PISA, peza. or -s5, Italy, a province of Tuscany and its capital city. (1) The province of Pisa, bounded on the north by Lucca, on the east by Florence and Siena, on the south by Grosseto, and on the west by Livorno and the Ligurian Sea, has hills in the south and cast, notably the Monti Pisani and the Monti di Vol terra, and at the west a fertile plain, watered by the Arno and Serchio, and rich in vines and olive orchards. Its mineral wealth is marble, alabaster and mineral waters; and its industries cotton and silk spinning. Its area is 1,185 square miles and its population in 1915 was 351,841, of which 270,000 are in the district of Pisa, the others living in the second district of the province, Volterra. (2) The capital of the province, situated on both banks of the Arno, about seven miles from its mouth, is on the railroads between Genoa and Rome and between Florence and Livorno, and is the terminus of a line running from Pistoja through Lucca. The streets are old and crooked, hut well paved and broad, and lined with substantial dwellings, many built of marble. The modern city is on the south side of the Arno and contains one old build ing of importance, the Gothic church of Santa Maria della Spina, on the Lungarno, that is, the street "along the Arno," which is peculiarly picturesque on either side of the river. In the old city to the north are the cathedral, built of dazzling white marble in 1063 to commemorate a naval victory near Palermo, with a facade formed of four galleries of pillars, bronze doors designed by John of Bologna, and within five naves separated by Greek and Roman columns, the spoil of various Pisan victories, and 12 lateral altars attributed to Michelangelo, but probably the work of Stagi di Pietra Santa; the Baptistery, begun in 1153 and finished in 1278, a great dome-crowned rotunda 190 feet high, in which are a fountain executed by Guido Biga relli in 1246, and a chair supported by seven columns and decorated in fine bas-relief by Nicolas Pisano (1260) ; the Campanile or Bell Tower, better known as the leaning tower of Pisa, finished in 1350 by Tommaso Pisano, with its six galleries of pillars, a total height of 179 feet and a deviation from the perpendicular of 14 feet; and the Campo Santo, originally a cemetery filled in with earth from the Holy Land at the close of the 12th century, and be tween 1278 and 1283 surrounded by Giovanni Pisano with a rectangular portico more than 400 feet long and 170 feet wide, decorated on the outside with frescoes by Florentine and Siennese artists of the 14th and 15th century, notably the 23 scenes from the Old Testament by Benozzo Gozzoli and the 'Triumph of Death) and
The industry and commerce of the city are slight, but it has cotton factories, machine shops, glass and hat factories, and also pro duces alabaster. The city is a favorite winter resort because of its mild and delightful climate. It has rail connections as noted above and steamboat lines to Marina and Pontedera. It is the seat of an archbishop, of a civil and a mili tary governor, and of a court of the first resort. Its educational equipment includes the Univer sity, founded in 1338, closed in 1359, revived in 1364 only to die out again in 1406, and newly established in 1473 by Lorenzo, and in 1542 by Cosimo de Medici, and again in 1838 by Leopold II of Tuscany, and at present made up of facul ties of law, philosophy, medicine and surgery and mathematics and natural science, with 1,200 students in 1915; related to the University are normal, engineering, pharmaceutical, veterinarian and agricultural schools, a museum of natural history, founded in 1596, and particularly rich in Tuscan• ornithology and geology, and a botanical garden, as well as a library of over 200,000 volumes, excluding pamphlets; and there are also secondary schools, technical and in dustrial schools, a valuable library in the archiepiscopal seminary, a Museo Civico, and archives with documents dating back to the city's relations with Frederick Barbarossa and Richard I of England.
Pisa was one of the 12 cities of the Etruscan confederation, became a Roman colony 180 ac., and in the 9th and 10th centuries took a promi nent place in Italy. In the 11th century its power was extended to Sardinia and Corsica (1050), it defeated the Saracens (1063) off Palermo, and took part in the first crusade. About 1100 its population was estimated at 150,000. The city sided with the Ghibellines and suffered severely when the Guelfs were victori ous. The long feud with Genoa, came to an end with the Pisan defeat in 1283 at Leghorn, and in 1300 Sardinia, Corsica and the Belearic Is lands were evacuated. Twenty-five years later Aragon got control of Pisa, which changed owners several times in the next three quarters of a century, and in 1406 was sold to Florence. In 1409 the Council of Pisa (q.v.) met (25 March). Pisa rebelled against Florence in 1494, fought bravely for 15 years, and were finally reduced •by starvation. As an appanage of Florence it became a part of the grand duchy of Tuscany, and thus entered the Italian kingdom in 1860. Consult Rohault de Fleury, Monuments de Pise au Moyen Age' (1866, with atlas) ; Schubring, (1902) ; Valtancoli-Montazio, di Pisa' (1845) ; Langer, Geschichte Genuas and Pisas im 12 (1882). Pop. of com mune 67,285.