GUIDELINES GHIRLANDAIO. 



439 



Sicnnese, the cities of Pistoia, 1'rato, Volterra, San- 

 Geminiano, and Colla, in a word, ali the Guelfs of 

 Tuscany , on receiving intelligence of this misfortune, 

 determined, by a decisive blow, to annihilate the 

 ancient city of Pisa, the principal support of the 

 Gibeliiies in Italy. The state, on the brink of de- 

 struction, now saw itself compelled to throw itself 

 into the arms of him whose treachery had reduced it 

 to this situation. Ugolino, for a long time secretly 

 connected with the chiefs of the Guelfs, undertook 

 the negotiation with the enemies of the city, which 

 he managed in such a manner, that he at length saw 

 himself almost at the summit of his wishes. The 

 leaders of the Gibelines were banished ; the Floren- 

 tines took possession of many castles, and Ugolino, 

 under the protection of the enemies of Pisa, ruled the 

 fallen state. He reduced it still further by the sur- 

 render of certain castles to the Laccanese, which 

 gave them access to the gates of the city, and by 

 avoiding the conclusion of a peace with Genoa, which 

 would have set at liberty the prisoners captured at 

 Meloria. While he thus oppressed his native coun- 

 try, and gratified his hatred against his enemies, by 

 banishing them, a conspiracy was formed against him 

 in his own family. Nino di Gallura, his nephew, dis- 

 gusted with his tyranny, united the principal families, 

 both of the Gibelines and Guelfs, the Gualandi, Sis- 

 mondi, Lanfranchi, and others, to rescue Pisa from the 

 degradation into which she was sunk. After a con- 

 test of nearly three years, the intrigues of Ugolino 

 succeeded, with the assistance of the archbishop of 

 Pisa, Roger de' Ubaldini, in dissolving this league, 

 and regaining the Gibelines. The Lanfranchi and 

 others forsook Nino di Gallura, who was banished, 

 together with many of his friends. Ubaldini was re- 

 warded for his services by being driven from the pub- 

 lic palace by Ugolino, who had promised to share 

 withnim the dominion of Pisa. The ambition of 

 the usurper now knew no bounds. The people were 

 oppressed ; the lives of his own relations were 

 threatened, and he murdered, with his own hands, a 

 nephew of the archbishop. Such crimes united all 

 against him ; and Ubaldini, no less ambitious, artful, 

 and cruel than Ugolino, was at the head of the con- 

 spirators. He artfully concealed the plan from the 

 tyrant till it was fully matured, and Ugolino's refusal 

 to finish the war with Genoa afforded the opportunity 

 for the breaking out of the conspiracy. On the 1st 

 of July, 1288, Ubaldini caused the tocsin to be 

 sounded. Ugolino was attacKed on all sides, and, 

 after an obstinate resistance, which continued till 

 evening, was made prisoner, with two of his sons, 

 Gaddo and Uguccione, and two of his grandsons, 

 Nino, surnamed le Brigata, and Aurelio Nuncio. 

