Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa Part 7

On the right is the Church of the Knights of St. Stephen, Santo Stefano dei Cavalieri; next to it is the beautiful palace of the Anziani, later the Palazzo Conventuale dei Cavalieri, rebuilt by Vasari. Almost opposite this is a palace under which the road pa.s.ses, built to the shape of the Piazza; it marks the spot where the Tower of Hunger once stood, where the eagles of the Republic were housed, and where Conte Ugolino della Gherardesca with his sons and nephews was starved to death by Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini. Opposite to this is the marble Palazzo del Consiglio, also belonging to the Order of St. Stephen.

The Knights of St. Stephen, to whom, indeed, the whole Piazza seems to be devoted, were a religious and military Order founded by Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who sits on horseback in front of the beautiful steps of the _Conventuale_. The object of the Order was to harry the Moorish pirates of the Mediterranean, to redeem their captives, and to convert these Moors to Christianity; nor were they wanting in war, for they fought at Lepanto. Cosimo placed the Order under the protection of St. Stephen, because he had gained his greatest victory on that saint's day. The Knights seem to have been of two kinds: the religious, who took three major vows and lived in the Conventuale under the rule of St.

Benedict, and served the Church of S. Stefano; and the military, who might not only hold property but marry. Their cross is very like the cross of Pisa, but red, while that is white.

In S. Stefano there is little to see, a few old banners, a series of bad frescoes, and a bust of S. Lussorius by Donatello, perhaps,--at least, that sculptor was working for eighteen months in the city. Before the sixteenth century this Piazza must have been very different from what it is to-day. Where S. Stefano stands now S. Sebastiano stood, that church where the Anziani met so often to decide peace or war.[78] Close by was the palace of the Podesta, while beyond the Palazzo Anziani rose the Torre delle Sette Vie, Torre Gualandi, Torre della Fame, for it bore all three names; only, the last came to it after the hideous crime of Ruggiero. If we cross the Piazza opposite the Palazzo Conventuale, and pa.s.s into Via S. Sisto, we come to the church of that saint, where also the Grand Council used to meet. It was founded to commemorate the great victories that came to Pisa on that day. Those antique columns are the spoil of war, as Tronci tells us.[79] Returning to the Piazza, and leaving it by Via S. Frediano, we soon come to the church of that saint, with its lovely and s.p.a.cious nave and antique columns. A little farther on is the University, La Sapienza, founded by Conte Fazio della Gherardesca in 1338. In that year Conte Fazio enlarged the Piazza degli Anziani, so that _la n.o.bilita_ should be able to walk there more readily; and to render the city more honourable, with the consent of the _Anziani_ and all the Senate, he founded a university, to lead the greatest doctors to lecture there; and to establish the Theatre of the Schools he sent amba.s.sadors in the name of the Republic to Pope Benedict for his authorisation. Needless to say, this was given and in 1340 we find Messer Bartolo da Sa.s.soferrato and Messer Guido da Prato, Doctor of Physics, lecturing on "Chirugia."[80] In 1589, Galileo was Professor of Mathematics here. The present building dates from 1493. Close by, between the University and the Lung' Arno, are the remains of an old gate of the city, Porta Aurea, and some remnants of towers.

Crossing Arno by Ponte Solferino, and turning along the Lung' Arno Gambacorti to the left, we come suddenly upon a great Piazza in which an old and splendid church is hidden away. And just as the Duomo, the great church of the northern part of the city, is set just within the walls far away from the Borgo, so here, in the southern part of Pisa, S. Paolo a Ripa d'Arno is abandoned by the riverside on the verge of the country, for the fields are at its threshold. And indeed, this desolate church is really older than the Duomo, for, as some say, it served as the Great Church of Pisa while the Cathedral was building. Founded, as the Pisans a.s.sert, by Charlemagne in 805, it was rather the model of the Duomo, if this be true, than, as is generally supposed, a copy of it. Bare for the most part and empty, its original beauty and simplicity still remain to it; nor should any who find it omit to pa.s.s into the priest's house, to see the old Baptistery now in the hands of Benedictine nuns.

On our way back to Pisa by the Lung' Arno Gambacorti, we may look always with new joy at the Torre Guelfa, almost all that is left of the great a.r.s.enal built in 1200. And then you will not pa.s.s without entering, it may be, S. Maria della Spina, where of old the huntsmen used to hear Ma.s.s at dawn before going about their occasions.

And many another church in Pisa is devout and beautiful. S. Sepolcro, which Diotisalvi made, he who built the Baptistery, a church of the Knights Templars below the level of the way; S. Martino too, both in Chinseca, that part of the city named after her who gave the alarm nearly a thousand years ago when the Saracen sails hove in sight.--Ah, do not be in a hurry to leave Pisa for any other city. Let us think of old things for a little, and be quiet. It may be we shall never see that line of hills again--Monti Pisani; it were better to look at them a little carefully. A little while before to-day the most precious of our dreams was not so lovely as that spur of the Apennines.

FOOTNOTES:

[17] Muratori, _Annali ad ann._: He quotes from _Annali Pisani_ (see tom. vi., Rer. Ital. Scrip): "Fecerunt bellum Pisani c.u.m Lucensibus in Aqua longa, et vicerunt illos." See Arch. St. It. VI. ii. p. 4. Cron.

