Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

COMACINE
COMACINE 165
origin of the Comacine Masters in the diocese
of Como is explained quite naturally, according
to De Dartein, Merzario, and others, by
the custom, which has always existed among
the craftsmen and workmen of that region, of
leaving their native places in order to betake
themselves in gangs wherever building works
are about to be or have been begun, urged
thereto by their barren mountain soil, pecuniary
gain, their innate ability and enterprising
character. Another explanation is to be found
in the presence on the shores of the lakes of
Como, Lugano and the Maggiore of numerous
atones, marble and timber yards which furnished
building material for the cities of the
plains. These yards gave scope for the practice
of the crafts of carver, carpenter, builder,
etc. ; and these, in their turn, by constant
practice and continuous progress, ultimately
developed architects and sculptors .
" And here we may naturally feel surprise at
the appearance, amid the darkness of the early
centuries of the Middle Ages, of a corporation
of craftsmen who, though of Roman origin,
none the less enjoyed Lombard citizenship
and the rights belonging to it ; while the
Roman or Italian subjects of Lombard rule
were, if not slaves, nothing better than 'aldi,'
that is to say, midway between freedmen and
serfs, manumitted on the condition of performing
the manual tasks assigned them by the
manumittor . A corporation, too, which had a
legal monopoly of public and private building
work within the territories occupied by the
Lombards, as the code of Rotharis proves, and
can claim the honor of filling up the ga which
for so long was believed, especially by non-
Italian writers, to exist between the incorporated
artisans of the Roman epoch, su posed
to have vanished with the fall of the Empire,
and the gilds of craftsmen which sprang up so
luxuriantly in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries .
Such surprise, however, may easily be allayed
if we consider that in reality the fraternity
of craftsmen, in Italy at least, by no
means came to an end with the Barbarian invasions,
and particularly that of the Lombards,
who actually preserved those Roman
institutions which best fulfilled their aim of
keeping the conquered people in subjection .
Accordingly, they would have maintained the
corporation of artisans in order to make the
exaction of tribute easier and at the same time
to be able to keep a hold over the individuals
composing them .
" Hence we have good grounds for inferring
that the corporation of 'Comacini,' who a
parently were neither more nor less than the
successors of the Master Masons who in the
days of the Empire had directed the operations
of the collegia specially devoted to building,
survived the barbarian invasions which
were so disastrous to Italy in the centuries
preceding the accession of Rotharis to the
Lombard throne . This view is confirmed by
the undoubted fact that from this time onwards
the `Comacini' formed a very important
gild, as is shown by the need which he
felt of making regulations for it in his laws .
This gild cannot have sprung into existence
full grown and, as it were, by magic, just
when the (5ode of Rotharis made its appearance
in 643 . It must have already been in
existence and have attained some degree of
importance well before Alboin's descent on
Italy (568) . Troya, in fact, remarks that when
the Lombards of the time of Autharis (583-
590) and of Agilulf and Theodelinda (590-
625) wanted to erect buildings, they must
have made use of it • and that everything leads
one to think that before the promulgation of
the Code of Rotharis, some of the members
(i .e . those of the highest capacity and reputation)
had already been enfranchised by
'impans' or express grace of the King . However
that may be, the mention of the associations
of Comacini in the reign of Rotharis and
Luitprand is one of the earliest in the Barbarian
world, and earlier than that of any gild
of architects or builders belonging to the Middle
Ages . . . . Whatever may have been the
organization of the Comacme or Lombard
gilds, and however these may have been affected
by outward events, they did not cease
to exist in consequence of the fall of the Lombard
kingdom . With the first breath of municipal
freedom, and with the rise of the new brotherhoods
of artisans, they, too, perhaps, may
have reformed themselves like the latter, who
were nothing but the continuation of the
'collegium' of Roman times preserving, its
existence through the barbarian ages and
transformed little by little into the mediaeval
corporation . The members may have
found themselves constrained to enter into
a more perfect unity of thought and sentiment,
to bind themselves into a more compact
body, and thus put themselves in a condition
to maintain their ancient supremacy in
carrying out the most important building
works in Italy. But we cannot say anything
more . And even putting aside all tradition,
the monuments themselves are there to
confirm what we have said .
"Finally, toward the end of the Xlth century,
the Comacine brotherhoods began to
relax their bonds of union, to make room
gradually for personality, and for artistic
and scientific individuality, till at length
they vanish at the close of the XVth century,
with the disappearance of the Lombardic
style which they had created, and the rise
of the architecture of the Renaissance."
Leder Scott has reasonably inferred : "1 .
That the architects of the same gild worked
at Rome and in Ravenna in the early centuries
after Christ . 2 . That though the
architects were Roman, the decorations up
to the fourth century were chiefly Byzantine,
or had imbibed that style, as their paintings
show. 3 . That in the time when Rome lay
in a heap of ruins under the barbarians the
Collegium, or a Collegium, I know not which,
fled to independent Como and there in after
centuries they were employed by the Lombards,
and ended in again becoming a powerful
gild ."
There was the greatest similarity in form