1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pisa

PISA, a town, archiepiscopal see and capital of a province of the same name, Tuscany, Italy, on the Arno, 7 m. from the sea^[1] and 49 m. west of Florence by rail. Pop. (1881), 42,779; (1900), 61,279. It still retains its ancient walls, 61/4 m. in circuit, and is defended by a citadel on the south-west The principal streets run alongside the river, and are lined with fine buildings. Besides the cathedral, the baptistery and the famous leaning tower, the city possesses several notable churches, as the Renaissance church of the Tuscan order of St Stephen, built in 1562 from plans by Vasari; San Niccolo, with a four-storeyed tower (1230), built by Niccola Pisano, and the tomb of John of Swabia, the parricide; Santa Caterina (1262); Santa Maria della Spina, in the Italo-Gothic style, built in 1230 and restored in 1872; San Sepolchro, erected in 1150 by Diotisalvi; San Francesco, with frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi, and the basilica of San Michele (1018). Amongst the secular buildings may be mentioned the royal palace, the archiepiscopal palace; the palace of the order of St Stephen, built by Niccola Pisano and reconstructed by Vasari; the Upezzinghi (formerly Lanfreducci) palace, built of Carrara marble in 1590; the Lanfranchi, Agostini and other palaces; the university (1472); a large hospital (1258); and fine market halls. There are statues to Cosimo I. (by Francavilla), Archduke Leopold, and Ferdinand I. The city possesses also an academy of the fine arts, with a gallery of paintings; and the university a library of 120,000 volumes, a natural history museum, botanical garden and agricultural schools. The university, founded in 1338, has faculties of law, medicine, mathematics and philosophy and literature, and is to this day one of the most famous in Italy.

The architects of the cathedral were Boschetto and Rinaldo, both Italians, probably Pisans. It is in lan a Latin cross, with an internal length of 3111/2 ft. and a breadifh of 252 ft. The nave, 109 ft high, has double vaulted aisles and the transepts single aisles, and at the intersection of nave and transepts there is a cupola. The basilica is still the predominant type, but the influence of the domed churches of Constantinople and the mosques of Palermo IS also apparent. The pillars which support the nave are of marble from Elba and Giglio; those of the side aisles are the spoils of ancient Greek and Roman buildings brought by the Pisan gallevs. Externally the finest part of the building is the west front, in which the note struck by the range of arches running round the base is repeated by four open arcades. Of the four doors three are by John of Bologna, who was greatly helped by Francavilla, Tacca and others; that of the south side, of much older date, is generally supposed to be the work of Bonanno. Of the interior decorations it is enough to mention the altars of the nave, said to be after designs by Michelangelo, and the mosaics in the dome and the apse which were among the latest designs of Cimabue. The baptistery was completed only in 1278, and marred in the 14th century by the introduction of Gothic details. The building is a circle 100 ft. in diameter, and is covered with a cone-surmounted dome 190 ft. high on which stands a statue of St Raniero. The lowest range of semicircular arches consists of twenty columns and the second of sixty; and above this is a row of eighteen windows in the same style se arated by as many pilasters. Tn the interior, which is supported by four pilasters and eight columns, the most striking features are the octagonal font and the hexagonal pulpit, erected in 1260 by N iccola Pisano. The campanile or “leaning tower of Pisa” is a round tower, the noblest, according to Freeman, of the southern Romanesque. Though the walls at the base are 13 ft. thick, and at the top about half as much, they are constructed throughout of marble. The basement is surrounded by a range of semicircular arches supported by fifteen columns, and above this rise six arcades with thirty columns each. The eighth storey, which contains the bells, is of much smaller diameter than the rest of the tower, and has only twelve columns. The height of the tower is 179 ft., but the ascent is easy by a stair in the wall, and the visitor hardly perceives the inc mation till he reaches the top and from the lower edge of the gallery looks “down” along the shaft receding to its base. The tower leans or deviates from the perpendicular, to a striking extent, which has gradually increased. it was 151/2 ft. out of the perpendicular when measured in 1829, and 161/2 ft. ft. in 1910. There is no reason to suppose that the architects, Bonanno and William of Innsbruck, intended that the campanile should be built in an oblique position; it would appear to have assumed it while the work was still in progress. The foundations are not more than 10 ft. deep, and their circumference only that of the tower. The Campo Santo, lying to the north of the cathedral, owes its origin to Archbishop Ubaldo (1188-1200), who made the spot peculiarly sacred by bringing fifty-three shiploads of earth from Mount Calvary. The building, erected in the Italian Gothic style between 1278 and 1283, by Giovanni Pisano, is of special interest chiefly for its famous frescoes.

