536 Cadinu
Cagliari with two new districts, Stampace and Villanova, on the model of the
continental new towns (Fig. 19.15).78 These districts’ new streets were no lon-
ger curvilinear but rectilinear, according to the prevalent technique at the
time, and were plotted out by using strings extended between fixed points.79
78 Enrico Guidoni, Arte e Urbanistica in Toscana. 1000–1315 (Rome, 1970). David Friedman,
Florentine New Towns. Urban Design in the Late Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1988).
79 The two districts are mentioned in 1263 and in 1274. A resident of Villanova is mentioned
in the purchase of the land required for the construction of a new Franciscan convent.
This evidence dates the district 14 years prior to the date considered by traditional histori-
ography; further epigraphic attestation dates the district to 1281. See Cadinu, Urbanistica
medievale, p. 67. Numerous Italian statutes indicate approaches to and limits on private
construction and the respect for alignments. The statutes of Castelgenovese and above all
Sassari contain similar regulations.
Figure 19.15 Cagliari, virtual cruciform plan that controlled the foundation of the two new
towns: the Pisan Castello of Stampace (pre-1263 to the west, with the street and
church of Sant’Efisio- 8) and Villanova (pre-1275 to the east, with the street
and church of San Giovanni—5). The convents of the mendicant orders of San
Francesco (7) and San Domenico (6) were located in the two neighborhoods.
Number (10) indicates the outlying San Saturno church. Number (9) indicates the
church of San Pietro de Portu, known since 1089 and likely the western edge of the
city of Santa Igia, the capital of the Cagliari Giudicato ( from Cadinu, 2001).