NICASTRO
47
NICCOLA
America), lying between Honduras and Costa Rica,
the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean .Sea, has an area
of 49,200 square miles and a population of about
600,000 inhabitants. The great mass of the inhabi-
tants are either aborigines, or negroes, or of mixed
blood, those of pure European descent not exceeding
1500 in number. The legislative authority is vested
in a single chamber of thirty-six members, elected for
six years; the executive, in a president, whose term of
office is also six years, exercising his functions through
a cabinet of nine responsible ministers The country
is traversed by a deep depression, running parallel to
the Pacific cciast. wilhin which are a chain of volcanoes
(among thciii, .M<in(>tombo, 7000 feet) and the great
lakes, Slana^jua and Nicaragua (orCocibolga). From
the latter (a body of water 92 miles long and, at its
widest, 40 miles wide) the country takes its name, de-
rived from Nicarao, the name of the aboriginal chief
who held sway in the regions round about Lake Coci-
bolga when the Spaniards, under Ddvila, first explored
the country, in 1522. From that time, or soon after,
until 1 822 Nicaragua was a Spanish possession , forming
part of the Province of Guatemala. From 1822 until
1839 it was one of the five states constituting the Cen-
tral American Federation; from 1840 until the present
time (1911) it lias been an independent republic, with
its capital at Managua (pop., about 35,000). The
aborigines of the jMosquito Coast, a swampy tract ex-
tending along the Nicaraguan shores of the Caribbean,
were nominally under British protection until 1860,
when, by the Treaty of Managua, this protectorate
was ceded by Great Britain to the republic; in 1905,
another treaty recognized the absolute sovereignty of
Nicaragua over what had been, until then, known as
the Mosquito Reservation. Since the time of its ac-
quiring political independence, Nicaragua has been in
almost continuous turmoil. Commercially, the coun-
try is very poorly developed; its chief exports are
cofTee, cattle, and mahogany; a certain amount of gold
has been mined of recent years, and the nascent rubber
industry is regarded as promising.
The Diocese of Nicaragua was canonically erected in 1534 (according to other authorities, 1531), with Diego Alvarez for its first bishop. It appears to ha\-e been at first a suffragan of Mexico, though some au- thorities have assigned it to the ecclesiastical Province of Lima, but in the eighteenth century Benedict XIV made it a suffragan of Guatemala. The episcopal res- idence is at Leon, where there is a fine cathedral. A concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Nicaragua was concluded in 1861, and the Catholic is still recognized as the state religion, though Church and State are now separated, and freedom is constitu- tionally guaranteed to all forms of religious worship. After 1894 the Zela.ya Government entered upon a course of anti-Catholic legislation which provoked a protest from Bishop Francisco Ulloa y Larrios, and the bishop was banished to Panama, tfpon the death of this prelate, in 1908, his coadjutor bishop, Simeone Pereira, succeeded him. The returns for 1910 give the Diocese of Nicaragua 42 parishes, with 45 priests, a seminary, 2 colleges, and 2 hospitals.
Gamez, Archivo Histdrico de la Republica de Nicaragua (Mana- gua, 1896) : Squier. Nicaragua (London, 1852) ; Belt, The Natu- ralist in Nicaragua (London, 1873) ; The Stalesmari's Year Book (London, 1910). E. MacPHERSON.
Nicastro (Neocastrensis), a city of the Province of Catanzaro, in Calabria, southern Italy, situated on a promontory that commands the Gulf of St. Euphemia; above it is an ancient castle. The commerce of the port of Nicastro consists of the exportation of acid, herbs, and wine. The cathedral, an ancient temple, with the episcopal palace, was outside the city; having been pillaged by the Saracens, it was restored in the year 1100, but it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1638, with the episcopal palace, under the ruinsof which most valuable archives were lost. For a long time.
the Greek Rite was in use at Nicastro. The first bishop
of this city of whom there is any record was Henry
(1090); Bishop Tancredo da Monte Foscolo (1279)
was deposed by Honorius IV for having consecrated
John of Aragon, King of Sicily, but he was reinstated
by Boniface VIII; Bishop Paolo Capisucco (1533) was
one of the judges in the case of the marriage of Henry
VIII of England; Marcello Cervino (1539) became
Pope Marcellus II ; Giovanni Tommaso Perrone (1639)
built the new cathedral. In 1818 the ancient See of
Martorano, the former Mamertum (the first bishop of
which was Domnus, in 761), was united to the Diocese
of Nicastro. The diocese is a suffragan of Reggio in
Calabria; it has 52 parishes, with 110,100 inhabitants;
71 churches and chapels, 2 convents of the Capuchins,
and one orphan asylum and boarding-school, directed
by the Sisters of Charity.
Cappelletti, Le Chiese d' Italia, XXI (Venice, 1870), 200.
U. Benigni.
Niccola Pisano, architect and sculptor, b. at Pisa about 1205-07; d. there, 1278. He was the father of
modern plastic art. When barely psist adolescence,
he came to the notice of Frederick II of Swabi;i who
took him to attend his coronation in Rome, thinner lo
Naples, to complete Castel Capuano and Castel dell'
Uovo (1221-31). In 1233 Niccola was in L\i<-ca; the
alto-rilievo of the Deposition over the side door of the
cathedral may be of this date. The marble urn or
Area made to contain the body of St. Dominic in the
church bearing his name in Bologna, is said to be an
early work, but shows maturity; the charming group
of the Madonna and Child upon it, foreshadows all
the Madonnas of Italian art. From Niccola's designs
was built the famous basilica of St. Anthony in Padua,
the church of the Fcari in Venice is also attributed to
him, possibly on insufficient grounds. In Florence he
designed the interior of Sta. Trinity which Michelangelo
loved so much that he called it his lady, "la mia
Dama". Having been ordered by the Ghibcllines to
destroy the Baptistery frequented by the Guelphs,
Niccola undermined the tower called Guardo-morlo,
causing it to so fall that it did not touch the precious