There are numerous industries, the most important being the manufacture of cottons. In the vicinity are the royal stud-farm (horses and dromedaries) of Cascine di San Rossore, and the mineral baths of San Giuliano, alkaline-ferruginous, with temperature 91·4° to 105·8° Fahr. At the mouth of the Arno, joined to the city by a steam tramway, is the seaside resort of Marina di Pisa, also known as Bocca d’Arno. a well-known centre for landscape painters.

The old town occupied the site of the ancient Pisae on the right bank of the Arno. The foundation of Pisae is by tradition ascribed to a very remote period, and it was often (possibly only owing to the similarity of name) believed to have been founded from Pisae in Elis. It is first mentioned in history as the place at which a Roman army from Sardinia landed in 225 B.C., its harbour being at the mouth of the south branch of the Arno, north of Livorno. Being situated on the coast road (Via Aemilia) it was important as a frontier fortress against Liguria, to which, and not to Etruria, it really belonged, perhaps, up to the time of Sulla, the actual boundary lying between it and Vada Volaterrana (mod. Vada). It became a colony in 180 B.C., and was important for the fertility of its territory, for its quarries, and for the timber it yielded for ship-building. Augustus gave It the name of Colonia Julia Pisana; his grandsons Gaius and Lucius were patrons of the colony, and after their death monuments were erected in their honour, as is recorded in two long inscriptions still extant. Greek vases have been found within the city itself, seeming to point to the presence of Etruscan tombs (G. Ghirardini in Notizie degli Scavi, 1892, 147); but no remains now exist except of the Roman period-some scanty ruins of baths and of a temple, while the Piazza dei Cavalieri follows the outline of the ancient theatre.

See E. Bormann, Corp. inscr. lat. xi. 272 (1888).

Little is known of the history of Pisa during the barbarian invasions, but it is an ascertained fact that it was one of the first towns to regain its independence. Under the Byzantine dominion Pisa, like many other of the maritime cities of Italy, profited by the weakness of the government at Constantinople to reassert its strength. And even during the first years of the harsh Lombard rule the need recognized by these oppressors of defending the Italian coast from the attacks of the Byzantines was favourable to the development of the Pisan navy. Few particulars are extant concerning the real condition of the town; but we occasionally find Pisa mentioned, almost as though it were an independent city, at moments when Italy was overwhelmed by the greatest calamities. According to Amari’s happy expression, “it was already independent by sea, while still enslaved on land.” Its prosperity notably declined after the establishment of the Lombard rule and under the Franks. It again began to flourish under the marquises of Tuscany, who governed it in the name of the emperor.

