Bell on Trial: The Struggle for Sound after Savonarola

Abstract

In June 1498, the Florentine government publicly punished and exiled the Piagnona, the lone bell of the church of San Marco, for its role in defending Girolamo Savonarola during the April siege that led to the preacher's execution. Drawing on new evidence, this essay offers the most complete account of this still poorly understood chapter in Renaissance history, examining its complex and conflicting motives. At the same time, the punishment of the Piagnona, and struggle for its return, affords uncommon insight into the culture's deepest structures of thinking about what bells were, and who had the legal authority to adjudicate their fate.

Senses of Space in the Early Modern World

“…Naming them was not just a sign of civic pride or affection, but a recognition that bells marked the grid of time. They had to be dependable and predictable, and so were held accountable (Zolli and Brown 2019). A century and a half earlier, the start of the workers' rebellion known as the Ciompi Revolt had been signaled through these same streets when the sequence of bells sounding a civic alarm had been rung out of order.…”