Hidden in Plain Sight: the "Pietre Di Paragone" and the Preeminence of Medieval Measurements in Communal Italy
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Hidden in Plain Sight: The "Pietre di Paragone" and the Preeminence of Medieval Measurements in Communal Italy Author(s): EMANUELE LUGLI Reviewed work(s): Source: Gesta, Vol. 49, No. 2 (2010), pp. 77-95 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the International Center of Medieval Art Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41550540 . Accessed: 13/11/2012 16:13 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://staging.www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press and International Center of Medieval Art are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Gesta. http://staging.www.jstor.org This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.210 on Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:13:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Hidden in Plain Sight: The Pietre di Paragone and the Preeminence of Medieval Measurements in Communal Italy* EMANUELE LUGLI KunsthistorischesInstitut, Florence Abstract betweenclassical, Carolingian,and medieval systems?),I arguethat Italy's medievalmeasurements were standardized In thesquares of many Italian cities, unnoticed by most at theend of thetenth century. This move spurredeconomic passersby,incisions carved in stone reproduce the dimensions and was decisivefor the consolida- themeasurements that were locallyuntil 1861, regeneration particularly of employed tionof the associationsbetween citizens whenthe nation endorsed the metric system. By gathering the communes,political evidencepertaining tothese forms of display, this essay hopes createdto safeguardtheir practical interests over those of the tobring them back into historical consciousness. The story that rulingaristocratic and ecclesiasticalclasses.3 The communes, - followsis a richone, for these carvings here called pietre di whose originsand overallstructure varied notably from city - performedmany key functions inmedieval society. paragone to city,established themselves throughout the twelfth century Besides trade,they were at thecenter of a con- regularizing also theinterests of other withinthe cordanceof gazes and bodies, social rituals that contributed against organizations city. tothe construction ofcollective identity, and thepolitical es- Internalas well as externalcompetition required enforcement, tablishmentofthe Italian communes. An investigation into the andyet the communes strove to displacea senseof oppression nexusbetween politics and measurements shows how the latter on thepart of thecitizens by promotinga desirefor societal originatedinthe crumbling ofimperial authority at the end of actionand Measurements servedthis thetenth In addition,the the representation. perfectly century. politicalsignificance of twofold workedas the communes' pietreis underscoredby the tremendous attention that local purpose:they essentially authoritieshave paid to theirpreservation. These maneuvers toolsof controlwhile (and because) citizenstook them as the lendweight to thecause of those scholars who challenge the verysource of egalitarianjustice. ideaof the Middle Ages as a dark,uncivilized era. Propelledby an activeengagement with measurements, themedieval communes devised a revolutionarymethod to pre- servethese measurements, which I callpietre di paragone. This refersto seriesof that the TheInvention theMiddle as Bedlam expression grooves reproduce city's of Ages Metrological measurementsincised on thefacades of the cathedral, commu- A seemingparadox informs our view of late medieval nal palace,or canopies in thecenter of one ofthe main squares societyin Italy. Even though from the eleventh century on, Italy (Figs. 1-5). Althoughmany pietre still exist, today their pres- enjoyedan economicboom, scholarsare largelyconvinced ence is hardlynoticed. When scholarsmention them, it is in thatuntil the mid-fourteenth century Italians failed to develop relationto mercantilepractices, since the square that the pietre reliablesystems of measurement.1Contributing to thismisun- overlookusually was thesite of thelocal market.While such derstandingis thefact that different units were used to mea- a functionis undeniable- thepietre did allow standardsto be - sureproducts we todayconsider similar (for instance, the unit checkedduring business transactions their role extended far forsilk was notthe same as thatfor wool cloth).Also, many beyondthis one. This essay aims to addressthis shortcoming scholarsassume that the dimensions of medieval measurements andthus restore the wide-ranging cultural impact of the