inventari delle proprietà del Convento di San Domenico in Bologna Dem240/7574
as to be able to meet the expenses they must have incurred in order to provide meals for so many people and organize the related hospitality. It is also fascinating to see the list of foods; to note the great quantities of meat that were served on this occasion, all in defiance of the Dominicans’ Constitution which forbade them this food. However, we know that meat was allowed for the sick and on the occasion of great events, as this important General Chapter certainly was76. It is also worth noting the accounting records for the woodwork costs, for the work of the blacksmith as well as for the fitting of locks or for the window gratings and for masonry work in the cells. Important personages take part in this General Chapter: a Cardinal, Masters and Provincials of the Order from all over Europe as well as the most important citizens of Bologna. And now we have reached the end of this volume.
Vol. Dem240-IV
Fourth sample– Campione Quarto
This volume follows the pattern of the previous volume (Dem240-III); it begins with a paper which lists all the areas containing the properties of the Dominicans in alphabetical order and, to the right of their name, we find the number of the paper, in Arabic numerals, with the information regarding such and such a property ; to all intents and purposes, what we are looking at here is an index. This first paper is followed by other different papers with the name of the place at the top of the page and in the centre and, then, the description of the property/ies, the definition of the relative borders, the surface areas even if they are not always given , the kind of crops grown and possible contractual details. The volume starts with the place known as Sant Ágata and finishes with the locality of Ventiana in the district of Budrio. Perusing our papers we often meet with pages with only the heading of the place while the remainder of the page is empty or, sometimes, it has only one or two lines without any precise indications. We have just said that this volume follows the same structure as the third volume as defined in the first paper of the same by the Prior at that time, Marco from Chioggia. Looking through these papers we encounter the first instance of having to pay a tithe to the Bishop of Bologna 77. Continuing our reading we also see that the testamentary dispositions of the donors do not limit themselves to defining the terms of the property left as an inheritance; it happens, for example, that Friar Domisdei, of the Third Order of Saint Bernard, not only leaves a property which is located in the territory of Corticella, in the suburbs of the town, with the related enjoyment of the fruits; the donor also establishes the criteria for the division of these fruits among the various communities cited in his will. Frequently we find that the testamentary dispositions go so far as to define the part of the funds with which the deceased must be commemorated; they even insist on the preparation of special meals (pictancie) to be eaten on the occasion of special feast days and how much should be spent on these meals and on which days they should be consumed78. We have already said that the donor often leaves an undivided inheritance among several religious communities and they also often stipulate how their inheritance ought to be managed. Thus we find that a certain Margherita Balducci leaves instructions in her will that the Carmelite friars should manage her monetary legacy in the person of the Prior of this community but she also wants him to be helped by the Prior of the Friars of San Michele in Bosco, by the Prior of San Martino, by the Prior of the Hermit Friars and by the Prior, or rather, by the Guardian of the Friars Minor. Margherita, moreover, establishes that these “Commissioners” should each receive 4 lire every year in perpetuity. However, she also states that the first year after her death “five parts of six” of her fund must be spent on the clothing and the necessities of the novices of San Martino, that on the second year after her death the same sum must be given to the novices of the Hermit Friars, that on the third year the same be done for the novices of the Preaching Friars, that on the fourth year the same should be done for the novices of the Friars Minor while on the fifth year the same should be done for the poor and for the prisoners who leave jail79. By now we are in the mid XV Century and the vernacular Italian language appears more and more frequently; we have already met it, even if in a very limited way, in the preceding volume, but here we find that in a paper80 the scriptor lets himself go: “Memoria: chome li diti frati del terzo ordine di San Francesco asignarono in chambio de libre 29 che erano tanti a pagare in perpetuo a li diti frati de San Domenico per un pezo de tere zoe in doi pezi contigui de tornature XXV 02 ….. poste in ……eto di sopra a presso anche di decressente da pozia a lordonia seu moia che soe de Zane de….. 76 P. Lippini, La vita quotidiana di un convento Medievale, Bologna Edizioni Studio Domenicano, 2003, pp. 240-245 77 Dem240-IV-008r 78 Dem240-IV-009r 79 Dem240-IV-012v 80 Dem240-IV-019v 20
