PADUA, a city in the north of Italy, the capital of the de partment of the same name, in the government of Venice. It is pleasantly situated in a fertile plain, between the Brenta and the Bacchiglione, on a small river which runs into the Brenta. It is surrounded with a mound and ditch, which are between seven and eight miles in circumference; but a great part of the inclosed space is unbuilt, and the town is very thinly inhabited, the population not exceeding 31,000. The streets are long, narrow, dirty, and ill paved ; and the low porticos with which they are bordered on either side, give them a gloomy appearance. The town, however, abounds in splendid public buildings, many of them the works of the celebrated Palladio. II Solone, or the town-house, is said to be the largest in Europe, being 312 feet long, 108 broad, and 108 high. This immense hall is ornamented with some fresco paintings, and the busts and statues of several eminent individuals. Among them there is an ancient bust and a monument in ho nour of Livy, who was a native of Padua. The Palazzo del Podesta, or the palace of the chief magistrate, is en riched with many valuable paintings._ The Palazzo del Capitano, or commandant's palace, which formerly be longed to the Carrara family, is a fine specimen of archi tecture. The churches are numerous ; but they are more remarkable for their interior decorations and paintings than for their architecture. The cathedral is a large heavy building. but it is reckoned one of the richest in Italy. In the sacristy there is a good collection of pictures, and among them one of Petrarch, who was a canon of this church, and who left to it a part of his library. The church of St. Justina is a fine marble edifice, designed by Palladio. It is much admired for its symmetry and proportion, and for its sculpture, paintings, and rich mosaic pavements. In front of this church is the large piazza, called Prato della Valle, which is encircled by a stream of water brought from the Brenta. The church of St. Antonio, or II Santo, as it is more commonly termed, is a large edifice of Gothic architecture, chiefly remarkable for the tomb of St. Antony, which is adorned with fine marble and ex quisite sculpture ; and for its chapel, which is lined with basso relievos, representing the various miracles wrought by the saint. The university of Padua is very ancient, having been founded about the end of the eleventh cen tury. It was at one period highly celebrated, and students flocked to it from all parts of Europe, and even from many parts of Asia : their number is said to have sometimes ex ceeded 18,000. Among many distinguished names that grace its annals, are those of Petrarch, Galileo, and Colum bus. Its' professors have always been highly eminent in
science ; and its establishments are on an extensive and mag nificent scale. The botanical garden is rich and beautiful ; the cabinet of natural history contains a curious collection of fossils ; the observatory, the anatomical theatre, the hall of midwifery, and the other dependencies of the univer sity, are well furnished and well kept up. The univer sity consists of three faculties, viz. mathematics and phi losophy, law, and medicine. The number of professors is 32 ; the number of students seldom exceeds 300. There is a professor of agriculture, who is allotted fifteen acres of land for the purpose of making experiments. There are also several other literary institutions, some of which were founded so early as the beginning of the sixteenth century ; the Academy of Sciences was founded in the last century by the senate of Venice. The trade of Padua is trifling. Its woollen manufactures, for which it was famous in ancient times, arc now much declined, though its wool and woollen articles are still considered as the best in Italy. There are also manufactures of silk, ribbons, and leather, on a small scale.
Few of the cities of Italy have been more distinguished than Padua, and few of them can boast of such an ancient origin. If we give credit to Virgil's account, it was founded by Antenor, who, after the destruction of Troy, conducted a body of his countrymen to this part of Italy.
According to Tacitus, the Paduans were accustomed to celebrate annual games in honour of their founder. Livy (lib. x. c. 2.) alludes to a naval victory obtained by them over a Lacedemonian fleet, long before their union with the Romans. On submitting to Rome, they were treated rather as allies than as a conquered state, and were early admitted to the privileges and honours of Roman citi zens. In these times the population and resources of Padua must have been considerable ; for we learn from Strabo, that it sometimes furnished 20,000 men to the Roman armies, and numbered among its citizens 500 Ro man knight s. On the invasion of Italy by the Goths and other barbarous nations, it shared in the common calami ties, being taken and plundered first by Alaric, and then by Attila. It underwent a similar fate in the year 600 from the Lombards, and continued subject to them till the overthrow of their kingdom by Charlemagne. After having been subject to the French and Germans, it obtained its liberty, and assumed a republican form of government. In the fourteenth century it fell under the sway of the Carrara family, and in the fifteenth it was united to the Venetian territory.