[1] The name Osci--earlier Opsci, Opusci (Gr. [Greek:
Opikoi])--presumably meant "tillers of the soil."
CAMPANI-ALIMENIS, MATTEO, Italian mechanician and natural philosopher of
the 17th century, was born at Spoleto. He held a curacy at Rome in 1661,
but devoted himself principally to scientific pursuits. As an optician
he is chiefly celebrated for the manufacture of the large object-glasses
with which G.D. Cassini discovered two of Saturn's satellites, and for
an attempt to rectify chromatic aberration by using a triple eye-glass;
and in clock-making, for his invention of the illuminated dial-plate,
and that of noiseless clocks, as well as for an attempt to correct the
irregularities of the pendulum which arise from variations of
temperature. Campani published in 1678 a work on horology, and on the
manufacture of lenses for telescopes. His younger brother Giuseppe was
also an ingenious optician (indeed the attempt to correct chromatic
aberration has been ascribed to him instead of to Matteo), and is,
besides, noteworthy as an astronomer, especially for his discovery, by
the aid of a telescope of his own construction, of the spots in Jupiter,
the credit of which was, however, also claimed by Eustachio Divini.
CAMPANILE, the bell tower attached to the churches and town-halls in
Italy (from _campana_, a bell). Bells are supposed to have been first
used for announcing the sacred offices by Pope Sabinian (604), the
immediate successor to St Gregory; and their use by the municipalities
came with the rights granted by kings and emperors to the citizens to
enclose their towns with fortifications, and assemble at the sound of a
great bell. It is to the Lombard architects of the north of Italy that
we are indebted for the introduction and development of the campanile,
which, when used in connexion with a sacred building, is a feature
peculiar to Christian architecture--Christians alone making use of the
bell to gather the multitude to public worship. The campanile of Italy
serves the same purpose as the tower or steeple of the churches in the
north and west of Europe, but differs from it in design and position
with regard to the body of the church. It is almost always detached from
the church, or at most connected with it by an arcaded passage. As a
rule also there is never more than one campanile to a church, with a few
exceptions, as in S. Ambrogio, Milan; the cathedral of Novara; S.
Abbondio, Como; S. Antonio, Padua; and some of the churches in south
Italy and Sicily. The design differs entirely from the northern type; it
never has buttresses, is very tall and thin in proportion to its height,
and as a rule rises abruptly from the ground without base or plinth
mouldings undiminished to the summit; it is usually divided by
string-courses into storeys of nearly equal height, and in north and
central Italy the wall surface is decorated with pilaster strips and
arcaded corbel strings. Later, the square tower was crowned with an
octagonal turret, sometimes with a conical roof, as in Cremona and
Modena cathedrals. As a rule the openings increase in number and
dimensions as they rise, those at the top therefore giving a lightness
to the structure, while the lower portions, with narrow slits only,
impart solidity to the whole composition.
The earliest examples are those of the two churches of S. Apollinare in
Classe (see BASILICA, fig. 8) and S. Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna, dating
from the 6th century. They are circular, of considerable height, and
probably were erected as watch towers or depositories for the treasures
of the church. The next in order are those in Rome, of which there are a
very large number in existence, dating from the 8th to the 11th century.
These towers are square and in several storeys, the lower part quite
plain till well above the church to which they are attached. Above this
they are divided into storeys by brick cornices carried on stone
corbels, generally taken from ancient buildings, the lower storeys with
blind arcades and the upper storeys with open arcades. The earliest on
record was one connected with St Peter's, to the atrium of which, in the
middle of the 8th century, a bell-tower overlaid with gold was added.
One of the finest is that of S. Maria-in-Cosmedin, ascribed to the 8th
or 9th century. In the lower part of it are embedded some ancient
columns of the Composite Order belonging to the Temple of Ceres. The
tower is 120 ft. high, the upper part divided into seven storeys, the
four upper ones with open arcades, the bells being hung in the second
from the top. The arches of the arcades, two or three in number, are
recessed in two orders and rest on long impost blocks (their length
equal to the thickness of the wall above), carried by a mid-wall shaft.
This type of arcade or window is found in early German work, except
that, as a rule, there is a capital under the impost block. Rome is
probably the source from which the Saxon windows were derived, the
example in Worth church being identically the same as those in the Roman
campanili. In the campanile of S. Alessio there are two arcades in each
storey, each divided with a mid-wall shaft. Among others, those of SS.
Giovanni e Paolo, S. Lorenzo in Lucina, S. Francesca Romana, S. Croce in
Gerusalemme, S. Giorgio in Velabro (fig. 1), S. Cecilia, S. Pudenziana,
S. Bartolommeo in Isola (982), S. Silvestro in Capite, are
characteristic examples. On some of the towers are encrusted plaques of
marble or of red or green porphyry, enclosed in a tile or moulded brick
border; sometimes these plaques are in majolica with Byzantine patterns.
[Illustration: From a photograph by Alinari.