inventari delle proprietà del Convento di San Domenico in Bologna Dem240/7574
one strazarolo e fo de li 1446 a dì … per ser Petro del Bonum nodario81 As we continue to read we sometimes find that the scriptor highlights a note by drawing a small hand with a long index finger pointing to the line containing the same note82; it is a detail we have already met now and then in the preceding volumes. Another original feature of this volume is the way in which the position of a building belonging to the friars is defined in relation to a well – known point of the town such as for example, the seat of the Municipality of Bologna. The related position is defined with “latitude - latitudine” and “longitude – longitudine” and the distance is expressed in “piedi bolognesi83” Bolognese feet; continuing with the reading of the lines that follow we also find a mention of the house near the seat of the Municipality in which they “produce the coins of Bologna”, namely the mint of the Municipality of Bologna. And it is here while mentioning certain shops, used as pharmacies, that they tell us that these same shops were set on fire on August 1st 1428 when Battista Canetoli and his followers expelled the Church from the territory of Bologna (“fuerunt combuste a furore populi de anno Domini 1428 die primo augusti quando ecclesia fuit expulsa de civitate per Baptista de Canetolo84”). We know that in 1417 the election of Pope Martin V marks the beginning of a period of very great conflict with Bologna because the town was one of the main opponents to the restoration of papal power when this Pope returned from Costanza to Italy in 1418. From Mantova, the Pope resumed negotiations in order to restore the town to the Church but, while the citizens of Bolgna asked to be granted the twenty-year Apostolic Vicariate in exchange for a moderate sum of money, the Pope wanted to maintain the town under the direct control of the Holy See so as to use it as a base to attack Braccio da Montone, called Fortebraccio. Due to a grave financial crisis in 1419, Bologna agrees to be back under the government of the Church; it does not obtain the Vicariate, but is confirmed as a Democratic State thanks to Nicolo’Albergati. In 1424 Anton Galeazzo Bentivoglio breaks his alliance with the Canetoli, throws them out and occupies the town hall. In this way the conflict with the Pope breaks out anew and the latter requests help from Fortebraccio; he occupies the castles in the territory and enters the town whose government is assumed by the Papal Legate. In 1422 Maria Visconti occupies Bologna in order to give help to the Pope. In August 1428 Battista Canetoli seizes the town hall and forces his former ally, the Legate Nicolo’ Albergati, to leave the town. In October of the same year Martin V issues a Papal Interdict against the town85. Continuing our reading we again find another piece of interesting news; here we read of an important foreign Univerity Institution, the “Residence Hall of Spain – Collegio di Spagna” founded in 1364 by Cardinal Gil de Albornoz, which already has a series of properties spread throughout the territory only fifty years after its foundation. We can understand the reference from the mention that the scriptor makes when defining the boundaries of some land, located in the area of Sala and belonging to the Dominicans (“et iusta bono scolarium ispanorum86”). We can conclude by observing that this fourth volume is a little lacking in special news regarding the daily life of the town of Bologna; all the same it is a volume that performs its duty with the content of the few papers that compose it; we have already said that there are a lot of papers that compose it which only give the heading of the places; probably, after having set up the papers they did not follow the established procedures for reasons that we do not know.
81 We can say that this note in vulgar Italian language is next the original writing as it cites the year 1446 82 Dem240-IV-033r 83 Ibidem – A piede bolognese is equivalent to 38 cm. 84 Ibidem 85 A, De Benedictis, “Lo stato popolare di libertà”, pratica di governo e cultura di governo (1376 – 1506) in Storia di Bologna, Biologna nel Medioevo, Bologna, Bononia University Press,2007, pp. 909 - 910 86 Dem240-IV-038r 21