AREZZO (anc. Arretium), town and episcopal see, Tuscany, Italy, capital of province of Arezzo, 54m. S.E. of Florence by rail.
Pop. (1931) town, 25,407; commune, 56,976. It is attractively situated on a hill 84o to 97of t. above sea-level, in a fertile district. Its walls were erected in 132o by Guido Tarlati di Pietramala, its warlike bishop, and reconstructed by Cosimo I. de' Medici between 1541 and 1568, on which occasion the bronze statues of Pallas and the Chimaera, now at Florence, were discovered. The streets radiate fanwise from the citadel (1502) . The cathedral, close by, is good Italian Gothic (1277-1511) and contains some finely executed 14th-century sculptures. S. Maria della Pieve has cam panile and façade of 1216. In the cloisters of S. Bernardo, on the site of the ancient amphitheatre, is a remarkable view of mediaeval Rome. S. Francesco contains famous frescoes by Piero de' Franceschi, representing scenes from the legend of the Holy Cross. The Renaissance churches of S. Maria delle Grazie and the Santissima Annunziata may be noted. The most famous natives are the Benedictine monk Guido of Arezzo, inventor of the modern system of musical notation (d. c. io5o), the poet Petrarch, Pietro Aretino, the satirist (1492-1557), and Vasari, famous for his lives of Italian painters. It was the seat of a school of civil law and is important as the outlet for the wool of the Casentino. (See ARNO. ) See C. Signorini, Arezzo, Citta e Provincia, Guida illustrate (Arezzo, 1904) ; G. Franciosi, Arezzo (Arti Grafiche, Bergamo, 1909).