1 Prime pagine ok.indd - accademia degli intronati

Mary, sovereign of Siena, Jesus, king of Florence 65
1260 donazione 33 . The basic plan was to follow this original ceremony,
with changes where ritual advantages could be found. It was also decided
on the 7 th that the notary of the Concistoro, Giovanni di Daniele (who
recorded this deliberation), should “as a public official” receive the keys
on behalf of the Virgin, as well as make a record of the donazione 34 .
These decisions were taken in haste (putting a notary in this
important role made no sense); and the key offering only took place on
24 August, which was some days after the feast of the Assumption, which
certainly that year produced its own share of appeals to merciful heaven.
The Concistoro (captain of the people and signori) had the day before
produced a format for the key offering. It was to take place the following
morning before the “diva figura” of the Virgin at the chapel altar of
this Virgin, who was known as (“vulgariter nuncupatur”) the Madonna
delle Grazie 35 , which was a deviation from the original ceremony, when
the tavola Madonna was taken to the high altar for the offering; and,
presumably, the prestige of this chapel and its Madonna is the explanation
for this change, which, perhaps, did not sit well with the cathedral clergy.
It was also decided that the offering, which denoted the surrender of Siena
(“in signum traditionis possessionis rei donate”), should be made by the
prior who presided over the signoria (whose counterpart as head of state,
the syndic Bonaguida, had made the offering in 1260) and that (as on that
occasion) he should give the keys directly to the Virgin by placing them
on the altar. Then, following the offering and accompanying ceremonies,
he was to recover the keys with his own hands, and the text insists that no
one else was to intervene (“nullo medio interveniente”) 36 . (In 1260, the
bishop returned the keys, after blessing them, to the syndic.)
33 For Gian Galeazzo’s expansion into Tuscany, n. 351.
34 “Quod civitas senensis …sit… eidem gloriosissime Virgini Marie et michi Joanni eius servulo
ut publice persone pro ea recipenti et stipulanti, restituta et de novo donata et concessa.” On the day of
the offering the notary recorded that “fuit per me notarium stipulatus contractus presentationis clavium
et traditionis possessionis predicte.” Ibid., 27, 31.
35 See n. 27-30.
36 See note following. This official account is contradicted by a local chronicler, according to
whom the archbishop of Siena, who was present for the ceremony, also had a role: after the offering,