PISA 



PISANO 



195 



supports a dome, crowned with a cupola. The 

 interior, noted for its wonderful echo, contains the 

 grand and elaborate pal pit of Niccola Pisano ( 1260) 

 and a large marble font. The beginning of the 

 Canipo Santo, or ancient national cemetery, was 

 several loads of earth brought from Jerusalem to- 

 wards 1200. In 1278-83 the ground was surrounded 

 by cloisters by Giovanni Pisano, the walls of which 

 were adorned with fresco- pain tings by Orcagna, 

 Benozzo Gozzoli, and others. The city contains 



Leaning Tower and Cathedral, Pisa. 



numerous other churches, some of great age, dating 

 from the 13th century and even earlier; also many 

 fine palaces, private and official residences, includ- 

 ing that of the archbishop. The university (1338) 

 has a natural histnrv museum, a botanical garden, 

 a lilirary (1742) of 120,000 volumes, and sixty 

 lecturers and 600 students. The town possesses 

 an academy of fine arts and archives. Amongst 

 distinguished natives may l>e named the popes 

 KiigciiiiiB III. and Nicholas V., the Visconti, Peter 

 the Deacon, Leonardo the mathematician, Giovanni 

 (but not Niccola) Pisano, and Galilei. The in- 

 iluxtrial activity is now confined to cottons, silks, 

 ribbons, and the working of coral and alabaster. 

 Dromedaries are bred at a royal farm in the 

 neighbourhood. Pop. of commune (1881) 53,957; 

 (1890) 64,700. Tim province has an area of 1180 

 (|. m. and (1896) a pop. of 311,742. 



History. Ancient Pisa, originally an Etruscan 

 city, became subject to Rome in the 2d century 

 B.c. ; but, on the decline of the western empire, it 

 was compelled to submit in turn to the nations 

 who successively overran Northern Italy. Early 

 in the llth century Pisa had developed into 

 a [Hiwcrful republic, possessing a formidable fleet 

 and i-xtcnsive territories along the Tyrrhenian Sea ; 

 it yielded little more than nominal homage to its 

 sn/cr;iin lords, the emperors of Germany. Through- 

 out tin- llth century Pisa was at the height of its 

 prosperity; to this period Inslong most of the 

 xjilcridid monuments of art that still adorn the 

 city. It had extensive commercial relations with 

 the East; its 'customs of the sea' (1075) were 



the pattern upon \yhich the sea-laws of nearly 

 all peoples navigating the Mediterranean were 

 modelled. During the same century the Pisans 

 repulsed the Saracens (1011), took Sardinia from 

 them in 1022, attacked them in Africa in 1030, and 

 routed them utterly off Palermo in 1062. Early in 

 the next century, in 1114-16, they wrested the 

 Balearic Isles from the same enemies. In the 

 second crusade too they played a prominent part, 

 and helped the pope against the Normans, taking 

 Amain in 1135 and again in 1137. But already in 

 the llth century the rivalry between Pisa and 

 Genoa had broken out. Florence too, a Guelph 

 city, grew into an enemy of the Ghibelline Pisa. 

 Wars many and often were waged between Pisa 

 on the one side and a coalition of cities, headed by 

 Florence and Genoa, on the other, with varying 

 fortune, until in 1284 the PLsan fleet was crushed 

 at Meloria. After this Pisa was compelled to give 

 up Corsica, part of Sardinia, and 160,000 gold 

 pieces to Genoa. At the same time Ugolino (q.v. ) 

 delta Gherardesca made himself master of the 

 town. Various individual rulers or tyrants fol- 

 lowed, until the Pisans finally threw themselves 

 ( 1399) under the protection of Galeazzo Visconti of 

 Milan. The son of the latter sold the Pisan terri- 

 tory to their greatest enemies, the Florentines, 

 from whose tyrannical rule they were for a time 

 relieved by Charles VIII. of France, who, in 1494, 

 accepted the protectorate of the city. When the 

 French left Italy the old struggle was renewed - y 

 and, after a desperate resistance, the Pisans, in 

 1509, were compelled by hunger to surrender to the 

 Florentine army. The most influential families, 

 as formerly in 1406. emigrated. From this time 

 Pisa steadily declined, until in the middle of the 

 16th century it had less than 8600 inhabitants. Its 

 history henceforth coincides with that of Tuscany 

 (q.v.). With the rest of Tuscany it became part 

 of the kingdom of Italy in 1860. 



THE COUNCIL OF PISA met in Pisa on March 

 25, 1409, and of which the twenty-third and last 

 session was held on 7th August following. Its 

 aim was to end the schism which had divided the 

 Western Church for thirty years, and with this 

 view the leading cardinals, finding that neither of 

 the rival popes, Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., 

 would keep their promises to abdicate, set aside 

 the claims of both, and themselves convoked a 

 general council. It was attended from first to last 

 by 24 cardinals, 4 patriarchs, 80 bishops, 102 proc- 

 tors of bishops, 87 abbots, 200 delegates of ablmts, 

 Ix-sidcs many generals of orders, doctors, deputies 

 of universities, and ambassadors. After the rival 

 popes failed to appear in obedience to its summons, 

 the council formally tried the claims of both in 

 turn, and deposed them as schismatics and heretics. 

 The cardinals then formed themselves into conclave 

 and elected Cardinal Philargi, who assumed the 

 name of Alexander V. But the council, instead of 

 getting rid of the contending popes, had only added 

 a third, and the faithful continued to be distracted 

 in their allegiance for eight years longer, down to 

 the time of the Council of Constance. Bellarmine 

 considers the Council of Pisa as 'neither clearly 

 approved nor clearly rejected ; ' Hefele says ' neither 

 ecclesiastical authority nor the most trustworthy 

 theologians have ever numbered it among the 

 ecumenical councils.' See Hefele's Concilien- 

 geschichte, vol. vi. 



Pisaiflia. a small port of the now Chilian pro- 

 vince of I'arapaca, 40 miles N. of Iquique by rail ; 

 pop. 2131. It was bombarded and was the scene 

 of much fighting during the Chilian civil war in 

 1891. 



Pisano. NICCOLA, a distinguished sculptor of 

 Pisa, was born, apparently near Lucca, about 1206. 