In 1003 we find records of a war between Pisa and Lucca, which, according to Muratori, was the first waged between Italian cities in the middle ages. But the military development and real importance of Pisa in the 11th century must be attributed to the continuous and desperate struggle it maintained against the tide of Saracenic invasion from Sicily. And, although the numerous legends and fables of the old chroniclers disguise the true history of this struggle, they serve to attest the importance of Pisa in those days. In 1004 the Saracens forced the gates and sacked a quarter of the town; and in 1011 they renewed the attack. But the Pisans repulsed them and assumed the offensive in Calabria, Sicily, and even in Africa. Still more memorable was the expedition afterwards undertaken by the united forces of Pisa and Genoa against Mogahid, better known in the Italian chronicles as Mugeto. This Moslem chief had made himself master of Sardinia, and was driven thence by the allied fleets in 1015. Again invading the island, he was again attacked and defeated by the same adversaries, leaving a brother and son, or, as some authorities aver, a wife and son, prisoners in their hands. Sardinia continued to be governed by native “judges” who were like petty sovereigns, but were now subject to the sway of Pisa. This was the primary cause of the jealousy of the Genoese, and of the wars afterwards made by them upon Pisa and carried on until its power was crushed. Meanwhile the Pisans flourished more and more, and continued hostilities against the Saracens. In 1062 their ships returned from Palermo laden with spoil. Thus it is not surprising that Pisa should already have had its own code of laws (Consueludmi di mare), which in 1075 were approved by Gregory VII., and in 1081 confirmed by a patent from the emperor Henry IV., a document which mentions for the first time the existence of a magistrate analogous to the consuls of the republic, although the latter, according to some writers, already existed in Pisa as early as the year 1080; the point, however, is doubtful, and other writers place the first authentic me11tion of the consuls in the year 1094.^[2] The oldest of Pisan statutes still extant is the Breve dei consoli di mare of 1162.

In 1099 the Pisans joined in the second crusade, proved their valour at the capture of Jerusalem, and derived many commercial advantages from it; for within a short time they had banks, consuls, warehouses and privileges of all kinds in every Eastern port Thus, while the commune of Pisa was still under the rule of the marquises of Tuscany, all negotiations with it were carried on as with an independent state officially represented by the archbishop and consuls. The aristocrats were the dominant party, and filled the highest offices of the republic, which, in the 12th century, rose to great power, both on sea and land, by its wars with the Lucchese, Genoese and Moslems. In 1110 Pisa made peace with Lucca after six years of continuous hostilities. And in the years 1113 and 1115 it achieved a still greater enterprise. The Pisan fleet of three hundred sail, cornmanded by the archbishop Pietro Moriconi, attacked the Balearic Isles, where as many as 20,000 Christians were said to be held captive by the Moslems, and returned loaded with spoil and with a multitude of Christian and Moslem prisoners. The former were set at liberty or ransomed, and among the latter was the last descendant of the reigning dynasty. The chief eunuch who had governed Majorca perished in the siege. Immediately afterwards the fourteen years' war with Genoa broke out. The two republics contested the dominion of the sea, and both claimed supreme power over the islands of Corsica and Sardinia. A papal edict awarding the supremacy of Corsica to the Pisan church proved sufficient cause for the war, which went on from 1118 to 1132. Then Innocent II. transferred the supremacy over part of Corsica to the Genoese church, and compensated Pisa by grants in Sardinia and elsewhere. Accordingly, to gratify the pope and the emperor Lothair II., the Pisans entered the Neapolitan territory to combat the Normans. They aided in the vigorous defence of the city of Naples, and twice attacked and pillaged Amali, in 1135 and 1137, with such effect that the town never regained its prosperity. It has been said that the copy of the Pandects then taken by the Pisans from Amalfi was the first known to them, but in fact they were already acquainted with those laws. The war with Genoa never came to a real end Even after the retaking of Jerusalem by the Moslems (1187) the Pisans and Genoese again met in conflict in the East, and performed many deeds of valour. They were always ready to come to blows, and gave still more signal proofs of their enmity during the Sicilian War in behalf of the emperor Henry VI From that moment it was plain that there could be no lasting peace between these rival powers until the one or the other should be crushed. The greatness and wealth of the Pisans at this period of their history is proved by the erection of the noble buildings by which their city is adorned. The foundations of the cathedral were laid in 1063, and its consecration took place in 1118, the baptistery was begun in 1152, and the campanile (the famous leaning tower) in 1174. And all three magnificent structures were mainly the work of Pisan artists, who gave new life to Italian architecture, as they afterwards renewed the art of sculpture.

