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A place of pilgrimage: a proposal for the original location of the Arca of Saint Cerbone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Diana Norman
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 69 , November 2001 , pp. 191 - 221
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Copyright © British School at Rome 2001

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References

1 Petrocchi, L., ‘Cattedrale di Massa Marittima: l'altar maggiore, lavoro di Flaminio del Turco, Senese’, Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria 11 (1904–1905), 637–43Google Scholar. The article appeared in a special double edition of the Bullettino entitled, ‘Arte antica senese’, published to coincide with the Mostra dell'antica arte senese held in Siena in 1904.

2 Petrocchi, ‘Cattedrale di Massa Marittima’ (above, n. 1), 643.

3 In the spring of 1943, due to the Second World War, the Arca was taken from under the high altar and dismantled for safe keeping. See Carli, E., Goro di Gregorio (Florence, 1946), 14, 58Google Scholar, n. 15. It appears from this publication that the plan to place the Area in the crypt was already envisaged but had not yet taken place. For its actual relocation in the crypt in the 1950s, see Carli, E., L'arte a Massa Marittima (Siena, 1976) (second edition: Siena, 1995), 39Google Scholar. The Arca was in its present location by 1990. Neither Carli, nor Pierini, M., L'arca di San Cerbone (Massa Marittima, 1995)Google Scholar, offered a date for the relocation of the Arca from the crypt to the canons' choir.

4 For more detailed discussion of the subjects of these narrative scenes, see below pp. 218–20.

5 Framing Saint Cerbone Mourned by Angels are what appear to be a bearded male prophet with a scroll, a female sibyl with a scroll, another bearded prophet with a scroll and a male prophet or saint with a book. Framing the Virgin and Christ Child are a bishop saint with a book (possibly Cerbone himself), a bearded prophet or saint with a book, a sibyl with a scroll and a veiled sibyl or female saint with a book. The figure at each end of the lid of the Arca appears to be a sibyl with a scroll. For illustration of all these figures, see Pierini, L'arca di San Cerbone (above, n. 3). Pierini has suggested (p. 12) that there was once painted lettering on the scrolls and pages of the books held by these figures. No trace of such lettering is now visible, however, on these parts of the monument.

6 Thus, for example, it is still possible to see gilded stars on the robes of Saint Cerbone in the scene of the saint miraculously healing three men with fever and in the scene of his meeting with Pope Vigilius, whilst green pigment is visible on the crest and leaf decoration of the lid of the Arca.

7 As clearly indicated by Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti (1770), Guglielmo Delia Valle (1785) and Francesco Fontani (1822), who only described five of the narrative scenes, and Ettore Romagnoli (before 1835) and Arturo Arus (1884), who described seven of the scenes but admitted to the extreme difficulty in seeing two of them. These descriptions are conveniently published in Pierini, L'arca di San Cerbone (above, n. 3), 41–7. It is also clear from these descriptions that—at some point in the Arca's history — the relief placed at each end of the chest had been reversed with its counterpart, thus disrupting the coherence of the narrative.

8 Petrocchi, L., Massa Marittima. Arte e storia (Florence, 1900), 49–50Google Scholar. According to Petrocchi, the high altar table itself would have been supported by a single column that in his day was located under the altar table of the chapel of Saint Joseph, to the right of the canons' choir. See also Lombardi, E., Massa Marittima e il suo territorio nella storia e nell'arte (Siena, 1985), 272Google Scholar; Massa Marittima (Florence, 1986), 36Google Scholar: Lombardi dated the column to the fourteenth century and, like Petrocchi, associated it with the Arca of Saint Cerbone and the high altar. Today, this broad, but short, spirally-fluted column, divided by a cord at its centre, supports a free-standing altar table placed in front of the high altar. For further discussion of the eleven statues, see below, n. 9.

9 Carli, Goro di Gregorio (above, n. 3), 13–54, esp. pp. 14 and 63. For illustration of the eleven statues representing Saints John the Baptist, Peter and Paul, four prophets and four apostles, see Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 46–8. Described by Della Valle (1785) and Arus (1884) as grouped around the Arca under the high altar (see Pierini, L'arca di San Cerbone, above, n. 3, 43, 47), they were placed in the canons' choir in 1921. Carli, Goro di Gregorio (above, n. 3), 48, considered the canons' choir to have been the original location of the statues, making the perceptive point that the uneven number of eleven statues could have been set up in a logical sequence around the five sides of the pentagonal choir. Around 1950, the statues were moved, together with the Arca, to the crypt. In 1997, they were no longer there, having been moved to the more secure location of the Canonica. For a summary of the differing views on their authorship, ranging from Gano di Fazio to Agnolo di Ventura, see Pierini, L'arca di San Cerbone (above, n. 3), 19–21.

