Draft:Marriage of the Sea ceremony (Pisa)

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For the ceremony in Venice, see Marriage of the Sea ceremony.

In the historical Republic of Pisa, the Marriage of the Sea ceremony (Italian: Sposalizio col Mare) symbolized Pisa's maritime dominion. Little information about the ceremony survives.

In his 1581 travel notes, Michel de Montaigne states that a magisquolo (ceremonial priest) still went alone by boat in the wake of the old tradition, although that tradition had fallen into disuse for years after the Florentine occupation of the city (first in 1406, then definitively in 1509). According to De Montaigne's information, the ceremony took place on July 6th, during the festival of Saint Peter; a relic of Pope Clement I, kept in the Pisa Cathedral, was brought to San Piero a Grado at the Porto Pisano. Afterwards, the procession continued along the course of the river, presided over by the Archbishop, until it ended at the sea.

Some details of the ceremony are also described in Puccino d'Antonio's 15th-century Lamento di Pisa:

«Chi potrebbe vantandosi mai dire

diletto avuto pari, né maggiore
di me, quanto nel core
m’era, a vedere le quete maree,
accompagnata da cento galee
in una barca tutta ornata d’oro,
e per suo concistoro
donzelle e donzelletti in compagnia?
Al mondo non fu mai tal melodia
di canti, di viole e di liuti
di piffari e di fiuti,
d’arpe, d’organetti e di salteri.
Qual potrebbe esser mai maggior piaceri
come del popol mio non stando indarno
per lo bel fiume d’Arno,
andar vedendo tanta gentilezza!»

Who could boast of ever having had
equal pleasure, or greater,
than I, as much as was in my heart,
at seeing the quiet tides
accompanied by a hundred galleys
in a boat all decorated with gold,
and at her consistory
damsels and knights in company?
There was never such a melody in the world
of songs, of viols and lutes,
of pipers,
of harps, accordions and psalteries.
What could ever be a greater pleasure
than for my people, standing not in vain
along the beautiful Arno River,
to go and see such courtesy!

In Raffaello Roncioni [it]'s 16th-century account of the Republican Arsenals, the description of Pisa's includes a large boat, adorned with gold and other decorations. It left the Arsenal only "on the day of victories", with great ceremony and with a hundred-galley escort a noted in the Lamento di Pisa. The "day of victories" might have been August 6th, "lo Die di Santo Sisto," which the Pisan Republic considered an auspicious day for sea battles.

A secular, symbolic version of the tradition was revived in 2007. Each year, a boat travels from Scalo Roncioni to the open sea, where a young girl representing Pisa throws a ring into the water.

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Bibliography[edit]

  • Emilio Tolaini (2004). Lo Sposalizio del Mare e altri saggi su San Piero a Grado. ISBN 88-467-0996-9.


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