La Storia di San Ginese

If the Visitor were to be so inclined and if he were at a loose end on the third night, having walked around San Ginese three times the day before and dined in the small pink house where his mother was born, he would read a monograph by Salvatore Andreucci with the title S. Stefano di Villora: the now vanished ancient Pieve of the Compito district.

The Visitor would learn the following about the history of San Ginese.

A pieve was a major church, one which had a baptistery. Nearby churches without a baptistery answered to it. In the early Christian Church a separate baptistery building was necessary, as an uninitiated (unbaptised) person could not enter the church proper. So the unbaptised person was first baptised in the baptistery and was then immediately introduced to God, who was waiting in the adjacent building.

The Pieve di Santo Stefano was where San Ginese is now and existed in its primitive form already in the second half of the fourth century or at the latest since the fifth century. It was named after Santo Stefano, the protomartyr, meaning he was the first Christian martyr in the district.

The first ancient text in which Santo Stefano is called a pieve dates from Anno Domini 983. The naming occurs in a deed of donation, by which means Bishop Teudigrimo grants to Sisemundo, son of the late Chunerado, from whom are descended the Nobles of Montemagno, the entire estate of Santo Stefano with its major church and baptistery. (Note that in English the above names would be rendered respectively as Theudigrimus, Sigismund and Conrad.)

For the interested reader, what follows is the full deed of donation in Latin. It is given here in the original in the hope that it will afford an enhanced experience to those fortunate enough to be familiar with the language. It is published by Barsocchi in Memorie e documenti per servire all’Istoria di Lucca, vol. V, 3, doc. MDLXI (3), Lucca, 1841. The uninterested reader may ignore this section.

In nomine Sancte et individue Trinitatis. Otto grazia Dei imperatore augusto, filio bone memorie itemque Ottoni imperatoris anno imperii eius sextodecimo, septimo idus augusti, inditione undecima. Manifestu sum ego Sisemundo filio bone memorie Chuneradi, qui Chunitio vocabatur, quia tu Teudigrimus gratia Dei et cet. per cartula livellaria nomine et cet. idest omnibus casis et rebus seu terris tam domnicatis quam et massariciis, cum fundamentis, et omnem edificiis vel universis fabricis suis, que sunt pertinentibus Ecclesie plebis vestre Sancti Stephani et S. Johannis Baptiste, quod est plebem sita loco et finibus Villa, quam plebem ipsam esse videtur de subregimine et potestate et cet. Episcopo vestro Sancti Martini. Casis vero ipsis tam domnicatis quam et massariciis cum fundamentis seu curtis ortis ulivis silvis et cet. omnia et ex omnibus rebus tam domnicatis quam et cet. quantas ubique et cet. ad suprascripta Sanctam plebem sunt pertinentibus in integrum mihi eas et cet. livellario nomine dedisti mihi, idest omnem retditum edibitionem illam quantas singulis hominibus qui sunt abitantibus in villis, qui dicitur Paganico, Colugnola, Colline, Vinelia, Cerpeto, Vivaio, Colle, Tillio, Cumpito, Vico qui dicitur ad Sanctum Augustinum, Faeto, Massa Macinaria, singulis quibusque anni ipsius Ecclesie plebis vestre Sancti Stephani et S. Johannis Baptiste consuetudi sunt aut fuerint ad retdendum, tam de vino, quam et de labore simulque de bestiis, aut de qualibet frugibus terre vel qualibet mobilia. Iam dictum retditum seu debitum edibitionem, quantas singulis hominibus qui sunt abitantibus in prefatis villis, aut in antea et cet. singulis quibusque annis ipsius Ecclesie plebis vestre, seu titulis et cappellis cum omni eorum pertinentiis et adiacentiis subiectis ipsius Ecclesie plebis vestre consuetudi et cet. in integrum mihi eas livellario nomine dedisti. Tali ordinem ut da admodum in mea qui supra Sisemundo vel de meis heredibus sint et cet. suprascriptis casis et rebus seu terris domnicatis et massariciis, quas nobis dedisti, eas abendi et cet. et nobis eas privato nomine usufructuandi; et iam dictum retditum seu debitum quas nobis dedisti, requirendi et recoliendi, et nobis eas privato nomine habendi et usufructuandi, et faciendi exinde quiequid nobis autilitas fuerit. Nisi tantum et cet. exinde tibi vel ad posterisque et cet. ad pars suprascripte Ecclesie plebis per singulos annos per omne mense magio, censum vobis retdere debeamus ad suprascripta Eccl. domum Episcopo vestro S. Martini, per nos et cet. vobis vel et cet. argentum solidos viginti de bonos danarios …

Petrum notarium domini imperatoris scribere rogavimus. Actum Luca.

