580 Pisa
Pisa Medieval Pisa was an Italian city in TUSCANYon
an alluvial plain formed by the Arno, a short distance, 6
miles, from the Tyrrhenian or Mediterranean coast. Its
original position, at the intersection of the rivers Arno
and Serchio and connected with main roads, was strategi-
cally protected and important in the city’s development.
At the end of the Roman Empire, the fortunes of Pisa
declined, while the buildings and architecture were ori-
ented toward defensive requirements, mainly fortified
buildings. During the rule of the FRANKS, from the eighth
century, churches were added to the urban landscape.
Its commercial exchanges and links with the eastern
Mediterranean were never interrupted and enabled the
city to have an appearance and culture of its own, based
on classical models enriched with Byzantine or Arab ele-
ments. The CRUSADESproduced added commercial pros-
perity from the 11th century, as did the conquest of
SARDINIAin 1163, as had that of CORSICAearlier in the
10th century. A cloth and SILKindustry evolved in the
13th century. However, Pisa suffered a devastating defeat
by its great rival GENOAat the Battle of Meloria in 1284
and lost most of its colonial possessions in the eastern
Mediterranean. It never reacquired its prestige or power
after that, and the PLAGUEof 1348 might have killed half
of its population.
These traumas were followed by numerous social
conflicts in the city and control by various tyrants. By
1406, after a long war, Pisa was under the control of FLO-
RENCE. An important church council called to end the
GREATSCHISMmet there from March to August of 1409. It
tried to end the Great Schism by deposing the two pre-
tenders but failed and merely elected yet a third pope. It
remained an important port until silt deposited by the
Arno blocked navigation up the river to the city by the
mid-15th century.
ROMANESQUE PISA; THE CATHEDRALFrom the 11th century, Pisan architecture saw its great-
est accomplishment in the complex or building in the
Piazza dei Miracoli. There the bell tower, CATHEDRAL,
Camposanto or graveyard, and baptistery were built.
The occasion traditionally given for transforming the
old, simple complex was an important military victory
in 1063/64, when off PALERMO a small Pisan fleet
defeated a powerful Arab one and sacked the city. The
planning of the area and a new group of buildings were
entrusted to Maestro Buscheto. Buscheto tried to build a
sacred complex reflecting the civil and urban-political
ideals of Pisa. The works proceeded comparatively
rapidly, especially from 1189, so that in 1116, 50 years
after its beginning, a cathedral was completed; it was
consecrated two years later.
A decision to enlarge the cathedral was made soon
after 1116 and construction was then directed by
Rainaldo, Buscheto’s collaborator from 1110. Between
1115 and 1130 he furnished the façade with an extensive
program of sculpture. The largely unknown Guglielmo
followed Rainaldo, who with workshop worked on the
sculptures of the lower façade and the upper levels, dur-
ing the 1160s and 1170s. An important and influential
pulpit carved by Giovanni PISANOwas not completed
until 1310. The small octagonal baptistery was replaced
by the present cylindrical structure over the 12th century.
In 1170 or shortly before, the famous leaning campanile
or bell tower was added and almost immediately started
to lean perhaps because of poorly designed foundations.
By 1278 a final element, the Camposanto or graveyard,
was completed.
The city’s great economic prosperity attained in the
12th century was accompanied by a large increase in pop-
ulation, and suburbs had to be added, encircled by a new
set of walls. In the 14th century the city suffered the
beginnings of a severe economic depression and a long-
suspension of building activities.
See alsoROMANESQUE ART.
Further reading: David Herlihy, Pisa in the Early
Renaissance: A Study of Urban Growth (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1958); William Heywood, A
History of Pisa, Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries(Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921); Janet Ross,
The Story of Pisa(London: J. M. Dent, 1909).Pisan, Christine de(Pizan, of Pisa)(1364–ca. 1430)
French poet, author
Christine’s life can be reconstructed from her literary
works, which are highly revealing about her and her
ideas about writing. She was born in ITA LY, probably in
VENICE, in 1364 and moved to FRANCEin 1368 with her
father, a certain Tommaso Pizzano, a Bolognese doctor
and astrologist. She looked back on her childhood as a
golden age. She much admired the French King,
CHARLESV THEWISE. In 1389, at age 25, she became the
widow of Étienne du Castel, her husband and a notary
in the royal household, by whom she had had three
children. After the end of this happy marriage, she had
to face and surmount many financial difficulties. From
1400 on, she had to live by her writing, viewing it as
“becoming a man.” As a writer she first wrote love
poetry and then participated in the debate over the
satirical ideas about women in the ROMAN DE LAROSE.
She defended the honor and position of women. Much
admired by her contemporaries, she also wrote lyrical
and didactic poems, ballads, a biography of Charles V,
and a manual for the education of women.
She knew well the from classical antiquity, in French
or in LATIN. She adapted these pagan ideas to Christian
morality and created distillations touching on nearly
every intellectual field, including chivalry and the art of
war. She gained the patronage of the dukes of Orléans,
BURGUNDY, and Berry. Christine wished, moreover, to be a
critical and constructive political adviser. She had little