Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes 1125-1325

(Darren Dugan) #1

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the body of Jesus into the tomb, refusing to allow the men to help.^125 They


then ‘‘recommenced the pianto.’’^126 The apostles played a mere supporting


role, assisting the women and sometimes offering consolation. The holy


women took center stage; the men became an audience for the Virgin and


her friends. Leaving the tomb, the holy women returned to the city, wailing


in the streets, seeking out frightened disciples, and imploring—or better de-


manding—that these participate in a public outpouring of grief.


In Italy, although mourning the dead was not an exclusively female occu-


pation, women led it, set the proper tone, and raised and lowered the inten-


sity according to the time and place. Like Mary and her companions, the


women of the communes practiced mourning as an art form, with its proper


words and gestures. Although executed well after the communal period, the


best snapshot of the pianto is Niccolo`dell’Arca’s famous sculpture, theCom-


pianto su Cristo morto( 1463 ), in the Church of the Vita at Bologna (fig. 58 ). The


men hold back their emotions. Joseph of Arimathea stares at the viewer.


John the Evangelist struggles to hold back sobs. In contrast, the women give


full vent to their emotions: the Virgin collapses in tears; Mary of Cleopas


shrieks in horror and recoils from the body; the Magdalene enters on the


run, garments flying, her mouth frozen open in a scream.^127 ‘‘Has anyone


seen a sorrow like my sorrow?’’^128 Though wildly emotional, the pianto was


a ritual. It began precisely at the tolling of the death bell, not before, and


outside, not inside, the house of the deceased.^129 Women waiting in the street


took up wailing only on the arrival of the catafalque. Once the body had


arrived, they followed it to the church and then to the grave. At least, that


was the preferred practice. Some women took advantage of the freedom


given by mourning to wander the streets, raising the pianto in small unac-


companied groups, much to the horror of communal officials. The Virgin


and Mary Magdalene would have understood.


Knowledge of the pianto comes mostly from sumptuary legislation to con-


trol it.^130 When legislators explained their intent, they singled out the indeco-


rousness of crowds and the promiscuous mixing of men and women.^131


Already in the early 1200 s, cities tried to prevent men from raising the pi-


anto.^132 After the 1250 s, they prohibited public wailing by women, but al-



  1. On the Magdalene as model for grieving, see Katherine Ludwig Jansen,The Making of the Magda-
    len: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000 ),
    92 – 96.

  2. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msGaddi 187 (earlyxivcent.), fol. 80 v: ‘‘Incommin-
    cio`a rinovellare il pianto.’’

  3. Mario Fanti et al.,Le chiese di Bologna(Bologna: L’inchiostroblu, 1992 ), 204 – 7.

  4. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msGaddi 187 , fols. 78 r–v.

  5. Siena Stat.ii( 1310 ), 5. 205 – 6 , 2 : 319 – 20.
    130 .PaceDiane Owen Hughes, ‘‘Mourning Rites, Memory, and Civilization in Premodern Italy,’’
    Riti e rituali nelle societa`medievali,ed. Chiffoleau, Martines, and Paravicini Bagliani, 36. On regulation of
    the pianto, see Killerby,Sumptuary Law in Italy, 72 – 73 , 106 – 7.

  6. Siena Stat.ii( 1310 ), 5. 211 , 2 : 320 – 21.

  7. See legislation from Como, Milan, Chieri, Novara, and Perugia, described in Hughes, ‘‘Mourn-
    ing Rites,’’ 26 – 27.

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