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XLVL Remarks on the Gothic Ornaments of the Duomo, 

 Battistero, and Campo Santo, of Pisa. By Arthur Taylor, 

 Esq. F.S.A., Member of the Roman Academy of Arcadians* . 



r j^HE Cathedral of Pisa, and its dependencies the Baptistery 

 -*- and Campo Santo, have hecome particularly known to 

 the English antiquary, from the various opinions f which 

 have been formed with regard to the genuineness of some of 

 their details, and from the support they have been thought to 

 give to one of the theories of Gothic Architecture. It will be 

 the object of the present paper to record such observations 

 upon the parts in question as the writer was enabled to make 

 during his stay at Pisa in the present winter. 



Of the three buildings, the first which will here be consi- 

 dered is the Campo Santo, being that upon which the most de- 

 cided opinion has been formed. The Campo Santo may be 

 briefly described as an open portico or cloister of four sides, 

 composed of a light arcade of Roman architecture, the arches 

 of which spring from square pilasters adorned with a base and 

 upper cornice. These arches, which are all circular, contain 

 the Gothic tracery whose originality or posterior addition forms 

 the subject of dispute in the building before us. It was built 

 from the design of Giovanni da Pisa, one of the most cele- 

 brated artists of the Pisan school ; begun in the year 1278 %, 

 and finished, according to the best authorities, in 1283 ; the 

 Gothic work, it may be necessary to add, is of the rich and 

 elaborate kind which is seen in the skreens of some of our 

 churches, and particularly in an arch of the south transept of 

 Norwich cathedral. The following are the remarks which 

 occurred on a careful view of the interior. 



First ; That the marble of which the tracery is made is of a 

 different kind from that used for the other parts of the fabric; 

 the former being Carrara, the latter from the mountains of 

 San Giuliano, near Pisa. Secondly ; The Gothic work in 

 question (which is sustained by a centre pier, two very slender 

 round columns, and two half columns attached to the faces of 

 the grand pilaster) is in every instance unconnected with the 

 arch, and in more than forty of the arches day-light appeared 

 between the half-pillar and the pilaster to which it is attached, 



* From the Archaeolopia, vol. xx. 



f See the controversy between Sir II. Englefield and Mr. Sniirke, in the 

 Archaologia, vol. xv. ; also the Rev. W. Gnnn's " Inquiry into the Origin 

 and Influence of fiothic Architecture." 



X According to the Pisan Chronology, which is a year later than the 

 common style. 



Vol. 64. No. 318. Oct. 1 824-. Mm the 



