained from the Emperor confirmation of Conrad’s charter (9 March 1178). In the East, Christian princes granted houses, lands, and privileges. In the 13th century Federico Visconti (1254–77) distinguished himself through his remarkable activity in the spiritual and temporal spheres; he held synods (1260, 1262, 1263). He increased the possessions of the Church and wrote Sermones, which have survived to our time.

The Commune had made use of the archbishop’s temporal rights, as well as of his primacy and legation in Sardinia and Corsica, to extend its authority over the contado and the islands under the pretext of protection. But, having grown stronger, from the end of the 12th century and increasingly during the 13th, it entered into conflict with him and wrested his dominion from him piece by piece. For a few months, between 1288 and 1289, the archbishop Ruggeri (1278–95), having made himself leader of the Ghibelline nobility against

Ugolino, he became podestà and captain of the people. But the struggle resumed and intensified: Archbishop Oddone de Sala (1312–23), a highly learned Dominican, who had nevertheless obtained from Henry VII confirmation of the privileges of the Church of Pisa (19 May 1313), was forced to abandon the city, excommunicate its rulers, and relinquish the see. Relations between the Pisan government and Simone Saltarelli (1323–42) were better, although the latter had to leave the city temporarily when the Bavaro entered it; he was able to rebuild the palace at his own expense, received a splendid tomb at S. Caterina, and was publicly venerated. The archiepiscopal see acquired new distinction when Clement VI (4 September 1343), raising the already ancient Pisan school to a general Studium, granted the archbishop the power to confer doctorates. But his political authority had by then waned. The city’s internal and external lords sought to reduce the archbishop to an instrument of government: in 1381 Pietro Gambacorti secured the see for his nephew Lotto, whose arrogance and greed were a principal cause of the catastrophe of 1392. Later, the Florentines, masters of P., wished to install some of their fellow citizens; Francesco Salviati, elected in 1474 by Sixtus IV against the wishes of the Medici, did not obtain possession and, becoming embroiled 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. Thereafter the archbishops were again Florentines or devoted to the Medici, sometimes members of their family, as was Cardinal Giovanni di Cosimo (1560–62), whose premature death gave rise to a legend of fratricide.

When the archbishops were not diverted by assignments given them by the Grand Duke outside P., they devoted themselves to spiritual care, the implementation of the Catholic Reform, the protection of learning, and the splendor of worship. Angelo Niccolini (1564–67) published (1564) the Tridentine decrees; Cardinal Giovanni Ricci (1567–73) founded a college for eight young men from his native Montepulciano (1568); Carlo Antonio del Pozzo, from Biella (1582–1607), restored the Cathedral after the fire of 1595 and established (1604) the Collegio Puteano for students from his native lands. During these years Raffaello Roncioni, canon and archpriest of the Primaziale (d. 1618), was engaged in writing his Istorie pisane and rearranging the parchments of the Archiepiscopal Archive. Archbishop Giuliano de’ Medici (1620–35) distinguished himself through pastoral diligence, charitable activity during the plague, and the completion of the Seminary beside the archiepiscopal palace (1626); his vicar was 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, opposed the Jansenists, gave to the Seminary, and richly endowed the Library; Francesco Guidi (1734–78) restored the palace and presented the high altar to the Primaziale; Angelo Franceschi (1778–1806), a strong defender of the authority of the Roman Church against Jansenist tendencies and French claims, provided a new home for the Seminary in the restored convent of S. Caterina (1789). The canons of the Cathedral of S. Maria exercised great influence over the administration of the diocese and over civic life itself, especially in the medieval period, despite frequent struggles with the archbishop and the communal government; their existence is already attested as ancient by 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 regular canons was founded in 1073 at S. Pietro ad Vincula (S. Pierino), where the Olivetans arrived in 1488.

