174 LaCitadeSancta
were a horse (rocinus) and a hawk, both rather aristocratic in tone. There
were two pigs for second place, one live and one roasted. There is no record
of who got the dogs.^213
Originally an aristocratic recreation, equestrian exercises became a potent
symbol of communal pride, pious devotion, and republican military prowess.
That combination marked the festivities in Padua on 19 June, the feast of
Saint Anthony. On that date in 1256 , the Paduans had expelled the tyrant
Ezzelino da Romano and reestablished republican institutions. In memory
of the liberation, the podesta, his curia, and the associations of the commune
went in procession to the saint’s basilica and attended Vespers in honor of
God, the Virgin, Saint Anthony, and the other patrons of the commune.
The following day, they returned in procession for a candle offering at Mass.
During Mass they displayed the three prizes of the palio to be run afterward:
a scarlet cloth eight meters in length, a hawk, and two gloves.^214 Padua’s
allied city of Vicenza instituted an identical festival to honor Saint An-
thony.^215 The most famous union of Marian devotion, civic identity, and
racing is, of course, the Palio of Siena, still run on the feast of the Assump-
tion. True to its republican ethos, Siena, however, long resisted adding the
race, with its flavor of knights and horses, to the candle offerings and proces-
sions of its August feast. When the race finally appeared in Sienese statutes,
it took a back seat to religious rites, processions, and candle offerings.^216
Candle wax and religious processions, not horse races, remained the essence
of communal self-celebration until the fall of the republics.
Sounds ofUrbanOrder
As visible processions and candles ordered the neighborhood and city, so did
sounds. Anyone who has spent a night in the historical center of Florence,
Bologna, or Siena knows that even today morning differs from that in an
American town. The narrow streets of the center discourage the noisy traffic
that fills our cities. Morning silence in Italy is filled by bells. Thanks to the
imperfection of even the best automated systems, one church always sounds
before the others. As other bells join, a web of music washes over the city.
The effect is powerfully suggestive, more numinous than nostalgic. Bells,
consecrated by sacred rites, wrote the church fathers of Ravenna, are ‘‘useful
and necessary, for by their sound the faithful are inspired to divine worship
and devils are driven off.’’^217 Anointed with oil and named in a ceremony
- Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 12. 25 , 2 : 220 – 21.
- Padua Stat. ( 1256 ), 2. 10 , pp. 181 – 82 , no. 559.
- Vicenza Stat. ( 1264 ), 7 – 8 n. 2 ; cf. Padua Stat. ( 1275 ), 2. 10 ,p. 182 , no. 560.
- On the offerings and devotions, see Siena Stat.ii( 1310 ), 1. 212 , 1 : 178 ; 1. 583 , 1 : 360 – 62 ; 6. 84 , 2 : 533.
On the palio, see ibid., 1. 586 , 1 : 366. On the palio of Saint Ambrose Sansedoni, instituted in 1306 , see
ibid., 1. 56 , 1 : 189. - Ravenna Council ( 1311 ), 8 ,p. 454 : ‘‘utilis et necessaria, ad cujus sonum maxime fideles excitantur
ad Divinum cultum, et daemones propelluntur.’’