The cabreo of Fra Mario Bichi deals with the estates of San Pietro in Camollia in Siena. It is a volume of rather small dimensions (approximately 35 x 24cm) when compared to other cabrei of the late seventeenth century. It has a finely decorated full leather binding which is contemporary to the text and has four illustrated plans.

The cabreo dates to 1692 and is decorated in a typically Baroque manner with a central coat-of-arms of the Bichi family on the front cover and an inscription within an elaborately draped cartouche on the frontispiece. It is not known who bound the volume, but what is certain is that the binder was sensitive enough to observe the details within the manuscript so as to harmonise the entire ornamentation of the book. The land surveyor and draughtsman of the cabreo were Simon Terreni and Giuseppe Redi respectively. Their names are documented in the frontispiece and their signatures are found throughout the volume. The sense of draughtsmanship of Giuseppe Redi, who is recorded to have “disegnò e colorì” the plans, is of outstanding quality when considering that most cabrei were illustrated in a rather naïve style. A typical aspect of many cabrei of the period is a weak sense of perspective particularly in the rendition of the land. However, a great deal of attention is given to details and presentation.

The opening pages of the cabreo describe how Fra Mario Bichi was obliged to ask for special permission from the Grand Duke of Tuscany for a license to own a cabreo with an inventory of his property. Written in vulgar seventeenth century Italian, the sequence of the text is similar throughout. For each estate, Fra Mario Bichi was asked to have public notices put up in each town for witnesses of the bordering landowners. The witnesses served to control the conduct of their neighbouring proprietors and the way in which the land was being exploited. After each description of the land, each witness was asked a set of questions by the notaio publico regarding the landowner and the land concerned. At the end of this written dialogue, one finds the insertion of each corresponding plan.

Perhaps the most outstanding features of the cabreo are the four illustrated plans that are inserted as attachments to the volume. They are not only a form of embellishment to the book as a whole, but add a sense of curiosity particularly to the modern reader. The plans served to make the text more understandable and easy to follow and also had a documentary and technical function.

The plans are accompanied by colour ink drawings which are drawn to scale and capture intriguing details such as doorways, staircases and bell cots. The plans display the extent of the property pertaining to Fra Mario Bichi with the dividing fields and lands together with adjacent drawings highlighting details from the larger plan. Each area on the illustrated plan has a corresponding letter or number that is found in the text, giving a description of the area mentioned. The wealth of detail and display not only reflect the competence of the draughtsman himself but also Bichi’s financial position in being able to select the most competent artisans in the area of his time.

Part II will be carried next week.

Theresa Zammit Lupi holds a BA (Hons) in History of Art from the University of Malta. She trained as a book and paper conservator in Florence between 1996-99. She then read for a Masters in book conservation at Camberwell College, London, where she is now currently reading for a doctorate in the same subject.

This article first appeared in Easter 2002 issue of Treasures of Malta, which is published by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti. Treasures of Malta is a magazine about art and culture which is published three times a year, and is available from all leading bookshops.

Etymology and origin of the cabreo

The first term used to denote a cabreo was Martilogio1 probably derived from the name Marte which signifies the earth or land. The first cabrei seem to have appeared originally in Lucca around 1540 and were purely governmental procedures to control the land and landowners.

The terms cabreo and also cabrero are found in several manuscripts and it seems that it was the Order of the Knights of St John that initially adopted the word. A plausible attempt at its derivation could be through the Spanish word caballero meaning “knight,” which later got corrupted to cabreo, or possibly through the Catalan term capbreu which may be defined as an inventory of movable and immovable property2. An other interpretation at its derivation has been through the Medieval Latin caput breve or capi brevium, meaning a collection of maps belonging to ecclesiastical or lay landowners.

An exact definition of the word cabreo is a collection of drawings of maps, buildings and views representing public or private property accompanied by a corresponding descriptive text bound together in one volume. The holders of every commandery of the Order of St John were expected to have a cabreo in their possession which recorded all the movable and immovable property entrusted to them. Furthermore, the ownership of a cabreo was in the interest of every commandery since it gave an exact inventory of all the estates belonging to it.

Architects and draughtsmen, known as periti agrimensori, were called upon to draw the plans of the property together with an accompanying description of the buildings in situ. Land surveyors and supervisors would regularly visit these sites to update the cabreo. This was known as melioramenti, which involved listing the improvements that needed to be done for the upkeep of a building as well as controlling any deteriorating property. It even stimulated holders to render their properties more productive for profitable incomes to the Common Treasury.

Most cabrei have simple limp or semi-limp parchment bindings but some are more elaborately decorated in leather with gold tooling marks. Cabrei normally have fold-out plans that are often inserted as attachments to the text block. In some cases drawings were executed directly in the volume between areas of text. The quality of the material used is generally good, having high quality hand-made cotton paper which is resistant and durable for carrying on site. Cabrei are normally written in a cursive script in vulgar Italian. The dimensions of most of them vary, but the earlier types tend to be smaller in size while 18th-century ones are often larger, in the format of an atlas.

For the illustrations, most draughtsmen used inks that had a brownish tinge resembling sepia. The emergence and use of watercolours came about in the sixteenth century so the earlier type of cabrei are monochromatic, with simple shaded areas for contrast. The most elaborately decorated cabrei occur at the turn of the eighteenth century with the application of more than one colour.

Footnotes:

1 Cfr., Ginori Lisci L., Cabrei in Toscana – Raccolte di mappe, prospetti e vedute sec.XVI-sec.XIX, Giunti Marzocco, Firenze, 1978, p.13.

2 Cfr., Fra John E. Critien, Joseph Schirò and Maroma Camilleri, Fine Bookbindings, M.Demajo Group, Malta, 1999, p.4.