10 See, for example, Garms, J., ‘Gräber von Heiligen und Seligen’, in Garms, J. and Romanini, A.M. (eds), Skulptur und Grabmal des Spätmittelalters in Rom und Italien. Akten des Kongresses ‘Scultura e monumento sepolcrale del tardo medioevo a Roma e in Italia’ (Rome, 1985)(Vienna, 1990), 83–105, esp. pp. 89–90Google Scholar; Pierini, L'arca di San Cerbone (above, n. 3), 16–21; F. Ames-Lewis, Tuscan Marble Carving 1250–1350: Sculpture and Civic Pride (Aldershot/Brookfield (Vermont), 1997), 175–6. By publishing the Alinari photograph of the Arca under the high altar without comment, White, J. in Art and Architecture in Italy 1250–1400 (Harmonds worth, 1966) (third edition: New Haven/London, 1993), 446–7Google Scholar, also implied that this was the sculpture's original location.

11 Moskowitz, A.F., Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico and its Legacy (University Park (Pennsylvania), 1994), 43, 62Google Scholar, n. 51. A number of other authors also imply that the Arca was once a free-standing monument but have not elaborated upon this point. See Kreytenberg, G., ‘Dreigotische Grabmonumente von Heiligen in Volterra’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 34 (1990), 69–100Google Scholar, esp. p. 69; King, C., ‘Effigies: human and divine’, in Norman, D. (ed.), Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion, 1280–1400 (New Haven/London, 1995), II, 105–27, esp. pp. 120–1Google Scholar; Cannon, J. in Cannon, J. and Vauchez, A., Margherita of Cortona and the Lorenzetti: Sienese Art and the Cult of a Holy Woman in Medieval Tuscany (University Park (Pennsylvania), 1999), 74Google Scholar, n. 142.

12 Norman, D., Siena and the Virgin: Art and Politics in a Late-medieval City State (New Haven/London, 1999), 115–21Google Scholar, esp. p. 120.

13 ANNO D[OMI]NI MCCCXXIIII I[N]DI[C]T[IONE] VII MAGIST[ER] PERUCI[US] OP[ER]ARI[US] EC[C]LE[SIAE] FECIT FI[ERI] H[OC] OPUS MAG[IST]RO GORO GREGORII DE SENIS.

14 For these documentary references to Goro di Gregorio and the light that they shed on the sculptor's work, see Pierini, L'arca di San Cerbone (above, n. 3), 3–7, 23–9.

15 By the money raised from the sale of candles on the feast of the Assumption. See Archivio di Stato, Siena [hereafter, ASS], Diplomatico, ‘Riformagioni di Massa’, 8 Jan. 1315 (1316, modern style of dating), published in Milanesi, G., Documenti per la storia dell'arte senese (Siena, 1854–1856), I, 179–80Google Scholar. For discussion of the contents of this document and its relationship to two early fourteenth-century paintings in the cathedral, one of which is now known as the Madonna delle Grazie, see Norman, Siena and the Virgin (above, n. 12), 109–15. See also below, p. 204.

16 Transcribed in Lombardi, Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 22, 24, 30, 33, 36, 38. These indicate that between 1267 and 1447 the baptismal font, extended east end, sacristy and choir stalls were all the responsibilty of individually-named operai.

17 ASS, Diplomatico, ‘Riformagioni di Massa’, 6 November 1411. This document also indicates that the operai were elected by the Consiglio Maggiore of Massa Marittima in consultation with the bishop.

