Pisa
pe'za, a city of Italy. It is situated on the Arno River about six miles from the Mediterranean. It is the capital city of the Italian province of that name. It lies in the midst of a beautiful plain surrounded by mountains of marble, clothed to their summits with pines and other forest trees. It is an ancient city. It was one of the original twelve cities forming the Etruscan League. During the Middle Ages, it was one of the powerful independent cities of Italy. Genoa was its chief rival. It fell finally under the dominion of Florence. The present population is about 62,000. There are manufactures of cotton, glass, hats, machinery, and articles of alabaster. The city is also a center of trade with the surrounding country.
The reader's interest in Pisa centers, however, in its past. It is the seat of an ancient university founded in 1338, one of the earliest in Europe. There are still over 1,000 students. There is a museum of natural history, a botanical garden, and a library of 130,000 volumes. The streets of the city are crooked and have an antique appearance. The better quarters are built up almost entirely of marble. A group of four buildings possesses unusual interest from an architectural point of view. They are the Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Campanile, and Campo Santo.
The Cathedral is built of dazzling white marble. It has the form of a Latin cross, with an internal length of 311 feet and breadth of 252 feet. The nave is 109 feet in height. A cupola surmounts the intersection of the nave and the transept. Michelangelo is said to have designed the main altar. Plans for portions of the interior work were made by Cimabue. It is one of the great cathedrals of Europe.
The Baptistery is a circular building 100 feet in diameter. It is surrounded by pillared galleries and is surmounted by a conical dome 190 feet in height. The Campanile, or Bell Tower, is better known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is circular in form. The walls at the base are thirteen feet in thickness, and are constructed of marble throughout. The basement is surrounded by a range of arches resting on fifteen columns, above which rise six arcades of thirty columns each. The eighth and last story is smaller than the rest. It contains the bells. The top is reached by a circular stone stairway which winds around the edifice with so gradual an ascent that one is hardly aware he is climbing upward. The entire height is 183 feet. Owing to an unequal settling of the foundation, the tower is thirteen feet eight inches out of perpendicular. See Campanile
The Campo Santo, or cemetery of the cathedral, lies in the immediate vicinity. It is an oblong edifice about half a block in size. To be more particular, it is 415 feet long and 138 feet wide. A central court is surrounded by a cloister supported on columns. The cloister itself is a museum of painting and sculpture. The central court or burying plot is one of especial sanctity. Between 1188 and 1200 the archbishop of Pisa caused fifty-three shiploads of earth to be transported to this spot from Mount Calvary.
Pitcairn (pit-karn') Islands, a British possession in Polynesia. The islands have an area of two square miles, with a population of 126. The principal productions are cocoanuts, bananas, pineapples, coffee, tomatoes, Indian corn, and arrowroot. Poultry and goats are raised. Disease is almost unknown. The islanders are governed by a Parliament of seven members. The inhabitants are of mixed British and Hawaiian ancestry. See Mutiny