The partisans of the Grecian theory hold much to a MS. said to be now in the archives of the Vatican,--but which Milanesi asserts cannot be found,--which says that the Pisans "_Buschetum ex Grecia favore Constantinopolitani Imperatoris obtinuerunt_." Morrona also suspects this to be apocryphal; but even if it be genuine, the Pisans may only have asked for one of the Italian architects who were working in large numbers in the East under the Emperors, and building Lombard churches on Oriental ground. It was only in 1170 that Desiderius, Abbot of Monte Cassino, begged Comnenus to send him back some architects, and the Italian sculptor Olinto was among them.
It may well be true, as Sig. Merzario says, that no school existed at Pisa before the Duomo was begun. But soon after that, we certainly find the usual organization of _laborerium_ and _Opera_.
Old authors tell us that "the most famous Masters from foreign parts vied in lending their help to the building of such an important edifice, under the direction of Buschetto."[162] Another old MS.[163] records that the "Opera of the Duomo was instituted in 1080, some years after Buschetto was engaged, and that the first _operai_ of the Council were Hildebrand, son of the Judge Uberto, son of Leo, Signoretto Alliata, and Buschetto of Dulichium who was architect. The head of these was Hildebrand, and the others were ministers and officers of the Opera, as may be found in the archives of the said Opera."[164] Here we have the full organization of the Comacine House of Works. The dignitaries of the city as President, Treasurer, and Ministers, the head architect also a member of the Council of the Opera. Another old writer calls Buschetto _capo della scuola Pisana_.
Niccolò, Giovanni, and Andrea da Pisa are fine proofs that the school at Pisa flourished and brought forth brave artists. Even as late as the sixteenth century, when Sansovino was sculpturing the casing of the Holy House at Loreto, we are told that thirty of the best carvers in stone were sent from Pisa to work under the Capo Maestro, Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino.[165]
Among the _Magistri_ from other parts in Buschetto's time, one of the chief was doubtless Rainaldo, who, judging from the inscription near the principal door of the façade, was not only a working sculptor in the guild, but also a full-fledged Master--