Magistri Comacini
The Magistri Comacini (also called Comacini, Commacini, Comancini, maestri comacini or Comasken) were privileged Longobard building craftsmen (builders), stonemasons and architects who originally lived in the region of Como and Lake Como and because of their special artistry from there when wandering craftsmen also took on orders in distant areas of northern Italy or beyond the Alps.
Beginnings
The name is derived from the Latin adjective Comacinus "to Como, to the region of Como, belonging to Lake Como", which has been documented in Latin sources since the 3rd century. The fact that the name is directly related to the island of Comacina in Lake Como cannot be proven, despite some evidence of building activity on this island, which was repeatedly used as a fortification in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. The Comacini construction crews were under the direction of masters ( magistri ) and were probably organized as a cooperative, as can be inferred from a provision of an edict by the Longobard King Rothari , which is attested for the year 643. The Edictus Rothari Regis regulates in chapters 144 and 145 the responsibilities between master and client for accidents and damage during construction work. The employees of the master (his journeymen or comrades) are also mentioned as collegantes or consortes . In a provision of Lombard law ( Memoratorium de mercedes Comacinorum "Merkbuch über die Pay der Comacini"), which is attributed to the kings Grimwald (662-671) or Liutprand (712-744), the prices of individual building services and the catering of the Builders set. The respect that the law of the Lombards accorded the Magistri Comacini testifies to the great importance that they had apparently acquired through their particular technical skill and high artistry. Until the 12th century, now as comasques , they were coveted and valued far beyond the borders of Lombardy as excellent stonemasons and builders.
In this Lombard kingdom (568-774), the last Germanic empire on Roman soil, a separate architectural style developed that combined Roman architecture with Germanic ideas, which combined with the typical ribbon and woven ornaments of Lombardy with the Nordic-Germanic Connected figures of gods.
Romanesque
These so-called "Baurotten" by Alfred Schottner, who are considered to be the first mobile construction workers, were involved in numerous buildings outside of Italy between 1050 and 1150, including the Romanesque cathedrals of Freising , Königslutter , Mainz , Quedlinburg , Regensburg and Speyer , as well Churches in Straubing, Schongau, Augsburg , in Austria the churches Millstatt (1080), Gurk (1140), Nonnberg (12th century), Michelbeuren (1200) and Kremsmünster (1250) as well as in Switzerland the ministers of Basel , Chur and Zurich . Written evidence for the work of the Comasken is known from a dispute about wages between the Regensburg clergy and Como builders, otherwise the 43.6 cm used for buildings, named after King Liutprand "piede Liprando", is used as proof of their work is.
At the Cathedral of Königslutter (begun in 1135), as suspected Martin Gosebruch , worked the Comacini and especially the Lombard architect Nicolaus of Verona : grasp "We and appreciate now more precisely what action it from the Emilia after Saxony had retrieved architect-sculptor. From the northern occidental situation and northern Italian innovation, he created one of his works: the simple semicircular body of the choir apse (and the portal porches protruding far forward with pillars carried by lions ” . According to Alfred Schottner, the Comacini migrated to Hungary, England and Sweden from the 11th to the 13th centuries. The hikes are said to be related to the "cult of Zen", a veneration of Bishop Zeno of Verona, according to which they followed the paths of Zenos. Schottner quotes Karl Hoede, according to which "the Alpine cooperatives of the masters of Como were the archetype and preliminary stage (...) for the masons' huts in the Middle Ages".
Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque north of the Alps
In the middle of the 16th century, the Roman Emperor called building experts for his building plans in Vienna , and some Magistri Comacini settled in the Leithagebirge . The Italian influence increased continuously in Vienna in the 17th century. Since the Habsburgs ruled a large part of Italy directly or indirectly, Vienna was in a certain sense not only a German, but also an Italian capital in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Vienna (and especially in the Kayser. Steinbruch) a lot of Italian was spoken; At the court there was also a “Wällischen poet”. Thus, in 1750 Metastasio was still granted a high salary 'of such quality'.
The stone they were looking for and found there was well known to them from home, a hard to very hard, white, but also sometimes yellowish limestone , called Kaiserstein , which was called Marmelstein in many stonemasonry contracts and invoices . The Schweizerhofbrunnen from 1552 in the Vienna Hofburg, by Pietro Solari , is the first recognizable sign of her presence. The new quarry on Leythaberg becomes Ihro Kayserlichen Majestät Steinbruch , which is how Kaisersteinbruch arose, which is still valid today . These masters can be found in art guides, their relation to Kaisersteinbruch mostly unknown. Some names: Pethan , Pozzo , Gardesoni , Solari , Murato , Tencalla , de Magistris , Maderno , Ruffini , Retacco , Annon , the brothers Alexius and Elias Payos , Augustin Rigobello , Ambrosius and Domenicus Petruzzy , Ambrosius and Giorgio Regondi and their descendants, Ambrosius Ferrethi , Johann Lorentisch , Giovanni Battista Passerini , Allio , Francesco della Torre with their son Giovanni Pietro della Torre , and Martin Trumler with his sons Franz and Maximilian . Influences of her art are so z. B. in Spain, western France, on the Rhine, even in Lund . As later descendants of Comasken yet architects and sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries are such. B. Francesco Borromini (1599-1667).
In South Tyrol the Comacini are also known as Comancini .
literature
- Martin Gosebruch , Hans-Henning Grote (Ed.): Königslutter and Upper Italy . In: Königslutter and Northern Italy. 12th century art in Saxony . Association for the promotion of the Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, Braunschweig 1980
- Alfred Schottner: The custom of the stonemasons in the late medieval construction huts and their continued life and change to the present day . 2nd Edition. Münster, Hamburg 1994.
- Karl Hoede: The Masters of Como . In: Quator - Coranati . Issue 4. Bayreuth 1967.
- Teja Erb: Magistri comacini or commacini? In: Philologus 126, 1982, pp. 111-137.
- Teja Erb: The construction industry in the transition period . In: Klio . Volume 65, Issue 2, 1983, pp. 351-358.
- Heiligenkreuz Abbey Archive, Section 51 Kaisersteinbruch .
- City archive Wiener Neustadt : stone mason files .
- Alexander Hajdecki : The dynasty families of the Italian master builders and masons of the Baroque in Vienna . In: Reports and communications from the Vienna Antiquities Association . Volume 39, 1906.
- Helmuth Furch : Italians in the quarry on Leithaberg . In: Messages from the Kaisersteinbruch Museum and Culture Association . No. 12, 1991, pp. 6-13. ISBN 978-3-9504555-3-3 .
- Helmuth Furch: Historical Lexicon Kaisersteinbruch . 2 volumes. Museum and cultural association, Kaisersteinbruch 2002–2004. ISBN 978-3-9504555-8-8 .
Web links
- Information on the Comacini
- Report on the Comacini in South Tyrol
- Information about the Comacini in South Tyrol
- Val d'Intelvi on artistiticinesi-ineuropa.ch
- Federal Geological Institute : Kaisersteinbruch (social breakdown)