Pisa (IT), Piazza dei Miracoli [extant] - 1926
The inscription (1926) once
adorned Pisa Cathedral’s Opera della Primaziale (Piazza del Duomo 17). It
is now stored at the Opera’s depot at Via del Campaldo 7. Engraved in white
marble and highlighted with black colouring (‘rubricated’), the text is framed
in a decorative vegetal frieze. At the centre bottom, the Opera
Primaziale’s coat of arms is featured. The Opera della Primaziale is an
institution responsible for the management, preservation, and restoration of
the Pisa Cathedral and its associated buildings and artwork in Piazza del Duomo
(also know as Piazza dei Miracoli).
Ferdinando
Puntoni (1856–1933), member of the Opera della Primaziale, proposed the
creation of a commemorative inscription. Alberto Niccolai, president of the
Opera della Primaziale, authored the Latin text. The inscription was installed
on 28 October 1926, marking the fourth anniversary of the March on Rome. It was
placed next to another significant inscription commemorating the arrival of
Charles VIII of France in 1495, which signified Pisa’s liberation from a
century of despised Florentine rule. The Fascist inscription mirrors the
Renaissance one in its design, deliberately equating the freedom granted by
Charles VIII with Mussolini, as Niccolai articulated in 1926.
The
inscription was crafted for the reconstruction and reinstalment of the pulpit
of the Cathedral of Pisa, dating to the early fourteenth century, in 1926.
Benito Mussolini attended the event, which took place on 25 May 1926 (it is
detailed in Susini 2016). The pulpit, crafted by the sculptor Giovanni Pisano
(1248–1315), was dismantled in 1599, and its pieces were stored in Pisa’s
monumental cemetery. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, various Italian
intellectuals and artists advocated for its reconstruction. The municipality of
Pisa eventually decided to proceed in the early 1920s. As some elements were
missing, Benito Mussolini personally donated the four front columns and the
staircase enabling the priest to ascend he pulpit to read the Gospel. In his
speech, Mussolini called the pulpit’s reconstruction a ‘miracle of
resurrection’, adding that ‘Fascism is not new to these spectacles: it not only
resurrects magnificent monuments of the past, it has resurrected the soul of
the nation, projecting it towards the future’ (Mussolini 1957: 144).
The
inscription commemorates the large gathering in front of Mussolini and the
city’s main civil and religious leaders. Alongside Mussolini were Cardinal
Archbishop of Pisa Pietro Maffi and Giuseppe Fascetti, the head of the
Primaziale. Both Pope Pius XI and King Vittorio Emanuele III sent their
messages of greeting and support. Cardinal Maffi was known for opposing
Fascism, specially its anticlerical stance. During this event, however,
Mussolini and Maffi had themselves photographed together in order to demonstrate
the rapprochement between Church and State that would culminate in the 1929
Lateran Pacts.
Mussolini
is described as the leader of modern Italy (novissima Italia, lit. ‘most
recent Italy’) and of the Fascists (Lictores). The theme of Nova
Italia, symbolizing the material and moral renewal of the country through
Fascism, is a recurring motif in Fascist propaganda. This renewal was
inseperable from Italy’s past, which for Fascism served as a model for
emulation. While the inscription emulates the neighbouring Renaissance
inscription, it also evokes Roman antiquity. The terms lictores and sacrorum
et urbis magistratus, for instance, link twentieth-century Pisa to its
Roman past. Pisa has long viewed itself as the successor of imperial romanità,
especially during the Middle Ages, in both political terms, due to its
republican government, and religiously, as suggested by the legend that Saint
Peter first landed in Italy at Pisa before heading to Rome. The conclusion of
the inscription reflects this connection by using the traditional Roman
calendar and by referring to the workers of the Primaziale with the ancient
Roman name of aediles.
Bibliography
AAVV. 1926. Pagine d'arte e di storia:
inaugurandosi il pergamo di Giovanni Pisano. Pisa: Mariotti.
Cavagnini, Giovanni. 2022. Immagini dal
Ventennio. Pisa e il regime fascista (1922-1943). Pisa: ETS.
Mussolini, Benito. 1957. Opera omnia.
Dall’attentato Zaniboni al discorso dell’ascensione. Edited by Eduardo
Susmel and Duilio Susmel. Vol. 22. 35 vols. Florence: La Fenice.
Niccolai, Alberto. 1926. ‘Nella gloria dell’arte.
Giovanni Pisano e il suo Pergamo.’ Il Campano 1 (25 May): 2.
———. 1926b. ‘Le vicende del Pergamo di
Giovanni. E la sua ricostruzione’. Il Campano 1 (25 May):
2.
———. 1926c. ‘La lapide alla primaziale in onore di
Mussolini’. Il Ponte di Pisa 40 (28 October): 2.
Renzo, Vanni. 1967. Fascismo e antifascismo in
Provincia di Pisa dal 1920 al 1944. Pisa: Giardini.
Susini, Fabiana. 2016. ‘La ricostruzione del pergamo di
Giovanni Pisano: solennità impareggiabile dell’arte e del fascismo’. Il
capitale culturale. Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage 14:
839-860.
Marcello Zeni
Inscription at Piazza dei Miracoli. From: Susini 2016, p. 860.
Renaissance inscription commemorating the arrival of Charles VIII (1495). © M. Zeni.