18 For a wider discussion of this point, see Norman, Siena and the Virgin (above, n. 12), 107–31. The reliquary of Saint Cerbone, formally housed in the Cappella delle Reliquie (for which, see below, n. 67), is now kept with other reliquaries in the Canonica. Although formerly attributed to a fifteenth-century artist, it is now generally believed to be a fine example of fourteenth-century Sienese oreficeria. See A.R. Calderoni Masetti, ‘Il reliquiario della Croce nel duomo di Massa Marittima’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 22 (1978), 1–26, esp. p. 22, fig. 27; Santi, B., ‘Massa Marittima’, in Santi, B. (ed.), Guida storico-artistica alla Maremma (Siena, 1995), 36Google Scholar.

19 Biblioteca Comunale, Siena [hereafter, BCS], ms K VII 24, ‘Vita di Santi Senesi’, fols 291r–293v, ‘Relatione della traslatione di Santo Cerbone seguita in Massa Marittima di Maremma l'anno 1600’, published in Pierini, L'arca di San Cerbone (above, n. 3), 35–9. A note on folio 4r, written by the librarian, Luigi de Angelis, refers to the transfer of this manuscript from San Domenico, Siena, to the Biblioteca Comunale in 1811. The handwriting of the ‘Relatione’ appears, however, to be seventeenth century and therefore contemporary with the events it is describing.

20 Archivio Comunale di Massa Marittima [hereafter, ACMM], ‘Riformagioni’, 30 (old signature 662), fols 65r–67r (an official government record, made on 9 June 1600, of events that took place between 4 and 6 June 1600), consulted by Petrocchi, Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 53, n. 1; Carli, Goro di Gregorio (above, n. 3), 58, n. 15; Pierini, L'arca di San Cerbone (above, n. 3), 16; Norman, Siena and the Virgin (above, n. 12), 227–8, n. 48. ASS, Notarile post cosimiano, Originali 236, ‘Ser Cosimo Melchiorri da Massa’, 6 June 1600, no. 414 (a legal record of the translation of the saint's relics on 6 June, 1600).

21 This papal bull, issued on 15 March 1600 by Pope Clement VIII, is published in Cesaretti, A., Serie cronologica de' vescovi della diocesi di Populonia e Massa Marittima, con documenti e memorie a' medesimi appartenenti (Florence, c. 1770), 181Google Scholar, no. 84.

22 ‘Relatione della traslatione di Santo Cerbone’, fol. 293r/v (above, n. 19): ‘il vescovo ripose con l'aiuto del Vicario et deli canonici la cassa dele sacre reliquie nel pilo di marmo o di trivertino che già molti e molti anni fu murato sotto l'altar maggiore, a torno del quale come già fu detto sta sculpita di mezzo rilievo la vita del glorioso Santo Cerbone’.

23 Carli, Goro di Gregorio (above, n. 3), 14 and 63.

24 Petrocchi, Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 53, n. 1; Carli, Goro di Gregorio (above, n. 3), 18.

25 ‘Relatione della traslatione di Santo Cerbone’ (above, n. 19), fol. 292f: ‘scoperse un quadro di trivertino … sopra del quale era in sigillo grande impresso in cera bianca representando le 3 navate della chiesa et in quella di mezzo stava impresso Santo Cerbone … sotto stava impressa l'arme episcopale del reverendissimo Girolamo de'Conti romano erano in due cerchi cavati in detto cuperchio due altri armi impresse in cera bianca del suddetto vescovo e due altre de la Città di Massa’.

26 Cesaretti, Serie cronologica de' vescovi (above, n. 21), 5960. On 31 August 1487 Innocent VIII issued an official complaint to the Sienese government about their lack of action over this incident. The reason given for the papal interdict was the sale by the commune of Massa Marittima of properties belonging to the papacy in the castles of Montioni and Valle. During the thirteenth century the bishop and the cathedral chapter of Massa Marittima had owned parts of both castles but, by the beginning of the fifteenth century, these had been ceded to the Appiani signori of Piombino. See Repetti, E., Dizionario geografico fisico storico della Toscana (Florence, 1833–1843), III, 588–9Google Scholar, V, 671.

27 The account of the years 1483 to 1487 by Malavolti, Orlando in Dell'historia di Siena (Siena, 1599) (reprinted Bologna, 1982), IIIGoogle Scholar, bk 5, fols 86v–93r, offers a sense of the political complexity and instability of the period. For a more recent analysis of the period 1487–92, see Camogli, M. Gattoni da, Pandolfo Petrucci e la politico esterna della Repubblica di Siena 1487–1512) (Siena, 1997), 27–54Google Scholar; Shaw, C., ‘Politics and institutional innovation in Siena, 1480–1498’, Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria 103 (1996), 9–102, esp. pp. 72–102Google Scholar; 104 (1997), 194–307, esp. pp. 194–247.

