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treaty draft invoked the patrons of both cities, Saint Mary the Virgin and
Saint John the Baptist. But those saints were not specific enough to identify
the parties involved, so the communes had him add Saint Hilary for Parma
and Saint Giminiano for Modena. Saint Peter was greater than them all,
said the cardinal; he chose the feast of Saint Peter for signing the treaty. It
was a good day on which to make peace.^56
Everywhere, the Virgin Mary claimed a special place as protectress and
patroness. She was an impartial giver of victory and universal protectress of
peace. In the early 1200 s the Sienese already had a special devotion to Mary,
substituting Marian chants for the traditional Asperges Me during the sprin-
kling of holy water on Sundays in Lent. Outside Easter time, the sprinkling
used the traditional chant, but the procession began at Mary’s altar.^57 In
1260 , the Virgin rewarded Sienese devotion. Visitors to the duomo of Siena
can still see, attached to the columns of the crossing, what look like two
massive telephone poles (fig. 37 ). They are the drawbars from the city’s car-
roccio, its standard-bearing battle wagon, at the Battle of Montaperti, the
last great Sienese defeat of Florence. The city placed them there as a votive
offering to commemorate Mary’s protection. Before going out to fight Flor-
ence and her Guelf allies, the Sienese had dedicated their city to the Virgin.
When she gave them victory, the city fathers, at the request of Bishop Tom-
maso Balzetti, appropriated funds from the Opera del Duomo to tear down
the old chapel of Saint James and replace it with one dedicated to the Virgin
and ‘‘those saints on whose solemnity God gave victory to Siena over her
enemies.’’ The shrine stands to this day, the Cappella del Voto.^58 This
‘‘Chapel of the Vow’’ replaced the Virgin’s old side altar. From 1260 on, the
Sunday sprinkling of holy water began there. The sprinkling now recalled
not only baptism but also the victory that had—much to Dante’s chagrin—
‘‘made the water of the Arbia run red’’ with Florentine blood.^59 The Glori-
ous Virgin’s victory became part of Sienese identity, and they remember it
with pleasure to this day.^60
The Virgin also protected the troops of Parma. That city undertook the
war against Frederick II as a communal act of penance. In 1248 , on the
first campaign, they took and sacked the imperial stronghold of Vittoria. In
retaliation, the emperor besieged their city, intending to destroy it. While
the city militia manned the walls, Parma’s women gathered in the cathedral
and beseeched the Virgin for deliverance. To the Parmese, the subsequent
repulse of Frederick was the work, not of the militia, but of the women and
56 .Chronicon Parmense, 50 – 51.
57 .Ordo Senensis, 1. 11 ,p. 12 ; 1. 83 ,p. 74.
58. Siena Stat.i( 1262 ), 1. 14 ,p. 29.
59. Dante,Inferno, 10. 85 – 87 : ‘‘Lo strazio e ’l grande scempioche fece l’Arbia colorata in rosso,tal
orazion fa far nel nostro tempio.’’
60. See, on the Virgin and Siena, Diana Norman,Siena and the Virgin: Art and Politics in a Late Medieval
City State(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999 ).