At Pisa Cathedral was a large cloister (a courtyard surrounded by arches) called the Campo Santo and used as a burial place. All around the arcade in the Campo Santo were Ancient Roman "sarcopgagi" (stone coffins), that had been stolen by the navy of Pisa when they had won a battle. Many of the coffins were richly carved with scenes that told stories. The biographer Giorgio Vasari wrote that Nicola Pisano studied these sculptures before he started work on the carvings for the pulpit. Because of this, Nicola's sculpture makes a bridge between the Gothic style of the 1200s, and the Classical style used by Renaissance artists in the 1400s. 