28 For a detailed reconstruction of the original form of the Arca of Saint Dominic, see Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico (above n. 11), 9–13, and Dodsworth, B.W., The Arca di San Domenico (New York, 1995), 13–14Google Scholar, 57. See also Cannon, J., ‘Dominic alter Christus? Representations of the founder in and after the Arca di San Domenico’, in Emery, K. Jr andWawrykow, J. (eds), Christ among the Medieval Dominicans: Representations of Christ in the Texts and Images of the Order of Preachers (Notre Dame (Indiana), 1998), 26–48Google Scholar, esp. pp. 30–6.

29 Goro di Ciuccio Ciuti, a stoneworker from Florence, who, together with Lapo and Donato (known members of Nicola Pisano's workshop), applied for Sienese citizenship in 1272. See ASS, Consiglio Generale, 15, fols 59v–60r, relevant extracts published in Milanesi, Documenti (above, n. 15), I, 153–4. For Lapo's participation on the Arca of Saint Dominic, see Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 11), 2.

30 In 1469 Niccolö dell'Arca was commissioned to add an elaborate marble lid that was embellished with numerous statues. Dodsworth, The Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 28), 33, has suggested that the thirteenth-century caryatid figures were removed in 1411 when the Arca was placed in a new chapel. R. Klebanoff, ‘Sacred magnificence: civic intervention an d the arca of San Domenico in Bologna’, Renaissance Studies 13 (1999), 412–29, esp. pp. 416–17, has proposed, however, that they were removed in 1473 when the new crowning structure was put into place.

31 Dodsworth, The Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 28), 33.

32 Arus, A., Una visita alla cattedrale di Massa Marittima. Cenno storico dimostrativo del Can. Arturo Arus (Massa Marittima, 1884)Google Scholar, published in Pierini, L'arca di San Cerbone (above, n. 3), 47.

33 See above, p. 195, n. 8.

34 For illustration, in colour, and more detailed discussion of these paintings and their function as the cathedral high altarpiece, see Norman, Siena and the Virgin (above, n. 12), 109–15, pls 120–1.

35 See above p. 199, n. 15.

36 ACHILL[ES] SERGARD[IUM] SENEN[SIS] MASSAE ET POPUL[ONIA] EP[ISCOP]US, HOC ALTARE IN D[IVI] CERB[ONII] HONOR[EM] CO[N]SEC[RAVIT] ET VISIT[AN]TIB[US] AN[N]UAM XXXX DIE[RUM] I[N]DULG[ENTIAM] CO[N]CESS[IT], XVI K[A]L[ENDAS] IUL[IAS] 1588.

37 There are examples of fourteenth-century saints' shrines being displayed above high altar tables. Thus the Arca of Saint Donato in the cathedral of Arezzo, carved between c. 1364 and 1384, always doubled as a sculpted backdrop for the high altar. The Arca of Saint Augustine in San Pietro in Cielo, Pavia, carrying an inscription of 1362, was only incorporated into the design of the high altar in the eighteenth century. See Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico (above n. 11), 43, 60, n. 75. The placing of the shrine of Saint Margherita over the high altar of Santa Margherita, Cortona, first occurred in 1580. See Cannon, Margherita of Cortona and the Lorenzetti (above, n. 11), 63, 64.

38 Vauchez, A., La sainteté en Occident aux derniers siècles du Moyen Age (Rome, 1981), 497–518Google Scholar; Cannon, Margherita of Cortona and the Lorenzetti (above, n. 11), 53–4. For a valuable survey of the variety of tomb-types used for saints and beati, see Garms, ‘Graber von Heiligen und Seligen’ (above, n. 10).

39 Now housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Pisa, and illustrated in Cannon, Margherita of Cortona and the Lorenzetti (above, n. 11), figs 28 and 29. For a reconstruction of the Arca of Saint Ranieri, see M. Seidel, ‘Studien zu Giovanni di Balduccio und Tino di Camaino’, Städel Jahrbuch n.s. 5 (1975), 37–84, esp. pp. 71–8.

