of the ancient Buildings of Pisa. 281 



tion of the church : it is perhaps too much to assume this as 

 the date of the Gothic details in question ; but that they can- 

 not be older than the time when the bridge was destroyed may 

 be argued from the projection of the added part beyond the 

 line of way between the opposite sides of the river*. 



It will doubtless be said, in this case, as in that of the Campo 

 Santo, that Gothic Architecture could not have been in use at 

 so late a period. An extensive and minute research would be 

 requisite to decide upon the truth of so general a position ; but 

 a few circumstances may shortly be noticed which appear to 

 militate against it. There exists in Pisa itself a large and 

 conspicuous red brick housef, which, if its date were known, 

 would almost determine the question ; it is covered with Gothic 

 enrichments and pointed arches. On the floor of the Baptis- 

 tery, at Pisa, is a sculptured tombstone with a Gothic canopy, 

 dated 1395 ; in the church of Santa Caterina one of the same 

 kind, dated 1403, and in the Campo Santo another, dated 

 1428 X- The Palazzo Nerucci in Siena, built in 1460, has 

 pointed windows of two lights. Authorities to the same pur- 

 pose might probably be collected even in Rome itself; it is 

 remarkable, indeed, that the Palazzo di Venezia, one of the 

 largest in that capital, which was built four years after the date 

 assigned to the windows in the Campo Santo, namely in 1468, 

 is but one remove from a Gothic buildino-. 



With regard to the period at which the pointed style was 

 first employed at Pisa, a comparison of two of its principal 

 churches may not be unimportant. The front of San Paolo 

 a ripa d' Arno is ornamented in the upper part with three tiers 

 of small arches, all round, and resembling those on the front 

 of the Duomo, which was evidently the model for most of the 

 ecclesiastical buildings in the city. This church is supposed 

 to have been erected about the year 1 1 00. The facade of San 

 Michele in Borgo, built on the same plan, has three similar 

 tiers of pointed arches, and of a character which we should 

 call early Gothic; this was constructed in 1304. The front 

 of Santa Caterina, which is also Gothic, and remarkably 

 beautiful, would be a desirable addition to the list, but its date 

 is uncertain. 



In building his Campo Santo, it has appeared that Giovanni 



* A person standing in the middle of the Via Santa Maria, at the end 

 next the Lung' Arno, and looking across the river into the Via S. Antonio 

 will immediately perceive what is meant above. 



t Well known u theCafK del Ussero on the Lung' Arno. 



\ In the Galleries of Pisa and Siena arc many pictures of the fifteenth 

 century in decidedly Gothic frames ; those which have dates are in 1440 

 I 1 17, 1453, and 1514 : they are generally altar-pieces, and arc fair indica- 

 tions ol the architectural taste of their time. 



Vol. 64. No. 318. Oct. 1824. N n da 



