274 BuoniCattolici
TheCityFeasts
Feasts had a social as well as a religious role. Cities fixed their court sessions
according to the liturgical calendar. Padua and Mantua courts scheduled
recess from Christmas to Epiphany and during the week of Michaelmas ( 29
September). In the spring, courts closed from Palm to Low Sunday, the time
of Holy Week and Easter Week—unless some delinquent dared violate that
holy season by rioting. Courts always closed on Sunday.^6 Christmas and
Easter were the very minimum for days of rest. Cities suspended sessions on
feasts of the Virgin, the apostles, and their local patron saints, including the
titulars of every city chapel.^7 From calculations based on festivals in rural
areas, we know that medieval farmers typically enjoyed a number of vaca-
tion days unequaled in later ages until the postindustrial society of the twenti-
eth century. The communes, with their closings for chapel patrons, certainly
had even more. Bologna in 1288 observed closings for Sundays and all major
solemnities of the calendar. The latter included the octaves (eight days) fol-
lowing Christmas and Easter, Holy Week itself, the two days before Christ-
mas, the major Marian feasts, the Ascension, all feasts of apostles, the
solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and the feast of Saint Michael. Bologna
thus enjoyed at least ninety-five days of rest a year. The number of closings
due to patron feasts varied from city to city, depending on the number of
chapel and city patrons. In 1288 , Bologna observed twenty-two days for
chapel titulars and added more as the century waned.^8 The large city of
Florence and smaller Lucca were among the highest in the number of titular
closings, each adding approximately twenty-five local saints to the major
festivals of the calendar. Ferrara required the least, only two. Brescia was
probably typical, with about ten.^9 On all feasts, Lucca forbade such noisome
activities as leatherworking in the Piazza San Pietro, lest the stink spoil the
decorum.^10 But Florence exempted barbers from festival closing, so that all
participating in the ceremonies of the day could look presentable.^11 Most
cities did not observe what Bishop Sicardo considered New Year’s Day, the
pagan 1 January.^12 The communes preferred 25 March, the date of the An-
nunciation to the Virgin, thereby linking the new civil year with Christ’s
Incarnation in the body of his mother. City officials received their biannual
- Padua Stat., 2. 10 ,p. 180 , nn. 554 – 56 ; Mantua Stat., 2. 25 , pp. 191 – 92. On saints’ days, see Webb,
Patrons, 96 – 111 ; and on saints in municipal statutes, ibid., 95 – 134. - E.g., Verona Stat.ii( 1276 ), 4. 158 ,p. 617 ; Modena Stat. ( 1327 ), 3. 1 , pp. 282 – 83 ; Biella Stat. ( 1245 ),
- 12 ( 72 ); Vicenza Stat. ( 1264 ), 181.
- Bologna Stat.i( 1250 – 67 ), 4. 18 , 1 : 400 – 402 ; Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 6. 51 , 2 : 41 – 42.
- Florence Stat.ii( 1325 ), 2. 13 , pp. 95 – 96 ; Lucca Stat. ( 1308 ), 4. 1 , pp. 249 – 50 ; Ferrara Stat. ( 1287 ),
- 396 – 97 ,p. 199 ; Brescia Stat. (before 1277 ), cols. ( 149 )–( 150 ). Treviso only added All Saints and the feast
of Saints Peter and Paul: Treviso Stat. ( 1230 ), 150 , 2 : 57 , and 168 , 2 : 63. See also the closing for patrons’
feasts in Parma Stat.ii( 1266 ), 158. - Lucca Stat. ( 1308 ), 3. 141 ,p. 221.
- Florence Stat.ii( 1325 ), 5. 21 ,p. 379.
- See Sicardo,Mitrale, 5. 6 , col. 218 C, and 8. 25 , col. 404.