P I S A 
514 
its prowefs, and Naples and Palermo faw its flags unfurled 
on their towers. Pontiffs and emperors courted its al¬ 
liance, and acknowledged its efteftive fervices; and the 
glory of Pifa, twenty centuries after its foundation, 
eclipfed the fame of its Grecian parent, and indeed ri¬ 
valled the achievements of Sparta herfelf, and of all the 
cities of Peloponnefus united. During this era of glory, 
commerce, as well as conqueft, introduced opulence and 
fplendour into the city; its walls w-ere extended and 
ftrengthened; its ftreets widened and adorned with pa¬ 
laces, and its churches rebuilt in a ftyle of magnificence 
that even now aftonifhes the traveller, and atteffs the for¬ 
mer fortunes of Pifa. A population of 150,000 inhabit¬ 
ants filled its vaft precindts with life and animation, and 
fpread fertility and riches over its whole territory. Such 
was its ftate during the nth, 12th, and great part of the 
13th, centuries, after which the ufurpation of domeftic ty¬ 
rants firft, and next the victories of the Genoefe, broke 
the fpirit of its citizens. Then the treachery of its 
princes, with the interference and deceitful politics of 
France, undermined its freedom, and at length the in¬ 
trigues of the Medici completed its ruin, and enflaved it 
to its rival Florence, about the year 1228. While the 
neighbouring Lucca, not fo glorious but more fortunate 
than Pifa, full retains its opulence and its population, 
Pifa, thus enflaved and impoverifhed, can count only 
17,000 inhabitants within the whole circumference of her 
walls: a number which, in the days of her profperity, 
■would have been infufiicient to man one half of her gal¬ 
leys, or guard her ramparts during the watches of the 
night; for, when the rival fleets of Genoa and Pifa fought 
at La Meloria, in 1284, each bore as many failors as 
manned the Englifli and French fleets at Trafalgar; and 
11,000 of the vanquifhed party were carried off to the 
Genoefe prifons. Sifmondi, iv. 22. 
What renders Pifa interefting at prefent, and will con¬ 
tinue to render it fo as long as it exifts, is its being left 
to a comparative folitude, and its containing one of the 
mo(t Angular, and many of the molt ancient, fpecimens of 
the arts in Italy. It now ftands five miles from the fea, 
and fo completely out of the ordinary roads of communi¬ 
cation, that the writers of elaborate works upon Italy 
do not think it incumbent upon them to notice it. Such 
however as have a true tafte for their fubjeft, cannot be 
well fatisfied with themfelves for the omiffion. Let the 
reader imagine afmall white city, with a tower alfo white, 
leaning very diftin£lly in the difiance at one end of it, 
trees on either fide, and blue mountains for the back 
ground. Such is the firft: fight of Pifa, as the traveller 
fees it on coming from Leghorn. Add to this, in fum- 
mer-time, fields of corn on all fides, bordered with hedge¬ 
row trees, and the feftoons of vines, of which he has fo 
often read, hangingfrom tree to tree; and he may judge 
of the impreflion made upon an enthufiaftic admirer of 
Italy, who is inTufcany for the firft time. On entering 
the city, the impreflion is beautiful. What looked white 
in the diftance remains as pure and fair on clofer ac¬ 
quaintance. You crofs a bridge, and caft your eye up 
the whole extent of the city one way, the river Arno 
(the riverof Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio) winding 
through the middle of it under two more bridges ; and 
fair elegant houfes of good fize bordering the wide pave¬ 
ment on either fide. This is the Lung'arno, or Street 
along the Arno. The mountains, in which you now 
difcover the look of their marble veins (for it is from 
thefe that the marble of Carrara comes), tower away 
beautifully at the further end, and feem much nearer 
than they are. The Arno, which is about as wide per¬ 
haps as the Ifis at Oxford, is fandy-coloured, and in the 
lummer-time fhrunken ; but ftill it is the river of the 
great Tufcan writers. It divides the city in two parts, 
which are again united by three bridges, the middle one 
of which is of marble. A battle fought on this bridge at 
fome remote period, in which the Pifans repelled their 
aflailants, gave rife to a feftival, called, from the circum- 
ftance it commemorates, La Battaglie del Ponte. The 
mock fight ufually exhibited on this bridge every third 
year, is perhaps the only remaining veftige of thofe 
athletic games, heretofore fo common among the Greeks. 
