Diotisalvi, also Deotisalvi or Deustesalvet, was an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

from Pisa,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, active in the 12th century in Pisa. Little is known of him.

Career

Baptistry of Pisa

He is well known to be the original architect of the

Baptistry of Pisa The Pisa Baptistery of St. John ( it, Battistero di San Giovanni) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical building in Pisa, Italy. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second b ...

, in

Piazza dei Miracoli The Piazza dei Miracoli (; en, Square of Miracles), formally known as Piazza del Duomo ( en, Cathedral Square), is a walled 8.87-hectare area located in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as an important centre of European medieval art and one of ...

, as we can read in the sign he left inside the building, with the date 1152 (1153 '' stile pisano''): Although he did the original project, the present Baptistery was different from his idea. In fact, he constructed only the first part, the ground floor. The building was continued after his death by

Nicola Pisano Nicola Pisano (also called ''Niccolò Pisano'', ''Nicola de Apulia'' or ''Nicola Pisanus''; c. 1220/1225 – c. 1284) was an Italian sculptor whose work is noted for its classical Roman sculptural style. Pisano is sometimes considered to be the ...

, a century after its foundation, and then completed by

Giovanni Pisano Giovanni Pisano (c. 1250 – c. 1315) was an Italian sculptor, painter and architect, who worked in the cities of Pisa, Siena and Pistoia. He is best known for his sculpture which shows the influence of both the French Gothic and the Ancient ...

. They changed many things in the final form of the building, which was intended to be simpler with no gothic cusps and no dome, just a small, and high, pyramidal roof. This was connected to the fact that he wanted to resemble the Anastasis in the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Maybe Diotisalvi wanted to replicate his previous work of the church of Holy Sepulchre in Pisa, 40 years before.

Church of Santo Sepolcro in Pisa

The Church of Holy Sepulchre, was built in the first part of the 12th century. There is proof that it existed in 1113. The church has an octagonal shape and a pyramidal roof. Inside the belltower, there is a sign where ''Deustesalvet'' claims to be the ''fabricator'', i.e. constructor of the building. The inside was meant to resemble the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, while the outside was meant to resemble the Dome of the Rock, also in Jerusalem, wrongly called for a long time by Europeans "Mosque of Omar", because at that time it was believed to be the

Temple of Solomon Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (, , ), was the Temple in Jerusalem between the 10th century BC and . According to the Hebrew Bible, it was commissioned by Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by the ...

. There are many churches in Europe dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre in an octagonal or circular shape. We can cite the one in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

, Italy, inside the complex of Santo Stefano, or the one in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, or the

Temple Church The Temple Church is a Royal peculiar church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of J ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Professional title

He was ''fabricator'' in 1113, and ''magister'' in 1153. That means he refined his art in some school, maybe the construction works of the

cathedral of Pisa Pisa Cathedral ( it, Cattedrale Metropolitana Primaziale di Santa Maria Assunta; Duomo di Pisa) is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, Italy, the oldest of the t ...

Other possible works

He did some other works, but without signing them.

Chapel of Saint Agatha

The chapel of Saint Agatha, a small chapel behind the church of Saint Paul ''a Ripa d'Arno''. The small building was maybe originally built in 1063 by the monks, but the present shape was by a Diotisalvi. The first certification of the existence of the chapel is in 1132, maybe after the architect worked on it. It is in the usual octagonal shape, with a pyramidal roof.

Bell tower of San Nicola

The bell tower of the church of St Nicholas has an octagonal shape and a pyramidal roof, as all the other buildings by Diotisalvi. It was built in 1170, although there are no proofs, but only hypotheses. The bell-chamber instead is hexagonal with one window in every side. Inside there is a winding staircase, with a wall only on the external part, unlikely the

Leaning Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa ( it, torre pendente di Pisa), or simply, the Tower of Pisa (''torre di Pisa'' ), is the ''campanile'', or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unst ...

. It was separated from the nearby buildings in origin, and it is slightly tilting.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Recent studies attribute by analogies also the famous

(1173) to magister Diotisalvi. The shape, the construction, the affinity with the belltower of St. Nicholas all bring to mind the work of Diotisalvi. Like the Baptistery, the tower wasn't completed by him, maybe, just like the Baptistery, was Giovanni Pisano the last architect. That should explain why there is no pyramidal roof like all the other buildings

Notes

Many of his works have some defects in common: the church of Holy Sepulchre, the belltower of St. Nicholas and the Leaning Tower all lean (in particular the two towers), and all sunk a bit in the ground. This is mainly due to the nature of the ground in Pisa, but it is particularly notable in those buildings (there is another building in the city not made by Diotisalvi that has the same problem: the medieval church of St. Michele degli Scalzi). Image:Cappella di sant'agata 01.JPG, St. Agatha chapel Image:Pise voyage juil 06 2 190.jpg, Church of the Holy Sepulchre Image:Pise coupole de l'église du Saint-Sépulcre.jpg, Inside view of the pyramidal cusp of the Holy Sepulchre Image:PisaBaptistry20020323 rectilinear.jpg, Baptistery of St. John Image:Dome interior- Baptistry - Pisa 2014.JPG, Inside view of the

false dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

of the Baptistery, with the internal conic cusp Image:Chiesa di san nicola, campanile, pisa.JPG, Belltower of St.Nicholas Image:Leaning tower of pisa 2.jpg, Leaning Tower of Pisa

Bibliography

* Piero Pierotti, ''Deotisalvi. Architetto pisano del secolo d'oro'', Pacini editore, Pisa 2001 (Italian)

External links

A digitalization of the Baptistry how should look according to the original project by Diotisalvi.
{{Authority control 12th-century Italian architects Architects from Tuscany Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown category:Romanesque architects