40 The painted retable is now on loan to the Pinacoteca, Siena. The wooden tomb-chest is lost but is described in a visitation report of 1575. See Butzek, M., ‘Sant'Agostino’, in Riedl, P.A. and Seidel, M. (eds), Die Kirchen von Siena (Munich, 1985), I, i, 210, 212Google Scholar; Bagnoli, A. and Seidel, M., ‘Il Beato Agostino Novello e quattro suoi miracoli’, in Simone Martini e ‘chompagni’ (exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1985), 56–72Google Scholar; M. Seidel, ‘Ikonographie und Historiographie’, Städel Jahrbuch n.s. 10 (1985), 77–142, esp. pp. 77–110; ‘Condizionamento iconografico e scelta semantica, Simone Martini e la tavola del Beato Agostino Novello’, in Bellosi, L. (ed.), Simone Martini: atti del convegno (Siena, 1985) (Florence, 1988), 75–80Google Scholar.

41 A seventeenth-century watercolour in the Biblioteca Comunale e dell'Accademia Etrusca, Cortona, provides valuable evidence of the original form of this elaborate shrine. For a comprehensive discussion of the siting of the tomb in the newly-constructed church of San Basilio, the form it took, its date of execution and its sculptor, see Cannon, Margherita of Cortona and the Lorenzetti (above, n. 11), 63–78.

42 Two other contemporary examples, also executed by Sienese sculptors, would have been the Arca of the Blessed Gioacchino in Santa Maria dei Servi, Siena, and the Arca of the Blessed Bartolo, in Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano. Attributed to Gano di Fazio and dated between 1305 and 1311, the Arca of the Blessed Gioacchino probably took the form of a tomb-chest placed above an altar and decorated with reliefs depicting scenes from the life of Gioacchino (three of which are now on display in the Pinacoteca, Siena). See Biasion, G. Bardotti, ‘Gano di Fazio e la tomba-altare di Santa Margherita da Cortona’, Prospettiva 37 (1984), 2–19Google Scholar, esp. pp. 3–6, figs 4–7. The Arca of the Blessed Bartolo, attributed to Tino di Camaino and executed between 1317 and 1318 (but still incomplete in 1327), probably took the form of an effigy of the saint and a tombchest set above an altar. See Kreytenberg, G., ‘Zum gotischen Grabma l des heiligen Bartolo von Tino di Camaino in der Augustinerkirche von San Gimignano’, Pantheon 46 (1988), 13–25Google Scholar.

43 For the Arca of Saint Dominic, see above, p. 203, nn. 28, 30. For the Arca of Saint Peter Martyr, see Moskowitz, A., ‘Giovanni di Balduccio's Arca di San Pietro Martire: form and function’, Arte Lombarda 96 (7) (1991), 7–18Google Scholar; Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 11), 27–31. The Arca of Saint Augustine in San Pietro Ciel d'Oro (carrying the date 1362 and attributed to the circle of Giovanni di Balduccio), although designed as a free-standing monument incorporating reliefs and statues on all four sides, is different in design from the two Dominican shrines since it incorporates an effigy of the saint. For its design and history, see Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 11), 31–5. For the Arca of Saint Donato in the cathedral of Arezzo, see above, n. 37.

44 Another example of this type of free-standing monument that would probably have been known to Goro di Gregorio would have been the Arca of the Blessed Ambrogio Sansedoni (ob. 1287). Set up in a now demolished chapel off the north aisle of San Domenico, Siena, it appears from a description by a sixteenth-century historian, Sigismondo Tizio, that it was an ornate marble Arca surrounded on all four sides by columns and ironwork screens. See Teubner, H., ‘San Domenico’, in Riedl, and Seidel, (eds), Die Kirchen von Siena (above, n. 40), II, ii, 503–5Google Scholar, esp. p. 503, n. 159. In nearby Volterra, meanwhile, would have been the Arca of Saint Ottaviano. Dated c. 1320 and attributed to Tino di Camaino, the form that this free-standing monument took has been reconstructed in Kreytenberg, ‘Drei gotische Grabmonumente’ (above, n. 11), 69–72. Further afield, the Arca of Saint Luke stood in Santa Giustina, Padua, dated to c. 1316 and attributed to an anonymous Tuscan sculptor. See King, C., ‘The arts of carving and casting’, in Norman, (ed.), Siena, Florence and Padua (above, n. 11), I, 97–121Google Scholar, esp. pp. 111–12, fig. 117. For two examples of free-standing reliquary tombs executed in the 1330s and 1340s for churches in Udine, see Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 11), 41–2, 43, figs 82–3.