and Romans. The amufement confifts of a battle fought 
by 906 combatants, who, clothed in coats of mail, and 
armed with wooden clubs, difpute for forty-five minutes 
the paflage of the bridge. The ftrongeft combatants 
poffefs themfelves of the field of battle; and, when it is 
poflible to employ ftratagem, they never let flip the op¬ 
portunity; but to fight in earneft is fdrbidden: never- 
thelefs this mock encounter frequently colt lives, and is 
therefore but feidom permitted, though one of the molt 
beautiful fpedlacles in Italy. Some authors tell us it 
was inftituted by Pelops, fon of Tantalus king of 
Phrygia ; others think it was eftablifhed by Nero ; while 
others believe it to have been originally celebrated in 
memory of the defeat of Mufetto king of Sardinia, which 
happened in the year 1005. 
The firft novelty that ftrikes an emigrant from foggy 
London, is the fingular fairnefs and new look of houfes 
that have been ftanding hundreds of years. This is 
owing to the Italian atmofphere. Antiquity every where 
refufes to look ancient; it infifts upon retaining its 
youthfulnefs of afpeiSt. The confequence at firft is a 
mixed feeling of admiration and difappointment; for 
we mifs the venerable; we find that Italy is the land, 
not of the venerable, but the beautiful. Among the 
manfions on the Lungarno is one entirely fronted with 
marble, and marble fo pure and fmooth that you can fee 
your face in it. It is in a moll graceful ftyle of archi¬ 
tecture, and has a curious fymbol and motto over the 
door, which is the lecond Pifan myftery. The fymbol 
is an actual fetter, attached with great nicety of tafte to 
the middle ftone over the door-way: the motto, Alla 
Giornata, For the Day, or the Day’s Work. The allu- 
fion is fuppofed to be to fome captivity undergone by 
one of the Lanfreducci family, the proprietors. Further 
up, on the fame fide of the way, is the old ducal palace, 
faid to be the fcene of the murder of Don Garcia by his 
father, wdiich is the fubjedt of one of Alfieri’s tragedies : 
and between both, a little before you come to the old 
palace, is the manfion ftill belonging to the family of the 
Lanfranchi, formerly one of the mod powerful in Pifa. 
Part of the infide is faid to have been built by Michael 
Angelo. The Lanfranchi were among the nobles, who 
confpired to pull down the afcendancy of Count Ugolino, 
and wreaked that infamous revenge on him and his 
young children. We need not remind the reader of the 
paflage in Dante; but perhaps he is not aware, that 
Chaucer has related the ftory after him, referring, with 
his ufual modefty, for a more fufficing account, fo “the 
grete poete of Itaille.” See the Monk’s Tale,_ part the 
laft, entitled Hugelin of Pife. The tower in which 
Ugolino was ftarved, was afterwards called the Tower of 
Famine. Chaucer, who is fuppofed to have been in 
Italy, fays that it flood “ a littel out" of Pifa; Villani 
fays, in the Piazza of the Anziana. It is underftood to 
be no longer in exiftence, and even its fite isdifputed. 
The ground-floors of all the great houfes in Pifa, as in 
other Italian cities, have iron bars at the windows, evi¬ 
dently for fecurity in time of trouble. The look is at 
firft very gloomy and prifon-like. The bars are thin, 
round, and painted white, and the interftices large; and, 
if the windows are towards a garden, and bordered with 
fhrubs and ivy, as in the Cafa Lanfranchi, the imagina¬ 
tion makes a compromife with their prifon-like appear¬ 
ance, and perfuades itfelf they are guards only in time 
of war, but trellifes during a peace ellabliftiment. All 
the floors are made for feparate families, it having been 
the cuftom in Italy from time immemorial for fathers and 
mothers, fons and daughters-in-law, or vice verfa, with 
as many other relations as might be “ agreeable,” to live 
under the fame roof. Spacioufnefs and utility were the 
great objedls with the builder; and a ftranger isfometimes 
j furpri fed 
