Italy 1000–1400, entered as a register

Entry 01 · Towers

Seventy towers, fourteen survivors, and a commune that legislated the sky

Fourteen towers survive of the seventy-odd that once stood; they are a family arms race in stone, and the commune eventually legislated a maximum height to stop it.

ComuneSan Gimignano, SI

Century12–13c

What survivesFourteen towers standing

Read entry 01 — San Gimignano

A hill town's towers against flat sky — Fourteen towers still stand on the hill; in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there were something like seventy.Photo: Torre Rognosa in San Gimignano Italy · Wikimedia Commons

Entry 11 · Papers

The wall in Prato held a merchant’s whole working life

Francesco di Marco Datini of Prato left roughly 150,000 letters and 500 ledgers, walled up in his house and rediscovered — the most complete surviving picture of how a medieval merchant actually worked.

Prato, PO · fourteenth century · Archivio di Stato di Prato

Francesco di Marco Datini, in the panel painted for the Ceppo of Prato, the charity that received his estate.Photo: Filippo lippi, madonna del ceppo, 1453-52, da pal. datini, 04 francesco datini · Wikimedia Commons

Entry 02 · Towers

The commune built the tallest tower itself, and then made it the limit

The tallest survivor, built by the commune itself, which is the point — the public tower had to out-top the private ones.

San Gimignano, SI · fourteenth century · standing

Tall stone bell tower rises above tiled rooftops in San Gimignano

Eight from the register

Sixteen entries in all · the whole register

01San GimignanoSan Gimignano, SI12–13cFourteen towers standingTowersSan Gimignano, SI · 12–13c · Fourteen towers standing
02Torre GrossaSan Gimignano, SI14cStanding, about 54 mTowersSan Gimignano, SI · 14c · Standing, about 54 m
03Bologna and its leaning pairBologna, BO12cTwo towers, both leaningTowersBologna, BO · 12c · Two towers, both leaning
05The Cappella PalatinaPalermo, PA12cCeiling, mosaic apseThe Norman SouthPalermo, PA · 12c · Ceiling, mosaic apse
06MonrealeMonreale, PA12cMosaic programme, cloisterThe Norman SouthMonreale, PA · 12c · Mosaic programme, cloister
07Castel del MonteAndria, BT13cStanding; purpose disputedThe Norman SouthAndria, BT · 13c · Standing; purpose disputed
11The Datini archivePrato, PO14cc. 150,000 letters; c. 500 ledgersPapersPrato, PO · 14c · c. 150,000 letters; c. 500 ledgers
14BolognaBologna, BO12cUniversity, student statutesSchoolsBologna, BO · 12c · University, student statutes

Why a register

A tower is evidence, and so is a bill of lading

This site takes the position that the two are the same kind of object: something that survived, in a place with a name, from a century we can bound. The register is the argument; the entries are the notes to it.

Where the record disagrees with itself the entry says so rather than choosing. Castel del Monte is the clearest case. Where a date, an attribution or a document cannot be shown, the entry is left open — six of the sixteen carry no comune at all, because a technique has no address.

16entries, each one surviving thing

9comuni named and mapped

1entry whose purpose nobody agrees on

Entry 07 · disputed

Castel del Monte, and four ways of reading it

Frederick II’s octagon near Andria has an octagonal courtyard and an octagonal tower at each corner, almost no defensive apparatus and no documented programme. The entry carries all four readings and endorses none.

Andria, BT · thirteenth century · read entry 07

iA hunting lodge, on the pattern of the emperor’s other Apulian residences.
iiA crown in stone: a symbolic seat, built to be seen rather than lived in.
iiiA geometrical exercise, its proportions carrying astronomical or numerical intent.
ivA castle after all, of a kind whose military logic we no longer recognise.

The register, mapped

Entry numbers are pin numbers

Every located entry carries its comune, so the register can be read as a map without being rewritten. Nine places are marked; the technique entries have no address and are not on it.