University Times

The origins of the first cathedral of Florence, Italy, predecessor of the present day Cathedral of St. Maria del Fiore, are so fogged in obscurity that Florentines themselves gave up hope of solving the problem almost six and a half centuries ago.

In 1353, while the Cathedral of St. Maria del Fiore was being constructed on the site of the first cathedral, the Council of the Republic of Florence held a hearing to investigate why the first cathedral had been named after an obscure Holy Land martyr named Reparata.

Finding no evidence to the contrary, the Council was forced to accept a thousand-year-old legend that claimed the first cathedral was named after St. Reparata in thanks for a miraculous victory that Florence had won over 200,000 Goths who were about to destroy the city on Oct. 8, 406, St. Reparata's feast day.

Since the historic record, cited even by St. Augustine, shows that Florence's victory over the Goths actually occurred on Aug. 23, 406, Florentines never really believed the legend of St. Reparata and the first cathedral. But nobody had a better explanation – until now.

Pitt faculty member Franklin Toker, professor of history of art and architecture, has found the answer to the oldest problem in the archaeology of medieval Florence. It is a complicated "whodunit" of sorts involving an ancient Roman palace, a medieval text, a famous saint, modern science, and work by Toker on the cathedral site that goes back to 1970.

According to Toker, Florence's first cathedral has its origins in a Roman palace that stood on the same site and in which St. Ambrose lived in 394. While living in the palace, St. Ambrose is believed to have performed two miracles. He is said to have cured the son of Roman Senator Decentius and to have helped the Florentines defeat the Goths by appearing as a vision in the palace and promising a miraculous victory.

The first cathedral of Florence, Toker determined, was built where it was, using the actual walls of the Roman palace, in honor of St. Ambrose and the role he is believed to have played in saving the city from the Goths.

Medieval Florentines called the first cathedral St. Reparata's, however, in a word-play on that saint's Latin name which, according to Toker, can be translated to mean "rehabilitated" or "repaired." After visiting a dozen sites honoring St. Reparata in Italy and France to study the way the saint's name is used, Toker concluded: "Her name was her game. She liberated cities from whatever threatened them, be it Goths, Saracens, Vikings or the plague. Praying to Reparata was like voting for an American politician who vows 'let the good times roll again.'" Toker says the Florentines deliberately kept the old palace walls on the exterior of the first cathedral as an "apotropaic talisman." The walls had repulsed the Goths once. If ever they tried to return, the walls would beat them back again.

Excavation of the site of Florence's first cathedral, located under the present day Cathedral of St. Maria del Fiore, began in 1965. Toker became director of the dig five years later and has served in that position ever since.

Through coins, other artifactual evidence and radiocarbon dating, Toker and his colleagues determined that the palace under Florence's first cathedral remained a private home for a century after the Florentines' victory over the Goths in 406. Thus, Toker was able to disprove the legend of St. Reparata and the first cathedral.

Along with honoring St. Ambrose by preserving the site where he is said to have appeared to save the city, that first cathedral was built where it was for security reasons, Toker believes. An earlier church, St. Lorenzo's, was located outside the city walls where Florentines could be attacked on their way to services. Toker's archaeological and radiocarbon evidence was boosted by a rarely used ancient text, Paulinus the Deacon's "Vita Sancti Ambrosii," a fifth-century life of St. Ambrose.

"The text is well-known to scholars in Florence, but no one until now took note of the details it gives on the palace in which St. Ambrose stayed while living in Florence in 394," Toker says. "I realized this was exactly the palace I had excavated below Florence cathedral." In excavating and identifying the palace from which St. Ambrose saved Florence, and discovering the origins of the city's first cathedral, Toker feels he is giving a gift back to a city that has been very good to him over the years. It not only has allowed him to direct excavation of one of its most important sites, but also was the place where he met his wife 25 years ago.

"I hope also that I am repaying the hospitality shown me by the world of scholarship, which, competitive though it is, is still one of the ties that binds us worldwide through a shared heritage in the humanities," he adds.

Toker reported his findings at the annual conference of the College Art Association on Feb. 12 in New York City.

–Mike Sajna