Pisa
Pisa names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Pisa pe'za, a city of Italy
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
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
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of central Italy, capital of the province of Pisa, on the Arno, 8 miles from its mouth, 13 miles N. E. of Leghorn, and 50 miles W. of Florence. The walls are 5 miles in circuit. The Arno flows through the city, and is crossed by several bridges, the principal one being of fine marble. The cathedral, with its attendant buildings, the baptistery, the cemetery, and the belfry is perhaps, the finest specimen that exists of the style of building called by the Italians the Gotico-Moresco. The most remarkable buildings in Pisa are the Campo Santo, and the stately belfry, or campanile, a cylindrical tower, 178 feet in height, constructed of successive rows of pillars, chiefly of marble; it is extremely graceful in its proportions; but its chief peculiarity consists in its inclination about 14 feet out of the perpendicular, whence it is commonly called the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The University of Pisa is one of the oldest in Italy; it has 56 professors and about 1,000 stu- 000 dents. Galileo, who was a native of bassadors. After the rival Popes failed Pisa, was formerly one of the professors. A library, botanical garden, a cabinet of natural history, and an observatory are connected with the university. Pisa is supposed to have been founded shortly after the Trojan War. It became a Roman colony about 179 b. c., but did not attain to distinction before the 10th century, when it became the leading commercial republic of Italy. During the 11th century it maintained its superiority in the Mediterranean, materially assisting the French in the Crusades. A war with Genoa ended in the ruin of Pisa in 1284. The city afterward became the prey of various factions, till finally united to Florence in 1406. Pop. about 70,000.
Pisa COUNCIL OF, a church council generally included in those called ecumenical
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
COUNCIL OF, a church council generally included in those called ecumenical, met and opened in Pisa March 25, 1409, and the 23d and last session of which was held Aug. 7 following. Its aim was to end the schism which had divided the Western Church for 30 years; and with this view the leading cardinals, finding that neither of the rival Popes, Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., would keep their promises to abdicate, had set aside the claims of both, and themselves convoked a general council. It was attended from first to last by 24 cardinals, 4 patriarchs, 80 bishops, 102 proctors of bishops, 87 abbots, 200 delegates of abbots, besides many generals als of orders, doctors, deputies of universities, and am- 171 THE BAPTISTERY, PISA to appear in obedience to its summons, the council formally tried the claims of both in turn, and deposed them as schismatics and heretics. The cardinals then formed themselves into conclave and elected Cardinal Philargi, who assumed the name of Alexander V. But the council, instead of getting rid of the contending Popes, had only added a third, and the faithful continued to be distracted in their allegiance for eight years longer, down to the time of the Council of Constance.
Pisa UNIVERSITY OF, an ancient university located at Pisa
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
UNIVERSITY OF, an ancient university located at Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1338 by students and professors from the University of Bologna. When Pisa lost its independence in 1406 the university closed its doors, but was reestablished by the famous Lorenzo de' Medici a few years later. In 1544 the first botanical institute in Europe was Europe founded here. The University suffered in prestige during the two succeeding centuries and not until Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany in 1808 endowed it handsomely did it recover. During the reaction in 1849-1850 in Italy it was forced to close down some of its departments, but since that time it has been reckoned among the greatest of Italian universities. Its library is worldfamous, having 202,976 volumes, 97,302 pamphlets and 1,814 manuscripts.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's tallies the tower as "thirteen feet eight inches out of perpendicular" in 1910 and Collier's about 14 feet in 1921; the lean kept growing until the campanile was closed to visitors in 1990 and a decade of soil extraction and counterweighting pulled it back roughly 40 centimetres, reopening it in 2001 with the tilt now around 4 degrees and reported to be still slowly correcting. The Campo Santo that Aiton praised as "a museum of painting and sculpture" was gutted on 27 July 1944, when Allied shelling set the roof alight and molten lead ruined most of the frescoes, including the famous Triumph of Death; restoration of the surviving fragments has continued ever since. The cathedral group was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987 and is now among the most visited monuments in Italy. The city itself has grown modestly from the 62,000 of 1910 to roughly 90,000, with an international airport named for Galileo, whom Collier's correctly notes as a native and former professor there.
Written for this edition, 2026.