Among the oldest monasteries are recorded, from the eleventh century onward, that of S. Michele in Borgo, first Benedictine (1018), then, from the beginning of the twelfth century, a Camaldolese abbey, distinguished both by the learning and virtue of its monks and by its wealth, as illustrated by the highly learned Fr. Guido Grandi (1671–1742); that of S. Zenone, likewise first Benedictine and then (fifteenth century) Camaldolese; and those of the Benedictine nuns of S. Matteo and the Camaldolese of S. Frediano. At least as far back as the twelfth century date the monastery of the Pulsanese Benedictines at S. Michele degli Scalzi, given in the fifteenth century to the regular canons; that of the Benedictines and later the Vallombrosans at S. Paolo a Ripa d’Arno; and that of the regular canons at S. Martino, which became a convent of Poor Clares in the fourteenth century. Nearly all these monasteries were later granted in commendam and, toward the end of the eighteenth century, suppressed. Near the city, the Benedictine nuns were established at the ancient abbey of S. Donnino, which became, in 1569, and remains, a Capuchin convent. Farther away, on the small hill of Montione, the abbey of S. Savino arose at the beginning of the twelfth century, first Benedictine and then Camaldolese: the church and remains of the monastery still survive. From the thirteenth century the Friars Minor were established at S. Francesco, where the Conventuals still remain; the Dominicans at S. Caterina, which became a center of learning and piety, illumined by Blessed Giordano, called da Rivalto (d. 1311), by Alessandro della Spina, inventor and disseminator of spectacles, 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 regular canons were already at S. Jacopo in Orticaia; toward its end the Augustinians came to S. Nicola; outside the city, a monastery of regular canons arose at Nicosia in 1264 and passed in the eighteenth century to the Reformed Friars Minor. In the fourteenth century the Carmelites established themselves at the Carmine, among them Guido da P.; in 1360 the Charterhouse of Calci was founded, to which the ancient monastery of Gorgona was joined in 1425. From the fifteenth century the Observant Friars Minor were at S. Croce, and the Servants of Mary at S. Antonio; from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, P. was the seat of the equestrian Order of the Knights of S. Stefano. In 1817 the Discalced Carmelites came to the ancient monastery of S. Torpè, in 1897 the Salesians to S. Eufrasia, and in 1906 the Oblates to S. Jacopo.

Among the many charitable works, one may mention the Misericordia, which is traced back to 1053 and certainly existed at the beginning of the fourteenth century; the new Hospital of S. Chiara, dating from 1257, which brought together most of the many hospitals recorded in that century; the Monte Pio of the fifteenth century; the Foundling Hospital, which in that same century gathered together older hospices; the Hospice of the Company of Charity (sixteenth century), from which the two orphanages originated; the Beggars’ Hospice (1861); and the Cottolengo. In 1852 Federico Ozanam founded the conference of S. Vincenzo de’ Paoli in P.

The Cathedral of P. is dedicated to the Assumption and has S. Reparata as its co-patron; the ancient image of the Madonna di sotto gli organi is greatly venerated there. The principal patron of the city is S. Ranieri (1118–6; feast on 17 June), a noble Pisan who devoted himself to austere penance.

In our own age Giuseppe Toniolo (1845–1918), a professor at the University, was an outstanding teacher of Christian social science and justice, and led a life of goodness, piety, and labor; Ludovico Coccapani (1849–1931) distinguished himself through his ardor for Vincentian charity.

Giovanni Battista Picotti

COUNCIL OF P. — The Council of 1409 was convened by the cardinals delegated by Gregory XII and Benedict XIII in order to put an end to the Western Schism. Gregory XII had been elected in Rome in 1406 with the specific commitment to resolve the conflict dividing the Church. After vain attempts to arrange a meeting with the Avignonese Benedict XIII, to whom the French national council had confirmed its obedience, the cardinals of the Roman Pope went to P. to negotiate with the French.

