124 LaCitadeSancta
San Lorenzo for the Franciscans, and San Michele, named for the saint on
whose feast the tyrant was defeated. The city later entrusted that church to
the Augustinians. Precisely in the center of this triangle of monumental
churches, the city placed twopalazzi del comune,one replacing an 1195 con-
struction leveled by Frederick II in 1236 , and the other an enlargement of
the palazzo of 1221 / 22 , which had itself been built in defiance of the da
Romano. Demolition of the da Romano towers provided stone for the new
construction and symbolically purged the city center of heresy and tyranny.
A zone of holiness defended the seat of the reestablished republic.^152 Vicen-
za’s conception of the civic center as a consecrated jewel set in civic religious
space has reminiscences elsewhere. When Piacenza began construction of its
palazzo at sunrise on 12 May 1281 , the rector of the city, Brusciato of Brescia,
and the captain of the Popolo, Girardino de’ Boschetti of Modena, had the
Franciscan friars on hand to consecrate the site by singing the opening of
John’s Gospel.^153
New civic buildings inevitably absorbed older landmarks. Piacenza took
down the ancient church of San Bartolomeo to construct its new Palazzo
Comunale. But that palazzo included a public chapel that incorporated the
sacred functions of the old church.^154 At Bologna, the communally expanded
church of Sant’Appolinare and Sant’Ambrogio became itself part of the
curia, the government complex. City statutes reserved to the city the presen-
tation of chaplain.^155 Where city palaces could not incorporate preexisting
churches, they included new municipal chapels. The Bolognese Palazzo
Nuovo included such a chapel, for use of the podesta himself, under the tall
tower of the Arenga (fig. 42 ).^156 At Modena, the city chapel, dedicated to
Saint Giminiano of course, provided Mass for the podesta and his judges;
consultations among experts treating city needs also occurred there.^157 After
1268 , at Parma, the podesta’s stipend included money specifically earmarked
for oil and candles to illuminate the ‘‘chiesa del palazzo.’’ Maintaining votive
lights before the image of the Virgin was a sacred responsibility, imposed
upon the executive under oath.^158 City leaders’ desire to embellish the Trev-
iso chapel may lie behind the vows extracted from their podesta in 1230 (and
again in 1260 ), by which he promised not to confiscate any relics, in particu-
lar the body of Saint Ticino, from churches of the dependent commune of
Ceneda. Other Treviso officials took the same oath.^159
- Ibid., 30 – 31 ; on these building projects, see also A. Morsoletto, ‘‘Citta
e chiesa a Vicenza nel secoloxiii( 1200 – 1260 ),’’ Laurea thesis, Facultadi Lettere e Filosofia, Universita` di Padova, 1967 – 68. - Muzio of Modena,Annales( 1281 ), 572.
- On city chapels, see Mauro Ronzani, ‘‘Le ‘chiese del comune’ nelle citta
dell’Italia centrosetten- trionale (secolixii–xiv),’’Societae storia 6 ( 1983 ): 499 – 534 , esp. 525 – 30 , on the chapels in city palazzi. - Bologna Stat.i( 1250 ), 9. 194 , 2 : 445 ; Matteo Griffoni ( 1250 ), 12.
- Matteo Griffoni ( 1255 ), 13 ;( 1256 ), 13.
- Modena Stat. ( 1327 ), 1. 226 ,p. 208.
- Padua Stat. ( 1268 ), 1. 20 ,p. 78 , no. 224 ; Parma Stat.iii( 1316 ), 105.
- Treviso Stat. ( 1230 ), 77 , 2 : 31 ; for the rubric of a lost reenactment, see ibid. ( 1260 ), 2 : 297.