45 Cannon, J., Dominican Patronage of the Arts in Central Italy: the Provincia Romana c. 1220–c. 1320 (Ph.D. thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 1980), 171–2Google Scholar; Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 11), 6–8, 13–15; Dodsworth, The Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 28), 26–32, 48, n. 50.

46 Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 11), 28, 29, fig. 64.

47 As was the case for the Arca of Saint Dominic and that of Saint Peter Martyr. The Arca of Saint Luke in Santa Giustina, Padua (see above, n. 44), offers a sense of the form that the architectural supports of the Arca of Saint Cerbone might have taken. The spiral column associated by Petrocchi and Lombardi with the Arca (see above, n. 8) could have acted as a central support for it, although its height is well below the 1.5 m proposed in this reconstruction.

48 Its overall design would thus have been broadly similar to the 1337 tomb of Alamanni de' Cavicciuoli in the north loggia of Santa Croce, Florence, although held up by eight, rather than four, supports. The Florentine tomb is illustrated in Kosegarten, A. Middeldorf, ‘Identifizierung eines Grabmals von Nicola Pisano. Zur Genese des Reliefsarkophags in der Toskana’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 22 (1978), 119–46Google Scholar, esp. p. 140, fig. 29.

49 Early sources for the life of Saint Cerbone are the late sixth-century Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great (Patrologia Latina (Paris, 1849), LXXVIIGoogle Scholar, cols 237–40), and a later legend (probably dating from the eighth or ninth century), recorded in two manuscripts, Vatican, Codex 6453 (transcribed in the Acta Sanctorum, Octobris V (Paris/Rome, 1868), 96–102)Google Scholar, and BCS, ms S XII 16.

50 In a fortified palace on a summit known as Monteregio, which later became the site of the ‘upper city’ of Mass a Marittima. For a convenient summary of the history of the early bishops of Massa Marittima, see Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 7–10.

51 Lombardi, Massa Marittima e il suo territorio (above, n. 8), 27, 149, 287.

52 The 1204 document, drawn up in the house of the Spedale dell'Opera di San Cerbone, is published in Lombardi, Massa Marittima e il suo territorio (above, n. 8), 202–3. For further references to the Spedale, see also pp. 16, 47, 261–2; Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 10.

53 Even in the nineteenth century, travelling this road was not without its hazards, however, as shown by the description of a journey undertaken in 1864 by the American writer, Howells, W.D., Italian Journeys (1867, reprinted Marlboro (Vermont), 1988), 118–25Google Scholar.

54 Repetti, , Dizionario geografico (above, n. 26), V, 141–2Google Scholar, cited a document, dated 1099, that records a donation made to Giovanni, bishop of Massa, and makes a reference to the church of San Cerbone in Massa. Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 9–12, 17–22, accepted that a church dedicated to the saint may have existed on the site of the present cathedral at this early date, but, on stylistic grounds, dated the oldest parts of the present cathedral to the mid-twelfth century, a view with which Santi, ‘Massa Marittima’ (above, n. 18), concurred. Lombardi (Massa Marittima e il suo territorio (above, n. 8), 257, 261; Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 14, 17–18) proposed that the first church of San Cerbone was built between 1015 and 1050 and the oldest parts of the present cathedral in the late eleventh century.

55 Illustrated in Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 35. The dating of the reliefs is also a matter of debate. Lombardi (Massa Marittima e il suo territorio (above, n. 8), 263; Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 21) dated them to the twelfth century, but Santi, ‘Massa Marittima’ (above, n. 18), 29, proposed a date in the early thirteenth century.

56 The first scene has sometimes been misidentified as the transport of Saint Cerbone's mortal remains back from Elba to Populonia. See, for example, Lombardi, Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 21, Santi, ‘Massa Marittima’ (above, n. 18), 29. However, as pointed out by Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 35, the relief shows (apart from the oarsmen) three standing figures in the boat gesturing towards an angel in the sky. These must represent Saints Cerbone, Regolo and Felice giving thanks for the divine protection afforded to them on their perilous sea journey from Africa to Italy.

