VICENZA, a province of the crownlatul of Venice, in Austrian Italy, is bounded N. by the Tyrol, E. by the provinces of liellnuo and Treviso, S. by the province of Padua, and W. by that of Verona. It is about 50 miles long from north to south, and 25 miles in its greatest breadth. The area is 1033 square miles, and tho population in 1850 numbered 340,691. Tho river Bacehiglione crosses the province in its length. The Brenta crosses the eastern districts and passes by Bassin°. More than half of the area of the province is occupied by mountains and hills ; the rest, which is level, is very fertile in corn, maize, pulse, potatoes, and hemp. The pastures are extensive. Fruit-trees are abundant, and the chestnut-trees in the mountains supply food to a part of the population. A large quantity of silk is produced annually. The forests are rather extensive. Some coal-mines are worked. Cattle and sheep are very numerous. Tho manufactures consist chiefly of woollens and silks. The province is traversed by the railway from Venice to Milan, which passes through the city of Vicenza.
The principal towns are Viezxza and BAS3ANO. Citadella is an old
fortified town, the fortifications of which are now iu ruins. Ricoaro, in the mountains north of Vicenza, is celebrated for its mineral baths. Montebello is a large village on the road from Vicenza to Verona. A siago is the head town of the district called I Sette Comuni, whose inhabitants speak a very corrupt and old dialect of German, is situ ated in the mountains north-west of Bas-coo, has between 3000 and 4000 inhabitants, and a substantial church. The inhabitants of the Sette Comuni aro chiefly graziers and breeders of cattle: the prin cipal manufacture of the district consists in the plaiting of straw hats, which are exported. Timber is also exported from the forests in the mountains. The dialect of the Sette Comuni may be judged by the following extract from a version of Cardinal Bellarmine's Catechism :—" Saitar fart Christian ? Ja: ich pins as Gott vorgheltz. Bas iat ein Christian I Ar 1st dear, da ist gutofct, un clobet, un pro fessart baz de hattiz galiarnet Jesu Christer"