While the efforts made by the two Popes to convene two separate councils were failing, and the position of both appeared weakened because France, which supported 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 convene an ecumenical Council at P. that would gather all the representatives of the two obediences. The Council, convened for 25 March, in order to legitimize its action declared the two Popes schismatics and deposed on 5 June, with their jurisdiction transferred to the cardinals, who were thus able, during the vacancy of the See, to elect another Pontiff, namely Pietro di Candia: Alexander V. He confirmed the Council’s decrees and closed it on 7 August. But this did not bring the schism to an end, because the Council of P., albeit with the immediate aim of restoring the unity of the Church, had applied the doctrine of the superiority of the Council over the Pope, which until then had been maintained only theoretically by the theologians of the University of Paris (a doctrine contrary to the customs of the Church). Accordingly, the two deposed Popes rejected the Council’s competence, and thus, instead of being resolved, the schism grew worse. Alexander V was not recognized by all the states. Upon his death, Giovanni XXIII was elected; fulfilling the commitment made by his predecessor, he convoked the Council of Constance in 1414, where Martino V was elected, bringing the schism to an end.

CONCILIABULUM OF 1511. — During the conflict between Julius II and the Duke of Ferrara, the Pope placed the Este allies under interdict. Louis XII, who was among them, sought to oppose 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 repeatedly resorted: he arranged for an assembly of bishops to meet at Tours, and they decided that it was permissible to disobey the Pope and appealed to a Council.

Having obtained Maximilian’s support, on 16 May 1511 several cardinals convened the Council from Milan; it was held at P. in November. Only 4 cardinals and 18 bishops and abbots attended, almost all of them French; they confirmed the Gallican theory of the superiority of the Council over the Pope and then, having transferred to Milan, declared the Pope deposed and his authority assumed by the Council. They then proceeded to Asti and from there to Lyons, where they dissolved. Julius II 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 meeting at P. had the effect of arousing in Julius II an irreconcilable hostility toward Florence, which had allowed the rebels to make use of that city.

ARTE. — If one excludes the so-called “Bath of Nero” (2nd century A.D.), which constitutes a notable testimony to Roman architecture, no artistic manifestations are encountered at P. before the Romanesque period, when the city acquired political importance. At that time, Lombard, classical, Armenian, and Muslim influences flowed into the maritime Republic of P. and fused into an architectural style which, while having affinities with the Florentine style because of their common classical component, possessed an original character of its own and spread with great success throughout Tuscany, Sardinia, and Corsica. An architect, Buscheto, probably the same who erected the Vatican obelisk in Rome, began the construction of the Duomo in 1063; it was consecrated, even before its completion, in 1118. The architect Buscheto was then succeeded by Rainaldo, who undertook the arrangement of the façade, completed in the 13th century. Nevertheless, the essential lines of the building and also the general scheme of its decoration certainly go back to Buscheto’s original conception. Eastern and Muslim influences are evident in the elliptical dome, the blind arcades, the lozenges inscribed within them, the tall piers of the arches, and nearly all the elements of the decoration, harmoniously fused to animate the exterior, while the Lombard motif of the small galleries, repeated on the façade, determines its upward thrust and lightness. The interior, broad and luminous, with five naves, a transept with three, and galleries, is classically inspired. The columns and capitals were largely replaced after the fire of 1595. Closely related to the forms of the Duomo are the bell tower, begun by Bonanno in 1173, which, owing to a subsidence of the ground, acquired its characteristic inclination, and the Baptistery, complex in plan, with two domes set within one another, begun in 1153 by Diotisalvi and completed in the 14th century as regards its external decoration. The church of S. Sepolcro, octagonal, with a segmental dome set on a high drum and similar in plan to the Baptistery, is also attributed to the architect Diotisalvi. The following also depend upon the Duomo: S. Matteo, S. Niccolò, S. Paolo a Ripa d’Arno, and S. Michele degli Scalzi. Other churches, such as the parish church of Vicopisano and S. Cassiano (in which a type of façade with corbel arches and a bifora occurs), can give an idea of what the original façade of the Duomo must have been like. Characteristic of the civil architecture of this period are the so-called “tower houses,” for which, given the lack of firmness of the ground, a framework of stone arches was devised, within which the rooms were constructed (houses in via S. Maria and in via della Sapienza).

