Bonanno Pisano, born in Pisa and active in the second half of the 12th century, worked both in the Tuscan city and in Monreale. His artistic activity is commemorated by the inscription on Monreale’s bronze door and on the lost bronze door of Pisa Cathedral, destroyed in a fire in 1500. Historians also credit him for the San Ranieri door, also in Pisa Cathedral, where Bonanno worked definitely as a bronze smelter and probably as a modeller. The artist had a workshop, with numerous assistants, in Pisa, near the Cathedral. The Monreale door was also designed and built in this workshop.