57 The primary evidence for this is three doors at the east end of the cathedral adjacent to the crossing. Two of these are external doorways, both of which show signs of having been lowered by some 1.71–1.73 m and also widened at some stage of their history. The third door, now set some 2.38 m above the floor of the cathedral, and blocked up, would once have given access to the first floor of the campanile from the raised chancel. See Lombardi, Massa Marittima e il suo territorio (above, n. 8), 259, 262, 265; Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 15–16, 20, 25. It is possible that the series of stone reliefs (variously dated between the tenth and twelfth centuries and now displayed on the inner façade of the cathedral) could once have been part of the embellishment of the saint's first shrine.

58 See above, n. 57. An epitaph to Inghiramo, Count of Biserno, set beside the south exterior door, gives a date of 1313. This would suggest that the remodelling of the door occurred at approximately that time. A full transcription of the epitaph is given in Lombardi, Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 25.

59 INCEPTUM FUIT HOC OPUS ANNO D[OMINI] MCCLXXXVII IND[ITIONE] XV BIGALLO OPERARIO EXISTENTE QUI FECIT AUGUMENTARI ECCLESIAM [-] PISANUS ME FECIT. For a judicious case made for not associating ‘Pisanus’ with Giovanni Pisano, see White, Art and Architecture in Italy (above, n. 10), 54, Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 22, 24.

60 An inscription over the door of the present sacristy gives the date 1341 and the name of Muccino Guidocci as the current operaio. A tomb slab originally from the chapel at the west end of the south transept also gives the date of 1338. See Lombardi, Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 28, 35, 36.

61 A stone coat of arms at the apex of the arch of the first bay of the chancel carries the insignia of the Piccolomini family and a painted inscription: ANNO D[OMI]NI MCCCIV IND[IZIONE] III A LA SIGNORIA DI MESSER CIONE D'ALEMANNO PICCOLOMINI DI SIENA LA PRIMA VOLTA CAPITANO DEL POPOLO DI MASSA. A second coat of arms at the apex of the arch of the second bay of the chancel (and thus directly over the high altar ) carries the insignia of the Tolomei family. Cristofano di Mino Melloni dei Tolomei was bishop of Massa Marittima between 1310 and 1313. see Lombardi, Massa Marittima e il suo territorio (above, n. 8), 264.

62 See White, Art and Architecture in Italy (above, n. 10), 54, 55–6; Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 24–5; Santi, ‘Massa Marittima’ (above, n. 18), 31.

63 In fact, it is not absolutely certain that this part of the cathedral was originally designed specifically as a canons' choir — although the commissioning of a double-sided altarpiece for the high altar (see above, p. 204), would strongly suggest that it was. The present choir stalls were only placed there in 1786, replacing other s executed in 1421. These, therefore, do not throw any light on the Arca's original location. See Lombardi, Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 38.

64 Although the earliest evidence for such a dedication is, however, the record of the 1588 reconsecration of the high altar (see above, n. 36).

65 See above, pp. 195, 204.

66 Now known as the Succorpo or chiesina, in the fifteenth century the crypt was used as the meeting-place of a local confraternity, the Compagnia della Santissima Trinità e del Santo Nome di Gesù. A fifteenth-century fresco of The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saints John the Evangelist, Cerbone and Bernardino still adorns its west wall. See Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 40.

67 Reached by a door in the north transept, with the date of 1940 on its lintel. This gives access to a small vestibule that replaces the former Cappella delle Reliquie that was demolished in 1955 but is clearly visible in the plan of the cathedral (Fig. 11) published in Negri, D., Chiese romaniche in Toscana (Pistoia, 1978), 410Google Scholar. See also the rather confusing references made to the chapel in Petrocchi, Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 56–7, and Lombardi, Massa Marittima (above, n. 8), 40.

68 If the Arca had been placed in the nave, it would have impeded the progress of ceremonial processions between the principal entrance door on the west façade and the high altar at the east end. Since the south aisle was directly adjacent to the medieval Canonica, it is unlikely that the Arca would have been placed there.

69 See above p. 213, n. 57.

70 See Ashton, M., ‘Segregation in church’, Studies in Church History 27 (1990), 237–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. pp. 241–2, 269–81.

