Red Larch at San Fermo: Ligneous Knowledge in the Upper Adriatic

In the late medieval Adriatic, wood was a crucial natural resource and a building material that required highly specialized knowledge. From felling alpine trees, preparing logs into rafts, floating rafts down river, and storing and seasoning timbers, the preparation of lumber involved labor-intensive processes. The ship hull ceiling, a wood ceiling in the form of an inverted ship, was an important artifact that proliferated throughout the region from c. 1300-1450 and was fostered by the collaboration between different wood-based artisans. The ship hull ceiling at the church of San Fermo in Verona, executed from c. 1300-1350, is an exceptional case study for its innovative design. Recent conservation work has also uncovered material evidence of how artisans sourced appropriate lumber, prepared timbers, and crafted the ceiling from local red larch. In this talk, I highlight the specialized ligneous knowledge of artisans who contributed to the production of the ceiling. I show that the ceiling (and wood itself) is a source of interconnections between patrons, artisans, political regimes, and religious orders at this time. At San Fermo, the material and physical qualities of wood are neither representational nor represented, but are made visible through crafting.