 These are the five persons whose horrible death 

 Dante describes in his Inferno. Roger or Rugieri 

 de' Ubaldini caused these unfortunate persons to be 

 carried to the castle of Gualandi, since called Torr<i 

 delta Fame, and, setting no bounds to liis vengeance, 

 after some months, lie threw the keys into the Arno, 

 and doomed the prisoners to die by hunger. Poets 

 und artists have often described or represented the 

 terrible end of Ugolino and his companions, and pos- 

 terity lias forgotten his crimes in his horrible punish- 

 ment. Many of the family of Ugolino were either 

 absent from Pisa, or escaped by flight from this dread- 

 ful catastrophe, so that the family of Gherardesca 

 soon recovered its former splendour and distinction, 

 both at home and abroad; and, in 1320, we find 

 Rieri Donoratico Gherardescu at the head of the ad- 

 ministration in Pisa. A natural son of this Rieri, Man- 

 fred Gherardesca, at the head of the Pisanese garri- 

 son, defended Cagliari, with a very inferior force, 

 against Alfonso IV. of Arragon, and by his valour 

 rendered the battle of Luco-Cisterna, Feb. 28, K>24, 



doubtful. The Arragonese did not succeed in taking 

 Cagliari till after the death of Manfred, who died of 

 wounds received in a sally. Another Gherardesca, 

 Bonifazio, was made capita.no of Pisa in 1329, when 

 that city shook off the yoke of the celebrated Cas- 

 truccio Castracani, and of the emperor Louis of 

 Bavaria. His wisdom and integrity gained him the 

 love of his fellow-citizens, and the city was indebted 

 to him for the advantageous peace which it soon after 

 concluded with its old enemies the Guelfs. He also 

 suppressed a conspiracy of the nobility against the 

 people (1335), and compelled the conspirators to 

 leave the city. In 1340, this excellent man died of 

 the plague, and the grateful Pisans appointed his son 

 Rieri, then only eleven years of age, his successor in 

 the office of capitano. In 1348, Rieri also died of 

 the plague, by which the Gherardesca family lost 

 many of its members : the rest withdrew to the 

 family estates in the Maremme, and took little share 

 in the political transactions of Pisa. Philip Gherar- 

 desca, born at Pistoia (1730), distinguished himself 

 in music as a composer and piano-fortist. He studied 

 while young, with P. Martini at Bologna, and in a 

 short time became his most distinguished pupil. He 

 died, 1808, at Pisa. 



GHIBELINES. See Guelfs. 



GH1BERTI, LORENZO ; a statuary, born in 1378, 

 at Florence. His ancestors had distinguished them- 

 selves in the arts, particularly in that of the gold- 

 smith, in which the Florentines had acquired great 

 celebrity. He early learned from his step-father, 

 Bartoluccio, an expert goldsmith, the arts of drawing 

 and modelling, and that of casting metals. He after- 

 wards probably enjoyed the instructions of Stamina. 

 Being obliged to leave Florence on account of the 

 plague, which prevailed there at the end of the 

 fourteenth century, he was engaged in painting in 

 fresco at Rimini, in the palace of prince Pandolfo 

 Malatesta, when the priori of the society of merchants 

 at Florence invited artists to propose models for one 

 of the bronze doors, which still adorns the baptistery 

 of St John. The offering up of Isaac was to be 

 executed in gilt bronze, as a specimen of the work. 

 The judges selected the work of the celebrated Bru- 

 nelleschi, that of Donatello, and that of Ghiberti, as 

 the three best ; but the two first voluntarily withdrew 

 their claims, giving the preference to Ghiberti. After 

 twenty-one years' labour, Ghiberti completed the door, 

 and, at the request of the priori, executed a second, 

 after almost as long a period. Michael Angelo said 

 of these, that they were worthy of adorning the 

 entrance to paradise. During these forty years, 

 Ghiberti also completed a statue of John the Baptist 

 for the church Or-San-Michele, two bass-reliefs for 

 the baptistery of the cathedral of Sienna, a statue of 

 St Matthew, and one of St Stephen, likewise for the 

 church Or-San-Michele, and for the church Santa- 

 Maria del Fiore, the bronze reliquary of St Zenobius, 

 bishop of Florence. All these works are still pre- 

 served, and serve to show the progress of Ghiberti. 

 The dryness of the school of Giotto appears in his 

 early works ; the later are in imitation of the 

 Greeks, and are marked by continually increasing 

 vigour and firmness. The reliquary of Zenobius and 

 the two doors are, to this day, among the finest speci- 

 mens of art in modern Italy. Ghiberti also executed 

 some excellent paintings on glass, for the churches 

 Or-San-Michele and Santa-Maria del Fiore. A work 

 by him on sculpture is extant, a fragment only of 

 which has been published by Cicognara. He died 

 about the year 1455. The Calmuc Feodor Iwano- 

 witsch published twelve oeautiful etchings of the 

 doors of Ghiberti (1798). 



GHIRLANDAIO, DOMKNKO ; one of the elder 

 Florentine painters. He was distinguished for ferti 