Pis. ad annum.

[18] Muratori, _Annali ad ann. 1050_: "et Pisa fuit firmata de tota Sardinia a Romana sede."--_Ann. Pis._, R.I.S., tom. vi.

[19] Tronci, _Annali Pisani_, Livorno, 1682, p. 21.

[20] Ibid. p. 22.

[21] Muratori (_Annali ad ann._) says Pope Alexander visited in this year S. Martino the Duomo of Lucca. Ad ann. 1118 he suggests 1092 for the foundation of the Duomo of Pisa.

[22] Thus Tronci; but Volpe, _Studi sulle Ist.i.tuzioni Comunali a Pisa_, p. 6, tells us that these quarters did not exist till much later,--till after 1164, when the system of division by _porte e base_ was abandoned for division by _quartieri_. Tronci, later, says that the city was unwalled (p. 38). But even in the eleventh century Pisa was a walled city; the first walls included only the Quartiere di Mezzo; and in those days the city proper, the walled part, was called "Populus Pisa.n.u.s,"

while the suburbs were called Cinthica.n.u.s, Foriportensis, and de Burgis.

Cf. _Arch. St. It._ iii. vol. VIII. p. 5. Muratori, _Dissertazioni_, 30, "De Mercat." says that in the tenth century a part of the city was called Kinzic; cf. Fanucci, _St. dei Tre celebri Popoli Maritt._ I. 96.

Kinzic is Arabic, and means _magazzinaggi_.

[23] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 38.

[24] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 60.

[25] It was from Amalfi that they brought home the Pandects.

[26] The first Podesta of the city was Conte Tedicis della Gherardesca.

[27] Pisa was perhaps influenced, too, in her choice of the Ghibelline side by the interference of the Papacy against her in Corsica. While, if Pisa was Ghibelline, Lucca, of course, was Guelph.

[28] Cf. G. Villani, _op. cit._ lib. vii. cap. ii., "La cagione perche si comincio la guerra da' Fiorentini a' Pisani," and Villari, _History of Florence_ (Eng. ed. 1902), p. 176.

[29] This seems to give the lie to the accusation of treachery, which said that he gave the signal for flight at Meloria; but in fact it does not, for Pisa elected Ugolino for reasons, in the hope of conciliating Florence; cf. Villari, _op. cit._ p. 284.

[30] He knew them to be Ghibellines.

[31] It was also called _la muda_. It seems hardly necessary to refer the reader to Dante, _Inferno_, x.x.xiii. 1-90. This tower (now to be called the Tower of Hunger) was the mew of the eagles. For even as the Romans kept wolves on the Capitol, so the Pisans kept eagles, the Florentines lions, the Sienese a wolf. See Villani, bk. vii. 128.

Heywood, _Palio and Ponte_, p. 13, note 2.

[32] Florence here means the League, to wit, Prato, Pistoja, Siena even, and all the allies, including the Guelphs of Romagna, who were fighting Arezzo under Archb. Uberti, and Pisa under Archb. Ruggieri.

[33] Yet in 1290 Genoa seized Porto Pisano: "Furono allora disfatte le torri ... il fa.n.a.le e tutte."

[34] Tronci, _op. cit._ 269-271. For the _Palio_,--the name of the race and the prize of victory, a piece of silk not too much unlike the banners given at a modern battle of Flowers,--see Heywood, _Palio and Ponte_, 1904, p. 12.

[35] The girdle was made of silver and jewels and silk to represent the girdle of the B.V.M. It encircled the Duomo--a most splendid and unique thing, only possible, I think, in Pisa. No parsimonious Florentine could have imagined it.

[36] Now in the Museo, room 1. See page 119.

[37] Tronci, _op. cit._ 366.

[38] See Tronci, _op. cit._ 304.

[39] They imprisoned him in Lucca.

[40] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 404.

[41] Cronaca Sanese in _Muratori_, xv. 177.

[42] Heywood, _Palio and Ponte_, p. 22.

[43] Tronci, _op. cit._ 412.

[44] A pleasing story of how these citizens found Agnello's house in darkness and all sleeping within, of his awakened maid-servant and frightened wife, is told in Marangoni, _Cron. di Pisa_. See _Sismondi_, ed. Boulting (1906), p. 401.

[45] _See_ Sismondi, _op. cit._ p. 403.

[46] Cf. Sismondi, _op. cit._ p. 557.

[47] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 18.

[48] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 453.

[49] The print is dated 1634.

[50] For all things concerning this game and the Palio, see Heywood, _Palio and Ponte_.

[51] Villani, _op. cit._ Bk. iv. 2. The Badia, like that of Firenze, seems rather to have been founded by Ugo's mother, Countess Willa.

[52] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 9.

[53] It may be as well to explain here that the Pisan Calendar differed not only from our own but from that of other cities of Tuscany. The Pisans reckoned from the Incarnation. The year began, therefore, on 25th March: so did the Florentine and the Sienese year, but they reckoned from a year after the Incarnation. The Aretines, Pistoiese, and Cortonese followed the Pisans.

[54] Tronci, _op. cit._ p. 21.

[55] 104 yards long by 35-1/2 yards wide.

[56] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _History of Painting in Italy_, new edition, 1903, vol. i. pp. 185, 186.