Leaning Tower of Pisa Bells Pasquereccia, 1262 From: Institue and Museum of the History of Science: Pasquereccia, cast in 1262 by Lotteringo, weighs 1,014 Kg. From: "Leaning Tower of Pisa, A Very Detailed Artistic Description" : The oldest is called "Pasquereccia". It was cast, as the inscription around it says, by the famous maker of bells Lotteringo. "A. D. MCCLXII -Lotteringus de Pisis me fecit - Gerardus Hospitalarius solvit" (in the year of our Lord 1262 made by Lotteringo of Pisa - Paid for by Gerardo Hospitalarius). The engraving is adorned with arabesque decorations: small rosaces, shieldes with a winged lion, an eagle, a winged horse, an angel, imperial and divine marks. The Virgin ("Vergine") with the Angel ("Annunciazione"), perhaps of Giotto's school, is to be admired. "Pasquereccia" was on the Tower of Justice and used to ring to announce the capital executions of criminals and traitors. It seems that it rung also for Count Ugolino's death. From: Sulle vie del Primo Guibileo: Campane e campanili nel territorio delle diocesi di Luni, Lucca, Pisa by Guglielmo Lera and Marcell Lera, 1998 (Researched by Joy Menze): ... This detail does not appear on any other bronze of the 63 surveyed in this study with the exception of the small Byzantine cross that opens the inscription on the bell conserved in the bell tower of the church of Cavezzana Gordana (Massa) of 1303 (card 63). As noted above, the placement of these four bronzes was estimated to have occurred in the first decades of the XIII century, in which case the unknown craftsman of S. Andrew would be the first to have introduced a decorative frieze, now most difficult to read given the strong oxidation of the metal on the surface of the bell. More certain is the date 1258 for the casting of the large bell by Bartolomeus Pisanus cum filio suo Andreotto (Bartolomeo Pisano with his son Andreotto) placed in the bell tower of S. Michele in Foro at Lucca, where for the first time a frieze has the function to separate the two parts of a complex inscription. The frieze, decorated by woven branches, in effect separates the line of the inscription related to the invocation, date and authors, from that dedicated to the purchasers. Andreotto Pisano, who by himself, in the year 1258, cast the second largest bell of the Lucchese bell tower of S. Michele in Foro, adopted an analogous decorative scheme. Four years later the brother of Andreotto, Loteringo, developed and enriched the same scheme in the bell project la Giustizia, a bell cast for the Tower Vergata in Palazzo Pretorio in Pisa and at the end of the XVIII century transferred on the Leaning Tower. The bell itself is not a bronze of exceptional dimensions ( 97 cm high x 95 cm diameter compared to the 120x120 and 110x110 for the two bells at S. Michele a Lucca), but its symbolic meaning is exceptional. It is the bell that announced the Justice (Giustizia) decreed by the magistrate of a powerful city of the sea that still had not known the defeat of occupation. The justice announced is not, however, that of men, but rather that of God, of which the two tiles of the Angel of the Annunciation and of the Virgin recall the Incarnation, an event beginning from which, at Pisa, the calculation of the years of the Christian era was begun. Thanks to the Incarnation and the subsequent Annunciation materialized in the bronze by the symbols of the Evangelists, the Justice of God is handed down between men and the Pisan magistrates of the Duocento (13th century), represented as pure Justice (Giustizia) in the casting of a bell that speaks with the voice of the Angels and with that of the Gospels. From: http://www.stilepisano.it/: Bartolomeo Pisano and his son Loteringo, were most skillful bronzecasters, mainly of bells. Among these the one most noted is that one called Pasquareccia in the Pisan Leaning tower. They were also distinguished by works of architeture for the imperial court of Federick II. Many thanks to Joy Menze for her interest and research into Medieval Bells. Return to Leaning Tower of Pisa Bells Unofficial Leaning Tower of Pisa Home Leaning Tower of Pisa Information Leaning Tower of Pisa History Leaning Tower of Pisa Articles Leaning Tower of Pisa News Leaning Tower of Pisa Web Links Leaning Tower of Pisa Humor Leaning Tower of Pisa Gallery Website maintained by: Gary Feuerstein