TheHolyCity 121
years did these carvings of the civic laws into the cathedral fabric become
obsolete. Market construction finally covered them in the late 1280 s.^127 Other
cities did not follow Ferrara’s example, but many inserted municipal units of
measure into the walls of major churches (see fig. 41 for such an installation
in a palazzo wall).^128 Communal governors appropriated a space for them-
selves within the duomo. At Brescia, the commune erected a ‘‘good and
beautiful bench’’ for its rectors between the nave columns in San Pietro and
arranged a clean and spacious area around it for city assemblies.^129 Even
after civic bodies had moved to their own palazzi, the sacristies of the duo-
mos and larger churches remained favorite places to deposit municipal re-
cords.^130 Some cities deposited unexpended funds in these sacristies and
allowed diversion of fines to church maintenance.^131 As with space, so with
time. The early republics lived by the religious calendar, observing its sea-
sons as well as its feasts. In early-thirteenth-century Parma, city courts sat
from the ringing of Prime until Terce and from the ringing of None until
Vespers. Parma curtailed court hours not only on feast days but also on fast
days, as in Lent, when empty stomachs might impair judgment. During fasts,
Paduan judges stopped hearing cases at the ringing of Sext.^132
While sacred place and time hedged the organs of government around
with a holy aura, the government sanctified the city itself through religious
painting and sculpture. Like Saint Petronio at Bologna, the ancient Floren-
tine Bishop Saint Zenobio had, according to legend, set up the crosses that
marked the four quarters of his city.^133 Communes preserved and protected
such symbols of civic and pious responsibility. At Modena, after the restora-
tion of the republic in 1306 , the commune immediately restored, at the cost
of £ 3 mut., the great city cross dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Gimini-
ano. The act especially honored the latter, through whose prayers the city
now enjoyed the restoration of its liberties.^134 When the republic published
its new statute book several months later, it decorated the manuscript with a
monumental picture of its heavenly protector, Saint Giminiano, blessing his
city from horseback.^135 The city fathers commissioned other civic-religious
art that year. By a commission of 26 March 1306 , the magistrates, with
advice from the bishop and cathedral clergy, had carved of ‘‘beautiful stone’’
an image of Saint Giminiano with a standard and erected it on the wall of
the duomo facing the Piazza Comunale. Angels flanked the patron, and, as
- Ferrara Stat. ( 1287 ), 5 : 38 , pp. 5 – 12.
- As in Ravenna Stat., 273 and 297 , pp. 121 – 22 , 138.
- Brescia Stat. (before 1277 ), col. ( 106 ).
- Padua Stat. ( 1265 ), 4. 9 ,p. 344 , no. 1133 ; Brescia Stat. (before 1277 ), cols. ( 132 )–( 133 ); ‘‘Capitoli
inediti di una redazione statutaria pavese del secoloxiii,’’ 1. 387 ,p. 14. - Ravenna Stat., 7 ,p. 17 ; 354 ,p. 167.
- Parma Stat.i( 1241 ), p. 6 ; (before 1233 ), 1 , pp. 110 – 11.
- Lanzoni,San Petronio, 159.
- Modena Stat. ( 1306 / 7 ), 1 : 128.
- On this image, see Golinelli,Citta`e culto, 93.