OrderingFamilies,Neighborhoods,andCities 177
for important events. Bolognese officials rang Master Ventura’s great bell to
announce the daily opening of their courts to hear pleas—but not from
Good Friday to Easter. During that penitential time the great bell, like all
other bells, was silent. So the canons let the commune bang the big wooden
clapper that replaced it.^234 The bell for the canons’ solemn Mass signaled the
opening of the city hall for the day’s business. The ringing of Nones in the
afternoon announced its reopening after lunch. Lest judges linger at table or
siesta, the city reinforced the signal from the duomo by a ‘‘continuous’’
sounding of the palazzo bell.^235 The duomo’s great bell rang to announce
the execution of criminals. On the following day, it again tolled its fearful
message, that the citizens might pray for the criminal’s soul. And certainly
he had need of prayers. Good Catholics, like Saint Zita of Lucca, prayed for
those executed, not only on the day when the execution bell rang, but every
day afterward for a week.^236 Fortified by sacred rites and prayers, the ordered
commune extended from citizens on earth to patron saints in heaven, and
from there to its wayward souls in purgatory.
234. Ibid. ( 1288 ), 6. 1 , 2 : 5.
235. Bologna Stat.i( 1262 – 67 ), 4. 8 a, 1 : 393.
236 .Vita [Sanctae Zitae Virginis Lucencis], 4. 30 ,AS 12 (Apr.iii), 512.