Volltext Seite (XML)
Chap. I. JACOPO DI CASENTINO. 3 business like assiduity with which he founded in 1349 1 the company of painters under the patronage of the Virgin, S. S. John the Baptist, Zanobi, Keparata and Luke, thus giving to his profession a standing of its own. The corporation then formed remained second to the art or guild of the barber — surgeons, and grocers, which as early as 1335, had established rules for the conduct of such of its members as devoted themselves to the career of painters. 2 Four Captains, four councillors and two clerks were appointed to the company, — all of them painters at Florence in 1349, the majority of whom, excepting Jacopo and Bernardo Daddi, have left not a single work behind. The Captains or councillors did not think it necessary to draw up such extensive regulations for the administration of their craft as had been embodied in the earlier statute of Sienna, but they made provisions for the election of their officers, for monthly meetings in the church of S. Maria Nuova, and for the entrance and other fees to which the corporation might consider itself entitled, the whole preceded by an appeal to the religion of the mem bers, of which the following may be taken as an amusing specimen: “As it is our opinion that during this our dangerous pil grimage on earth, we should have S. Luke Evangelist as a special advocate between us, the divine majesty and the glorious Virgin Mary, and at the same time that her servants should be pure and free from sin, we do hereby order that all who do or shall inscribe their names as members of this company, be they male or female, shall contritely confess their sins, or at least make proof of an intention to do so on the nearest possible occasion . . . .; and whoever joins this body is bound daily to tell five paternoster and five Ave Maria; and should he omit or be constrained by circum stances to neglect this duty and forget these prayers one day, he shall tell them the next, or whenever the matter may come within his memory.” 1 See the statutes in Gaye, Carteggio. nb. sup. Vol. II. p. 32, with the false date of 1339. Gaye having misread the original MS. which is much abraded. 2 See these rules in Gaye, 1*