M A S 
nexed to Modena, and fell with it to the CLfalpine Re¬ 
public. In 1806, they were given to Lucca. By the 
ggth article of the Aft of the Congrefs of Vienna, (June 
g, 1S15.) they are conligned to the archduchefs Maria 
Beatrix d'Elte, and her heirs and ftreedfors.' 
MAS'S A, the capital of the above duchy. It is.fituated 
on the river Frigida, near the fea; the fee of a bifhop, 
fuffragan of Pifa. In Mr. Beckford’s Letters on Italy, 
this little place is mentioned with advantage on the 
fcore of falubrity and cheapnefs of living. For the 
fake, therefore, of thofe whole health and fortune have 
been injured, we extraff a few particulars. “The 
orange and lemon-trees fuller fo little from the winter, 
that^in the month of January many were covered with 
ripe fruit, and Hill in flower. The aloes had fruited 
in the open air, and yet the neighbouring mountains 
were covered with fnow. In fhort, you fee winter, but 
do not feel it; and, ftrangers excepted, none approach a 
fire, Furnifhed lodgings may be had for ten fequins a- 
month, linen, &c. included. A chair colls fifteen Flo¬ 
rence livres a-month. A coach is tinneceflary. A fer- 
vant is paid four crowns, and keeps himfelf; if you keep 
him, he then has ten pauls only (five findings) ; and I 
am informed, that a maid does all the work of the houfe 
and kitchen in a Maifa family, befides waiting on the 
lady, for three livres a-month, (two Ihillings and three¬ 
pence.) The price of a box at the theatre for the Car¬ 
nival, is three fequins; you pay at the door fix foldi fio- 
rentini, (about three-pence Englilh.) The belt beef is half 
a paul a-pound; pork the fame; fea-filh, fix loldi ; a fowl, 
two pauls; a capon, three; a pigeon, one. The Mafia 
livre is fomewhat lefs than half the value of the Flo¬ 
rentine; and you will generally oblerve, that, where the 
livre is fmall, money is fcarce ; and confequently a fequin 
at Mafia will go as far as two in Tufcany.” Mafia is 
fifty-three miles fouth-louth-welt of Modena, and twenty 
north-weft of Lucca. Lat. 44. a. N. Ion. 10. 5. E. 
MAS'SA, a town of Etruria, in the Hate of Sienna ; 
the fee of a bifiiop, fuffragan of Populonia. Between this 
town and the fea is a very unhealthy tract of country, 
called Marernma di Sienna. Borax and lapis lazuli are 
found in the neighbourhood : twenty-four miles fosth- 
w.feft of Sienna, and forty-four fouth-well of Florence. Lat. 
43. 5. N. Ion. 10. 53. E. 
MAS'SA, a town of Italy, in the department of the 
Lower Po : twenty-four miles fouth-fouth-eall of Ferrara. 
MAS'SA, a town of Fez: eight miles fouth of Salee. 
MAS'SA di SOREN'TO, a feaport town of Naples, 
in the province of Lavora, with a harbour for fmall vef- 
fels. On the fea-lhore is an ancient temple adorned with 
marble columns, and a pavement of mofaic. The deity 
to whom it was confecrated is not known ; but it is now 
dedicated to St. Peter. It has a high watch-tower, like 
thofe along the coalt. A little further is the cape or pro- 
ibontory of Minerva, fo named from a temple built in ho¬ 
nour of that goddefs, on an eminence facing Sorento. 
Seneca fpeaks of this temple, by him termed Atheneum, 
it having been built and confecrated to Pallas goddefs of 
Athens. We now fee only a watch-tower built on the 
ruins of that famous temple, out of which medals and 
vafes have been dug from time to time. This cape was 
fatal to moll of the (hips of L. Junius’s fleet, who, fail¬ 
ing to join thofe of P. Claudius Pulcher, his colleague, 
which had been defeated by Afdrubal, admiral of the 
Carthaginians, was driven by a ltorm againlt this pro¬ 
montory; and the Ioffes fuflained by the twoconluls were 
fo great, that the Carthaginians became thereby mailers 
of the fea during five or fix years; that is, till the bat¬ 
tle won by C. Lutatius over them, which put an end to 
the fir It Punic war. It is fix miles fouth-well of Sorento. 
MAS'SAC CREE'K, a river of Kentucky, which 
runs into the Ohio in lat. 36. 47. N. Ion. 89. 25. W. 
