OrderingFamilies,Neighborhoods,andCities 159
the sight of the bishop, the enemy fled in terror. The army of Gubbio fell
upon them; there was great slaughter and, afterward, great rejoicing.^105
For efficacy, processions did not require episcopal blessings or leadership.
In May of 1233 , the itinerant Dominican preacher Fra Giovanni of Vicenza
organized penitential processions at Bologna to invoke divine help in ending
a general war in Emilia. Peace, or at least a temporary truce, followed.^106
Podestas organized penance processions, as Manfredo of Coranzano did at
Parma on 3 June 1239. The clergy and people carried the relic of the True
Cross, and God showed his favor by an eclipse during the very ceremony.^107
Peace was restored. Marshaling of the city could have a natural as well as
supernatural effect. On 19 April 1287 , ambassadors of Cremona arrived at
Modena to negotiate an end to hostilities. They encountered fierce resistance
from the Modenese authorities. With negotiations deadlocked in the Palazzo
Comunale, the archpriest of the duomo organized a procession of the clergy
and people. Led by the usual incense, cross, and candles, the people marched
according to their ranks and orders. In the place of honor came the ark
bearing the arm of Saint Giminiano, patron of Modena. As the people chan-
ted the litanies, divine grace moved the city fathers. They concluded a per-
petual truce with Cremona ‘‘to the honor of Saint Geminiano and the whole
court of heaven.’’^108 Even worldly governors had to yield when faced with
such a display of earthly and heavenly unity.
The most famous intercessory ceremony of the entire communal period
took place at Siena in 1261 , before the Battle of Montaperti. On that occa-
sion, while organizing prayers for deliverance, the city made vows to the
Virgin. After the victory, they fulfilled them by building a chapel to com-
memorate the victory. Today, this Cappella del Voto enshrines a votive
image of the Virgin, theMadonna del Voto,properly called theMadonna delle
Grazie,the ‘‘thank-offering’’ presented to Saint Mary in gratitude for the
victory.^109 Popular piety identifies that image with the vow of 1261 , but the
actual image before which the vows were made was theMadonna di Mezo
Rilievo,orMadonna dei Occhi Grossi,an early-thirteenth-century local produc-
tion, stylistically primitive and rigidly frontal, which resides today in the
Opera del Duomo. The Sienese moved thisMadonna with the Large Eyesfrom
the high altar to a little tabernacle by the side door of the duomo to allow
the people immediate access to such a great victory-bringing talisman. The
- Giordano of Citta`di Castello,Vita Beati Ubaldi Eugubini Episcopi, 14. 6 – 15 ,p. 101.
- Girolamo de’ Borselli,Cronica Gestorum( 1233 ), 22 ; see also Thompson,Revival Preachers, 52 – 62.
- Salimbene,Cronica( 1239 ), 240 , Baird trans., 156.
108 .Chronicon Parmense( 1287 ), 52. - On the Madonnas discussed here, see Henk W. Van Os,Sienese Altarpieces, 1215 – 1460 : Form,
Content, Function(Groningen: Bouma, 1984 ), 11 – 20 ; supplemented by Kempers, ‘‘Icons,’’ 89 – 136 , and
Norman,Siena and the Virgin,esp. 21 – 34. For the fifteenth-century legend, see Van Os,Sienese Altarpieces,