TheHolyCity 123
1217 to 1277.^142 It must have gotten crowded on the palazzo walls. The city
could become an icon itself. In 1247 the women of Parma offered a silver
model of their city to the Blessed Virgin in thanksgiving for her protection.
The model showed the walls, the duomo, and the notable public buildings.^143
The Virgin had protected Parma, and now the city itself became a votive
gift to her.
The early communes concentrated their resources on the cathedral com-
plex, then the seat of both ecclesiastical and civil government. Only at Flor-
ence, the one city that had not constructed a truly monumental cathedral
before 1250 , did a regime have to undertake new construction of the Ecclesia
Matrix in the later 1200 s. The city then replaced the small temple of Santa
Reparata with one what would become today’s Santa Maria del Fiore. The
great new cathedral was an expression of civic identity.^144 Three times the
size of the older church, construction required the demolition of the old
Spedale di San Giovanni.
In the thirteenth century, the communes began building structures for
their particular use as well. At Florence and elsewhere, the thirteenth cen-
tury saw a building boom ofpalazzi comunali. These buildings provided new
public spaces for city government, but removal of government from the ca-
thedral did not bring secularization. Rather, the separation from the duomo
focused greater attention on the city’s other religious institutions. Lesser
churches now became sources of civic pride.^145 At Bologna, by 1253 , the city
granted annual funds reaching £ 100 bon. for construction and maintenance
of the church of San Giacomo di Sevena in Stra`Sam Donato.^146 In 1284 ,
the city wholly reconstructed it, creating today’s San Giacomo Maggiore of
the Augustinians.^147 They placed a memorial inscription under the portico
on its north flank to record their good work.^148 At the same time, smaller
edifices, like Santa Cristina, between Strada Maggiore and Strada Santo
Stefano, received annual appropriations.^149 Similar building campaigns and
repristinations occurred in other cities.^150
After the defeat of the da Romano, the republics began a ‘‘reconquest
of the civic centers of worship.’’^151 At Vicenza, independence inspired the
construction of three enormous churches, Santa Corona for the Dominicans,
- Padua Stat. ( 1265 ), 1. 4 ,p. 26 , no. 59 ; for theLiber Falsariorum,see Padua Stat., pp. 385 – 422 , nos.
1263 – 363 ; on such paintings, see Jones,Italian City-State, 379 – 80. - Webb, ‘‘Cities of God,’’ 126 – 27.
- So Morghen, ‘‘Vita religiosa,’’ 201.
- Pini, ‘‘Origine,’’ 182.
- Bologna Stat.i( 1250 ), 5. 12 , 1 : 449 – 50.
147 .CCB:A( 1284 ), 225 ; Matteo Griffoni ( 1284 ), 24.
148 .Iscrizioni medievali bolognesi, 310 , no. 9 ( 1315 ). - Bologna Stat.i( 1252 / 53 ), 5. 17 , 1 : 453 :£ 15 bon.
- E.g., Ravenna, where the podesta Tommaso of Folliano appropriated £ 50 rav. for work on
Santo Stefano: Ravenna Stat., 348 ,p. 163. - Lomastro,Spazio urbano, 21 – 22 : ‘‘riconquista dei centri di culto cittadini.’’