We now know for sure who was the architect who designed the Tower of Pisa (and Vasari was right)

Until now it was a highly probable hypothesis supported by a report by Giorgio Vasari, but now it is certain: we know for sure the name of the architect who conceived the Tower of Pisa. And Vasari was right: the author of the monument, one of the most famous in the world, is Bonanno Pisano, a sculptor and architect active in the late 12th century. The discovery was made by a researcher in paleography at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Giulia Ammannati (a 1995 degree in Classical Philology, with specialization in Latin Paleography obtained in 2000), who reconstructed a text found on a stone matrix that had been unearthed in 1838 in excavations around the bell tower of the Duomo.

It consists of two hexameters that contain the author’s “signature”: “mirificum qui certus opus condens statui unum, Pisanus civis Bonannus nomine dicor” (“I who, sure, have raised, founding it, an admirable work, am the Pisan citizen named Bonanno”). The matrix on which the text was imprinted was believed to be Bonanno’s tomb slab, since, until Giulia Ammannati’s study, the only three words that could be clearly read were “Bonannus civis Pisanus”: thanks to the researcher’s work, the rest of the two verses, which were previously corrupted, have been reconstructed.

The discovery is important because while until now the signatures of all the architects active in the Piazza dei Miracoli complex were known, the name of the author of the Tower of Pisa was missing. According to Giulia Ammannati, “the bad star under which the bell tower was born should not have encouraged the architect to link his name to that blatant failure”: the Tower, in fact, began to lean right away, and the construction site was interrupted, so the matrix with the signature, according to Ammannati, “was abandoned among the construction materials and debris at the foot of the work.” The discovery will be published in the volume Menia Mira Vides. The Cathedral of Pisa: the epigraphs, the program, the facade (Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali editions, Pisa-Rome).

Ph. Credit

We now know for sure who was the architect who designed the Tower of Pisa (and Vasari was right)

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.