Rome: Its alarming tilt is known the world over, but the identity of the architect who designed the leaning Tower of Pisa has remained a mystery.

The mystery of who designed the Tower of Pisa may have been solved.Credit:Lia Timson

Italian scholars now believe they have solved the mystery, having analysed a piece of stone embedded in the base of the monument and found during excavations in 1838.

Until now, the stone was thought to have come from the sarcophagus of a 12th-century Pisan architect called Bonanno Pisano. It bears his name in Latin. But archaeologists from the Scuola Normale Superiore, a university in Pisa, have managed to decipher a further two lines of the badly damaged inscription and think it proves that Pisano was the architect of the world-famous monument.

They say the lines read: "Mìrificùm qui cèrtus opùs condéns statui ùnum, Pìsanùs civìs Bonànnus nòmine dìcor", which translates as "I, who without doubt have erected this marvellous work that is above all others, am the citizen of Pisa by the name of Bonanno."

There has been speculation over the centuries as to who was behind the unique design of the tower. Among the most commonly mentioned names are the architects Gherardo di Gherardo and Giovani di Simone.

Bonanno Pisano had also been mooted, most notably by Giorgio Vasari, the 16th-century painter, architect and writer best known for his biographies of Renaissance artists. This latest discovery would seem to support Vasari's theory. "The Latin adjective 'cèrtus' expresses all his pride at being the architect," said Giulia Ammannati, who made the discovery. "Bonanno erected the tower, certain of its great beauty and confident that it would be an incredible monument."

An expert in paleography, the study of ancient writing, she said that because the tower suffered engineering problems from the very start, Bonanno's proud inscription may have been unceremoniously dumped "amid all the building works and detritus at the foot of the tower".

The building of the emblematic bell tower began in 1173, but by the time the third level was finished it was already tilting badly due to the soft sand and clay that lay beneath its foundations. Despite the pronounced lean, work resumed and it was completed in the second half of the 14th century.

By the early 1990s the tilt was 5.5 degrees from the vertical. Remedial works were carried out in which earth was removed to correct the tilt. Braces were wrapped around the third storey, anchored to the ground with steel cables.

Those efforts managed to rectify the lean by nearly 45 centimetres by 2001.

Telegraph, London

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