Pisa, 15 June 2024 – The signature of the author of the Tower of Pisa, Bonanno Pisanowill be visitable in exhibition inaugurated yesterday for the celebrations for the 850th anniversary of the Tower of Pisa. The exhibition “Mirror Tower. The many lives of the Campanile of Pisa Cathedral”, curated by the professor Stefano Renzonicould not avoid exhibiting the stone matrix, found in 1838, which for years had been believed to be the sepulchral slab of the sculptor Bonanno Pisano because it bore the inscription “Bonannus civis Pisanus”. Only in 2019 did the teacher Giulia Ammannatiassociate of Paleography of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, managed to decipher and reconstruct the complete text, which had been written in poetic form. In fact, these are two hexameters in Latin: mìrificùm qui cèrtus opùs condéns statui ùnum, Pìsanùs civìs Bonànnus nòmine dìcor, (“I who certainly raised, by founding it, an admirable work above all others, am the Pisan citizen called Bonanno“).
In reality, the sculptor was far from satisfied with what is now one of the most famous works in the world and the reason is precisely the slope of the Tower of Pisa, whose stability Bonanno doubtedas Professor Ammannati explains: “For many years it was believed that the signed fragment was the relic of Bonanno’s sepulchral epigraph – says Ammannati -. In reality, recent studies have shown that it was the signature that the sculptor had decided to insert on the Tower and which Bonanno Pisano never placed because the tower tilted very soon and the architect had to interrupt the work. This fact – concludes the professor – led him to the decision not to sign the monument which in his eyes had proved to be a failure”.
The research of Professor Giulia Ammannati, published in the book Menia Mira Vides. The Cathedral of Pisa: the epigraphs, the program, the façade (ed. Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafico Internazionali, Pisa-Rome), it also confirms what was written by the painter, architect and art historian Giorgio Vasari which, in his “The lives of the most excellent Italian architects, painters and sculptors“the first organic art history book known, attributed the foundation of the Campanile of Pisa to Bonanno and Guglielmo.
