# The Pisa Griffin > Unknown Islamic metalworking workshop (region of manufacture disputed) - c. 1085-1110 (proposed range within a broader 10th-12th century window argued by different scholars) > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/andalusi-islamic-metalworking-workshop/pisa-griffin/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-08-23 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Unknown Islamic metalworking workshop (region of manufacture disputed) - **Date:** c. 1085-1110 (proposed range within a broader 10th-12th century window argued by different scholars) - **Medium:** Cast bronze (leaded copper-tin alloy); hollow lost-wax casting with a separately cast internal vessel and riveted, separately cast wings; engraved and punch-worked surface decoration - **Dimensions:** Approximately 107 cm high; length and width are reported inconsistently across sources as 90 x 46 cm and as 87 x 43 cm - **Object type:** Islamic metalwork - **Period:** Islamic Mediterranean, 11th-12th century - **Current location:** Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Pisa - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary The largest known medieval Islamic bronze to survive: a hollow-cast griffin more than a metre tall, made somewhere in the Islamic Mediterranean around the turn of the twelfth century and carried to Pisa as the spoil of a naval campaign against a Muslim power. Which workshop made it, and which campaign brought it, are both still argued rather than settled.For roughly seven centuries it stood on a column above the apse of Pisa Cathedral, its Islamic origin forgotten by the city that displayed it. It came down in 1828, and since 1986 it has stood inside the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, a few hundred metres from the roofline it occupied for longer than most European nations have existed. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **c. 1085-c. 1110** Unknown workshop, unknown original owner `[disputed]` (origin) Manufactured by an unidentified workshop for an unnamed owner addressed only by the honorific benediction cast into the Kufic inscription. The region of manufacture is argued between al-Andalus, Fatimid Egypt and an Iranian hand working in Spain; no scholarly consensus exists. See narrative sections on the attribution dispute. - **c. 1087 or c. 1113-1115** Republic of Pisa `[disputed]` (acquisition as war booty) Taken as spoil of a Pisan naval campaign against a Muslim power. The two candidate campaigns in the literature are the 1087 Pisan-Genoese-papal raid on Mahdia in Zirid Tunisia, and the 1113-1115 Pisan-Catalan expedition against the Balearic Islands. No source consulted names which campaign actually delivered the griffin; both are proposed by different writers and neither is documented as fact. - **uncertain, by the 12th century-1828** Opera della Primaziale Pisana (Pisa Cathedral works board) `[documented]` (display) Displayed on a column above the apse of Pisa Cathedral's roofline. Sources are inconsistent on exactly when this installation began; one account gives a date as early as c. 1064, which cannot be correct for an object most scholars date after 1085, so the true installation date is treated here as unresolved rather than fixed. Over the centuries local tradition lost track of the object's Islamic origin, attaching Roman or miraculous legends to it instead. - **1828-1935** Opera della Primaziale Pisana `[documented]` (removal from the roof) Taken down from the cathedral roof in 1828 and replaced there with a replica, which still stands in its place today. Where and how the original bronze was kept between 1828 and the twentieth century is not detailed in the sources consulted. - **1935-1986** Opera della Primaziale Pisana `[documented]` (display in the Palazzo dell'Opera) A small collection of sculpture and stone fragments, curated by the art historian Enzo Carli, was shown in the loggia and two rooms of the Palazzo dell'Opera from 1935. The griffin's presence specifically within this 1935 display is not confirmed in the sources consulted; it is recorded only that the Opera's collections, of which the griffin is part, were held there before 1986. - **1986-present** Opera della Primaziale Pisana `[documented]` (installation in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo) The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo opened in 1986 under Guglielmo De Angelis d'Ossat in a dedicated building on the Piazza del Duomo, gathering works removed from the cathedral, baptistery and other