in its highest perfection. This cloister was begun in the twelfth and finished in the thirteenth century. The cathedral was finished in the eleventh, and exhibits in the gallery described above some striking features of the style afterwards called Gothic, a circumstance which seems to strengthen the conjectures of the late Rev. Mr. Whittington*, of St. John's College, Cambridge, and to indicate the eastern origin, if not of this species of architecture, at least of some of its ornaments. The republic of Pisa at that time carried on a great commerce with Constantinople, Asia Minor, the Syrian ports and Palestine, and may easily be supposed to have adopted some of their fashions in building as well as in dress, and manner of living. The hot baths of Pisa were frequented anciently more perhaps than at present; they are about four miles from the city, and spring up at the foot of Monte St. Giuliano. They are environed with buildings of various kinds, with lodging houses and a palace. The remains of an ancient aqueduct may be seen at a little distance; but they are eclipsed by a modern one of a thousand arches, erected originally in order to supply Pisa, and now carried on to Leghorn. If I pass over in silence the other churches and public edifices of Pisa, it is not that I deem them unworthy of notice; on the contrary, several are magnificent and very justly admired; but I wish to confine my observations here, as elsewhere, to the peculiarities and characteristic features of the city, which alone suffice * Can I mention this friendly name without lamenting the fate that consigned so many virtues and so many talents to an early grave? to give it fame and pre-eminence. Such, I conceive, the four grand fabrics above described to be, which surpass any group of buildings I have beheld out of Rome, and confer upon Pisa a distinction worthy of its ancient fame and long duration *. But the glory of Pisa is not confined to architectural honours. Her University was one of the nurseries of reviving literature, and under the auspices of republican liberty, rivalled the most celebrated academies of Italy, at a time when they all teemed with genius and science. When Pisa was subjugated by the Florentines, the University felt the decay of public prosperity, gradually lost its fame, was forsaken by its students, and at length sunk into insignificance. It was afterwards restored by Lorenzo de Medici, and many professors of eminence were engaged to fill its different chairs. However, it again declined, and was again restored by the Grand Duke Cosmo the First. Since that period it has continued the seat of many eminent professors, though it has never recovered the number of its students, or regained all its ancient celebrity. It has more than forty public professors, and most of those now resident are authors and men of high reputation in their respective lines. It is * A duration which, if we may credit a poet, dates its commencement before the Trojan war! Ante diu quam Trojugenas fortuna penates Laurentinorum regibus insereret, Elide deductas suscepit Etruria Pisas Nominis indicio testificante genus. + An. 1472. Rutilius, lib. I. moreover abundantly furnished with all the apparatus of an academy. Colleges, libraries, an observatory, with all the astronomical instruments in great perfection; a most extensive and well ordered botanical garden; to which we may add, that the beauty of the country, the mildness of the climate, the neighbourhood of the sea, and the cheapness of provisions, are all so many additional recommendations, and must, it would seem, attract students. Pisa is indeed the seat of Tuscan education, and frequented by the subjects of the Florentine government; hence, when I say it has never recovered its ancient numbers, I mean not to say that it is deserted, but that its present state does not equal its former glory. Pisa is only four miles from the sea; its port was anciently at the mouth of the Arno, and a place of some fame and resort. Contiguum stupui portum, quem fama frequentat Pisarum emporio, divitiisque maris, Mira loci facies! * Rutilius. * This port was protected neither by a mole nor by a pier, nor indeed by any artificial or natural rampart of walls, rocks or promontories. Though it was open to every wind, yet vessels rode secure on its bosom. The cause of this peculiarity was the size and tenacity of the weeds which were so closely interwoven, it seems, as to exclude the agitation of the sea while they yielded to the weight of vessels. Such is the account of Rutilius. pelago pulsatur aperto Inque omnes ventos littora nuda patent; It then gave its name to a bay which extended from the promontory of Populonia, now Piombino, to that of Luna or of Venus, still Porto de Venere, and was called the Sinus Pisanus. According to Strabo the Ausar flowed into the Arno at Pisa, though it now falls into the sea at the distance of at least ten miles from it. At what time a new bed was opened for this river, though an undertaking of some labour and importance, is not known, nor is the slightest mention made of the alteration in any records, at least if we may believe the learned Cluverius. The inundations caused in a flat country, by the union of two such rivers, and the difficulty of stemming a stream so rapid as their united current never counteracted by the tide, might in the flourishing ages of the republic have induced the Pisans to divert the course of one of the two, and conduct it by a shorter passage to the sea. Of its ancient channel some traces may perhaps be still discovered in the Ripa Fratta, which joins the Arno at Pisa, and in a direct line communicates under the same appellation with the Ausar or Serchio. Sed procera suo prætexitur alga profundo, Et tamen insanas cedendo interligat undas, Rutilius Itin. 532, &c. I do not know whether the port of Pisa still enjoys the advantage of so extraordinary a barrier; as it is totally unfrequented, it would be difficult and indeed useless to ascertain the fact. CHAP. XII. LEGHORN---MEDUSA FRIGATE- ---PORTUS VENERIS- ---DELPHINI APPEARANCE---PALACES THE distance from Pisa to Leghorn is about thirteen miles, and the country between a dead plain, remarkable neither for beauty nor cultivation *, intersected, particularly near the latter town, with numberless canals opened to let off the waters that naturally stagnate in the hollows and flats of the Tuscan coast; the swamps which these waters occasioned infected the air in ancient times, and rendered all the tract of country along the Tyrrhene sea unwholesome. It is still dangerous in the heats * A piece of water lies on the left of the road, about half way between the two towns, called at present Lo Stagno, and anciently Piscina Pisana. 6 |