with great activity. There are universities at Pisa and Siena. Viareggio and Leghorn are much frequented for sea-bathing, while the latter is a prosperous port.
The main art centres of Tuscany are Florence, Pisa and Siena, the headquarters of the chief schools of painting and sculpture from the 13th century onwards. While the former city, however, bore as prominent a part as any in Italy in the Renaissance, the art of Pisa ceased, owing to the political decline of the city, to make any advance at a comparatively early period, its importance being in ecclesiastical architecture in the 12th, and in sculpture in the 13th century. Siena, too, never accepted the Renaissance to the full, and its art retained an individual character without making much progress.
The language of Tuscany is remarkable for its purity of idiom, and its adoption by Dante and Petrarch probably led to its becoming the literary language of Italy. (See Italian Language, vol. xiv. p. 895.)
See E. Repetti, Dizionario geografico fisico storico della Toscana (6 vols., Florence, 1834–1846). See also G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (2 vols., London, 1883). On medieval and Renaissance architecture and art there are innumerable works. Among those on architecture may be mentioned the great work of H. von Geymiiller and A. Widmann, Die Architektur der Renaissance in Toscana. (T. As.)
History.—Etruria (q.v.) was finally annexed to Rome in 351 B.C., and constituted the seventh of the eleven regions into which Italy was, for administrative purposes, divided by Augustus. Under Constantine it was united into one province with Umbria, an arrangement which subsisted until at least 400, as the Notitia speaks of a “consularis Tusciae et Umbriae.” In Ammianus Marcellinus there is implied a distinction between “Tuscia suburbicaria" and “Tuscia an non aria,” the latter being that portion which lies to the north of the Arno. After the fall of the Western empire Tuscia, with other provinces of Italy, came successively under the sway of Herulians, Ostrogoths, and Greek and Lombard dukes. Under the last-named, “Tuscia Langobardorum,” comprising the districts of Viterbo, Corneto and Bolsena, was distinguished from “Tuscia Regni,” which lay more to the north. Under Charlemagne the name of Tuscia or Toscana became restricted to the latter only. One of the earliest of the Frankish marquises was Boniface, either first or second of that name, who about 828 fought with success against the Saracens in Africa. Adalbert I., who succeeded him, in 878 espoused the cause of Carloman as against his brother Louis III. of France, and suffered excommunication and imprisonment in consequence. Adalbert II. (the Rich), who married the ambitious Bertha, daughter of Lothair, king of Lorraine, took a prominent part in the politics of his day. A subsequent marquis, Hugo (the Great), became also duke of Spoleto in 989. The male line of marquises ended with Boniface II. (or III.), who was murdered in 1052. His widow, Beatrice, in 1055 married Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, and governed the country till her death in 1076, when she was succeeded by Matilda (q.v.), her only child by her first husband. Matilda died in 1114 without issue, bequeathing all her extensive possessions to the Church. The consequent struggle between the popes, who claimed the inheritance, and the emperors, who maintained that the Countess had no right to dispose of imperial fiefs, enabled the principal cities of Tuscany gradually to assert their independence. The most important of these Tuscan republics were Florence, Pisa, Siena, Arezzo, Pistoia and Lucca.
The Return of the Medici.—After the surrender of Florence to the Imperialists in August 1530 the Medici power was re-established by the emperor Charles V. and Pope Clement VII., although certain outward forms of republicanism were preserved, and Alessandro de’ Medici was made duke of Florence, the dignity to be hereditary in the family. In the reign of Cosimo III. Siena was annexed (1559); the title of grand duke of Tuscany was conferred on that ruler in 1567 by Pope Pius V. and recognized in the person of Francis I. by the emperor Maximilian II. in 1576. Under a series of degenerate Medici the history of Tuscany is certainly not a splendid record, and few events of importance occurred save court scandals. The people became more and more impoverished and degraded, a new and shoddy nobility was created and granted wide privileges, and art and letters declined. Giovan Gastone was the last Medicean grand duke; being childless, it was agreed by the treaty of Vienna that at his death Tuscany should be given to Francis, duke of Lorraine, husband of the archduchess Maria Theresa, afterwards empress. In 1737 Giovan Gastone died,[1] and Francis II., after taking possession of the grand duchy, appointed a regency under the prince of Craon and departed for Austria never to return. Tuscany was governed by a series of foreign regents and was a prey to adventurers from Lorraine and elsewhere; although the administration was not wholly inefficient and introduced some useful reforms, the people were ground by taxes to pay for the apanage of Francis in Vienna and for Austrian Wars, and reduced to a state of great poverty. Francis, who had been elected emperor in 1745, died in 1765, and was succeeded on the throne of the grand duchy by his younger son, Leopold I.
Leopold resided in Tuscany and proved one of the most capable
and remarkable of the reforming princes of the 18th century.
He substituted Tuscans for foreigners in government
offices, introduced a system of free trade in The Reforms
of Leopold II.foodstuffs (at the suggestion of the Sienese Sallustio
promoted agriculture, and reclaimed wide areas of
marshland to intensive cultivation, He reorganized taxation
on a basis of equality for all citizens, thereby abolishing one of
the most vexatious privileges of the nobility, reformed the
administration of justice and local government, suppressed
torture and capital punishment, and substituted a citizen militia
for the standing army. His reforms in church matters made a
great stir at the time, for he curbed the power of the clergy,
suppressed some religious houses, reduced the mortmain and
rejected papal interference. With the aid of Scipione de’ Ricci,
bishop of Pistoia, he even attempted to remove abuses, reform
church discipline and purify religious worship; but Ricci’s
action was condemned by Rome. Ricci was forced to resign,
and the whole movement came to nothing. (See Pistoia, Synod of.)
The grand duke also contemplated granting a
form of constitution, but his Teutonic rigidity was not popular
and many of his reforms were ahead of the times and not
appreciated by the people. At the death of his brother,
Joseph II., in 1790, Leopold became emperor, and repaired to
Vienna. After a brief regency he appointed his second son,
Ferdinand III., who had been born and brought up in
Tuscany, grand duke.
During the French revolutionary wars Ferdinand tried to maintain neutrality so as to avoid foreign invasions, but in 1799 a French force entered Florence and was welcomed by a small number of republicans. grand duke was forced to fly, the “tree of liberty” Was set up, and a provisional government on French linesThe French Occupation. established. But the great mass of the people were horrified at the irreligious character of the new regime, and a counterrevolution, fomented by Pope Pius VII., the grand ducalists and the clergy, broke out at Arezzo. Bands of armed peasants marched through the country to the cry of “Viva Maria!” and expelled the French, not without committing many atrocities. With the assistance of the Austrians, who put an end to disorder, Florence was occupied and the grand ducalists established a government in the name of Ferdinand. But after Napoleon Bonaparte’s victory at Marengo the French returned in great force, dispersed the bands, and re-entered Florence (October 1800). They too committed atrocities and sacked the churches, but they were more warmly welcomed than before by the people, who had experienced Austro-Aretine rule. Joachim Murat (afterwards king of Naples) set up a provisional government, and by the peace of Lunéville Tuscany was made a part of the Spanish dominions and erected into the kingdom of Etruria under Louis, duke of Parma (1801). The new king died in 1803, leaving an infant son, Charles Louis, under the regency of his widow, Marie Louise of Spain. Marie Louise ruled with