MAS'SACK FO'RT, a fort built by the French on the 
welt bank of the Ohio, near its mouth in lat. 37. 15. N. 
eleven miles below the mouth of 'Benefice River. A 
M A S 507 
confiderable quantity of land above and below the fort is 
annually inundated. 
MASSAC'CIO, a town of Italy, in the mnrquilate of 
Ancona : eighteen miles fouth-well of Ancona. 
MASSAC'CIO, or Tomaso da San Giovanni, was 
born at Caltello di San Giovanni nel Valdarno, in the 
duchy of Florence, in 1402. He appears to have attached 
hitnfelf very early to the art of painting ; for, at the age 
of nineteen, he was matriculated at the city of Florence 
as a painter; which would hardly have occurred, if he 
had not been at that time advanced conliderably in his 
profelfion. His parents were defcended of a noble ltock r 
ant! had the means of enabling their fon to follow with 
advantage the chofen object ot his mind ; he was there¬ 
fore placed as a fcholar under Mafiolino da Panicale, who 
was at that time engaged in painting the chapel of the 
Brancacci nel Carmine. At this time, the arts of fculp- 
ture and architeCf ure had begun to revive ; the former in 
the hands of Donatello and Ghiberti, and the latter 
in thofe of Filippo Brunellefchi. With the works of 
thefe men Tomalo was captivated ; and, recognifing in 
them the revival of the true tafte obfervable in the an¬ 
tique, he attempted to apply it in painting, the inlepara¬ 
ble companion of the filler art of fculpture. How well- 
he fucceeded his works Hill tefiify, after a lapfe of four 
hundred years, or near it. His is the glory of forming a 
new epoch in the art. One hundred and fifty years had 
paffed from the time of Cimabue to lytaflaccio ; in that- 
period a very confiderable advance was made in the prac¬ 
tice of painting, particularly-by Giotto, the dilciple of 
Cimabue; but Hill much was imperfect in defign, in co¬ 
lour, in the imitation of the natural actions of the figure,, 
of attitudes, relievo, and the more fubtle graces ot the 
art. Molt of thefe Maflaccio fupplied the want of, and 
gave a more perfect imitation, as well as a better choice, 
of nature, than any of his predecelfors ; overcame many 
difficulties which had been ftumbling-blocks to them; 
and opened the way to thofe great men who fucceeded 
him, particularly to Raphael, who feems to have been 
born with a foul congenial to his, and who frequently 
imitated, and fometimes borrowed figures from him, 
which he was not always able to improve. He is faid to 
have been the fir ft who attained that moll effbntial point,, 
fore-fhortening the feet properly, fo as to make them ap¬ 
pear to reltflat upon the ground, and which, till his. time,. 
had not been done; probably owing to the painters tak¬ 
ing too near a view of their figures ; when looking down 
upon the feet, and drawing them as fo feen, they would 
of neceility make them appear almoft perpendicular. 
Maflaccio difeovered the evil of this ; and, taking a pro¬ 
per diltance for his view, and a juft point of fight, gave 
the proper effefl. For this he was indebted to perfpec- 
tive, the principles of which were iiiiparted to him by 
Brunellefchi. 
So much (kill, and fo great a novelty in the art of de¬ 
fign, foon drew him into notice; and the city of Florence- 
wiflied to employ his talents. His indultry keeping pace 
with his powers, the productions of his pencil were of 
courfe very numerous; but, alas! few now remain to tef- 
tify concerning him ; and of thefe, the greater part disfi¬ 
gured by time, and by ignorance, which, pretending to 
lecure, has only haltened their deftruition. Baldinucci,. 
who wrote in 1-680-90, fays, that in iiis time, though 
much had been deltroyed, yet fufficient remained in Flo¬ 
rence of the works of our artift, to prove the vaft extent 
of his ftudy and his labour; to which he applied fo fer¬ 
vently, that he negleftc-d every thing which, did not ap¬ 
pertain to his art ; not even collecting the money owing 
to him for his pictures, and being entirely negligent of 
his perfon ; fo that from thence he acquired the name of 
Majfaccio , “ a great heap, or fhapelefs mafsand is by 
that fo much better known than his own, that we have 
thought it proper to place our account of him. under if, 
rather than that of Tomafo di Giovanni. He was engaged 
to adorn the principal churches and convents in Flo- 
1 Cii cc ^ 