71 See above, pp. 205–6, nn. 40 and 41, pp. 207–8, n. 43. The Arca of the Blessed Agostino Novello and the Arca of Saint Peter Martyr both stood west of substantial choir screens that were characteristic features of mendicant churches. There is much less information about the presence of choir screens in Italian cathedrals, but it appears that by the 1380s, if not earlier, there was a choir screen in Siena cathedral. See Aronow, G., ‘A description of the altars in Siena cathedral in the 1420s’, in H. van Os, Sienese Altarpieces 1215–1460 (Groningen, 1990), II, 225–37Google Scholar, esp. p. 232. There may, therefore, have been a choir screen in the cathedral of Massa Marittima.

72 Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 65–6. Although Carli did not give a date for the recovery of this fresco, his reference to it suggests that in 1976 it had only recently been discovered. Earlier works on the cathedral do not describe it.

73 Another painting located to the left of the side entrance of the cathedral, here proposed as the main point of accesss to the Arca in the north aisle, provides further evidence that this area of the cathedral was a focal point for pilgrimage. Tiny in scale, it shows a half-length image of the Virgin with the Christ Child in her arms and the inscription ‘Ego [sum] lux mundi’. Owing to its highly conventional subject-matter, it is very difficult to establish a precise date for it, but it has the character of a votive image.

74 Acta Sanctorum, Octobris V (above, n. 49), 99. This incident is described as taking place during the saint's journey to Rome to meet with Pope Vigilius.

75 A similar kind of emphasis upon miraculous events that took place as a result of a saint's prayers for divine healing also occurs on sculpted imagery of the Arca of Saint Dominic, for which see Cannon, ‘Dominic alter Christus? (above, n. 28), 31, 33. Thus it appears once again that the Arca of Saint Dominic was highly influential for the design and programme of the Arca of Saint Cerbone.

76 It appears that in the case of the Arca of San Dominic and the Arca of Saint Peter Martyr, both monuments stood perpendicular to the main axis of the church, rather than parallel to it. See Moskowitz, Nicola Pisano's Arca di San Domenico (above, n. 11), figs 6 and 64. If the Arca of Saint Cerbone had been so positioned, there would have been only 0.845 m between it and the north aisle wall. This would have impeded easy circulation around the shrine. The Arca of Saint Luke in Santa Giustina in Padua would have provided a precedent for a monument of this type being placed parallel to the main axis of the building in which it was erected. See King, ‘The arts of carving and casting’ (above, n. 44), 112.

77 Althoug h the western door on the north side of the cathedral now appears much more imposing than its eastern counterpart, clearly it has been enlarged at a later date. Moreover, if pilgrims had entered the cathedral by this door and approached the Arca from the west, they would not have been able to read the narrative scenes in thei r correct order.

78 In the account of the life of Saint Cerbone's in the Acta Sanctorum, Octobris V (see above, n. 49), the miracle of bears is placed after Cerbone's conflict with the citizens of Populonia and subsequent journey to Rome. It is clear, however, that the account of the miracle of the bears, together with the account of Cerbone's death, has simply been taken, verbatim, from the Dialogues of Gregory the Great and added to the preceding summary of the life of the saint. Moreover, it is clear from the narrative sequence of the sculpted reliefs above the main door of the cathedral — which pre-date the Arca — that local tradition placed the miracle of the bears before the saint's journey to Rome to meet Pope Vigilius.

79 Acta Sanctorum, Octobris V (above, n. 49), 100. The centrality of this event for the cult of Saint Cerbone is confirmed by the design of the stained-glass oculus on the façade of the cathedral, which depicts, as its central scene, Pope Vigilius standing to greet Saint Cerbone at their meeting in Rome. The date of the oculus is a matter of debate but it is generally considered to be late fourteenth-century. See Carli, L'arte a Massa Marittima (above, n. 3), 68–71; Santi, ‘Massa Marittima’ (above, n. 18), 33.

80 It is possible that — like the Arca of the Blessed Ambrogio Sansedoni — the Arca was protected by metalwork screens or grilles (see above, n. 44). The raised stone tomb-chest, however, probably itself provided sufficient security for the relics.

81 For a detailed discussion of the practice of encircling saints' tomb s with wax, see Cannon, Margherita of Cortona and the Lorenzetti (above, n. 11), 57–60.