508 Cadinu
fountains (Fig. 19.3) are part of Sardinia’s medieval urban and architectural
tradition, and the presence of masters specializing in this construction tech-
nique has been demonstrated as early as 1239, and from 1294–1315; such houses
were also in demand even beyond the island’s confines.26 It is possible to refer
Correia, Marco Cadinu, and Amadeo Serra Desfilis, eds, Houses and Cities Built with Earth.
Conservation, Significance and Urban Quality (Lisbon: 2006); Maddalena Achenza and
Ulrico Sanna, eds, Il manuale tematico della terra cruda (Rome, 2009); Mauro Bertagnin,
Architetture di terra in Italia (Monfalcone, 1999). Elisabeth Fentress, “The House of the
Prophet: North African Islamic Housing,” Archeologia Medievale 14 (1987), pp. 47–68.
26 I maistrus in ludu (master mud-brick masons) are cited in 1239; see Arrigo Solmi, “Un
nuovo documento per la storia di Guglielmo di Cagliari e dell’Arborea,” Archivio Storico
Sardo 4:1 (1908). On more than one occasion, the Statutes of Sassari (1294–1315) refer to
houses with de petra et de lutu (stone and adobe); see Cadinu, Urbanistica medievale,
p. 152. Dwellings in mud brick, in the Sardinian or Catalonian fashion, were requested in
Palermo in 1428: prout usum et modum Cathalonie seu Sardinie videlicet eam imbachare
cum imbacho de calce tam ab interiori parte quam a posteriori; another master mason,
Figure 19.3 Ortacesus (Cagliari), covered fountain based on the Islamic cuba type.
photo by author.