Piazza dei Miracoli buildings. The griffin has been on permanent display there since. The museum was redesigned in 2019 by Guicciardini & Magni Architetti. ## Open questions - Which region actually produced the griffin: al-Andalus, Fatimid Egypt, or an Iranian hand working in Spain remain three argued positions with no scholarly consensus, and no source consulted for this record resolves between them. - Which Pisan naval campaign delivered the griffin as booty: the 1087 Mahdia raid and the 1113-1115 Balearic expedition are both proposed candidates; no primary source consulted names the specific campaign, ship or year. - What was the griffin originally made to do: the fountainhead theory lacks surviving hydraulic fittings, and the wind-instrument theory is an inference from its internal plumbing rather than a documented use. - When did the griffin first go up on the cathedral roofline: one figure in circulation, c. 1064, predates the object's own probable manufacture date and cannot be correct as stated; the true installation date is not established in the sources consulted. - Where and how was the griffin kept between its removal from the roof in 1828 and its appearance in Opera collections by the twentieth century: this interval is undocumented in the sources this record was able to obtain. - Is the griffin's presence specifically confirmed within the 1935 Palazzo dell'Opera display curated by Enzo Carli, or did it enter Opera display only later: the sources consulted describe the 1935 collection in general terms without naming every object in it. ## Sources - [1] Wikipedia, 'Pisa Griffin'. Consolidates dimensions, dating, inscription translation, attribution positions and function theories. Flagged as tertiary; replace with Anna Contadini (ed.), The Pisa Griffin and the Mari-Cha Lion: Metalwork, Art and Technology in the Medieval Islamicate Mediterranean (Pisa: Pacini Editore, 2018) directly where possible. - [2] Qantara - Mediterranean Heritage, 'The griffon of Pisa'. Gives the Monneret de Villard (al-Andalus, war spoil of Almeria 1089 or the Balearics 1114), Migeon and Jenkins (Fatimid Egypt, linked to Pisan-Genoese raids on Tunisia), and Melikian-Chirvani (Iranian craftsmen in eleventh-century Spain) positions, plus the Kufic inscription translation and dimensions. - [3] Review of Anna Contadini (ed.), The Pisa Griffin and the Mari-Cha Lion: Metalwork, Art and Technology in the Medieval Islamicate Mediterranean (Pisa: Pacini Editore, 2018), consulted via Academia.edu. Covers Contadini's alloy and decoration argument against a Fatimid origin, and Mirco Bassi's identification of a shared 'five-dot punch' tool linking the Griffin to the Mari-Cha Lion and to al-Andalus workshop practice. - [4] South China Morning Post, 'Ancient Mari-Cha Lion makes Hong Kong debut at Asia Society's lion-themed show'. Covers the Mari-Cha Lion's proposed origin, its 19 October 1993 London sale to Robert Miller for GBP 2.4 million, and the auction house's suggestion that it and the Pisa Griffin may share a workshop. - [5] Wikipedia, 'Mahdia campaign of 1087'. Covers the joint Pisan-Genoese-papal raid on Zirid Mahdia, the indemnity extracted, and its proposed (not confirmed) link to the Pisa Griffin. Flagged as tertiary. - [6] Wikipedia, '1113-1115 Balearic Islands expedition'. Covers the Pisan-Catalan-Occitan campaign against Ibiza and Majorca, its leadership and outcome. Does not itself mention the griffin; consulted to establish what is and is not documented about this campaign as a candidate source of the booty. Flagged as tertiary. - [7] WebSearch summary of scholarship on Pisan Islamic artifacts and the Liber Maiolichinus, describing bacini ceramics and the Pisa Griffin displayed on the cathedral facade as trophies of the Balearic campaign narrated in that chronicle. Secondary compilation; flagged for replacement with a direct edition of the Liber Maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus. - [8] WebSearch summary of Wikipedia and related material on the Griffin's alloy composition (approximately 78% copper, 22% tin), the 'five-dot punch' link to Cordoban workshop practice, and the al-Andalus attribution case built on scientific analysis of the bronze. - [9] Opera della Primaziale Pisana, official site, 'Opera del Duomo Museum'. Gives the museum's 1986 opening under Guglielmo De Angelis d'Ossat, the earlier 1935 display of Opera collections in the Palazzo dell'Opera curated by Enzo Carli, and the 2019 redesign by Guicciardini & Magni Architetti. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.