*Ego Sisemundo in unc libello a me facto subscripsi.

*Ego Johannes notarius domini imperatoris rogatus teste subscripsi.

*Witternus notarius domini imperatoris rogatus teste subscripsi.

*Petrus notarius domini imperatoris post traditam rogatus subscripsi.

…

Put simply, the Latin document describes the estate that is to be donated by the bishop. The landholding includes, as you are able to see, the parishes dependent on the major church of Santo Stefano, these being Paganico, Colugnola, Colline, Vinelia, Cerpeto, Vivaiuo, Colle, Tillio, Cumpito, Vico qui dicitur ad Sanctum Augustineum, Faeto and Massa Macinaria.

Several names have persisted until modern times – for example, Colugnola (now Colognora) is where Alfredo makes pizzas. Colline (Collina) is where the Adulteress came from. Colle is where Irmo the Younger lives, whose birth precipitated Ugo’s migration. Cumpito (Compito) is where the Enchanted Glade was. Tillio is no longer a place name but is the name of a major road, via di Tiglio.

Before Anno Domini 1000, the northern part of the low-lying basin was not covered by the waters of the lake, which in later years, during periodic inundations, lapped against the edges of the nearby towns. The lake later grew very large and brooding.

Until Anno Domini 1100, the conditions of life in the area must still have been good, if in a document from 1026 S. Stefano di Villora is referred to as the Pieve in loco Lignola prope plebem S. Stephani que dicitur Villula (1), doc. 114. It was certainly between 1050 and 1100 that the waters invaded the northern part of the plain and San Ginese began to decay, continually threatened by the flooding of the River Anser. The population was forced to abandon the places threatened by the waters and move to higher ground.

In a contract dated Anno Domini 1150, for the first time it is referred to no longer as a pieve but as Ecclesia de Villore – just a church.

The major church of Santo Stefano had lost its status. The waters had grown too close, the mosquitoes had bred in larger numbers and a significant part of the population had fled.

From another document that speaks of the 1680 pastoral visit by the bishop of Lucca to the ‘parish church of S. Stefano the protomartyr’, we are able to understand in what state of decay and abandonment the ancient church found itself, having lost its status as a major church some five hundred years earlier.

Reproduced here in full is the English translation of the aforementioned bishop’s original document written in Italian:

Having found the seal of the Altar Stone broken, and as well the stone itself from one end to the other, and having found that the altar was without any sacred furnishings at all, we declared the church suspended until such time as it is not equipped with a new altar stone with two candelabras, a cross, three tablecloths for the meals of the S. Convito e dell’ultimo Evangelio, an antependium and baldachin and all that is required, and until such time as it is restored to a state that is decent and appropriate for celebration; in the meantime such needs as there are for the mass shall be met at the nearest church; we allow time of two months for the above measures to be put in place under penalty of 25 scudi. In two months the cemetery shall be encircled by a hedge so that animals cannot enter there, and a cross is to be placed there under penalty of 6 scudi. In one month the internal part of the church is to be whitewashed and the roof is to be repaired where necessary, so that water cannot enter, under penalty of 4 scudi.

At the time of the pastoral visit of Bishop of Lucca Filippo Sardi in 1791 it is still a church, but on the subsequent visit in 1803, again by Filippo Sardi, Santo Stefano’s fate is sealed. His report reads as follows: ‘S. Stefano di Villora, previously under the patronage of the House of the Altogradi, having been declared an abandoned church, no longer exists.’

San Ginese lost its original major church, then its ordinary church, both in the hamlet of Villora. Now there is only the ordinary church at Castello, at the top of the hill.

San Ginese is so old and was once so grand that it is impossible to comprehend unless you stop and are silent, empty your mind of day-to-day affairs and allow the antiquity and the grandeur to surface, because if you were born there it is inside you somewhere.