It is asserted by some writers, especially by Tronci, that in the 12th century Pisa adopted a more democratic form of government. But in fact the chief authority was still vested in the nobles, who, both in Pisa and in Sardinia, exercised almost sovereign power. They formed the real strength of the republic, and kept it faithful to the empire and the Ghibelline party. The Guelph and popnlar element which constituted the force and prosperity of Florence was hostile to Pisa, and led to its downfall. The independence of the former city was of much later origin, only dating from the death of Countess Matilda (1115), but it rapidly rose to an ever-increasing power, and to inevitable rivalry with Pisa. Owing to the political and commercial interests binding Florence to the Roman court, the Guelph element naturally prevailed there, while the growth of its trade and commerce necessarily compelled that state to encroach on waters subject to Pisan rule. And, although Pisa had hitherto been able to oppose a glorious resistance to Genoa and Lucca, it was not so easy to continue the struggle when its enemies were backed by the arms and political wisdom of the Florentines, who were skilled in obtaining powerful allies. The chroniclers ascribe the first war with Florence, which broke out in 1222, to a most ridiculous motive. The ambassadors of the rival states in Rome are said to have quarrelled about a lapdog. This merely shows that there were already so many general and permanent reasons for war that no special cause was needed to provoke it. In 1228 the Pisans met and defeated the united forces of Florence and Lucca near Barga in the Garfagnana, and at the same time they dispatched fifty-two galleys to assist Frederick II. in his expedition to the East. Shortly after this they renewed hostilities with the Genoese on account of Sardinia. The judges who governed the island were always at strife, and, as some of them applied to Pisa and some to Genoa for assistance against one another, the Italian seas were once more stained with blood, and the war burst out again and again, down to 1259, when it terminated in the decisive victory of the Pisans and the consolidation of their supremacy in Sardinia. But meanwhile Florence had made alliance with Genoa, Lucca and all the Guelph cities of Tuscany against its Ghibelline rival. The pope had excommunicated Frederick II. and all his adherents. And, as a crowning disaster, the death of Frederick in 1250 proved a mortal blow to the Italian Ghibelline cause. Nevertheless, the Pisans were undaunted. Suinmoning Siena, Pistoia and the Florentine exiles to their aid, they boldly faced their foe, but were defeated in 1254. Soon after this date we find the old aristocratic government of Pisa replaced by a more popular form. Instead of the consuls there were now twelve elders (anziani), besides the podesta, there was a captain of the people; and there was a general council as well as a senate of forty members. The rout of the Tuscan Guelphs on the field of Montaperto (1260) restored the fortunes of Pisa. But the battle of Benevento (1266), where Manfred fell, and the rout of Tagliacozzo (1268), sealing the ruin of the house of Hohenstaufen in Italy and the triumph of that of Anjou, were fatal to Pisa. For the republic had always sided with the empire and favoured Conradin, whose cruel end struck terror into the Ghibelline faction. The pope hurled an edict against the Pisans and tried to deprive them of Sardinia, while their merchants were driven from Sicily by the Angevins. The internal condition of the city was affected by these events. Owing to the increasing influence of the Guelph and popular side, to which the more ambitious nobles began to adhere for the furtherance of personal aims, the aristocratic Ghibelline party was rapidly losing ground. The first man to step to the front at this moment was Count Ugolino della Gherardesca of the powerful house of that name. He had become the virtual head of the republic, and, in order to preserve its independence and his own sway, inclined to the Guelphs and the popular party, in spite of the Ghibelline traditions of his race. He was supported by his kinsman Giovanni Visconti, judge of Gallura, but almost all the other great families vowed eternal hatred against him, and proclaimed him a traitor to his party, his country and his kin. So in 1274 he and Visconti were driven into exile. Both then joined the Florentines, took part in the war against their native city, and laid waste its surrounding territories In 1276 the Pisans were compelled to agree to very grievous terms—to exempt Florentine merchandise from all harbour dues, to yield certain strongholds to Lucca, and to permit the return of Count Ugolino, whose houses they had burnt, and whose lands they had confiscated. Thus the count again became a powerful leader in Pisa. Visconti, however, was dead.

