MANTITA (Ital. Mantoya), an ancient city of Lombardy, and formerly capital of a ,duchy of same name, but now belonging to the kingdom of Italy, is situated in lat. 45° 9' 34" n., long. 10° 48' 1" e. Its pop. (1871) of 26,687 comprises a number of Jews, whose commercial influence and social privileges are more extensive in this city than in :any other of Italy. Mantua occupies two islands formed by branches of the Mincio, the waters of which surround the city, with the additional defense of swamps or marshy lakes. It is the most strongly fortified town in Italy, but, owing to its situation, is ,-extremely unhealthy—a fact evinced hy the pallid faces of the inhabitants. There are five gateways leading into the city, one of which, La Porta dei Huila, deserves examina aion. The fortifications of Mantua, including its vast citadel, present such a combination tot* defensive resources, that its regular investment could only be effected by a numerous .army; and its reduction even then would be impracticable, except by famine. It forms •one of the four fortresses of the Quadrilateral, which, by the treaty of Villafranca, remained in the hands of Austria. The streets of Mantua are spacious and regular, but indifferently paved; the squares are numerous and fine..• Some of the public buildings :are !splendid, both from the massive grandeur of their proportions and the novel beauty •of their architecture. The inadequate population of Mantua, added to the somber char acter of its feudal structures, imparts to the city an air of gloomy decadence, except in the central commercial quarters, and the populous animated Ghetto or Jewish quarter, still subject to inclosure. The ancient ducal palace, or Castello di Corte, a vast irreg,ular pile of building, was the state residence and fortress of the Gonzagas, by whom it was trected, and now serves as a state prison and for public offices. The adjoining sumpttilms -edifice, which now comprises the Palazzo Imperiale, the Palazzo Vecchio, and the Corte Imperiale, or Provincial Tribunal, was originally planned and begun by. Buonacolsi, the feudal lord of Mantua, in 1302; it contains 500 rooms, including a magnificent suite of state apartments, whose choicest embellishment consists of the paintings and designs of the great Mantuan artist, Giulio Romano. The cathedral of San Pietro, also designed by G. Romano, contains some tine frescos. The of San Alartino and Sant' Egidio are of great antiquity—the former dating ;-12S, and the latter from 568.
'The province of Mantua had a high reputation in the lime of the Romans. After sharing -the fate of the rest of northern Italy, it was seized by the Gonzagas about the commence anent of the 14th century. The last duke of the house of Gonzaga died childless at
Padua in 1708, when Mantua fell into the hands of Austria. Austria gave it up with :her other Italian possessions in 1866.—Mantua is capital of a province of the same name, ewith an area.of 855 sq.m.; pop. '72, 288,942.
MANU (from the Sanskrit man, to think; literally, the thinking beingy is the reputed' author of the most renowned law-book of the ancient Hindus; and likewise of an ancient Kalpa work on Vedic rites. It is matter, however, of considerable doubt whether both works belong to the same individual, and whether the name Mann, especially in the case of the author of the law-book, was intended to designate an historical personage; for, in several passages of the Vedas (q.v.), as well as the Mahablifirata (q.v.), Maim is men tioned as the progenitor of the human race; and in the first chapter of the law-book ascribed to him, he declares himself to have been produced by Ian'lj, an offspring of the Supreme I3eing, and to have created all this universe. Hindu mythology knows, more over, a succession of Manus, each of whom created, in his own period, the world anew after it had perished at the end of a mundane age. The word Manu—kindred with our "man"—belono.s therefore, properly speaking, to ancient Hindu mythology, and it was connected with° the renowned law-book in order to impart to the latter the sanctity on which its authority rests. This work is not merely a law-book in the European sense of the word; it is likewise a system of cosmogony; it propounds metaphysical doctrines, teaches the art of government, and, amongst other things, treats of the state of the soul after death. The chief topics of its twelve books are the following: 1. Creation; 2. Edu eation and the duties of fl pupil, or the first order; 3. Marriage and the duties of a householder, or the second order; 4. Means of subsistence, and private rnorals; 5. Diet, purification, and the duties of women; 6. The duties of an anchorite and an ascetic, or the duties of the third and fourth orders; 7. Government, and the duties of a king and the military caste; 8. Judicature and law, private and criminal; 9. Continuation of the former:and the duties of the commercial and servile castes; 10. 3Iixed castes and the duties of the castes in time of distress; 11. Penance and expiation; 12. Transmigration and final beatitude. The text of this work has been published in several editions both in India and Europe. An excellent English translation of it we owe to sir W. Jones (2d ed., by Haughton, London, 1825), and a very good French translation to A. Loiseleur Deslongehamps (Paris, 1833).