CAMPANILE, kam-pariela., a detached tower containing bells. Campaniles are most common in Italy. Several of them have devi ated considerably from the perpendicular, in consequence of their great height and narrow ness of base. The earliest examples date from the 5th century and are circular in form, the most notable examples being those of the basilicas of Saint Apollinare Nuovo and Saint Appollinare in Classe at Ravenna. After the 8th century the square design prevailed. Brick was always used in Rome, while marble or stone entered into their composition in northern Italy. The campanile of Pisa, called Torre Pendente (or Leaning Tower), is one of the most remark able. Its architects were Bonano of Pisa, and Willhelm of Innsbruck, and it was begun in 1174. The tower consists of eight stories, each of which is surrounded by columns, and it inclines nearly 13 feet from the perpendicular. Another celebrated campanile is that which was begun at Florence in 1334, after the designs of Giotto, and finished by Taddeo Gaddi. Its height ap proaches 300 feet, and it is adorned with 54 bas-reliefs, and 16 statues, representing biblical, pagan and allegorical subjects. Giotto intended to surmount this tower with a spire nearly 100 feet high, but his intention was never carried out. The Torre degli Asinelli and the Torre Garisenda at Bologna are also remarkable specimens of the campanile. The campanile of Saint Mark's Church, Venice, is probably the best known to Americans. Begun as far back as 888 by Pietro Tribuno, it did not assume the form which tourists are familiar with until 1590. For centuries its majestic height domi nated the city. Its pinnacle was about 325 feet from the ground.
In 1417 a marble top was put on the old tower. One hundred years later it was crowned with the figure of an angel nearly 16 feet high. Simple in design, the campanile stood out in sharp contrast with the famous belfry of Flor ence.
The Loggetta at the foot of the campanile was built by the famous Jacopo Sansovino, and was the rendezvous for the nobles of the town. Sansovino adorned it with reliefs and with bronze statues of Minerva, Apollo, Mercury and Peace. The bronze doors of the vestibule have long been regarded as masterpieces that de serve to rank by the side of the work of the great Italian sculptors. Like many another Italian structure, the Loggetta lost much of its old-time significance. From a meeting-place for the nobles it degenerated into a waiting-room for commanders of the guards during the ses sions of the great council. Latterly it was used for auctions and lottery drawings.
The tower was peculiar in that it had no staircase. It was ascended by a winding in clined plane, having 38 bends and ending in a few steps. The tower was always open; but visitors were not allowed to enter alone. For that reason a single traveler was compelled to. engage a bystander to accompany him.
From time immemorial a watchman was.
stationed in the lantern. In the days of the grand maritime Venetian republic it was from the tower that the watchman caught the first glimpse of home-coming war vessels. In mod ern times the watchman no longer scanned the horizon for vessels, but kept a lookout upon the city for fires.
The campanile served other purposes as well. It was also used for the purpose which its name signifies. According to some authorities, four bells were hung in the olden days in the tower, to be sounded for different purposes. La marangola was sounded at dawn to call the laboring classes; la sestamesztana opened the official bureaus; la trotterar called the councils to duty; and the bell del molefizio tolled out the requiem for those who were put to death. A fifth bell was later brought from Candia and tolled only on Ascension Day. In 1518 there hung halfway up the tower a wooden cage, in which prisoners were kept 'until they were starved to death. Scientifically, the tower was of interest by reason of the fact that from it Galileo made many observations. On the morn ing of 14. July 1902, the campanile collapsed and fell with a great crash into the square. The church of Saint Mark and the palace of the Doges were not damaged, but the campanile in falling carried away the Sansovino Loggetta and the library of the Royal Palace. Steps were taken at once to rebuild and the stone of the new edifice was laid on 24 April 1903. A strengthened pile foundation was put in place and the campanile re-erected in the form it had presented since being remodeled in 1517. A study of the data provided by the ex amination of the remains of the fallen tower showed that the bricks had been used for various purposes at a previous stage, in arches, fortifications, tops of walls, etc. The most important fact was that they were not Venetian, but Roman bricks. Moreover, when they were manufactured, they were not manipulated like modern bricks, but formed from slices of clay, as they were found without the natural layers being disturbed. This process resulted in each individual brick being able to support a weight quite four times as great as the modern brick. The bricks examined are of the 1st century. One bore the impression of a horseshoe, prov ing the debated point that horseshoes were then in use. In the Renaissance period a few cam panili of note were erected; the finest is that of San Giorgio Maggiore by Palladio and Sca mozzi in Venetia. It is of brick with a marble superstructure and has a spire. Modern ex amples of this kind of construction are the campanile of the Capitol at Rome, the Victoria Tower by Barry at the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, the great tower of the Basilique du Sacre Cceur, Montmartre, Paris, and the memorial tower in the Brown University campus at Providence, R. I.