This was the moment chosen by Genoa for a desperate and decisive struggle with her perpetual rival. For some years the hostile fleets continued to harass each other and engage in petty skirmishes, as if to measure their strength and prepare for a final effort. On the 6th of August 1284 the great battle of Meloria took place. Here seventy-two Pisan galleys engaged eighty eight Genoese, and half the Pisan fleet was destroyed. The chroniclers speak of 5000 killed and 11,000 prisoners; and, although these figures must be exaggerated, so great was the number of captives taken by the Genoese as to give rise to the saying—“To see Pisa, you must now go to Genoa” This defeat crushed the power of Pisa. She had lost her dominion over the sea, and the Tuscan Guelphs again joined in attacking her by land. Count Ugolino had taken part in the battle of Meloria and was accused of treachery At the height of his country's disasters he sought to confirm his own power by making terms mth the Florentines, by yielding certain castles to Lucca, and by neglecting to conclude negotiations with the Genoese for the release of the prisoners, lest these should all prove more or less hostile to himself. This excited a storm of opposition against him. The archbishop Ruggieri, having put himself at the head of the nobles, was elected podesta by the Lanfranchi, Sismondi and Gualandi, and a section of the popular party. The city was plunged into civil war. The great bell of the commune called together the adherents of the archbishop; the bell of the people summoned the partisans of the count. After a day’s fighting (July 1, 1288) the count, his two sons and his two grandsons were captured in the palazzo del popolo (or town hall), and cast into a tower belonging to the Gualandi and known as the “Tower of the Seven Streets.” Here they were all left to die of hunger Their tragic end was afterwards immortalized in the Divina commedia. The sympathies of Dante Alighieri, the Florentine patriot and foe of Rome, were naturally in favour of the victims of an aristocratic prelate, opposed to all reconciliation with Florence.

The Florentines were now allied with Lucca and Genoa, and a few of their vessels succeeded in forcing an entry into the Pisan port, blocked it with sunken boats, and seized its towers. Their own internal dissensions of 1293 put a stop to the campaign, but not before they had concluded an advantageous peace. They and all the members of the Guelph league were freed from all imposts in Pisa and its port. In addition to these privileges the Genoese also held Corsica and part of Sardinia; and throughout the island of Elba they were exempted from every tax. They likewise received a ransom of 160,000 lire for their Pisan prisoners. These were no longer numerous, many having succumbed to the hardships and sufferings of all kinds to which they had been exposed.

In 1312 the arrival of the emperor Henry VII. gladdened the hearts of the Pisans, but his sudden death in 1313 again overthrew their hopes. He was interred at Pisa, and Uguccione della Faggiuola remained as imperial lieutenant, was elected podesta and captain of the people, and thus became virtual lord of the city. As a Ghibelline chief of valour and renown he was able to restore the military prestige of the Pisans, who under his command captured Lucca and defeated the Florentines at Montecatini on the 29th of August 1315. So tyrannical, however, was his rule that in 1316 he was expelled by the popular fury. But Pisa’s freedom was for ever lost. He was succeeded by other lords or tyrants, of whom the most renowned was Castruccio Castracane, a political and military adventurer of much the same stamp as Uguccione himself. With the help of Louis the Bavarian, Castruccio became lord of Lucca and Pisa, and was victorious over the Florentines; but his premature death in 1328 again left the city a prey to the conflicts of opposing factions. New lords, or petty tyrants, rose to power in turn during this period of civil discord, but the military valour of the Pisans was not yet extinguished. By sea they were almost impotent-Corsica and Sardinia were lost to them for ever; but they were still formidable by land. In 13,41 they besieged Lucca in order to prevent the entry of the Florentines, to whom the city had been sold for 250,000 florins by the powerful Mastino della Scala. A1ded by their Milanese, Mantuan and Paduan allies, they gave battle to their rivals, put them to rout at Altopascio (Oct. 2), and then again excluded them from their port. Thereupon the Florentines obtained Porto Talamone from Siena and established a navy of their own. By this means they were enabled to capture the island of Giglio, and, attacking the Pisan harbour, carried off its chains, bore them in triumph to Florence, and suspended them in front of the baptistery, where they remained until 1848. Then, in pledge of the brotherhood of all Italian cities, they were given back to Pisa, and placed in the Campo Santo.

