LIGURIA, a modern territorial division of Italy containing the provinces of Genoa, Imperia, Savona and Spezia, and once forming the republic of Genoa. It lies between the Ligurian Alps and the Apennines on the north, and the Mediterranean on the south, and extending from the frontier of France on the west to the Gulf of Spezia on the east. Its northern limits touch Pied mont and Lombardy, while Emilia and Tuscany fringe its eastern borders, the dividing line following as a rule the summits of the mountains. Its area is 2,122 sq.m. Pop. (1921) 1,335,466, as corn pared with 1,075,760 in 1901. The railway from Pisa skirts the entire coast of the territory, throwing off lines to Parma from Sarzana and Spezia, to Milan and Turin from Genoa, and to Turin from Savona ; the line from Ventimiglia to Cuneo and Turin by the Col di Tenda has now been completed. Its sparsely peopled mountains slope gently northward towards the Po, de scending, however, abruptly into the sea at several points ; the narrow coast district is famous under the name of the Riviera (q.v.). Its principal products are maize, wine, oranges, lemons, fruits, olives and potatoes, though the olive groves are being rapidly supplanted by flower-gardens. In the mountains the forests are important and considerable hydraulic power is also derived from the streams and used for railway traction, etc.
The principal products, with the areas under cultivation, were in 1926: Copper (5,067 tons in 1926), manganese (12,140 tons) and iron pyrites are mined: and Sardinian lead is smelted at Pertusola on the Gulf of Spezia. The principal industries are iron-works, foundries, iron shipbuilding, engineering, and boiler works (Genoa, Spezia, Sampierdarena, Sestri Ponente, etc.), railway signals (Savona), and the manufacture of cottons and woollens. The in habitants have always been adventurous seamen—Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci were Genoese—and the coast has several good harbours, Genoa, Spezia and Savona being the best. In educa tional and general development, Liguria stands high among the regions of Italy.
Helv. vii. 9), states that the population of Corsica was partly Ligurian. For the archaeological side of the question see GOLA SECCA AND COMACINES. Archaeological evidence shows them to have been a part of the "Mediterranean race," and confirms the tradition as to the area they occupied. The Bronze age rock en gravings near Ventimiglia (q.v.) are interesting. Their culture was much modified in the Iron age by a Celtic invasion, after which the two peoples were inextricably mixed.
On the linguistic side some fairly certain conclusions have been reached. We may note the frequency of the suffix -asco- (and -usco-) both in ancient and in modern Ligurian districts, and as far north as Caranusca near Metz, and also in the eastern Alps and in Spain. Most of the Ligurian proper names (e.g., the streams, Vinelasca, Porcobera, Comberamea; mons Tuledo ; Venascum) have a definite Indo-European character, as have those preserved in Latin inscriptions of the Ligurian districts, such as the Tabula Genuatiunt (C.I.L. 1. 584) of 117 B.C. A complete collection of Ligurian place and personal names combined with the inscriptions of the district is printed in The Pre-Italic Dialects, edited by R. S. Conway and J. Whatmough. There is strong evi dence in these names that the language spoken before the Roman conquest was Indo-European, and belonged to those languages which preserved the original q as Latin did, and did not convert it into p as did the Umbro-Safine tribes. The same is probably true of Venetia (see VENETO , and of an Indo-European language preserved on inscriptions found at Coligny and commonly referred to the Sequani. The "Lepontic" inscriptions found in a small area (5o m. by 35 m.) round the lakes of Como, Lugano, Mag giore and Orta, are also Ligurian, with Celtic affinities. The Ligurian ethnica show the prevailing use of the two suffixes -co and -ati-, which there is reason to refer to the pre-Roman stratum of population in Italy. (See VoLsci.) The Ligurians were eventually restricted more and more to the county adjoining the Gulf of Genoa, and at last they occupied only an area bounded by the upper reaches of the Po and Ticino on the north, the Arno on the east, and the Alps and the Var on the west. They are described as thin and wiry, short of stature and dark complexioned, hardy and warlike people winning a diffi cult livelihood from the soil, but also interested in commerce, and some of them daring seafarers.