282 Mr. A. Taylor on the Gothic Buildings of Pisa. 



da Pisa, so late as the year 1278, adopted a Roman style. It 

 is not, however, to be concluded, on this account, that the 

 Gothic was then entirely unknown. It occurs in a mixt and 

 irregular form in the pulpit of the Baptistery, made by his 

 father Niccolo da Pisa in 1260; but an earlier specimen, of 

 authentic date, has in vain been sought foi*. 



Having now detailed the principal observations made in a 

 survey of the interesting buildings which form the subject of 

 the present Paper, the writer has only to state the result of an 

 inquiry respecting them, undertaken at the desire of a highly 

 respected friend to whom the public is indebted for a very 

 learned and ingenious work on the architecture of the middle 

 ages. 



The Rev. Mr. Gunn having, three or four years since, ap- 

 plied to a gentleman resident in Tuscany, to obtain for him 

 the sentiments of the best Pisan architects with regard to the 

 disputed Gothic ornaments, received an answer professing to 

 contain the opinion of Sign or Antonio Toscanelli, an artist of 

 great respectability at Pisa, which not only explicitly declared 

 in favour of the entire originality of these parts, but asserted 

 the existence of original plans and designs of each of the 

 buildings in the Archivio of Pisa corresponding exactly with 

 their present appearance. To this communication, the most 

 important that could have been received to the question at 

 issue, and apparently resting on the best authority, Mr. Gunn 

 of course assigned a place in the work above referred to, and 

 made a further application, through the same channel, with a 

 view to get copies of the designs themselves. To this request 

 he had not been able to obtain a satisfactory reply ; till, upon 

 the present investigation, it appeared that the opinion so de- 

 rived was not only fictitious, but in opposition to the judgement of 

 the person to whom it was attributed. Signor Toscanelli be- 

 lieves that no designs, such as were stated in it, exist, and 

 naturally expresses his astonishment that any one should have 

 presumed to make use of his name on such a subject, without 

 his knowledge and authority. The real opinion of the Pisan 

 antiquaries is, indeed, of a very different kind. In particu- 

 lar the Cavaliere Lasinio, to whose polite attentions the writer 

 is much indebted, is fully persuaded of the posterior addition 

 of the Gothic attributes ; and concurs generally in the con- 

 clusions above stated. 



It will be right to add that the foregoing remarks have been 

 written without access to the memoirs which have already ap- 

 peared on the subject in the volumes of the Archceologia ; the 

 writer had indeed no other guide to the points of principal in- 

 terest, than an abstract of the controversy by the friend of 



whom 



