Sacred Time and the Commune: Storms in Episodes 56 and 74

The use of saints' feast days in the fifty-sixth and seventy-fourth episodes also demonstrates this popular concern. Both of these  episodes describe storms. In the former, the author tells us: "In 1328, on the eighth day of May, the vigil of St. Michael, in which evening it hailed in a big storm of hail and rain together, very dangerous" (In del MCCCXXXVIII, a di VIII di Maggio, la vigilia di Sancto Michele, in sul vespro grandina una grande tempesta di grandina e d'acqua insieme, mouto periculosa [f. 33v, ll.19-22] (emphases mine).

In the latter, he says: "Then in 1337, in the [...] on the fifteenth day of June, on Saturday the feast of St. Vito, in which at Terce there was a bad storm of water and thunder" (Poi MCCCXXXVII, in del IIIIta, die XV di Jugno, sabbato la festa di Sancto Vito, in su la tersa fue uno mal tempo d'acqua e di tuoni [f. 39r, ll. 25-28]) (emphases mine). These two episodes begin in the very same way - the author tells us the year, month, and day, and then follows with reference to the sanctoral calendar, and then the time of day, and after this, the deluge. 

This demonstrates the relationship between saints' feasts being used as temporal markers and popular recollection. Everyone remembers bad storms. Probably more than battles or imperial visitations, these events would have been recalled across all strata of society, transcending class or faction. 

There is more to suggest a relationship between sacred time and popular engagement, though. Episode 74 describes the effects of the storm in arresting language: "the following people died, and were destroyed and carried away as if eaten by wolves and dogs" (moriteno sotto l'infrascritti homini, e erano guasti e iscenpiati come mangiati da lupi e da cani [f. 39r, ll. 31-33, f.39v, l. 1]). This is a vivid and captivating description, not only for the imagery of dogs and wolves eating people but also the triple recollection - they died, they were destroyed, and they were carried away. The description captures the reader's attention. For the author, the death, destruction, and carrying-away of these people is important.

There is something yet more striking about this episode, also described in a different section: It contains a list of names of people who perished in the storm. These are not podestà, counts, or knights; they are Nocco di Lupo the furrier [f. 39v, l. 6], Vanni di Lando the rope-maker [f. 39v, l. 9], Christoforo Lanberti and Cieninno dela Spina, two tavern-keepers [f. 39v, ll. 21-22], and several women who are not named [f. 39v, ll. 15-17], among many other men, women, and children. This list does not only demonstrate the human cost of the mal tempo, but shows attention to detail (and thus awareness of detail) of a traumatic event which all Pisans would have remembered vividly. This may, again, be evidence of the sorts of sources that our author drew from, but it also demonstrates the connection between sacred time and popular memories. The author seems more likely to invoke saints' feasts as temporal markers where there is an element of popular concern, and the long list of names in Episode 74 is proof of such popular concern.