The war was now carried on by the free companies with varying fortune, but always more or less to the hurt of the Pisans. In 1369 Lucca was taken from them by the emperor Charles IV.; and afterwards Giovan Galeazzo Visconti, known as the count of Virtix, determined to forward his ambitious designs upon the whole of Italy by wresting Pisa from the Gambacorti. For at this time the conflicts of the Raspanti faction, headed by the Gherardesca, with the Bergolini led by the Gambacorti, had left the latter family masters of the city. At Visconti’s instigation Piero Gambacorti, the ruler of the moment, was treacherously assassinated by Iacopo d’Appiano, who succeeded him as tyrant of Pisa, and bequeathed the state to his son Gherardo. The latter, a man of inferior ability and daring, sold Pisa to the count of Virtu, receiving in exchange 200,000 florins, Piombino, and the islands of Elba, Pianosa and Monte Cristo. Thus in 1399 Visconti took possession of Pisa, and left it to his natural son Gabriele Maria Visconti, who was afterwards expelled from its gates. But even during this century of disaster the Pisans continued to cherish not only commerce, but also the fine arts. In the year 1278 they had entrusted the erection of their fine Campo Santo to Niccola and Giovanni Pisano, by whom the architectural part of it was completed towards the end of the century. In the following year the first artists of Italy were engaged in its decoration, and the celebrated frescoes attributed to Orcagna (q.v.) were painted on its walls Others were afterwards supplied by Benozzo Gozzoli and men of lesser note, and the labour of ornamentation was only discontinued in 1464.

Meanwhile, in 1406, the Florentines made another attack upon Pisa, besieging it simultaneously by sea and land. Owing to the starving condition of its defenders, and aided by the treachery of Giovanni Gambacorti, they entered the city in triumph on the 9th of October, and sought to “crush every germ of rebellion and drive out its citizens by measures of the utmost harshness and cruelty.” Such were the orders sent by the Ten of War to the representatives of the Florentine government in Pisa, and such was then the established policy of every Italian state. Consequently for a long time there was a continual stream of emigration from Pisa. The Medici pursued a humaner course. In 1472 Lorenzo the Magnificent tried to restore the ancient renown of the Pisan university. To that end he filled it with celebrated scholars, and, leaving only a few chairs of letters and philosophy in Florence, compelled the Florentines to resort to Pisa for the prosecution of their studies. But nothing could now allay the inextinguishable hatred of the conquered people. When Charles VIII made his descent into Italy in 1494, and came to Sarzana on his way to Tuscany, he was welcomed by the Pisans with the greatest demonstrations of joy And, although that monarch was ostensibly the friend of Florence, they did 'not hesitate, even in his presence, to assert their own independence, and, casting the Florentine ensign, the Marzocco, into the Arno, made instant preparations for war. Between 1499 and 1505 they heroically withstood three sieges and repulsed three attacking armies. But their adversaries always returned to the assault, and, what was worse, yearly laid waste their territories and destroyed all their crops. Soderini, who was perpetual gonfalonier of Florence, and Machiavelli, the secretary of the Ten, urged on the war. In 1509 Florence encamped her forces on three sides of the distressed city, which at last, reduced to extremity by famine, was compelled to surrender on the 8th of June 1509. Thenceforth the Florentines remained lords of Pisa. But now, mainly owing to the efforts of Soderini and Machiavelli, the conquerors showed great magnanimity. They brought with them large stores of provisions, which were freely distributed to all, they tried to succour the suffering populace in every way, and gave other assistance to the wealthier classes. Nevertheless, emigration continued even on a larger scale than in 1406, and the real history of Pisa may be said to have ended. In Naples, in Palermo, in all parts of Italy, Switzerland and the south of France, we still find the names of Pisan families who quitted their beloved home at that time. The Florentines immediately built a new citadel, and this was a great bitterness to the Pisans. The Medici, however, remained well disposed towards the city. Leo X. was an active patron of the university, but it again declined after his death. The grand duke Cosmo I., a genuine statesman, not only restored the university, but instituted the “uffizio dei fossi,” or drainage office for the reclamation of marsh lands, and founded the knighthood of St Stephen. This order played a noble part in the protection of Tuscan commerce, by fighting the Barbary pirates and establishing the prestige of the grand-ducal navy (see Medici). Under the succeeding Medici, Pisa’s fortunes steadily declined. Ferdinand I. initiated a few public works there, and above all restored the cathedral, which had been partly destroyed by fire in 1595. These dreary times, however, are brightened by one glorious name—that of Galileo Galilei.

