Lombardy and Tuscany in the Fourteenth Century ii 



open country, designated by the name of contado, appertaining to each 

 city, was cultivated by an active and industrious race of peasants, 

 enriched by their labor, and not fearing to display their wealth in 

 their dress, their cattle, and their instruments of husbandry. The 

 proprietors, inhabitants of towns, advanced them capital, shared the 

 harvests, and alone paid the land-tax : they undertook the immense 

 labor which has given so much fertility to the Italian soil — that of 

 making dikes to preserve the plains from the inundation of the 

 rivers, and of deriving from those rivers innumerable canals of irri- 

 gation. The Naviglio Grande of Milan, which spreads the clear 

 waters of the Ticino over the finest part of Lombardy, was begun 

 in 1 179, resumed in 1257, and terminated a few years afterwards.^ 

 Men who meditated, and who applied to the arts the fruits of their 

 study, practised already that scientific agriculture of Lombardy and 

 Tuscany which became a model to other nations; and at this day, 

 after five centuries, the districts formerly free, and always cultivated 

 with intelligence, are easily distinguished from those half-wild districts 

 which had remained subject to the feudal lords. 



The cities, surrounded with thick walls, terraced, and guarded by 

 towers, were, for the most part, paved with broad flagstones; while 

 the inhabitants of Paris could not stir out of their houses without 

 plunging into the mud. Stone bridges of an elegant and bold archi- 

 tecture were thrown over rivers ; aqueducts carried pure water to 

 the fountains. The palace of the podestas and signorie united strength 

 with majesty. The most admirable of those of Florence, the Palazzo 

 Vecchio, was built in 1298. The Loggia in the same city, the church 

 of Santa Croce, that of Santa Maria del Fiore, with its dome, so 

 admired by Michael Angelo, were begun by the architect Arnolfo, 

 scholar of Nicolas di Pisa, between the years 1284 and 1300. The 

 prodigies of this first-born of the fine arts multiplied in Italy : a 

 pure taste, boldness, and grandeur struck the eye in all the public 

 monuments, and finally reached even private dwellings ; while the 

 princes of France, England, and Germany, in building their castles, 

 seemed to think only of shelter and defense. Sculpture in marble 

 and bronze soon followed the progress of architecture : in 1300, 

 Andrea di Pisa, son of the architect Nicolas, cast the admirable 

 bronze gates of the Baptistery at Florence ; about the same time, 

 Cimabue and Giotto revived the art of painting, Casella music, and 

 Dante gave to Italy his divine poem, unequaled in succeeding 

 generations. History was written honestly, with scrupulous research, 

 and with a graceful simplicity, by Giovanni Villani, and his school; 

 the study of morals and philosophy began ; and Italy, ennobled by 

 freedom, enlightened nations till then sunk in darkness. 



^ But the chronicles of Piacenza and Milan say that the Naviglio, run- 

 ning from Milan to Pavia, was constructed by Galeazzo in April, May, 

 and June, 1365 (R. I. S. 16. 508, 735), at a price named. See also Magenta 

 I. 284. — The notes here, and throughout this section, are mine. A. S. C. 