pietre. fluctuatedover time,perhaps decreasing with the erosionof Notonly did they contribute to the political establishment ofthe theirmetal standards.2 Thinking of theMiddle Ages as lack- commune,but they also generateda newperception of space. ingany coherent system of measurementshas becomesuch an This revolutionhas gone undetectedsince the sixteenth ingrainedhabit that this deficiency has become in the popu- century,that is, sincethe period that first gave a historicaldefi- lar consciousnessone of theera's definingtraits, one of those nitionof medievaltimes. The FlorentineVincenzo Borghini characteristicsby whichwe distinguish,for instance, between (1515-1580) lamentedthat the measurements of his time were medievaland modern times. With the present article, however, mostunstable and confusing("e si può diregeneralmente la I wantto reversesuch claims by presentingevidence that will cosa delle misure,e de' pesi incertissima,ed instabilissima"), showthat medieval systems of measurementwere stable and an effect,he claimed,of the despicable conduct of his ancestors, scrupulouslycontrolled and thatregulation of measurements whowere responsible for the disintegration of Rome's cultural wanedduring the early Renaissance. Although many questions system.4Many sharedhis view: in moderntreatises it is quite aboutthe medieval genesis of metrological systems remain con- commonto find a remarkon measuringas a sourceof problems. troversial(for example, what was thedimensional relationship Luca Pacioli(1446/47-15 17), the famous mathematician, went GESTA49/2 © The International Center ofMedieval Art 2010 77 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.210 on Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:13:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions so faras to provideclear definitionsof themeasurements he aesthetics.In hisintoxicating essay "Von deutscherBaukunst," mentionedin his TractatusGeometriae , lest his geometrical JohannWolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832) vigorouslystates demonstrationsbe questioned.5 thatthe classicist principles, to whichhe relatesproportional- Sincethe consequences of this lack of standardswere far- ityand measurement,no longerneed be at thefoundation of reaching- the absence of precisemeasurements was feltto artcriticism. Those who are enslavedby theserules, he says, affecttrade as well as justice- someprogressive lords decided thosewho "have measured rather than felt," miss the source of to takethe problem into their own hands.In 1554 in Mantua, art,which is autonomous,unconcerned, free feeling.10 Many theruling Gonzaga family commissioned a set of new standards followedGoethe's soul-fillingamazement before the stag- to putan endto thedisorder that vexed merchants and citizens geringvoid of thecathedral and, like him,championed sub- alike. Milan, moreambitiously, standardized its systemand lime instinct.There is littleneed to dwell on this.11Yet, in triedto expandits use to thewhole Lombard region between thiscontext, it is importantto stressthe consequences of the 1597 and 1608.It failed,though a secondattempt in 1781 suc- historicaloutlook these opinions endorsed. Maintained by both ceeded,one yearbefore Grand Duke PietroLeopoldo (1747- nineteenth-centuryItalian reformers and Romantic thinkers, the 1792) imposedthe stable Florentine system across Tuscany. view of theMiddle Ages as metrologicallychaotic grew over In Italy,the problem of measurements- its diagnosis and timeinto an incontrovertibletruism. solution- can be said to tracea modernparabola, reaching its Thiscondensed history indicates that thinking of the Mid- apexwith Napoleon. After taking over northern Italy, Napoleon dle Ages as unfocusedis a historicalconstruct that served to substitutedall local measurementswith the brand-new metric supportideological as well as aestheticviews. Reconsider for system,which he enforcedthroughout Europe.6 To facilitatethe a momentthe case of Borghini.As a courtierof Cosimo and use ofthe new systemin Italy,Napoleon commissioned tables Francescode' Medici as well as a mostinfluential critic, he recordingall themeasurements of thesubjected areas and quan- used his writingsvigorously to upholdthe cultural achieve- tifyingthem in meters.Collected into a book- knownsimply mentsof his owntimes.12 It is thuslikely that instead of seeing as Tavoledi Ragguaglio- thesetables were painstakingly pre- metrologicalchaos as a productof his own people, he attributed cise and offered,for the firsttime, a reliablesurvey of what itto an earlierera, which was commonlyclassified as anticlas- measurementswere used and where.7If theTavole , withtheir sical. (In theeyes of theRenaissance,