The numerous Etruscan reliefs preserved in the city directed the sculptors of P. in the Romanesque period toward a determined pursuit of plastic form. They also underwent Lombard and Provençal influences, as well as those of Eastern classicism. The fusion of these elements can be discerned in the pulpit of the Duomo (later transferred to the cathedral of Cagliari), carved by Guglielmo in 1162. The David citaredo on the exterior of the Duomo is also attributed to Guglielmo. A certain number of sculptors revolved within Guglielmo’s orbit, some of whose names are known: Filippo, Gruamonte, and Biduino. Around 1180, Bonanno da P. carved the main door, later destroyed, and the minor doors of the Duomo, refining the plastic form into an unrealistic suggestion of pictorial impressions, in which he fused the elements of his extensive culture. At the beginning of the 13th century, vivid reflections of Byzantine neo-Hellenism are encountered at P., in the portals of the Baptistery and in the portal of S. Michele degli Scalzi. The Lombards’ plastic tradition

PISA, ARCIDIOCESI di — Main door of the Duomo (after 1595). Work of followers of Giambologna.

then reappears in the city’s baptismal font, executed in 1246 by Guido Bigarelli da Como. Meanwhile, around the middle of the century, Nicola da Puglia arrived in P.; in the pulpit of the Baptistery (1260), he initiated the great current of Pisan sculpture.

The painting of the 12th century is extensively represented at P. by a considerable number of monumental painted crosses preserved in the Civic Museum and in the churches of the diocese. The presence in the city of Giunta Pisano, the most notable personality in Tuscany at the beginning of the 13th century, is documented for the years 1229, 1241, and 1254. The churches of S. Ranierino and S. Paolo a Ripa d’Arno preserve two of GIUDA (v.). The memory of Giunta’s art also remains alive in Cimabue, who was at P. in 1301 to paint a Maestà for the church of S. Chiara, and in 1302, when he executed the figure of S. Giovanni Evangelista in the Duomo’s apse mosaic. In 14th-century architecture, alongside the clear and simple forms of Florentine Gothic, which asserts itself in the churches of S. Caterina and S. Francesco, complex Gothic forms developed at P., with a florid taste for decoration, exemplified by the exterior of the Baptistery. This decorative taste became linked with 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 completed in the 14th century. In sculpture, Giovanni, son of Nicola, adopted the language of the Gothic world, purifying it of every ornamental inflection, and disrupted his father’s composed forms with an impetuous luministic style that brought out the dramatic accents of the representation. Pisan sculpture now spread throughout Italy through the followers of Nicola and Giovanni: Arnolfo, fra’ Guglielmo, Tino di Camaino, and Giovanni di Balduccio. This school then concluded with Andrea Pisano and his son, Nino.

In painting, by contrast, P. lacked in the 14th century a school capable of rivaling those of Siena and Florence. Artists of considerable quality nevertheless worked there, among whom Francesco Traini stands out; P. preserves his only two panels, in the Civic Museum and in S. Caterina.

Another figure of great importance is that of the “Master of the Triumph of Death,” who executed the celebrated frescoes in the Camposanto, although it cannot be established with certainty whether or not he was a Pisan. The other, lesser artists generally followed the Sienese, such as Giovanni di Nicola, Cecco di Pietro, and Jacopo di Michele, known as il Gera; some instead followed the Florentines, such as Bernaldo Nello di Giovanni Falconi and the two Turino Vanni. Artists nevertheless came to P. from every part of Italy, and their presence in the city is documented by works executed there: Simone Martini, Lippo Memmi, Taddeo Gaddi, Andrea Bonaiuti, Antonio Veneziano, Spinello Aretino, and Barnaba da Modena. During the Renaissance, the political decline greatly diminished the quality and quantity of artistic production, and it was Florentine architects, especially those within the orbit of Vasari and Buontalenti, who erected buildings at P. and gave it the appearance it still retains today (the Palazzo and church of the Cavalieri, the Palazzo della Canonica, and the Palazzo dell’Orologio). In sculpture too, predominantly Florentine artists worked at P., first those of Donatello’s school and later those of Cividali’s. A notable introduction to the 17th century is provided by the bronze doors of the Cathedral, with Stories of Christ and 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, known as “alla Giornata,” and the market loggia, represents the Baroque in this city, while in the 18th century the architect Mattia Tarocchi, who executed the façade of S. Apollonia, should be remembered. - Vedi tavv. CVI-CVII.