278 Mr. A. Taylor on the Gothic Ornaments 



ever, appears to consider the entire fabric as the design and 

 work of one master, leaving the time ofits completion to thecon- 

 jectureorthe research of his reader. The principal facts which 

 this author has collected are, that the Baptistery was begun in 

 1 152, or 53, according to the Pisan chronology ; that the work 

 was suspended for want of money after reaching the first or per- 

 haps the second order, or story, of the exterior ; and that it was 

 continued by means of a voluntary monthly contribution from 

 the inhabitants ; adding that Dempster alone refers this levy to 

 the year 1164. He also cites another historian, Roncioni, as say- 

 ing that the first column to the east was set up on the first of Oc- 

 tober 1156, and that on the 15th of the same month the whole 

 of the remainder, with the first vault, the pilasters and cornices, 

 were erected and finished ; an assertion which, with Vasari, may 

 well be termed " meravigliosa, e quasi del tutto incredibile* ." 



On reference to Tronci, the historian of Pisaf, little in- 

 formation was added to the scanty materials cited above. He 

 says that the Baptistery was several years in hand (" corsero 

 parecchi anni ajinirsi"); that the first year the foundations 

 were laid, and the first circle of the wall. More has, how- 

 ever, been gained from one of the old chronicles in the col- 

 lection of Muratori ; the following passages, which do not ap- 

 pear to have been cited by any modern writer, are not un- 

 worthy attention. 



" Anno 11 54. Fundatus est primus gyrus ecclesia: Sancti 

 Johannis^, Cionetto Cionnetti ct Enrico Cancellario operariis 

 existentibus. Qiii Cionettus in Sardinian pluries ivit, ct rc- 

 duxit de S. Reparata colunmas." 



" Anno 1159. In quarto consulatu Cocchi, Pisani — tres co- 

 lumnas magnas pro opera Sancti Johannis de Ylba ad dictam 

 ecclesiam portaverunt." 



" Anno 1 164. In calendis Octobris incipiendo in xiii. diebus 

 octo columnce in ecclesia Sancti Johannis ercctcc sunt, de quibus 

 unam una die in Porta Aurea .... erexit. Et tunc ordinatwn 

 est quod unaqua:que familia in singulis calendis mensium unum 

 denarium ipsi opera: daret ; etfundata est ecclesia Sancti Johan- 

 nis Baptista:§." 



From this account it appears that the great columns which 

 support the building did not arrive until five or six years after 

 the commencement of the work, and that five years more had 

 elapsed before they were finally erected ; it is therefore a pro- 

 bable conclusion, that the fabric in question, so far from being 



• Vite, Sfc. Proem, p. 227-8, edit. Sanes. 



f Mem. 1st. delta citta di Pisa, 4to, 1682. % The Baptistery, so called. 



§ Brev. Pis. Hist.— Rer. Ital. Script, vi. 168. 



completed 



