Page - 170 - in Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa

the same years (the laurel bush in the foreground with the scroll celebrating Bologna mater Studi- orum, the landscape with the far away mediev- al town, its skyline pointed with towers alluding to a well known poem by Giosue Carducci). But it is especially the seated figure of the university professor dominating the painting that connects past and present in a sort of long term persistent tradition that starts with the monumental tombs of the glossatori (Fig. 2). The tradition of building significant monu- ments to celebrate the scholars of Bologna Uni- versity dates back to the second half of the thir- teenth century, as its first monumental tomb of the doctor of law Odofredo, still extant in the churchyard of San Francesco, testifies very well. Its shape, a high basement on which the cell stands on columns, crowned by a canopy and hosting the sarcophagus, was probably in- spired, as Renzo Grandi notes in his highly spe- cialized studies on the subject, by the imperial tombs in Palermo, especially by that of Fred- erick II of Swabia.2 At the same time, the pyra- mid symbolizing long-lasting memory is a clear citation from the Roman tombs of Caius Cestius and Julius Caesar. From this early model derived the subsequent monuments of Rolandino de’ Romanzi, dated 1284 and in the same church- yard, and of Rolandino de’ Passeggeri on the square of San Domenico, the last (beginning of fourteenth century) and the best preserved of the group.3 All these imposing architectural structures are evidence of the social role conquered by that time by the scholars of the oldest university in Europe and of the need felt by their heirs and colleagues to make their memory eternal by building a memorial that had to be more than a tomb; in these specific cases a proper monument not very different in luxury and size from those erected to kings, emperors and popes. A signifi- cant parallel between these customs can be no- ticed even in the decoration of the sarcophagus, at first inspired by Roman models and later in- tended as a double celebration of both the body and the soul of the deceased. Therefore the sar- cophagus of Rolandino de’ Passeggeri is decor- ated on one side with the life-size figure of the notary as a gisant, while on the opposite side is Fig. 2: Bologna, San Francesco, churchyard, Monuments of Rolandino dei Romanzi, Odofredo and Accursio, thirteenth century. antonella mampieri170 2 R. Grandi, I monumenti dei dottori e la scultura a Bologna (1267–1348), Bologna 1982. 3 See also R. Grandi, Le tombe dei dottori bolognesi: ideologia e cultura, in: Università e Società nei secoli XII – XVI, Atti del IX Convegno Internazionale di studio (Pistoia, 1979), s.l. 1983, pp. 429–445; R. Grandi, La Scultura nel Medioevo, in Storia Illustrata di Bologna, Repubblica di San Marino 1987, vol. 2, pp. 261–280; R. Grandi, Dottori, scultori, pittori: ancora sui monumenti bolognesi, in: Skulptur und Grabmal des Spätmittelalters in Rom und Italien, Akten des Kongresses ‘Scultura e monumento sepolcrale del tardo Medioevo a Roma e in Italia’ (Roma 1985), Wien 1990, pp. 353–365; R. Grandi, ‘Ad modum doctoris’: nuove considerazioni ai margini dei monumenti funerari del medioevo bolognese, in Di fronte all’aldilà. Testimonianze dall’area bolognese, atti del convegno di studi (Bologna 2002), Bologna 2004, pp. 169–185. The present state of the tombs is the result of a heavy, even if philological, restoration carried out by Alfonso Rubbiani between the end of the nineteenth century and the begin- ning of the twentieth. See A. Rubbiani, La chiesa di san Francesco e le tombe dei Glossatori, Bologna 1899; A. Rub- biani, i veri e i falsi storici (exh. cat. Bologna 1981), Casalecchio di Reno 1981. Open Access © 2018 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN KÖLN WEIMAR