The population of Pisa within the walls had been reduced in 1551 to 8574 souls, and by 1745 it had only risen to the number of 12,406. Under the house of Lorraine, or more correctly during the reign of that enlightened reformer the grand duke Peter Leopold (1765–1790), Pisa shared in the general prosperity of Tuscany, and its population constantly increased. By 1840 it contained 21,670 souls, exclusive of the suburbs and outlying districts.

Authorities.—Paolo Tronci, Annali di Pisa, edited by E. V. Montazio (2 vols, Lucca, 1842–1843), which comes down to 1840; Ranieri Grassi, Pisa e le sue adiacenze (Pisa, 1851), which is a useful historical guide; Roncioni, “Istorie Pisane,” in the Archivio storico italiano, vol vi., pt. 1; “Cronache Pisane,” in the same Archivio, vol. vi., pt. 2, for the early constitution of the city, see G. Volpe’s Studii sulle istitutioni, comunali di Pisa (Pisa, 1902), and for the laws, F. Bonaini’s Statuti inediti della città di Pisa (3 vols., Florence, 1851, &c.). The maritime and commercial history of the republic is dealt with in A Schaube’s Das Konsulat des Meeres in Pisa (Leipzig, 1888) and in Pawinski’s Zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Konsulats in den Communen Nord- und Mittel-Italiens (Berlin, 1867); for the monuments and inscriptions see A. Da Morrona, Pisa illustrata (Leghorn, 1812) and G. R. de Fleury’s Les Monuments de Pise au moyen âge (Paris, 1866); also Repetti’s Dizionario geografico della Toscana, s.v. “Pisa.” For Dante’s connexion with Pisa, see Dante e i Pisani, by Giovanni Sforza (Pisa, 1873). Among the more recent historical guides to Pisa of a popular character is The Story of Pisa and Lucca, by Janet Ross and Nellie Erichsen, in Dent’s “Medieval Towns” (London, 1907), and T. B. Supino’s Pisa, in the “Italia artistica Series.”)  (P. V.) 

1. In Strabo’s time it was only 2 m. away, but the increase of the delta at the mouth of the river has since then pushed forward the coast-line.
2. It must be remembered that the Pisans and Florentines dated the beginning of the year ab incarnatione, i.e. from the 25th of March But the Florentines dated it from the 25th following and the Pisans from the 25th of March preceding the commencement of the common year. The new or common style was adopted throughout Tuscany in the year 1750.