24 LaCitadeSancta
going on, never on Sunday, and, at least in Reggio Emilia, not on Satur-
day.^58 Faenza’s expectation of such business in the nave was so compelling
that in 1195 the city had its linear measures cut in stone and mounted at the
church door (fig. 41 ).^59 In 1222 , Volterra, although it did not seek to prevent
use of the cathedral as a market, did move to clear out wood stored in the
duomo at night.^60 By the mid- 1200 s, growing numbers voiced concern that
the clatter of buying and selling not detract from the sacrality of the building.
Reggio removed its official measures outside to the courtyard in 1259.^61
Parma, too, in 1255 , put a stop to storage in the duomo.^62 The clergy took
similar action in Ravenna, ordering that grain and animals no longer be
stored in the major church.^63 Any grain left there was confiscated. In 1262 ,
the city of Bologna charged Alberto to see to it that the duomo, the ‘‘head
of the same city,’’ not be used as a market and that no wood or grain be
stored there.^64 Nonetheless, no thirteenth-century city but Bologna tried to
stop markets in the nave. That section was the laity’s terrain and for their
use. When, in 1311 , the provincial council of Ravenna finally tried to end
markets, community meetings, and secular trials in churches, the bishops
had to make an exception for times of necessity, such as war.^65
East of the nave lay the choir, the clergy’s part of the church. Galvano
Fiamma, a contemporary chronicler, gives extended descriptions of the inte-
rior of a large religious-order church from the communal period, Sant’Eust-
orgio at Milan.^66 As in many cathedrals, a chancel screen separated the
choir, which belonged to the clergy (here Dominican friars), from the nave,
which belonged to the people. In this large church, the screen was an impos-
ing structure, taking the form of a high wall, pierced by a central door, which
was itself flanked by two large windows for viewing the elevation of the Host.
Paintings on it showed Saint Dominic dispatching his brothers to Milan. A
great pulpit for chanting the Gospel and preaching protruded from the
screen on the north side. The deacon entered it by a stair from the choir.
The screen had three nave altars attached to it for less solemn Masses with
the people. Above the door, in the center of the screen, stood the great
crucifix, showing the sacrifice of Christ (for an example, see fig. 7 ). The
solemn Mass on the high altar, visible just below the cross, through the
- Reggio Stat., 21 ,p. 13.
- Maestro Tolosano,Chronicon Faventinum,ed. Giuseppe Rossini, 121 ,RIS^228 : 1 : 114.
- Volterra Stat. ( 1210 – 22 ), 183 ,p. 95 ; ibid. ( 1224 ), 219 ,p. 218.
- Reggio Stat., 4. 26 , pp. 253 – 54.
- Parma Stat.i(by 1255 ), p. 320 ; the town of San Gimignano, ecclesiastically dependent on Flor-
ence, cleared its churches in the same year: San Gimignano Stat. ( 1255 ), p. 737. - Ravenna Stat., 169 ,p. 89 ; 338 b, p. 158.
- Bologna Stat.i( 1262 – 57 ), 9. 63 , 2 : 612 – 13.
- Ravenna Council ( 1311 ), 12 ,p. 457.
- On this church, see Galvano Fiamma,Cronica Maior Ordinis Praedicatorum,ed. Gundisalvo Odetto,
in ‘‘La Cronaca maggiore dell’Ordine Domenicano di Galvano Fiamma: Frammenti inediti,’’AFP 10
( 1940 ): 323 , 326 , 327 , 330.