TORTONA, a province of Piedmont in the administrative division of Alessandria, is bounded N. by the Po, which divides it from the province of Mortara ; E. by the provinces of Vogbera and Bobbin; S. by the Ligurian Apennines, which separate it from the duchy of Genoa ; and W. by the province of Alessandria. The rivers or tor rents, Scrivia and Curone, both affluents of the Po, rise in the Ligurian Apennines, and moss the province of Tortona from south to north. The surface is generally level except towards the south, which is covered by branches of the Apennines. The soil is fertile, and yields rice, wheat, flax, hemp, fruits, wine, silk, &e. The province contains 257 square miles, with a population of 58,853. The head town, Tortone, built upon an eminence near the right bank of the Scrivia, 12 miles E. from Alessandria, is a bishop's see, and has about 9000 inhabitants, several churches and convents, and a royal college. Tho citadel of Tortona was built by King Victor Amadeus Ill., and destroyed by the French in the revolutionary wars. West of Tortona,
iu the direction of Alessandria, is the plain of Marengo, with the vil lages of Marengo and San Giuliano, where Ponaparte defeated the Austrians iu June, 1S00. Tortona was anciently a town of the Ligu Hans, and was called Derton or Dertona. After the Roman conquest it became a colony (Pliny, g Ilist.,' iii. 7), and was a place of import ance, being situated ou the road leading from the banks of the Po to the coast of Liguria and Southern Gaul. The other towns of the province of Tortona are-- Caatelnovo di &this, a town of 5500 inhabitants, north of Tortona, and near the confluence of the Scrivia and the Po, and SalJ, a town of 4000 inhabitants, near the confluence of the Bormida and the Po. In these Apennine districts in the south of the province the inhabitants are mostly shepherds and goatherds, and their cheese is an article of exportation, as likewise are the mush rooms which grow abundantly here, and are dried and exported chiefly to Genoa.